Mad Men: The Crysanthemum and the Sword   Rewatch 
October 29, 2014 7:50 AM - Season 4, Episode 5 - Subscribe

Don and Pete go against Roger in efforts to win a new account.
posted by Sweetie Darling (10 comments total)
 
Probably another episode I'd put in the top 10 of Mad Men.

Re-watching it yesterday, I realized that Don's way of dealing with Honda is the same way he later deals with the Lucky Strike situation.
posted by drezdn at 8:13 AM on October 29, 2014 [1 favorite]


Bethany Van Nuys has a very Breakfast at Tiffany's look on her date with Don at Benihana. I'm not sure if they're trying to draw a comparison to high-class hookers or awful Japanese stereotypes or both.

Christ on a cracker, Pete is in top form in this episode. How dare Roger! He's having a child!
posted by donajo at 7:18 PM on October 29, 2014 [4 favorites]


This episode: Bethany's hair smells like fried chicken; Peggy goes in circles; Sally paddles the pink canoe.

I was just as confused at the Dr. Lyle Evans name drop this time as when I first watched this ep. But what a payoff in a couple episodes' time!

First appearance of Ted Chaough! What a charmer.

"How does she not fall over?" Oh, Honda guys.

For as much shit as Betty was giving Don about not spending time with the kids, she doesn't even take Sally to the psychiatrist herself? Damn. That's not something you leave for Carla to do.
posted by ChrisTN at 8:07 PM on October 29, 2014


Pete is in top form in this episode. How dare Roger! He's having a child!

Loved that part. Can't decide if he was serious or just knew it was a knife he could twist with Roger.
posted by drezdn at 8:07 PM on October 29, 2014


Oh, I think he was serious. Pete and Betty tie for the narcissist crown in the episode. Pete, because clearly Roger's unresolved anger at Japan is about keeping Pete from bringing in accounts, and Betty because Sally's awakening to sexuality is about punishing Betty.
posted by donajo at 8:34 PM on October 29, 2014 [1 favorite]


and Betty because Sally's awakening to sexuality is about punishing Betty.

Or becoming a threat to Betty. Too Freudian?
I have a half-baked theory about Betty never really moving beyond childhood, what with the connection with the child psychologist that develops, her weird threats (cut off her fingers?) and others. Her father said he raised her to be a housecat - all needs attended to, all she has to do is be admired.

I like how Chaough refers to "that kid who worked for Draper." I bet Smitty thought he got hired on the strength of his book.
I hadn't realized that Don refunds the $3,000 out of his own pocket.
posted by the man of twists and turns at 9:28 PM on October 29, 2014 [2 favorites]


Foreshadowing alert: Lane jokes about dying in a car.
posted by drezdn at 8:56 PM on November 6, 2014


i had to find out how the little tippy chicken works...
posted by Tandem Affinity at 9:00 PM on January 21, 2015 [1 favorite]


I love the present giving in the first Honda meeting - the initial refusal, the second acceptance, the polite notion of not opening the presents on the spot - spoilt by Pete’s impatient reveal - and finally the shuffling of presents so the important guys get the whisky and the translator picks up the fucking cantaloupe. I’m sure, if I’d read “The Chrysanthemum and the Sword”,I would be laughing even more.
posted by rongorongo at 3:26 PM on September 6, 2019


Part of me wishes that they could have kept Sally's key scene entirely off screen, but I think it's important that we see how absent-minded and effectively innocent it is (and that the other kids are asleep) so that we see how everyone's refusal to talk clearly about what happened, everyone's refusal to ask Sally what really happened, and everyone's refusal to talk to Sally about sex, blows the whole thing way out of proportion. Like, we know that whatever Betty thinks went down is wrong, and also that Betty will never be corrected on this point. Hopefully the psychiatrist (and god knows Sally could benefit from therapy even if it's presented here as a punishment where no punishment is warranted) will at least speak plainly with Sally and be able to answer some of her questions.

Peggy driving the motorcycle around the empty studio is one of my favorite moments in the series.
posted by Navelgazer at 10:40 AM on February 13, 2020


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