Editor’s Pick
OCTOBER 13, 2008 7:35PM
Out-Of-His-World: Don Draper Gets Trippy In La La Land
WHAT LOOKING-GLASS HAVE I FALLEN THROUGH?
I’m filling in for the regular secretary of “Mad Men Minutes,” and can’t wait to meet this suave, alpha male named Don to entrance me with his sex appeal. Instead, I encounter some monosyllabic, shallow Dick who appears dazed and confused and unsure of who or where he is. Is he Don, Dick, Harry? But I’m getting ahead of myself.
Tonight’s Mad Men episode opens with the lovely kitten Jane lolling in bed while writing an ode to silver-haired suitor, Roger Sterling.
“You make me new with laughter. You make me old with wisdom,’’ she sings. But the word ‘old’ disturbs Roger, who’d rather not be reminded of their age difference. “It doesn’t matter how old I am, our souls are the same age,” coos Jane. Roger, amazed at his own good fortune, pops the question. Kitten’s in shock! “How do I know that I’m not going to eat another mushroom, and this room will disappear, and I’ll be back on the train to Trenton?”
Oohhh, that would give me the willies, too, Jane. But …mushrooms? My, how far we’ve come from Miz J’s Cherry infusions last week! Crabby, alas, is stone-cold sober when taking in this scene. Someone has to bear witness to Roger assuring his prize that he will be hers to keep.
Meanwhile, Mr. Don Draper is standing poolside in La La Land as Pete informs him that TWA has misplaced his luggage but that the hotel has swim trunks. “There’s not going to be any swimming,’’ Don tells Pete. They’re here to get clients, not suntans. Get out to Pasadena and make someone feel special, Don directs. When Pete protests, the big man snaps, “You want to be on vacation, Pete, I can make that happen.”
As Don makes his way to the bar and orders an “old-fashioned,’’ along comes Viscount Willy who introduces him to a young girl who has been visually snacking on him all afternoon. Don, meet Joy, the soon-to-be-apparent member of a nomadic grifters’ clique. But who cares when Joy offers Don something for free: sex.
And after taking a first pass at dalliance with Joy, Don takes the bait and accompanies her to Palm Springs where he too-easily falls in with these well-kept loaf-abouts in a gorgeous glass California home. (Crabby immediately wants in.) Despite his lecture to Pete, Don abandons business for pleasure. I guess that aeronautical slideshow on MIRVs makes Don think striving to be better is pointless.
But…are his new friends drugging him? Only minutes after arriving at the swank spread and having a drink, Don passes out. When he comes to, a Dr. Klaus is about to give him a shot of “medicine” but Don quickly recoils and says, “It’s okay. I just need water and some aspirin.” Joy sends everyone out, and Don asks, “Who are these people?” They’re friends,’’ Joy replies. “We’re nomads. We have an open door policy.”
Meanwhile, back in New York, Duck stops by to tell Roger he’s ready to hear “partner” talk. But the boss tells him he’s got a weak case. “Everyone thinks you’re a fine fellow,’ Roger says, “but If I were you, I’d go out there and make rain.” Get it, Duck? Rain? Hehe. But Duck takes the advice to heart: he reaches out to his old European-based agency, suggests that it buy Sterling Cooper and make him creative director. The old boss says he didn’t know the SC was for sale. Oh, but it can be, Duck suggests: “Roger Sterling has a 20-year-old-fiancé and his wife's lawyer not going to leave him a pot to piss in.”
Okaaay, playa. Just stay away from the Tanqueray.
And somewhere else in the agency, new guy Kurt candidly reveals that he is a “homosexual…I make love with men not with women.” The news disturbs Ken who asks what bathroom Kurt uses, and takes Peggy off-guard (she’s going to a Bob Dylan concert that night with Kurt). A repressed Salvatore tries hard not to have any reaction. During the night’s weakest moment, when Kurt goes to pick up Peggy for the concert, he gets all queer-eyed and cuts her hair to snip her “old school” look. Apparently in the 60s every gay man moonlighted as a hairdresser.
Let’s wrap this up in Palm Springs, where Don’s recovery is followed by dinner, entertaining chatter, and dessert (a la a romp with “Joy.”) The next morning, Joy reads The Sound and the Fury in bed, but confesses the sex is better than the prose. “I like sex. You do, too, I can tell,” she tells Don.
Later, as the two lounge poolside, Don witnesses the return of two sad children to this desert looking-glass (Yoowho?? Remember your name?) and then pensively studies his cocktail glass. Is… that …residue on the rim?
In the morning, still seeming under the spell of some drug, Don furtively makes a phone call and identifies himself as “Dick Whitman.” Regulars know that this means Don is regressing while hanging loose with this California cult. These people have slipped Don/Dick some sort of Mickey, and it isn’t clear when or if he’s going to wake up.
I’m filling in for the regular secretary of “Mad Men Minutes,” and can’t wait to meet this suave, alpha male named Don to entrance me with his sex appeal. Instead, I encounter some monosyllabic, shallow Dick who appears dazed and confused and unsure of who or where he is. Is he Don, Dick, Harry? But I’m getting ahead of myself.
Tonight’s Mad Men episode opens with the lovely kitten Jane lolling in bed while writing an ode to silver-haired suitor, Roger Sterling.
“You make me new with laughter. You make me old with wisdom,’’ she sings. But the word ‘old’ disturbs Roger, who’d rather not be reminded of their age difference. “It doesn’t matter how old I am, our souls are the same age,” coos Jane. Roger, amazed at his own good fortune, pops the question. Kitten’s in shock! “How do I know that I’m not going to eat another mushroom, and this room will disappear, and I’ll be back on the train to Trenton?”
Oohhh, that would give me the willies, too, Jane. But …mushrooms? My, how far we’ve come from Miz J’s Cherry infusions last week! Crabby, alas, is stone-cold sober when taking in this scene. Someone has to bear witness to Roger assuring his prize that he will be hers to keep.
Meanwhile, Mr. Don Draper is standing poolside in La La Land as Pete informs him that TWA has misplaced his luggage but that the hotel has swim trunks. “There’s not going to be any swimming,’’ Don tells Pete. They’re here to get clients, not suntans. Get out to Pasadena and make someone feel special, Don directs. When Pete protests, the big man snaps, “You want to be on vacation, Pete, I can make that happen.”
As Don makes his way to the bar and orders an “old-fashioned,’’ along comes Viscount Willy who introduces him to a young girl who has been visually snacking on him all afternoon. Don, meet Joy, the soon-to-be-apparent member of a nomadic grifters’ clique. But who cares when Joy offers Don something for free: sex.
And after taking a first pass at dalliance with Joy, Don takes the bait and accompanies her to Palm Springs where he too-easily falls in with these well-kept loaf-abouts in a gorgeous glass California home. (Crabby immediately wants in.) Despite his lecture to Pete, Don abandons business for pleasure. I guess that aeronautical slideshow on MIRVs makes Don think striving to be better is pointless.
But…are his new friends drugging him? Only minutes after arriving at the swank spread and having a drink, Don passes out. When he comes to, a Dr. Klaus is about to give him a shot of “medicine” but Don quickly recoils and says, “It’s okay. I just need water and some aspirin.” Joy sends everyone out, and Don asks, “Who are these people?” They’re friends,’’ Joy replies. “We’re nomads. We have an open door policy.”
Meanwhile, back in New York, Duck stops by to tell Roger he’s ready to hear “partner” talk. But the boss tells him he’s got a weak case. “Everyone thinks you’re a fine fellow,’ Roger says, “but If I were you, I’d go out there and make rain.” Get it, Duck? Rain? Hehe. But Duck takes the advice to heart: he reaches out to his old European-based agency, suggests that it buy Sterling Cooper and make him creative director. The old boss says he didn’t know the SC was for sale. Oh, but it can be, Duck suggests: “Roger Sterling has a 20-year-old-fiancé and his wife's lawyer not going to leave him a pot to piss in.”
Okaaay, playa. Just stay away from the Tanqueray.
And somewhere else in the agency, new guy Kurt candidly reveals that he is a “homosexual…I make love with men not with women.” The news disturbs Ken who asks what bathroom Kurt uses, and takes Peggy off-guard (she’s going to a Bob Dylan concert that night with Kurt). A repressed Salvatore tries hard not to have any reaction. During the night’s weakest moment, when Kurt goes to pick up Peggy for the concert, he gets all queer-eyed and cuts her hair to snip her “old school” look. Apparently in the 60s every gay man moonlighted as a hairdresser.
Let’s wrap this up in Palm Springs, where Don’s recovery is followed by dinner, entertaining chatter, and dessert (a la a romp with “Joy.”) The next morning, Joy reads The Sound and the Fury in bed, but confesses the sex is better than the prose. “I like sex. You do, too, I can tell,” she tells Don.
Later, as the two lounge poolside, Don witnesses the return of two sad children to this desert looking-glass (Yoowho?? Remember your name?) and then pensively studies his cocktail glass. Is… that …residue on the rim?
In the morning, still seeming under the spell of some drug, Don furtively makes a phone call and identifies himself as “Dick Whitman.” Regulars know that this means Don is regressing while hanging loose with this California cult. These people have slipped Don/Dick some sort of Mickey, and it isn’t clear when or if he’s going to wake up.
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Comments
It's just like when I heard on NPR that Lem dies in The Shield just days before I watched the episode where it happens. I had to pretend I didn't know just so my wife would keep watching!