Mad Men: Long Weekend Rewatch
July 2, 2014 9:51 AM - Season 1, Episode 10 - Subscribe
Don loses an account. Roger, stuck in the city for Labor Day weekend, attempts to cheer him up. Meanwhile, Joan has a night out on the town with her roommate.
Bert Cooper: knows what's up and Does Not Approve.
After I first saw this episode, I watched the Apartment. I cannot imagine a more terrifying movie for poor Joanie. And I wish she could've settled down with poor sweet Carol, instead of enforcing the rules of the game.
Poor Roger. Trying so hard, to that point.
posted by RainyJay at 3:13 AM on July 3, 2014 [1 favorite]
After I first saw this episode, I watched the Apartment. I cannot imagine a more terrifying movie for poor Joanie. And I wish she could've settled down with poor sweet Carol, instead of enforcing the rules of the game.
Poor Roger. Trying so hard, to that point.
posted by RainyJay at 3:13 AM on July 3, 2014 [1 favorite]
Don tells us a little about who he thinks he is in this episode. He thinks of himself as Nixon (or thinks Nixon is like him).
posted by drezdn at 4:52 AM on July 3, 2014
posted by drezdn at 4:52 AM on July 3, 2014
Joan and Carol could have done better than the two guys they brought back to their apartment. My reaction: "These guys?? These are the guys you picked up?? Almost scraping the bottom of the barrel. Christ."
posted by cwest at 6:04 AM on July 3, 2014 [2 favorites]
posted by cwest at 6:04 AM on July 3, 2014 [2 favorites]
From the Guardian link above:
posted by donajo at 6:14 AM on July 3, 2014 [4 favorites]
Kinsey's ditty ("Ethel, go get the ice-pick, that Nixon guy is on TV again") may be a reference to the "ice pick" lobotomist Walter Freeman (who gave JFK's little sister Rosemary a lobotomy that left her incapacitated).I never knew that was a specific reference, but it makes sense.
posted by donajo at 6:14 AM on July 3, 2014 [4 favorites]
Many people receiving the kind of attention they don't want in this episode.
The twins being asked by Roger to kiss. They weren't too into that.
Joan getting a declaration of love from Carol. Joan lightheartedly breezed over that and went on with her evening.
Don fending off Eleanor's advances.
Carol not wanting the attention from one of the men she and Joan brought home. She seemed to give in from hopelessness.
Don not really getting what he needed from Betty on the phone after Roger's heart attack.
Roger being told by his doctor's to consume lots of cream and butter regularly for his ulcer. That really worked out well.
I'm sure I've missed others.
Note: The makeup and lighting they used on Roger after the serious heart attack was very effective. He truly looked gray and sick
posted by cwest at 6:30 AM on July 3, 2014 [4 favorites]
The twins being asked by Roger to kiss. They weren't too into that.
Joan getting a declaration of love from Carol. Joan lightheartedly breezed over that and went on with her evening.
Don fending off Eleanor's advances.
Carol not wanting the attention from one of the men she and Joan brought home. She seemed to give in from hopelessness.
Don not really getting what he needed from Betty on the phone after Roger's heart attack.
Roger being told by his doctor's to consume lots of cream and butter regularly for his ulcer. That really worked out well.
I'm sure I've missed others.
Note: The makeup and lighting they used on Roger after the serious heart attack was very effective. He truly looked gray and sick
posted by cwest at 6:30 AM on July 3, 2014 [4 favorites]
Joan and Carol could have done better than the two guys they brought back to their apartment. My reaction: "These guys?? These are the guys you picked up?? Almost scraping the bottom of the barrel. Christ."
That always gets me... I think it's the writer's point, and the tragedy, that Joan sees these two guys as a step up from lesbianism, at least for her and for Carol. When really, it's a disservice to them both.
I like to think that this informs her reaction to Bob Benson seasons later. Joan and Bob both deserve better.
posted by mochapickle at 8:16 AM on July 3, 2014 [2 favorites]
That always gets me... I think it's the writer's point, and the tragedy, that Joan sees these two guys as a step up from lesbianism, at least for her and for Carol. When really, it's a disservice to them both.
I like to think that this informs her reaction to Bob Benson seasons later. Joan and Bob both deserve better.
posted by mochapickle at 8:16 AM on July 3, 2014 [2 favorites]
Didn't know this until I read the imdb entry for this episode: Bert Cooper asking Joan to press the elevator button is a callback to Joan identifying with Fran's character in "The Apartment."
posted by drezdn at 10:44 AM on July 3, 2014 [4 favorites]
posted by drezdn at 10:44 AM on July 3, 2014 [4 favorites]
"Don, I want you to go in and ride bareback over Paul, here." Well, hello nurse!
"Remember, Don: when God closes a door, he opens a dress."
Bert to Joan in the elevator: "Could you? Lobby." Such a small detail, but men (of status) couldn't be bothered to press their own elevator button?
Do we often see Don turning down women's advances? It doesn't feel like it, but there's been at least Peggy (in the pilot), and Eleanor in this episode. Later, of course, we'll get poor Meredith in the recent mid-season finale. Still feels like the exception to the rule, somehow.
posted by ChrisTN at 4:38 PM on July 3, 2014
"Remember, Don: when God closes a door, he opens a dress."
Bert to Joan in the elevator: "Could you? Lobby." Such a small detail, but men (of status) couldn't be bothered to press their own elevator button?
Do we often see Don turning down women's advances? It doesn't feel like it, but there's been at least Peggy (in the pilot), and Eleanor in this episode. Later, of course, we'll get poor Meredith in the recent mid-season finale. Still feels like the exception to the rule, somehow.
posted by ChrisTN at 4:38 PM on July 3, 2014
Don seems to turn people down when he's going through something or trying to be faithful for whatever reason.
posted by drezdn at 4:42 PM on July 3, 2014
posted by drezdn at 4:42 PM on July 3, 2014
Yes, and I just read the Guardian piece that Marie linked above--good call that Don needs to "earn" his conquests. Philandering with women in the office would be too easy and perhaps "beneath" him.
posted by ChrisTN at 4:45 PM on July 3, 2014
posted by ChrisTN at 4:45 PM on July 3, 2014
That's probably why he handled the Allison incident so badly.
posted by drezdn at 4:47 PM on July 3, 2014 [4 favorites]
posted by drezdn at 4:47 PM on July 3, 2014 [4 favorites]
Joan and Carol could have done better than the two guys they brought back to their apartment. My reaction: "These guys?? These are the guys you picked up?? Almost scraping the bottom of the barrel. Christ."
Yeah, what the hell was up with those depressingly sad pickups! It never made sense to me at all. What on earth was Joan getting out of that? If she just wanted to have some casual fun, she could have brought home someone attractive at least. But then over the course of the show, who has Joan been with that we know about? Paul, Roger, one of those toads she and Carol brought home, Dr. Rapist, and Herb the Jaguar guy (though as we know that was for profit, not fun). Even Peggy has had better calibre boyfriends. It's very odd that someone who is such a showstopper in terms of her looks and who prides herself on her knowledge of men winds up with such lacklustre love interests. What's everyone's best guess as to why? I can only suggest that maybe Joan isn't as astute with men as she thinks she is, or maybe she doesn't actually get that many offers because men are too intimidated by her?
Do we often see Don turning down women's advances? It doesn't feel like it, but there's been at least Peggy (in the pilot), and Eleanor in this episode. Later, of course, we'll get poor Meredith in the recent mid-season finale. Still feels like the exception to the rule, somehow.
Don could afford to be picky when he was married to Betty because he had her to go home to if nothing better offered itself. He wasn't interested in low-hanging fruit at that point and all his mistresses were very attractive, intelligent, interesting women. After he was divorced, we saw him filling the void with whatever woman was readily available: prostitutes, a waitress, his secretary Allison. I don't know how to explain his affair with Sylvia (maybe he wanted someone more readily available than his working wife?), but now he's trying to move on from banging women as a panacea for what ails him, and I just can't see him ever being interested in Meredith. She's too unintelligent and childish to interest him, and Don would need to be very, very drunk to go there.
posted by orange swan at 12:32 PM on July 5, 2014
Yeah, what the hell was up with those depressingly sad pickups! It never made sense to me at all. What on earth was Joan getting out of that? If she just wanted to have some casual fun, she could have brought home someone attractive at least. But then over the course of the show, who has Joan been with that we know about? Paul, Roger, one of those toads she and Carol brought home, Dr. Rapist, and Herb the Jaguar guy (though as we know that was for profit, not fun). Even Peggy has had better calibre boyfriends. It's very odd that someone who is such a showstopper in terms of her looks and who prides herself on her knowledge of men winds up with such lacklustre love interests. What's everyone's best guess as to why? I can only suggest that maybe Joan isn't as astute with men as she thinks she is, or maybe she doesn't actually get that many offers because men are too intimidated by her?
Do we often see Don turning down women's advances? It doesn't feel like it, but there's been at least Peggy (in the pilot), and Eleanor in this episode. Later, of course, we'll get poor Meredith in the recent mid-season finale. Still feels like the exception to the rule, somehow.
Don could afford to be picky when he was married to Betty because he had her to go home to if nothing better offered itself. He wasn't interested in low-hanging fruit at that point and all his mistresses were very attractive, intelligent, interesting women. After he was divorced, we saw him filling the void with whatever woman was readily available: prostitutes, a waitress, his secretary Allison. I don't know how to explain his affair with Sylvia (maybe he wanted someone more readily available than his working wife?), but now he's trying to move on from banging women as a panacea for what ails him, and I just can't see him ever being interested in Meredith. She's too unintelligent and childish to interest him, and Don would need to be very, very drunk to go there.
posted by orange swan at 12:32 PM on July 5, 2014
Back from vacation and catching up!
I forgot about Joan's "1960, I am so over you" but was struck again at how very not-1960 it sounded. (Weiner defends it.)
Thought about Betty with new sympathy, imagining how hard it would be to see her father replace her mother with "that woman." And of course she has no coping skills and probably acted like a spoiled little shit all weekend.
John Slattery is so, so good in the scene in the hospital with Mona and Margaret.
posted by Sweetie Darling at 5:52 PM on July 6, 2014
I forgot about Joan's "1960, I am so over you" but was struck again at how very not-1960 it sounded. (Weiner defends it.)
Thought about Betty with new sympathy, imagining how hard it would be to see her father replace her mother with "that woman." And of course she has no coping skills and probably acted like a spoiled little shit all weekend.
John Slattery is so, so good in the scene in the hospital with Mona and Margaret.
posted by Sweetie Darling at 5:52 PM on July 6, 2014
Bert Cooper, as insightful as ever: Don't Waste Your Youth On Age
If you can't tell, I'm focusing on Bert Cooper, the Sage of Madison Ave.
posted by the man of twists and turns at 9:00 PM on July 6, 2014
If you can't tell, I'm focusing on Bert Cooper, the Sage of Madison Ave.
posted by the man of twists and turns at 9:00 PM on July 6, 2014
re: Joan picking up those horrible guys, I remember seeing it as a sign of how desperate she was to put Carole's confession in the rearview mirror. I picture them walking into the bar, getting hit on by these two guys, and Joan pretty much saying "you'll do." It was a way to avoid having to have that conversation again.
I like to think that, these days, Joan would have been a little weirded out by the confession (because it's always a little weird when a friend you've never considered romantically confesses a crush) but then dealt with it head-on, and helped her find a nice girl to date.
posted by lunasol at 12:25 AM on July 7, 2014 [1 favorite]
I like to think that, these days, Joan would have been a little weirded out by the confession (because it's always a little weird when a friend you've never considered romantically confesses a crush) but then dealt with it head-on, and helped her find a nice girl to date.
posted by lunasol at 12:25 AM on July 7, 2014 [1 favorite]
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posted by donajo at 6:30 PM on July 2, 2014