Mad Men: Thanks for Nothing

Recaps

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

I kind of forgot Anna existed, since a. she’s dead and b. the whole Dick Whitman thing is wayyy under the bridge drama-wise. I didn’t even realize the kids still don’t know. Don flies off the handle at first, but in the end Betty is denied “the thrill of poisoning [Megan and Don] from fifty miles away.”

The most interesting scene is when Sally tells Betty about the mature way the Anna situation was handled over at the apartment. When yelling at Don and Megan, she talked about her mother as someone she could trust who would never lie, which really shocked me given their rocky history. When Sally later explains what she learned about Anna to her mother, her cool demeanor suggested she knew what Betty was up to, and wasn’t giving her any satisfaction. I assumed Sally already knew her mother was evil, but maybe it’s just coming to her now.

The ending scenes show us both Draper household Thanksgivings. At Betty’s, the family is going around the table saying what they’re grateful for. Betty’s contribution: “I’m grateful that I have everything I want and no one else has anything better.” Okay, a little competitive, but a step in the right direction. Betty’s tiny Thanksgiving plate – one bite of stuffing! – made me want to cry/gorge myself immediately.

At Don’s, some of Megan’s actor friends (who are poorer, bitterer, and more successful at acting than she is) are coming to Thanksgiving. The room is stifling hot, but Don can’t open the window because there’s a “smog emergency.” This is apparently something that actually occurred around Thanksgiving that year, and killed hundreds of people in the city. Metaphor alert! I thought the poison was coming from within Don himself, but maybe it’s from the outside world (Betty, SCDP). Thoughts?

The name of this episode is “Dark Shadows,” from the name of the really crappy soap opera Megan’s friend was cast in. Literally spearking, the only dark shadows are when Roger and Jane are doing it in her unlit apartment. Metaphorically, perhaps they’re referring to the shadows cast by Don’s two ex-wives, Anna and Betty. Given the title, I expected a much darker episode. Instead, it was mostly given over to the immaturity of our aging stars, and their obsession with beating their younger counterparts – Betty v. Megan, Roger v. Pete, Don v. Ginsburg.

To get the funniest quotes from TVgasm recaps as they’re posted, follow us on Twitter. You can post your favorite lines right back at us. If you want to play games and socialize, like our Facebook page! We’re also now on Pinterest and Tumblr! Thanks for being a part of the gasm!

Pages: 1 2 3
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!

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.