“My Old Kentucky Home”

Well, like a random selection of viewers, my chin was on the floor yet again, this time after Roger’s blackface revue at his Kentucky Derby party at the Long Island country club.  Personally I thought it in poor taste although John Slattery has a good singing voice.  Derby Day, much like Ascot in the UK, is a day for women to display outrageous hats.  I noted that Betty did not wear a hat although her hair and makeup were flawless.  She looked like a princess among commoners.

Before I talk about the episode, I had a thought I’d like to share. I read a cryptic comment attributed to Matt Weiner about characters’ names – that they have significance. I’ve been on a quest to decipher them, but it hit me last night: Peggy Olson, whose name is probably Margaret Olson, and her fascination and purported disdain for Ann-Margret in Bye-Bye Birdie; Ann-Margret’s family name was also Olson.

Interesting comparison: sex kitten Ann-Margret Olson versus suppressed sex kitten Margaret “Peggy” Olson. Both have red hair. Peggy showed the sultrier side of herself in her bedroom last week when she imitated Ann-Margret’s breathless “Bye-Bye Birdie.” I think it is more than coincidental: Peggy had a one-night stand that she basically controlled and I think we’re seeing a new woman – a Peggy who will not allow men to make her decisions for her.

Okay, I got that out. It was like a revelation. Peggy is indeed full of surprises. Instead of aimlessly getting high and spouting nihilistic nonsense like Paul, she actually got campaign ideas. And I think that Olive, while overprotective (and why?) realized that Peggy is indeed her own person. When a stoned Peggy told Olive she was just fine and was going to be just fine, I think she felt she was also addressing her mother and her concerns.

Am I alone in thinking that Joan is far more in control in her marriage than Greg is? I loved when they were preparing for their guests and he wanted her to serve dinner one way and she quoted etiquette. And when he said “I don’t want to fight,” she simply said “then stop talking.” Loved it.

She is starting to see that Sir Galahad is mostly Sir Had-A-Gal. She realized that he does not always tell her everything that happens at the hospital and there is some doubt as to whether he will be named Chief Resident.  She felt left out and the tete-a-tete among the wives in the kitchen discomfitted her.  She made a better impression than her husband.  She’s worldly yet unpretentious and they saw that.  There’s tension in the Harrison household and I think she is no longer blinded. The other doctors’ wives and the doctors were enchanted by her savoir faire and sophistication; the majestic Sterling Cooper Joan was out in full force. And she was made painfully aware that her husband is not the rising young surgical star she thought she married.

Yet to see her forced to entertain at Greg’s behest (I waited for him to give her a treat and pat her on the head like a good puppy) and while uncomfortable, she gave an endearing rendition of “C’est Magnifique” in French – the lyrics about loving hearts, and hearts and floral bouquets and marriage showed her inner longing because she does not have that in her marriage now.

Betty Draper has grown in her sexual allure and confidence ever since her revenge sex encounter at the end of Season Two. Letting that fellow touch her stomach showed her awareness of her power.

The party also revealed a new side of a minor character: Jennifer Crane. We’ve seen her push Harry to assert himself, to get recognition, etc. I don’t know why Harry was included in Roger’s party because he was so clearly out of his element. When Jennifer insisted they table hop to the Draper/Campbell table, it was clear that the Cranes were “not our kind, dear.” The agency caste system hit home with a vengeance, particularly after Harry lorded it over Paul and Smitty.  When Pete and Trudy launched into their well-choreographed Charleston and the floor cleared, Harry had to steer Jennifer almost forcibly from the floor and she was not happy – she flounced out.

Roger’s life is a mess: the misguided minstrel number, his too-young wife (I enjoyed watching the verbal sparring between her and Joan at the office) who drinks too much and is obviously not happy. I think she feels isolated and could have an eating disorder, unless she was just rubbing in the tidbit that she just “keeps losing weight for no reason” as a dig at the fleshy Joan.

It was obvious that Jane could not hold her liquor at the party, and that she did not know how to be a proper hostess. Even Betty tried to help her. She showed her unhappiness yet Roger chose to misinterpret her drunken clutching at Don when he tried to get her to sit down. She knows Don hates her. And it bothers her. And Roger misread that – which in a way was payback for Don’s misreading Roger’s pass at Betty some time ago. The line in the sand has been drawn, though, because Don leveled with Roger, who was complaining that people are envious of his happiness by saying “They don’t think you’re happy; they think you’re foolish.”

The subplot with Sally’s theft of $5 from Grandpa was handled well. He knew she’d taken and Carla did too – and she asserted herself. And Sally realized that they both knew. Her transparent “finding” of the money fooled no one.

I loved that “Shining” moment when Don wandered into the bar and mistook “Connie” (who was so obviously Conrad Hilton) for a bartender, yet Don was the one who made the Old Fashioneds. Their conversation was terrific: their shared memories of their humble starts in life were terrific. Who knows, maybe Connie will show up at Sterling Cooper one of these days.

It was a good episode: 3 “parties” with 3 songs (Paul’s stoned singing of a Princeton Tiger-Tone song with his drug dealing school pal was priceless). Paul quotes T.S. Eliot – too bad it wasn’t from The Waste Land which is a closer analogy to what the agency has become. Peggy is going to work and work and work until she passes them all.

I think Sal and Kitty will be the focus of the next episode (at least I hope so). I love the slice of life vignettes we get from time to time.  Jane’s visit to the office was really to slap Joan down – Joan once determined her career path, yet Jane outwitted her.  So her comments about where they lived, how well Joan looks, her ever downward weight while she looked at Joan’s blooming figure, and asking Joan to have a secretary run down at 1:15 to flag down her driver were childish pokes which Joan parried with her usual ease.

Weiner is slowly drawing us back into the Mad Men web of slowly drawn-out tales. Nothing is really as it seems, “skim milk masquerades as cream” (my thanks to Gilbert & Sullivan). This was a change of pace in a way, and I can’t wait until next week!