Mad Men Recap: Rotten

Recaps

By McWeanis | Wednesday, June 13, 2012 | 1:00 pm | 24 Comments
Posted in: Mad Men, Recaps

Joan has a quick, unexplained change of heart about the office space; now she wants to buy it NOW! Especially considering the big check for 175k the firm got for Lane’s death benefit. I’m not sure if he left it to the company purposely, or that’s how the insurance policy works. Either way, Don makes a unilateral decision to give 50,000 of it to Lane’s widow. Joan’s still struggling with how she could have prevented Lane’s suicide. Sleeping with him is all she can think of. Goodness, woman, you don’t have to do everything around here!

The next morning, Marie and Megan ALMOST have a Real Loving Parent moment when Marie tries to pull a moping Megan out of bed. I say Almost because as soon as Marie realizes Megan’s depressed about her dream, she pulls out this gem: “Not every girls gets to be what they want. The world could not support that many ballerinas.” Yes, unlike Megan’s lovely papa Emile, Marie is trying to crush the actress dreams. She tells Megan she’s chasing a phantom, and closes with “You are an ungrateful little bitch. Thank god children are not my whole life.” (It sounded pretty in French, though.) I really shuddered during this scene, imaging being raised by such an awful person. I miss my mummy.

I don’t know what Don was expecting when he goes to visits Lane’s widow, but what he gets is some stone cold British bitching out.

AND you ate all the marmite!

She takes the money, but definitely doesn’t let Don off easy. First of all, Don had “no right to fill a man like that with ambition.” What does she mean “like that”? A non-business savvy man? A normal everyday man? A man with a conscience? I’m not sure; weight in, commenters. Second of all, she’s pissed that Don pulled Lane into a world of “freQUENT”ing brothels: she found the picture of Dolores in Lane’s office, and leapt to the simplest conclusion – that Lane was having an affair. Ah; she’ll never know that Lane just had one creepy conversation with her from a stolen wallet.

Don repeats that he’s sorry for her loss several times, but her parting shot is “Don’t leave here thinking you’ve done anything for anyone but yourself.” After all, Lane’s contribution to the company was worth a lot more than that original 50,000 he invested.

Pete gets home, ready to reject and deject his loving wife. Trudy’s all excited about the plans for a new pool, but Pete immediately brings up the negatives: first of all, it’s “awfully permanent,” and second… their kid could drown! I am continuously impressed with Trudy. She cooks dinner, tends the kid, and manages to look glamorous – and on top of that, she’s always cheerful and encouraging, despite Pete’s “doom and gloom”. 

When Marie arrives at Roger’s hotel room, they immediately leap into bed. Roger’s not ready to get down, though: he’s still dwelling on Lane’s suicide and mortality and stuff, and he wants to do LSD with Marie. I guess he does want his enlightenment back after all. Unluckily for Roger, Marie says no: “Please don’t ask me to take care of you.” As if we needed more evidence that she wasn’t the most nurturing person. Then again, at least she knows what she wants, and puts her foot down. And what she wants… is poonin.

sex > drugs. i’m with you girl.

Don arrives home to a verrry drunk Megan. Stumbling drunk. And all she wants to do is bone, since “this is all I’m good for.” Whether because of the sore tooth or because she’s being pathetic, Don refuses to kiss Megan and puts her to bed.

Marie then arrives home (“She abandoned me!”, says Megan – truer words…) and Don tries to pin the blame on her. “She left my house a happy girl,” says Marie. Megan is Don’s responsibility now. She does have some advice, though: “This is what happens when you have the artistic temperament but you are not an artist. Nurse her through his defeat, and you shall have the life you desire.” Confucius say, Marie’s a bitch.

Pages: 1 2 3 4 5
McWeanis
About

first thing's first: the origin of "mcweanis."

It is not because I have a giant weanis (look it up) although it is usually unusually bulbous and crusty.

it is in fact because as a child i was dubbed Weanie (it rhymes with my first name, because i'm awesomely named)  by my older sister Drunk, which my friends co-opted and which eventually evolved into weanis and finally mcweanis or MC weanis depending on how gangster i am at the time.

i am a huge nerd of all kinds, especially tv, books, and school. i'll be going to harvard law school in the fall cause i'm so SCHMANCY! i plan to put my excellent time management skills to work in balancing my courseload and my must-watch-tv-load.

24 Comments

  1. 1
    captain save-uh-ho
    Posted June 13, 2012 at 4:01 pm

    Great Recap. I’ll weigh in on the megan/don situation. Actually my husband had a thought. I was annoyed that it looked as though Don was preparing to cheat and my husband remarked that it was because Don lost respect for Megan. It was one thing for her to pursue her goal independently with confidence and without needing him, but when she needed him to get her a part that wasn’t even what she or he considered “true art” , his thoughts about her changed. I don’t know if that’s how it will play out but I thought it was a valid point. Don has admired Megan from the get go for not being Betty and in the latest turn of events Megan has had to completey depend on Don for her success.

    I enjoyed that they finally gave Megan a flaw/ unperfect moment.

    And I agree. I want to see more of an affect from Lane’s suicide. It felt almost as though the office had gone back to normal, despite what happened.

    And Pete!!!! I know so many people hate his character. But it really is a fantastically written character. The hospital scene was the best one of the season.

  2. 2
    annie Annie
    Posted June 13, 2012 at 7:18 pm

    What a great season, it was depressing though, but I think that’s why I liked it. These characters that we have grown to know for almost 10 years (their time) are starting to some very deep and personal issues.

    1. Don / Megan situation: The end scene reminded me so much of the Sopranos ending! Cut to black, and let the viewer analyze what happened. I do think Don cheated….the scene of him walking out of her commercial was so brilliant, that sealed the deal. Even though she quit the ad bizz, he still had some respect for her and her dream. When she sold herself short for some commercial gig (not only seeming desperate, but using Don’s connections with no shame) he did’t see what he saw in her before. Maybe he sees her as Betty now (flashback to her Coca Cola commercial shoot)

    2. Pete / Beth: Brilliant, brilliant scenes. The hospital scene was so great…..Pete opening up, and especially the line about putting a band-aid on a permanent wound was great.

    3. Peggy in the Virginia Hotel: Talk about some comic relief! I saw it as, Peggy feels she’s making her way in the world, she lands a cigarette deal and gets to fly on a plane!! Sadly, the glamerous business trip isnt what she expected, she sees dogs humping in the parking lot (which was hillarious). Would any of the men get such shitty digs? Definatley not. But she’s still happy with it.

    4 Lane’s wife: I think she made the comment “someone like that” meaning how can Don give someone who is unsucessful, depressed, a wimp, etc some home and ambition. She knows about his past depression and lack of self confidence. I thought it was a shitty thing of her to say.

    The episode was called “The Phantom” referencing Megan’s mom’s speech. Everyone was chasing some sort of happiness…..sadly in the long run it doesn’t look like any of them will find it.

  3. 3
    ChaCha
    Posted June 13, 2012 at 7:41 pm

    Re how to pronounce Jaguar…in the midwest, where all my relatives hail, everyone says “Jag-WIRE.” But in England they class it up with “Jag-YOU-war.” I think the animal is just pronounced “JAG-war.” Maybe because the midwestern pronounciation sounds so just-off-the-farm to me (thank you, relatives), I like the Brit version best.

  4. 4
    maryedith
    Posted June 13, 2012 at 9:28 pm

    Totally agree that Don lost respect for Megan. Also any sense of mystery about who she was and even, perhaps, about who the new Youth Culture is. Megan thought she was too good to work for an ad agency, and yet here she is being directed by the people she walked away from, having got the job by screwing her friend over and being married to the boss. There’s no Artists or New Women, just the same old people with the same old dreams waiting to be manipulated by Madison Avenue. Don’s on top of the situation again, but he is, indeed, Alone.

  5. 5
    maryedith
    Posted June 13, 2012 at 9:35 pm

    And btw, I’m not sure about this but I really thought Megan didn’t start crying in the bathroom until after she had stared at herself in the mirror for a minute. After that scene with her showing Sally how to cry it really seemed to me as if she worked herself up into those hysterics. When she lied to Don about how she found out about that part she did it so convincingly that I went back over all the other times she’s been all gawky and coltish about things she wanted.

  6. 6
    captain save-uh-ho
    Posted June 13, 2012 at 10:18 pm

    @MaryEdith— That’s a great point. Now I want to rewatch the bathroom scene.

    @Annie- I agree that Peggy was still happy. My husband thought that she was sad in that scene but to me her smile indicated that even though it wasn’t what she envisioned, she could still be perfectly content with its simpleness.

  7. 7
    itchy itchy
    Posted June 14, 2012 at 12:42 am

    Hmm, guess I disagree a bit. It wouldn’t make sense for Don to lose respect for Megan — certainly, he understands all about the need to use connections to make it in life (his whole life is based on using someone else’s name after all), what’s surprising is he hadn’t tried to get her a gig before this.

    As for the advertising vs art thing: bullshit. Actors need to work, and some or most of the best actors around all did commercials (or soaps, etc.) before their big break. Hell, Tom Hanks wore a dress in one of the worst sit-coms of them all, and things worked out well for him. It makes perfect sense for an artist to earn a living doing what they’re good at while they’re waiting for their art to be discovered.

    Also, Megan left advertising to pursue her dream, not because advertising was beneath her. (Although Don’s kneejerk reaction assumed this, perhaps.)

    No, my take on the Don walking away thing –and watching her reel — is that he understands that he might lose her, that ultimately he’s still alone with his demons and still has to face up to them in the darkness. The late 60s/70s were a difficult time for older guys, as their wives started asserting their right to equality. (My folks almost broke up because of this.)

    Although I read another recap somewhere that thought Don’s reaction to the reel came from him seeing she has no talent.

    Me, I’m just way too distracted by her teeth. I get that we’ve been conditioned to see actors with perfectly straight gleamingly white veneers. But still.

    I’m starting to really enjoy the Pete character, he’s one of the most fully-formed of the bunch. It’d be nice for him to catch a break though.

    As for the suicide, it seems like a bit of time has passed since then, it makes sense for them to carry on more or less as usual. And Lane was a bit of non-entity anyway — which is what I think his wife meant by “a man like that.”

    And yes, I think Peggy felt great — I think she really enjoyed the irony of thinking she’s made it only to have dogs fucking outside of her window. She’s down-to-earth, which is what’s great about her. Although, when will they bring up the baby again? Maybe in 20 years time that kid and Joan’s kid can get together and plot the takeover of the agency….

    All in all I was underwhelmed by this episode as a ‘finale’.

  8. 8
    Derek Hazelton
    Posted June 14, 2012 at 3:05 am

    I also found this episode to be sub-par, but you guys have made me think about Megan. We’ve seen her in other auditions be objectified (the one in Boston, in front of the three men). So, I took it to mean that if she was going to be objectified, she would allow the man doing the objectifying be the man she wanted. I’m not a Megan fan, but I can understanding stacking the “casting couch” in her favor. Plus, if Don didn’t want to hire her, he didn’t have to.

    Did anyone understand the theme with the toothache? Did it have to do with living with pain until it becomes too unbearable?

    Anyway, I actually found this season to be a little underwhelming, because we’ve mined the same ground character-wise, which we’ve understood since the early seasons. If Season 6 is more of the same, I think I’m checking out.

  9. 9
    MrsMiaWallace MrsMiaWallace
    Posted June 14, 2012 at 6:47 am

    Great recap as always! I will miss your contemplative take on these episodes.

    I agree with a mix of Annie and Itchy!

    I did think when Don watched the reel of Megan (yes, her teeth drive me nuts, they splay out like horse hooves) his face changed and you could tell he realized what Marie was trying to tell him, Megan is not a good actress. I do think he is disappointed in her, but not because she is not a “pure” artist or using his connection, I think he is disappointed because she was truly talented and a rising star at the ad firm and she walked away to do something she sucks at. That is a lack of self awareness and ambition and it is an immaturity he thought he had left behind in Betty.

    I don’t know if he cheated, but the scene with her getting smaller and the fact that the exact question asked was “are you alone?” make me lean that way.

    Also in the end I found the reel scene, the camera work during the walk away from Megan’s shoot, the song playing and the fact that Don ordered an “old fashioned” point to Itchy’s perspective, that the world is changing and Don feels more comfortable in the past.

    Agree on the Peggy dog issue- dogs were a great reminder that she has only risen so far. I do think she was happy though. I also think Lane’s wife was being mean and saying Lane is a sniveling coward of a man and exposing him to things he is not capable of is only setting him up for despair and failure-suicide.

    Lastly! I love love love Marie and her line was amazing. Maybe she would be crippling as a mother, but she’s dead on and I love the French mindset of not revolving your life around your kids and their ambitions. She also is bitter that Megan has it all and she’s home with another temperamental artist who is full of angst but light on talent – her remark to Don came from experience, not observation.

  10. 10
    captain save-uh-ho
    Posted June 14, 2012 at 8:57 am

    Hmm interesting take Itchy. I’m not sure which way I lean but it’s given me something to think about.

    @Derek– I actually thought this season has been the best of the bunch! I did think the finale was lacking for me, but overall, I really enjoyed this season. I felt like finally we’ve put so much work into getting to know these characters over the last four seasons that I could really get into the fifth.

    I actually liked Lane’s character and yes, it would seem time has passed so naturally they would move on so I’m not sure what more I want out of that story but I still felt it was dealth with abruptly.

    Earlier on Megan’s teeth bothered me, but I don’t notice it at all anymore. It’s actually become more of a quirky imperfection for me than anything.

  11. 11
    Derek Hazelton
    Posted June 14, 2012 at 9:32 am

    @Captain, I don’t think this season was bad; I just think Weiner and Co. is covering the same ground time and time again, and I am finding it annoyingly redundant. But I felt the same way about The Sopranos, but that show is a critical darling, so go figure!

  12. 12
    cat
    Posted June 14, 2012 at 10:16 am

    Thank you for taking over the recaps, McWeanis! I enjoyed reading them!

    I don’t think Lane’s wife’s remark of “a man like that” was meant as a put down of her husband. Rather I think she meant he was always such a company man. He did much better when he had restrictions in place, aka the way the Brits ran their business. As long as he kept to his “station” in life and didn’t aspire to more, he could be okay. The way the US model works, there is movement up (or sometimes down) the ladder. Lane wanted to climb the ladder. He saw Don and Roger as having a more exciting and fulfilling life, with no restrictions. He wanted to be like them, but he didn’t have self-confidence and stamina to do it. He just wasn’t raised that way, so he didn’t have it in him. When he went so far as to forge a check, he fell right off the ladder. Don could dust himself off from a fall like that, but not Lane. So while his wife was unaware of the forgery, she was well aware of how Lane’s co-workers ran things. And she also knew Lane was not equipped to run in that same pack.

    I’m not so sure Don was disappointed with Megan so much as he just started to see her differently. I think his viewing of her tape had a wistful quality to it. That she was beautiful on film, whether she had talent or not, and she was right for that commercial. But he also knew it could very well wind up being the beginning of the end to their relationship. That, plus, he may have started having more paternal feelings towards her. She acted like a child and in her words, her mother “abandoned” her. Don decided to make his “girl” happy, even if it eventually costs him own happiness.

  13. 13
    BlueCanary
    Posted June 14, 2012 at 10:29 am

    Pete is awful in so many ways, but dammit, he broke my heart this episode. His face when he realized their whole affair may as well been a figment of his imagination as far as she was concerned was just…man. That actor never fails to bring us every facet of Pete, making me alternate between “UGH, I HATE YOU!” and “awwwwww.”

    I don’t know if Don lost respect for Megan, if he ever had that much to begin with–he’s been cranky ever since she left SCDP and showed some need for autonomy–but I did. She backstabbed her friend and took advantage of her connections all at once. One of her best traits was her seeming determination to realize her dream on her own, and seeing her give that up was depressing.

    Love Marie, though. Julia Ormond looks amazing. And Sterling with his Regina line and acid trip just about killed me. Great job this season!

  14. 14
    maryedith
    Posted June 14, 2012 at 10:43 am

    I don’t think what I said was “bullshit” if you look at Megan’s arc. She went from SCDP to bo-ho acting classes. She talked about wanting to have a passion for what she did and wanting to do it on her own. During those episodes Don was not happy with what she was doing and also not doing that great at work; playing dirty pool with Ginsberg, for instance. The world seemed to be moving on without him. But then Megan pulled exactly the kind of stunt an ad exec would pull (as itchy pointed out) and ended the season back at the agency. But she’s NOT in control of what’s going on. She’s being directed by the people who write and produce the ad. There’s nothing intriguing for Don in that situation anymore. He walks away from her in that last scene.

  15. 15
    DirtyWhoreMouth DirtyWhoreMouth
    Posted June 14, 2012 at 11:45 am

    I never analyzed this show so much until I started reading your recaps. Thank you for that.

    I was a little disappointed with the finale but I was glad to see Peggy again. I agree with those of you who say Don walked away from Megan. I think maybe her mom’s comment to him about being his problem now probably had a tad to do with that. He doesn’t want to take care of anyone, he wants to be taken care of. Feel free to disagree but be nice. I’m still crying over the loss of Joan’s dignity.

  16. 16
    maryedith
    Posted June 14, 2012 at 12:15 pm

    Hey McWeanis, nice call on the tooth business! I read quite a few in-depth analyses of that (Freudian, etc) but I think you’re dead right to call it hackneyed. I was like, “What is this, the first season of the Sopranos?”

  17. 17
    itchy itchy
    Posted June 14, 2012 at 12:24 pm

    Oops, I wasn’t directing my “bullshit” at you, maryedith, but at Don, who brought up the art vs advertising thing during the episode! Nothing personal!

  18. 18
    Elmstreet
    Posted June 14, 2012 at 12:42 pm

    As far as episodes go, this was sub-par on pretty much every level. As far as sparking a conversation goes, it was phenomenal, because look where we are now (15 comments and counting).

    @Cat – You hit the nail right on the head as far as Lane is concerned. It was always clear that Rebecca Price disdained the way Americans worked and lived, to the point that she was willing to live long distance if it meant she got to stay in England. Poor Lane was caught in the middle of that. I saw her little diatribe at Don as her way of venting about the differences between what she favors (the good old English way) and how the American guys were in general, which just showed how little she cared to understood her husband or anything outside her little English bubble. She’ll never acknowledge to herself her own part in driving Lane to suicide.

    I don’t think Joan felt like she needed to prostitute herself to Lane; I just think that she felt bad knowing that they did have a connection that she didn’t have with anyone else in the office and maybe he needed someone to care about him if it would have kept him from killing himself. Survivor’s guilt, so to speak.

    I liked Megan a lot when she was a secretary. She’s great in small doses. The problem is, Matt Weiner turned this whole season into “The Don and Megan Show, featuring SCDP”, and like everyone else has pointed out, it was just the same issues over and over.

    I keep reading these interviews with Matt Weiner where he insists that Megan is the love of Don’s life and that they will be staying together (also, he insists that Creepy Glen is supposed to represent himself at that age and time. Ugh). Unfortunately for Weiner, either he can’t represent it well in script or he hasn’t realized that the show has gotten away from what he wants it to represent and he can’t go with the flow. Megan is good for Don in that she is direct and faces her problems, but in the long term, she needs someone who is the same for her. They are a good couple, but not a solid marriage. When Don was watching Megan’s reel, I thought it was calling back to season one, where Don watched his birth and his dad’s death while sitting in his kitchen. He’s placed himself on the outside of the situation and is looking in at the girl who looks luminous on screen, but whose talent may be debatable.

    So, I guess what I’m trying to say here is: Matthew Weiner, Harry was supposed to kill himself in the first episode. Joan Holloway was only supposed to be a bit part. And yet, they grew organically due to their actors making the roles. Maybe you should just let Don and Megan’s relationship go the same way and end naturally like we all see it would in real life. Just saying.

    One last thing: McWeanis, I will stare at John Slattery’s bare bum any day of the week. That was the best shot of the whole episode! THE WHOLE SEASON!

  19. 19
    MtnMama
    Posted June 14, 2012 at 7:03 pm

    I don’t think Don will ever leave Megan. I think she will leave him because, untalented though she might be, she has a beauty and confidence that will take her places in the industry for awhile. She will move on, and Don will not until she’s long gone.

    And totally ditto! re John Slattery’s butt being the best shot of the whole season!

  20. 20
    maryedith
    Posted June 14, 2012 at 9:10 pm

    I didn’t know Weiner thinks of Megan as the love of Don’s life. I did read a recent interview where he said that getting that part in the ad was “not meant to be a good thing for her.” And then he said, “But you can certainly see it that way if you want to.” Thanks, Matt. I think if the show has jumped the shark it happened at Zooby Zoo. No two people — literally no two people — seem to read any scene with Don and Megan in it the same way at all. It’s great for a show not to be obvious but when people can’t find the plot for the symbolism things are getting pretentious.

  21. 21
    maryedith
    Posted June 14, 2012 at 9:12 pm

    @Itchy — I guess I’m getting to used to the T&T threads; I didn’t feel insulted even when I thought you were calling “bullshit” on my comment.

  22. 22
    MtnMama
    Posted June 14, 2012 at 9:15 pm

    Oh … as for ‘rotten’ my first thoughts went to “There is something rotten in the state of Denmark.” Meaning, of course, things are not right; something is wrong.

    The line, spoken by Marcellus rather than Hamlet, is shaken by the many recent disturbing events and no doubt angered (as is Hamlet) by Claudius’s mismanagement of the body politic. He astutely notes that Denmark is festering with moral and political corruption. Horatio replies “Heaven will direct it”, meaning heaven will guide the state of Denmark to health and stability.

    So will Don find God? What will he do wtih the festering corruption of his girl? Or will he just sleep with the new chick? Decisions, decisions.

  23. 23
    itchy itchy
    Posted June 15, 2012 at 12:02 am

    The 60s weren’t about finding god (this was long before the States succumbd to the epidemic of born-again-itis), they were about shaking off all of those old conventions, so I don’t see Don getting religion. Or I hope not.

    On the other hand, the hare krishna thing fit right in with the times. If you ever walked through a train station/airport/bus terminal in the late 60s/70s, you’ll remember the unrelenting swarms of hare krishna. They all seemed quite blissful though.

    I like the dynamic between Don and Megan. I like it that she’s always been pretty good at calling him on his bullshit, and she’s always able to reel him back in when he starts to give in to his cowardice (because he is, after all, a coward). That’s why I’m a little disappointed by her recent story arc — I don’t buy her craving the approval of her mother, and I don’t see her being that distraught by a couple of rejections (she was hardly rejected anyway, her reel was part of a scam after all).

    But I don’t tend to watch for the holes in this show, since it’s so great otherwise. I just sit back and go along for the ride.

    Can’t wait til they get to Woodstock! Betcha Pete turns into a hippie. That’d be a blast.

  24. 24
    Zedd
    Posted June 17, 2012 at 9:01 am

    I love these recaps and all your comments because it totally makes me think of things that I never would have even really thought of since there is so much symbolism in this show.

    But I have to disagree with feeling any kind of compassion for Pete. Mind you – I haven’t liked him from the start because I work in the advertising world and have dealt with many MANY people like him but that hospital scene made me dislike him even more! He sat there and felt sorry for himself. All he did was whine about how miserable he is and although he had a come to Jesus moment in that he realized its him thats the problem and not what he has…he still just moped and whined about it.

    And then he goes home to his wife who cooks, cleans, takes care of their baby, looks freaking amazing and supports him through everything (even though he’s cheated on her and been a right sneaky bastard) and GETS HIS WAY by having her agree that he needs his apartment in the city. And that last scene of him sitting there with those headphones on – it just dripped smugness to me. He’d got what he wanted and he could forget all his whining he did in the hospital.

    Again I could be biased because I hated him from the beginning but I’m sorry when Lane killed himself I thought the wrong character left!

    Wow I’m harsh – I’m gonna go drink!

Post a Comment

Your email is never published nor shared. Required fields are marked *

*
*

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <strike> <strong>

Human Verification: In order to verify that you are a human and not a spam bot, please enter the answer into the following box below based on the instructions contained in the graphic.