What I Saw: Mad Men Season 6, Favors
"Not all surprises are bad," says a juggling Roger. And this from a guy who still harbors resentment over Pearl Harbor.
Don can't juggle. We learn this in this episode.
I don't know how I will feel about this episode in any detail until the end of the season, but there were some striking images that I caught on a second viewing that I will be showing below. That is why I so enjoy this show, I can watch it again and again and discover things that I didn't notice the other times that keep deepening the show's themes and characters. It is like re-reading a good novel. It changes and grows with you.
Remember the first season, when Don/Dick went home from a hard day lying to the public about products and slutting with his latest squeeze and sat in his children's bedrooms and looked at them while they slept? In this season, we learned that he was thinking about how he should love them, but he couldn't. He wanted them, but he didn't know what to do with them? He didn't know how to be a parent? It is only when they show traits of becoming a person, not his child, that he begins to love them as a father can.
Grandpa Gene loved Sally as his grandchild and as a person. Don/Dick had his moment when he saw her as another person and could love her. But loving a child isn't the same as parenting a child. It is always a challenge to readjust the relationship, just like it is a challenge to readjust a business' hierarchy and corporate personnel when it merges with another business.
Let's look at Sally and Don/Dick when they go to Sylvia's door looking to sneak away with something that they want on the other side.
Sally wants the crush note that she and her "friend" wrote about Mitchell and his striped ass.
Don just wants Sylvia.
In the first episode of the season, Don reads The Divine Comedy by Dante that Sylvia gave him.
"In the middle of the journey of my life, I found myself in the middle of a dark woods where the straight way was lost."
Sylvia===>Sylvan===>"Dark Woods"
And here Sylvia thinks that she is close to God when she is really just a dark wood where souls and Don and Sally get lost.
After Sally and Don get their shock from Sylvia's darkness, they use the same gestures in their despair and grief.
As Betty said, "Poor girl" about Megan. It applies to Sally now too. Even sadder, Sally is very like her father. That does not bode well for her.
Here is "Poor" Megan with another Patronizing Bitch just like her mother, Marie.
But let's enjoy our Lady Nurses while we can.
Like Pete's mom, I enjoy Manolo with his soft "ch"s and his bright blue eyes. I want one of him when I get to be an old lady.
And my new favorite, Bobby, and my old favorite, Betty.
I love the stain on Bobby's shirt. And I love the forelock of his hair that won't stay back, unlike Don's slicked back hair. Maybe Bobby won't be anything like Don. Alas, Betty will become the next Pat Nixon.
Screen caps were all my pleasure.