Mad Men: Babylon

November 8th, 2008

Season 1, Episode 6

Synopsis

Don prepares breakfast, trips on a Wheel-O-Toy, and crashes to the ground. Flashback to a poor farmhouse where a man named Mack Johnson tells Dick, a young boy, to get on his feet and meet his newborn brother.

Betty and the kids help Dick on his feet again. That night, Betty mentions how Joan Crawford hasn’t aged well. Don wonders why she’s so somber.

At Sterling Cooper, Don meets with the Israeli Ministry of Tourism regarding a promotional campaign. Don is handed the book Exodus.

Roger’s wife Mona and his teenage daughter Margaret stop by the office en route to a haircut. Later in a hotel room, Roger lies on a bed, complaining about his family. Joan comes out of the bathroom — they’re having an affair.

Back at the office, Don and others do research on Israeli history and toss out half-baked ideas. Don sets up a lunch date with Rachel Menken. That evening, Don reads Exodus in bed, while Betty recounts her first kiss.

The next day, Ken, Freddy, and Salvatore tackle Belle Jolie, a lipstick company. In the name of “market research” the office women are gathered into a special room to try on lipsticks. There is a one-way mirror set up so the office men can observe the women without their knowledge — but the men use the situation as an opportunity to gawk and make snide remarks. Ken salutes Joan’s hourglass figure.

During lunch with Don, Rachel is amused by his sudden interest in Israel, but does offer that Jews have lived in exile all their lives, and still managed to make a go of it.

Don is visited by Salvatore and Freddy Rumsfeld, who report Peggy had an interesting thought — she called a trashcan filled with waste tissues a “basket of kisses.” She may have some more ideas for ad copy. Meanwhile, Rachel calls her sister to say she met someone interesting.

Don visits Midge when Midge’s artsy friend Roy knocks on the door. He invites them to a poetry reading at the Gaslight in Greenwich Village where his friend Ian is playing music.

At a hotel, Roger gives Joan a bird in a cage, suggesting it will keep her busy.

At the Gaslight, Don doesn’t like the reading, or Roy’s conversation about the theater, where he takes some digs at Don’s advertising profession. Don sarcastically says he sleeps on a “bed of money.” Roy’s friend Ian takes the stage and sings a song called By the Waters of Babylon.

Thoughts

Style

The Wheel-O-Toy consists of a wheel with a magnetic axle that spins on a hand-held track.

Joan Crawford was a famous movie actress, who got the scary treatment courtesy the tell-all movie Mommie Dearest. Betty also mentions Suzy Parker who was a fashion model of the time.

The book Exodus, by Leon Uris documents the emergence of Israel as an independent nation and was turned into a movie starring Paul Newman.

Salvatore mockingly notes a Belle Jolie lipstick color of “Ethel Rosenberg pink” which is a morbid joke: the Rosenbergs were American communists who were executed in the electric chair in the 1953.

The Gaslight Cafe in Greenwich Village was a club hangout for the beat poets and folk music. Bob Dylan got his start there. A red-haired poet mentions Castro, Khrushchev, and the Waldorf Astoria, all current events in 1960.

Really cool direction in the lipstick room with the careful framing of a woman’s face in a mirror while she’s being questioned (see photograph above).

Then And Now

• Anti-Semitism: The ad campaign for Israel tourism is an opportunity for the office men to vent out-of-date feelings regarding Jews. They call Israel a quasi-communist state, and Sal mentions the Jewish women in Israel are much prettier than those in Manhattan.
• Sexism: Freddy refers to the office women as “chickens” and “hens.” The office men consider the presence of one-way glass merely another opportunity to ogle the office women. Lastly, Freddy describes Peggy’s insight as akin to seeing a “dog play the piano.”

Advertising

Belle Jolie appears to be a fictional company.

Developments

The newborn brother Don recalls in his flashback is Adam, whom we met in the previous episode.

It’s revealed Roger Sterling and Joan, the office manager, are having an affair. This may explain why Joan was rather nonchalant regarding Peggy’s discovery of Don’s affair and willing to keep it a secret — she’s up to the same thing, and with Don’s boss, no less.

In Jewish history, Babylon is linked with the concept of “exile.” Rachel Menken mentions Babylon while explaining the Jewish disposition of rootlessness to Don. Babylon is the subject of the folk song sung at the Gaslight. It’s accompanied by a montage of images consisting of Don’s family and Roger and Joan separating and returning home after their affair. Both Don and Roger, consumed by affairs away from their wives, are exiles, living as nomads away from home.

Later in this season, Don starts to take the exile concept quite literally, considering “running away” from his life in New York. This theme reaches its full exploration in the last few episodes of Season 2.

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