There is no hero anymore
I loved the last episode of Mad Men!
Pete and Sally episodes are always the best in my book and this one did not disappoint.
It seems that "Favors" killed all the Megan theories, yet it was a great episode, filled with fabulous Pete moments (what can I say?, Pete still remains my favourite character) both endearing -- the conversation with Peggy and the obvious easiness and bond between them (they were adorable together, which was nice to see, even though Peggy freaked out when Mrs Campbell, mistaking her for Trudy, mentioned "the child they had together") --, and embarrassing -- his reaction to Bob hitting on him and the "degenerate" and "disgusting " words he used about homsexuality (Oh Pete...).
So many parallels between Pete the man child and Sally the soon-to-become-a-woman girl. Pete being called "unlovable" by his own mother, Sally having to see her father for who he really is (something Betty's line foreshadowed when she mocked the "hero" status Don had in his daughter's eyes)...heartbreaking.
And seeing Don so lost in the lobby, after Sally caught him with his naked ass (and we know she does notice the male buttocks!) in the air between Sylvia's thighs, was also a big moment of truth. You couldn't help feeling for him too. He was so close to be that falling man from the credits, utterly defeated. Not Don Draper the advertising hero whom Ted's wife mentioned; not Don Draper the war hero whom the conversation with Dr Rosen kinda called upon; and not Daddy the hero whom Betty could ridicule, but Dick the fraud, out in the open, without any place to hide anymore. He was truly outed, which paralleled Bob Benson coming onto Pete. But at the end of the day, in spite of Bob's painful look when he walked away from the man who had rejected him, I think that Don's world was even more shattered.
Besides I think Don also saw himself through Sally's eyes and was again that boy who was raised in a brothel, exposed to sexual activities that were "disappointing" to his young eyes (there were enough flashbacks this year to point out how much it shaped his character).
When Sally yells "you're making me sick" it's all about the lies the adults keep saying in front of her; when Pete calls Manolo "a rapist" it's all about another kind of lie that an old woman suffering from dementia tells herself while a man -- whom Pete does pay -- supposedly plays along (it isn't quite clear whether Manolo did take care of Mrs Campbell that way or she imagined it). We aren't far from the recurring theme of prostitution, a theme the show is obsessed with, something that Peggy herself echoes when she offers to "pay" Stan if he comes to her apartment to take care of her rat problem. And of course Sylvia having sex with Don, after she ended their affair, is connected to the fact that he helped her beloved son. After all, the title of the episode is "Favors"...
Perhaps in Sylvia's eyes Don was a sort of hero, saving the day, but Don knew better. It's Ted who came up with a solution to the Mitchell problem, and who was there to take care of his sons when he got home.
Eventually our protoganist is not a hero, no longer a winner whose brain used to be a factory of ideas, but a pitiful drunk (Peggy does not pity Pete but the viewers must pity Don now) who can't sell it anymore as it shows in that last scene with Don's silent retreat into his room (mirroring all the times he retreated into his office, closing his door, since the merger), after the pathetic excuse he gave to a daughter who wasn't buying it but had nothing left to say apart from "okay", while she let the tears rolled on her cheeks. Sally definitely lost her innocence as she learnt to lie, or rather -- to borrow a Deadwood title -- to agree upon a lie.
That said, she already lied when she said to the janitor she had lost her keys, just to get the one that opened the Rosens' apartment in order to retrieve the embarrassing letter her friend had slipped under the door (btw am I the only one who found the friend creepy? I mean the way she behaved with Megan and Don was weird, and her pouring wine into Megan's glass was creepy)! The minute Sally did it, I knew the bomb would happen, I knew that Don would be there with Sylvia and that Sally would witness or hear something. The greatness of the episode lies in the fact that although I knew and therefore wasn't surprised, it was still poignant.
It was simply devastating.
ETA: As usual, when it comes to Mad Men, Alan Sepinwall and I are on the same wave length.
Pete and Sally episodes are always the best in my book and this one did not disappoint.
It seems that "Favors" killed all the Megan theories, yet it was a great episode, filled with fabulous Pete moments (what can I say?, Pete still remains my favourite character) both endearing -- the conversation with Peggy and the obvious easiness and bond between them (they were adorable together, which was nice to see, even though Peggy freaked out when Mrs Campbell, mistaking her for Trudy, mentioned "the child they had together") --, and embarrassing -- his reaction to Bob hitting on him and the "degenerate" and "disgusting " words he used about homsexuality (Oh Pete...).
So many parallels between Pete the man child and Sally the soon-to-become-a-woman girl. Pete being called "unlovable" by his own mother, Sally having to see her father for who he really is (something Betty's line foreshadowed when she mocked the "hero" status Don had in his daughter's eyes)...heartbreaking.
And seeing Don so lost in the lobby, after Sally caught him with his naked ass (and we know she does notice the male buttocks!) in the air between Sylvia's thighs, was also a big moment of truth. You couldn't help feeling for him too. He was so close to be that falling man from the credits, utterly defeated. Not Don Draper the advertising hero whom Ted's wife mentioned; not Don Draper the war hero whom the conversation with Dr Rosen kinda called upon; and not Daddy the hero whom Betty could ridicule, but Dick the fraud, out in the open, without any place to hide anymore. He was truly outed, which paralleled Bob Benson coming onto Pete. But at the end of the day, in spite of Bob's painful look when he walked away from the man who had rejected him, I think that Don's world was even more shattered.
Besides I think Don also saw himself through Sally's eyes and was again that boy who was raised in a brothel, exposed to sexual activities that were "disappointing" to his young eyes (there were enough flashbacks this year to point out how much it shaped his character).
When Sally yells "you're making me sick" it's all about the lies the adults keep saying in front of her; when Pete calls Manolo "a rapist" it's all about another kind of lie that an old woman suffering from dementia tells herself while a man -- whom Pete does pay -- supposedly plays along (it isn't quite clear whether Manolo did take care of Mrs Campbell that way or she imagined it). We aren't far from the recurring theme of prostitution, a theme the show is obsessed with, something that Peggy herself echoes when she offers to "pay" Stan if he comes to her apartment to take care of her rat problem. And of course Sylvia having sex with Don, after she ended their affair, is connected to the fact that he helped her beloved son. After all, the title of the episode is "Favors"...
Perhaps in Sylvia's eyes Don was a sort of hero, saving the day, but Don knew better. It's Ted who came up with a solution to the Mitchell problem, and who was there to take care of his sons when he got home.
Eventually our protoganist is not a hero, no longer a winner whose brain used to be a factory of ideas, but a pitiful drunk (Peggy does not pity Pete but the viewers must pity Don now) who can't sell it anymore as it shows in that last scene with Don's silent retreat into his room (mirroring all the times he retreated into his office, closing his door, since the merger), after the pathetic excuse he gave to a daughter who wasn't buying it but had nothing left to say apart from "okay", while she let the tears rolled on her cheeks. Sally definitely lost her innocence as she learnt to lie, or rather -- to borrow a Deadwood title -- to agree upon a lie.
That said, she already lied when she said to the janitor she had lost her keys, just to get the one that opened the Rosens' apartment in order to retrieve the embarrassing letter her friend had slipped under the door (btw am I the only one who found the friend creepy? I mean the way she behaved with Megan and Don was weird, and her pouring wine into Megan's glass was creepy)! The minute Sally did it, I knew the bomb would happen, I knew that Don would be there with Sylvia and that Sally would witness or hear something. The greatness of the episode lies in the fact that although I knew and therefore wasn't surprised, it was still poignant.
It was simply devastating.
ETA: As usual, when it comes to Mad Men, Alan Sepinwall and I are on the same wave length.