Mad Men: Long Weekend

December 5th, 2008

Season 1, Episode 10

Synopsis

It’s Labor Day weekend, and Betty’s father Gene and new girlfriend Gloria come to take the kids to the beach. Betty complains to Don that Gloria is a “vulture.”

At the office, the men watch a deft Kennedy campaign ad with a catchy jingle. Unable to compete using the non-photogenic Nixon, they discuss negative advertising. Don notes Kennedy is from a well-off, “silver spoon” family while Nixon a self-made man. Don identifies with the latter.

Roger tells Joan that his family is away for the long weekend and they should get together. Joan mentions the movie The Apartment, and mentions how poorly Shirley MacLaine’s character was treated by the office men. Sterling mentions Psycho.

Rachel Menken and her father Abraham arrive for a meeting. He likes Sterling Cooper’s ideas but worries they’re creating a store he wouldn’t want to shop in. Don says customers have changed and they’re creating a store people like Rachel would want to patronize.

Joan’s roommate Carol has just lost her job. They decide to spend the weekend out on the town.

Pete tells Don they lost the Dr. Scholl’s account. Don angrily clears his desk onto the floor. Don then informs Roger who is understanding and sarcastically says they should fire someone.

Pete chats up Peggy who has been ignoring him. She says it’s due to his erratic behavior, oscillating between nice and cruel.

The office guys flirt with a line of models, all twins. Roger and Don pick out two young sisters, Mirabelle and Eleanor. Roger invites them up to his office for drinks, where Roger flirts relentlessly.

Joan and Carol prepare for an evening of fun. Carol stares at her and insinuates an attraction to Joan, asking her to pretend she’s a boy. Joan tells her to forget about it.

Don and one of the girls chat as Roger rides the other like a pony. Don gets up to leave, leaving Mirabelle and Roger alone in the office.

Later that evening, Joan and Carol return to their apartment with two men. Joan asks one to help her change a light bulb in her bedroom, leaving a somber-looking Carol with the other fellow.

Mirabelle calls her sister. Roger has had a heart attack and is passed out on his office floor. Don tells the girls to leave, calls an ambulance, and reminds Roger that his wife’s name is Mona.

At the hospital, Don watches as Roger’s wife and daughter console a petrified Roger as he lies in the hospital bed. Meanwhile, Bertram Cooper tells Joan about Roger’s heart attack and telegrams must be sent to reassure their clients. In the hospital waiting room, Don and Pete see yet another Kennedy ad, this one questioning Nixon’s experience.

Instead of returning home, Don visits Rachel. He kisses her, saying he doesn’t have anything to live for and contemplates death. They sleep together. Afterward, Don confesses that his blood mother was a prostitute who died at childbirth. HIs father was a drunk who died after being kicked by a horse. His stepmother raised him but married another man.

Thoughts

Style

Betty’s father Gene is diabetic and avoids sugar, but the sugar substitute saccharin is suspected to cause cancer. The Apartment is a great workplace comedy starring Jack Lemmon and Shirley MacClaine, and Psycho is an excellent Hitchcock thriller depicting an insane hotel worker that murders the guests.

Then And Now

• Strange sexual fetishes: Roger’s requests for Mirabelle seem a bit quaint. He asks the sisters to kiss, rides Mirabelle like a pony, and wants to play Dracula.
• Homosexuality: Carol seems to want to be much more than a roommate to Joan.
• Bad health habits: Sadly, Roger’s heart attack isn’t much of a surprise, as he smokes, drinks, eats whatever he wants. In the episode Red In The Face he complained of an “ulcer” and had trouble climbing stairs. While it’s easy for us to see the warning signs, it’s worth remembering the dangers of smoking weren’t established at this time.

Developments

In retrospect, Roger’s predicament was hinted at in the earlier episode Red In The Face. While Don wore Roger out, I won’t go so far as to say the heart attack was Don’s fault. Surely, the way these men smoke, drink, and eat steaks has a cumulative effect and Roger wore himself out over many years of bad habits. His heart attack is especially tragic to us as viewers because we recognize the warning signs.

Roger’s predicament affects Don deeply, and we learn additional tidbits about Don’s past. It’s revealed he never knew his mother and his father died while he was young. He describes his stepmother and father as “sorry people,” which further explains his lack of remorse upon learning of his stepmother’s death and opinion that his father was a liar. But more telling is how Betty knows none of this. Don feels more comfortable confessing all of this to Rachel. He isn’t able to turn to his own wife in this moment of emotional turmoil.

Now that I think of it, because of his invented persona, Don understandably finds solace in wayward, rootless women, the beatnik artist Midge and Jewish Rachel (recall Babylon). While Roger was living in denial, Don is living a lie, and one wonders what Don will do next to avoid a metaphoric impending heart attack in his personal life and relationship with Betty.

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