Mad Men: Thanks for Nothing

Recaps

By McWeanis | Wednesday, May 16, 2012 | 6:00 am | 16 Comments
Posted in: Mad Men, Recaps

During the credits, does anybody else always expect that giant foot to kick Don, a la people bouncing off the propellers in Titanic? It’s a let down every time.

see the resemblance?

This week, it’s Thanksgiving in Mad Men land, which means everyone is a bitter, immature little asshole, just like we all are when we regress to our childhood selves around parents and siblings every November.

The episode opens on BETTY, finally! We haven’t seen her since she found out her lump was just a lump – and didn’t seem proportionately relieved. I’m not sure if she just wanted an excuse to be fat, or if she actually wanted to die just to spite everybody. Our last shot of her was doubling up on the ice cream sundaes; now, she’s chowing down on grapefruit and toast, and one of her chins seems to have disappeared.

Douchebag Partner, Part 1: Roger
Can’t believe I’m saying this, but I’m actually sad we cut away so quickly to the elevator with Don, Burt, Roger and Pete. Pete, as usual, has self-serving news to share: the New York Times wants to do a piece on SCDP as a ‘hip’ firm, and he’ll be the star. What the hell is going on with Pete? He seems so pleased with himself now. Just a few episodes he got his ass kicked by Lane (who I, too, had money on) and supposedly had nothing to live for. I can’t tell if this new cheer is a complete act or if the prospect of new insurance wife poon has him rejuvenated.

Burt and Roger are less pleased, and clearly feeling superfluous, as Burt goes behind the rest of the partners’ backs to work a Jewish wine company deal with Roger. Best exchange of the episode:

Burt: “This requires your finesse, and frankly, your Semitic wife.”
Roger: “Burt, how do you not know I’m getting a divorce?”
Burt: “No, not Mona.. Jane!”
Roger: “Jane and I are getting divorced!”
Burt: “Already?” (looks at this watch)

that’s right Burt. you ain’t dead yet.

Roger: “Well how Jewish are they – Fiddler on the Roof, audience or cast?”

I could go on and on with Roger. Since Ginsburg is a Jew, he obviously gets selected for Roger’s latest back door creative dealing – a mini pitch for the manischewitz dinner. Ginsburg doesn’t understand why Roger’s not going through the normal venues, so Roger gives him the birds and the bees talk of working with Pete Campbell: “When a man hates another man, very very much, sometimes he wants to know that something is his, even if in the end he has to give it up.”

Ginsburg can’t keep his mouth shut (part of what I love about him) and immediately spills the beans to Peggy, who flips at Roger for not choosing her for all of his backroom deals. Why should Ginsburg get the Jew deal? Peggy got Mohawk, and she’s not an airplane.

Roger earns his douchebag stripes later in the episode, after he calls his near-ex-wife Jane. He bribes her with a new apartment to come his Jew dinner, since he needs an Jew in. The dinner goes swimmingly, although the client’s son takes an obvious shine to Jane. After dinner, Roger and Jane make a pit stop at her new apartment, and end up boning. NOOOOO! The whole reason Jane wanted a new apartment was to get away from the Roger memories, and now they’ve christened this apartment in nasty Roger jizz too. :( :(   Jane may not be very likable, but I can pity any woman when it comes to Roger. The next morning, she’s devastated and he’s contrite – but her ‘new life’ is already sullied. Stupid Roger.

if only they made a morning after pill for THIS kind of stuff.

Douchebag Partner Part 2: Don

Ginsburg’s the creative star of the episode, coming up with a great manischewitz idea for Roger to throw out and an even better series for Snowball, which I think is like a snow cone or a slushee or something. Unfortunately for Ginsburg, Don prefers to be the creative star around SCDP. When he finds Ginsburg’s ideas during some snooping and finds that they’re good, he spens the night trying to brainstorm his own… e.g. “Refreshing for the damned. The snowball is the sin that gets you into hell.”

yeeeea… needs work

At the next morning meeting, we get a few more snowball ideas. Peggy’s is a subtle New Yorker style cartoon, which is dismissed immediately; since the Heinz debacle, it seems Peggy’s been pushed to the wayside in favor of the rest of the team. Ginsburg’s is essentially a super soaker ad.  Don goes with the weird devil thing. They all think it’s great. (Are they faking it to save Don’s pride, or is this actually good? I will never get advertising.)

STOP ENJOYING YOUR SUCCESS. stop it.

Although the team initially decides to pitch both ideas (with a slight preference for Ginsburg’s), Don, in what I would say was his most immature moment EVER if I hadn’t seen all the other seasons, purposely leaves Ginsburg’s drawing in the cab on the way to the pitch. Come on, Don. That’s something I would have done to my sister in like second grade.

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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.

16 Comments

  1. 1
    Fan-Ann
    Posted May 16, 2012 at 7:52 am

    The picture you showed from the Thanksgiving table scene was the most emotion I have seen on Betty’s face, as she slowly chews her one bite of dressing and looks agonized. It made her seem less frigid and robotic. Of course, she was still a shit-stirring bitch to tell Sally about Anna. She didn’t want Don, but she also doesn’t want him happy with his new young wife.

  2. 2
    Smarlo
    Posted May 16, 2012 at 10:23 am

    They’ve finally caught up to me in the timeline, I was born 9 days earlier!

    I like this recap! Just the right amount of snark, I think. Keep it up!

    Poor Betty, maybe this episode in her life will teach her a little humility and empathy. NOT!

  3. 3
    annie Annie
    Posted May 16, 2012 at 10:44 am

    Fan-Ann…yes I completely agree, that’s the most emotion I’ve seen Ice Queen Betty have in a long time, hell maybe for the whole show. That tiny bite of stuffing was the only thing she’s enjoyed since getting banged by the stranger in the NYC bar. Also, I felt bad for her during her Weight Watchers meeting….hell, if she thought she was depressed during her marriage with Don, she’s in Mach 10 depression now.

    The smog emergency was interesting….it’s like everyone is pretending to enjoy a nice Thanksgiving dinner, meanwhile death is literally knocking at the front door. This season has just been so dark….everyone’s lives seem to be in shambles…..Don’s losing his creative edge, Pete’e entire life sucks, Betty’s fat and depressed, Megan’s feeling strangled by her life with Don, Peggy’s in a slump, Joan and Rogers short marriages have fallen apart, even poor Sally witnessed some bizzare BJ action. Just wait till 1968 comes around….aye aye aye.

  4. 4
    BlueCanary
    Posted May 16, 2012 at 10:49 am

    Great recap! I think the reason Don is more supportive of Peggy and Megan as opposed to Ginsberg (who I’m starting to really dig) is that they’re women. No matter how talented they are or how hard they work, he still can’t see them as threats because he doesn’t consider them equals. I remember way back in season 1, when Freddy or some asshole said watching Peggy have an idea was like watching a dog play the piano, or some similar mysoginist bullshit. Peggy has a stronger work ethic than any of her coworkers combined, and she can hold her own with the younger guys, but it doesn’t seem like the elders really believe she could do their jobs. A for Megan, Don sees her as his wife first, and everything else she does is sort of a cute little hobby.

    Also, I have to cringe whenever Betty reiterates how happy she is. The only person more miserable is Pete, and he mostly brings that on himself. Betty needs to take a step back and decide what she wants in life, not what she thinks she should want. I too wanted to cry at that tiny dab of stuffing.

  5. 5
    Caito
    Posted May 16, 2012 at 11:05 am

    Great recap! I don’t think you’ll have to hit the Reddi-wip this week :)

  6. 6
    Monica
    Posted May 16, 2012 at 12:30 pm

    What I got from the whole Anna thing was that Betty assumed Don was hiding his past life from Megan as well- she wasn’t trying to poison them by starting an argument, but by revealing there was an Anna in the first place. She was downright disappointed (and hurt too, I’m sure) when Sally made it clear Megan already knew about Anna.

    Is Peggy (becoming) an alcoholic? Every other comment is about drinking.

  7. 7
    Yanksfan24
    Posted May 16, 2012 at 1:21 pm

    Can we just give the Emmy to Keirnan Shipka…she is great as Sally. Her snide comment to Megan “Are you going to cry now?” was excellent and snotty and the anger in her eyes was spot on. Sally is about the same age as my Mom and aunts and it’s interesting to see what was going on in the world when they were young.

  8. 8
    labowner
    Posted May 16, 2012 at 1:49 pm

    Jon Hamm was on the Sklar Brothers podcast this past week and he mentioned how Sally has spent 1/2 her life on the show. She started at 6 and now she is 12. I am just glad they kept her, is the brother the same? I hate when they change actresses/actors to up the age for the kids age, but everything else is still in the same time line.

    McWeanis, they all have dark shadows coming from every direction.

  9. 9
    ninad
    Posted May 16, 2012 at 7:58 pm

    Monica, I totally thought the same thing about the Betty situation. That she thought she could “stir things up” by bringing up this secret and then she was crushed to find out that Don had already told Megan.

  10. 10
    maryedith
    Posted May 16, 2012 at 8:15 pm

    McWeanis, you are SO RIGHT about that foot!

  11. 11
    maryedith
    Posted May 16, 2012 at 8:21 pm

    I was intrigued by what I saw as a parallel being drawn between Don and Betty this week. Both of them did things that were beneath them because they felt insecure and threatened. And old. Is it just me or are they doing a good job making Jon Hamm look a bit “past it”?

  12. 12
    maryedith
    Posted May 16, 2012 at 8:23 pm

    Oh — Roger did the same kind of thing. He took a big step forward with Jane and then took two petty little steps back because he felt jealous and old.

  13. 13
    melissa
    Posted May 17, 2012 at 6:52 am

    I don’t know why, (because I really am a very nice person lol) but I have always been on Betty’s side. I know she has had her crappy hateful mom moments. But the way Don was able to just walk away from the unhappy Betty he hand a HUGE hand in creating ( the affairs, the deceit, the dishonesty ect) and then call her a vindictive fat bitch…well, I’m sorry, but really???
    The whipped cream and Thanskgiving table scenes with Betty were classic. I am rooting for her.

  14. 14
    maryedith
    Posted May 17, 2012 at 11:01 am

    Me too! I always feel like the odd person out when I read commentary on Mad Men because I hate seeing Betty as a cardboard villain and I think the writers take the easy way out with her over and over again. So thanks for saying that, Melissa — you’re my new hero.

  15. 15
    maryedith
    Posted May 17, 2012 at 11:02 am

    I mean, remember when she went to see that shrink and he called up Don and told him all about it? She never had a CHANCE!

  16. 16
    Monica
    Posted May 17, 2012 at 8:21 pm

    Maryedith/Melissa… I agree with what you are saying about Betty. She’s had her moments as a sucky mom but they’ve made it clear her own mother didn’t treat her very well. Plus Don was the ultimate douchebag when they were married. I find myself rooting more for her than Megan…who I like less and less each week (even though it seems like most people find her more and more wonderful)… wish we could see more Betty/less Megan!

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