Mad Men: The Arrangements

September 13th, 2009

Season 3, Episode 4

Synopsis

Grandpa Gene lets Sally drive: she handles the steering wheel while he presses the pedals. Meanwhile, Peggy tells her sister Anita of her intentions to move to Manhattan.

Pete introduces Horace — who wants to bring the South American sport jai alai to America — to the Sterling Cooper crowd. He believes it could suprass baseball with the right promotion. Skepticism sets in when he suggests television, print, and radio campaigns simultaneously for a million dollars. After the meeting, Don calls Horace and idiot and mentions Horace’s father knows Bertram Cooper.

Gene presents his will to Betty. She feels uncomfortable and asks him not to mention it again.

Don makes Sal the director of the Patio Cola commercial after the previous director abruptly quits. Meanwhile, Peggy places a roommate ad on the office bulletin board.

That evening, as Don observes from the living room, Gene hands Bobby a knife to open a box containing Gene’s old war memorabilia. One is a victory medal from World War I, and another is a helmet from a dead German soldier. He gives it to Bobby to wear. Don becomes uncomfortable and confiscates the helmet.

Kitty puts the moves on Sal, who is reluctant, claming work anxiety. He demonstrates what he’s working on: the opening scene to Bye Bye Birdie for the Patio commercial. Kitty is taken aback by Sal’s enthusiastic role-playing of Ann Margaret.

Don meets with Bertram, Lane, and Horace’s father (Horace Sr.). He is resigned that his son is spoiled and nothing can be done — if Sterling Cooper turns down the account, the money will be spent elsewhere.

The office boys draft Lois to call up Peggy in response to her ad. Lois claims to work in a tannery and has a disfigured face. Peggy moves from confusion to anger as the boys burst out laughing on the other end.

Gene and Sally eat ice cream straight out of the box. He says “you can really do something” with her life, and not to listen to her mother.

Don and Pete take Horace Jr. out to lunch, where he voices a wish to accomplish something just like his father. Don advises that he should spend his time on something other than jai alai. Horace pauses, and then laughs, saying if jai alai fails it will be Sterling Cooper’s fault.

Joan suggests Peggy rewrite her ad as more fun-loving and playful.

That evening, Don looks at an old photograph of his parents. The back says Archie and Abigail, 1928.

The next day, Horace has signed a contract, and several of the office boys play with jai alai equipment and laughing. Don accidentally chucks a ball into an ant farm.

Peggy meets Karen, a potential roomate. She seems rather particular, but agree to start looking at apartments together.

Gene forgot to pick Sally and Bobby from school, so Betty arrives instead. Meanwhile, Joan cleans up dead ants.

The Patio ad is screened for the client, and despite mimicking Bye Bye Birdie precisely, something is noticeably amiss. Roger says the girl just “isn’t Ann Margaret.” Nobody points the finger at Sal.

A policeman informs Betty that Gene passed out at the grocery store and is dead. Sally is heartbroken. Betty calls Don while he assures Sal will remain agency’s commercial director.

Peggy buys her mother a new television, but then mentions her plan to move to Manhattan. Her mother feels like she is being abandoned, calls the television a bribe, and lashes out, saying Peggy will be raped in the dangerous city.

Betty, Don, William, and his wife Judy reminisce on Gene’s passing in the kitchen while Sally sits alone in the dark. Sally overhears some chuckling and accuses the grownups of not realizing the finality of death. Betty scolds her and tells her to go watch television. Sally lies on the floor to see a Buddhist monk setting fire to himself in Vietnam on the television.

That evening Don puts Gene’s furniture away.

Then And Now

• Jai alai, a real South American sport, enjoyed a brief popularity in the sixties. It never became more popular than baseball.
• David Ogilvy was an advertising “wizard” who made waves starting in 1962.

Thoughts

Parent pass away and legacies — some intentional, others not — passed to the children. They can be squandered like Horace, while others seek something better, like Don, or Peggy.

Gene mentions she shielded Betty from all the danger in the world and calls her “Scarlet O’Hara” (spoiled). Betty still plays an adult but has the awareness of a child, something mentioned by her psychiatrist in the first season.

Gene’s handing down of his war stuff was out of line, but also because Don has some uncomfortable feelings about the Korean War. Unfortunately, nobody knows the details of all he went through then, and he certainly wouldn’t get into it with Gene.

Overall, this episode had a series of humorous situations (Gene letting Sally drive, Bobby wearing the war helmet, Sal prancing about, Peggy’s prank call, Joan cleaning up ants) but the light mood was shattered with Gene’s death. The contrast between levity and doom was quite wrenching, especially Sally curled up on the floor in a dark room with the adults in the kitchen behind her, a world apart.

The Bye Bye Birdie ad failed, and I’d explain it as the camera wasn’t “in love” with its subject, subtly tracking and following her as a voyeur or object of desire. Naturally, Sal is unable to direct in that manner. Even if the office isn’t sure, Kitty is surely catching on.

Next Episode: The Fog
Previous Episode: My Old Kentucky Home