Mad Men: The Night Betty Found the Box
Is it blue or is it yellow or is it both? When no one can agree not just on the color but how to see it, you're headed for a whole bunch of conflict. And secrets. And drama. Oh, my!
Everything last night was about the disparity between how one character looks at something and how their opponents view the same object or situation differently. Whether it was Betty and Don both peering into the abyss of his box of secrets, Don and Missy looking at their love, or Peggy and Paul staring down an idea for the Western Union account. Sure, the secrets and lies are what is going to bite these people in the ass but it's that split vision that gets them there. As Don says, "Some people see things differently, and they don't want to." Poor, tortured Don.
Betty and the Box: Finally, Betty gets into that locked door in Don's dresser, thanks to a set of loose keys in the dryer. It says something that all Betty wants to do is see past Don's hard shell to the truth that is lying underneath, and as soon as he slips up even once and leaves the keys to the drawer in his bathrobe, Betty knows exactly what the incriminating keys are for. But can she handle the look into Don's heart of darkness? Probably not.
Earlier in the night, when the phone rings and there is no one on the other line, Sally gets all upset. "My goodness, Sally Draper, try not to take everything so personally," Betty snaps at her. Well, Betty is the last person who should be trying to teach people this lesson. Not only does she take it personally and think that the call is her spurned would-be lover Henry, but she also takes it personally when she opens the box. She's not shocked by the pictures of Don as a boy but named Dick, the deed to a house in California, or his purloined dog tags, she is shocked that he was married before. The one thing that Betty really cares about is the one thing that effects her. So like Betty.
Of course, Betty sees this as a huge betrayal—and really, keeping all those things away from her truly is—but Don sees it as a way to survive. His new identity catapulted him up from his hillbilly roots to the WASPy station that Betty so much enjoys. And of course, she sees her Don as having gotten a divorce and never telling her, when it was the old, dead Don who was married to Anna, and not the man who is currently cheating on her with some psycho teacher.
And as Betty waits up for her man to come home so that she can spring the trap on him, he doesn't take the bait, because he's sniffing around at some prey of his own above a garage across town. When Don doesn't return home, Betty puts the box back into the drawer, locks it and returns the keys. She tries to lay into Don the next day, but her sadness gets the best of her, and she sinks further into her hole of unhappiness. She is hiding everything away both literally and figuratively. It's fitting then that Betty has looked the best she ever has—an ice blue gown for an ice princess—for the Sterling Cooper anniversary party that night, because it seems clear Don is only interested in her as a facade, something to show off for his advertising buddies. Who cares what lies below the surface when the surface is so beautiful.
But something is brewing with Betty. She continues to reach out to Henry, keeping the lines of communication open, even if it's to tell him not to call. And she's reading The Group, a satire of upper-class life by Mary McCarthy (yes, published in 1963), that features a heroine who gets a divorce. Hmm...
But the final scene of her clapping half-heartedly while Don receives his award is surely a sign that more is coming. Knowing Betty she is going to let the information about Don stew inside for a bit before acting out childishly and without thinking and doing something disastrous. Let's hope it involves setting her ugly fainting couch of desire aflame.
Don and Missy: The most air time was spent on Don and his relationship with Miss Farrell (the AMC blog says her first name is Suzanne, but I don't know that we've ever heard it on the show, so we're just going to keep calling her Missy around these parts, OK?). The biggest difference between the way these two see their relationship is that Don sees passion, innocence, and good-will in her when really what he should be seeing is that she is a complete and utter psycho. He sees her as something extra and she sees him as her everything.
How is Don missing this? When he doesn't call, she doesn't wait by the phone, she shows up on the train unannounced and demands an explanation. Crazy! And then listen to what she says: "I don't care about your marriage or your work or any of that, as long as I know you're with me." Hear that, Don. That means the minute you try to end it, she is going to crazy on you like a Heart song. She will fuck up your marriage and your work and all of that. She said it herself. How does he respond? By holding her hand and showing her that he's with her. Retreat, Don! Be like the turtle you are and pull back into your shell, because Missy is coming with sharpened claws and she is not afraid to slit your throat.
But for some reason, Don thinks that she is the one. Maybe it's because he shows up and she has gold stars stuck to her face and tells cute stories about eight year olds. She is the opposite of Betty—all openness and emotion. Finally, after he drops off her brother, he comes back and she's so upset that she can't even have sex and Don stays anyway. So this isn't just about getting a piece of strange, this is about finding an alternative home. When he arrives at her house for the first time this episode, she's playing house and jokes that his secretary called. He plays along. Right now he is lost in her delusion, but he will wake up to realize that she is crazy, and it may be way too late to save himself.
Don and Mister Missy: That Don wants to drive Missy's no-good, epileptic brother Danny to his new job in Massachusetts show's just how whipped he is by this women. "I swore to myself I would try to do this right once," he says, showing that he wants to have a relationship with Missy that is free of lies and deception and instead based on him being a stand up guy. Sorry, but Don is incapable of that.
It's because Don feels some sort of affinity for this kid and his "affliction." If he had never stolen Don Draper's identity, he would be saddled with the affliction of his own upbringing and would have been trapped into a life of pushing a broom in a VA hospital. At least that's what he believes. He tries to set Danny free, but, like he had to do for himself, he is doing it with a bunch of lies. Don sees freedom as the most important thing of all (remember his contract negotiations) and is willing to trade this kid's freedom for the confines of another lie.
Missy will see his behavior as a betrayal—and since the kid has the card, we know that the truth is going to come out eventually, probably when they find it on his dead body—but Don sees it as an act of kindness. It's really just two shades of the same color.
Mr. and Mrs. Pryce: Well, there is a Pryce for everything, and Lane is paying for his happiness in New York with his wife's sorrow (and you are paying for reading the Official Gawker Mad Men Recap by having to endure bad puns). He sees it as a place of freedom from the British class system and his controlling overlords and she sees it as a seething hellhole of noise and humanity. Oh, they are both so right. This is a pretty obvious disagreement on perspective, and doesn't really play itself out in the plot until we find out that Sterling Cooper is for sale.
When talking with the home office, Lane finds out that, due to his diligence cutting the staff and getting profits up, the agency is now on the block so that the Brits can turn a tidy profit. They see this as a big win, but Lane sees this as a disaster. He'll have to leave his beloved new home and move back to London—or even worse, to India! Is it enough for Lane to sabotage the whole deal so that he can stay with the firm? Or will he try to transition over to Sterling Cooper and leave his old firm behind so that he can be the head honcho? It wouldn't be shock of this upright Brit had some deviousness in him to save his hide.
Peggy Vs. Paul: Here is the practical applications of two people looking at the same problem and coming up with two very different solutions. They both have to pitch some ideas for the Western Union campaign, and they both come up with nothing. Well, Peggy comes up with nothing and Paul comes up with something, but gets so drunk in his office that he forgets it. His tale sets Peggy thinking and she sets this perfect trap in Don's office.
The only reason she would tell Don that Paul had a great idea he forgot was so that she could then go into an explanation of a telegram being forever while a phone call—like Paul's brilliant idea—evaporates. She has stolen Paul's non idea and used it to please the boss. This isn't the first time this happened either. Earlier, when presenting an Aquanet commercial to Don, Paul's idea gets shot down. Peggy tweaks it a bit, and Don is thrilled. She does the same thing here a second time. The prolonged scowl that Paul shoots Peggy's way is enough to let us know how he feels.
They also view their relationships with Don in a different way. Paul seems Peggy as being the favorite who always discounts him in front of Don. Peggy thinks that Don hates her and that Paul is the one with all the good ideas. This whole ordeal made us realize that Peggy is more of an astute innovator than a great creator. Like those old commercials, she doesn't make the things Don loves, she makes the things that Don loves better.
Oh, and speaking of differences of opinion, Peggy must have really liked that brown dress with all the bows up the front. We strongly disagree. When is Joan coming back with some fashion advice?