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Mad Men 2x1 "Flight 1" Spoilers of course

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Dorian Thompson

Admiral
Admiral
Meow, meow Paul. That was pretty vicious posting Joan's age on the bulletin board wall. Also pretty sad, that being above 30 and unmarried would have been considered such a humiliation. Joan was right. She was bitchy to Sheila, but Paul was being a poseur, dating her for hipster cred. Look at me....I'm dating a black chick.....aren't I the coolest, man?

The second season continues to amaze with it's array of complex characters and their moments. I'm always blown away by how Vincent Kartheiser infuses Pete with vulnerability; Kartheiser makes it impossible to completely hate Pete Campbell. I've always considered him the best actor of the bunch on this show. Pete was genuinely dumbfounded how to deal with, or even identity his grief as what it was since his father didn't respect him. That he went to Don to ask what to do spoke volumes. Does Pete have anyone with whom he's close? How unfortunate that Don blew him off the second time. Like Don said though, "there's life and there's work." I got the feeling that Pete wanted to tell Don about Duck's sleazy offer to capitalize on the elder Campbell's death to get American Airlines on board--then Pete went through with it when Don blew him off.

Yowza, has Betty ever got Don by the balls. Not that he doesn't deserve some smack down for his mulitiple philandering, but something's gotta give there eventually. I know what little boys do, indeed. Passive aggression taken to the extreme. Methinks little Sally will have issues with mommy before the end of this series' run. Sally Draper is a hippie commune dweller waiting to happen.

Oy, Peggy. Is that situation untenable or what? It's not as if she can take the baby back even if she wanted him. What's she going to do? Be a single mother in 1962 before the sexual revolution? That'll do wonders for her career at Sterling Cooper, being named co-respondent in Pete's divorce trial. By the way, the married Mr. Campbell knocked me up. You'll fire him and not me, right? :p Think again.
 
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This was more interesting than the premiere. Watching Pete Campbell ascend to new heights of weirdness is strangely compelling. Kartheiser has a tough challenge, playing a character whose emotions are so buried that he himself is unaware of just what they are. His whole life is built on one facade over another. I have a feeling he's headed for a truly epic blow-up. Probably will end up in Golden Gate Park doing shrooms with Ken Kesey. :p
 
Of that I have no doubt. End of 60s Pete may well be quite different from early 60s Pete. One thing's for sure, Pete will survive in the ad world and Don will become a dinosaur.

Don had better figure out why Betty's so angry with him, and not without reason. That line of hers from the preview--is this one where I talk or where I don't talk?--indicates that she's fully aware of her trophy wife status. The only problem is that she didn't go into the marriage thinking she was a trophy wife. Don spent all last season calling her a child, then treating her like one by getting regular calls from her psychiatrist who reported everything she said during their sessions. She knows he's been unfaithful numerous times, yet he blew up at her when the drunken Roger made a pass at her in Don's own kitchen. Don never really talks with Betty. Of course she's angry and seething. I wanted to hit him with a shovel myself when he came home to her having fixed him a pot roast and he sneered, "You do know it's just me." Don's always been condescending or contemptuous of her. He still doesn't really want her. He wants the lifestyle because an executive is supposed to be married. Betty is a vicious ex-wife waiting to happen, and who can blame her?
 
I have a funny feeling the cause of the crash will turn out to be negligence on American's part, and Pete will find out.

You'd think worrying about that possibility would be a good reason for American not to hire Pete onto the advertising team. How can they possibly know what the investigation is going to find?
 
I thought of that, too, Temis. I found the whole bit with them ordering Don to give Mohawk the boot when American wasn't definitely on board (and with Pete's connection to the tragedy) most unwise in a business sense. What if American bolts or decides on someone else at the last minute? Then you've lost Mohawk's business and you have a black mark on your name with potential new clients.

Of course, people were far less litigious then. They didn't sue left and right, and they certainly didn't sue big corporations. Perhaps both companies are assuming Pete can be bought off if any fault comes to light. :confused: What made me feel dumb was that I assumed this crash was a fictional event. Apparently, American Airlines flight 1 really did crash on March 1, 1962.
 
I looked it up. Both online sources say it was improper maitenance which led to wire damage that caused rudder failure. The plane just nosedived into Jamaica Bay on the day Glenn had his ticker tape parade. So it was American's fault. I wonder if we'll hear about this again or if the writers won't deal with it. Damn, the airline is lucky the plane didn't nosedive right into the middle of downtown Manhattan killing God knows how many other people on the ground.
 
Ah HAH! They are definitely headed there - Pete will learn about the maintenance issue and American will want it covered up.
 
Temis the Vorta said:
You'd think worrying about that possibility would be a good reason for American not to hire Pete onto the advertising team. How can they possibly know what the investigation is going to find?
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It seems reasonable to me that Duck was so hungry to land the deal that he just saw the Pete connection as an in (BTW, loved the performance by good old Vaughn Armstrong as Duck's friend/contact at American).

I was fascinated by Roger's hardass attitude towards the crash ("Jets are made for dropping bombs on Moscow", "I'd like ticker tape for pulling out of my driveway and going around the block three times, it's not like people were shooting at him."); it makes me want to know more about his WWII experiences, and how far they went into making him the bastard he is.
 
I'd like to see Roger's reaction to the British invasion in '64 and all the young girls going nuts over those limey guys with the long hair. :guffaw: Methinks Roger's ego won't tolerate that well. Roger lords his service in the military over everyone but is a sleaze in every other area of his life. I wonder what makes him so bitter, yet oozing a sense of entitlement at the same time. Was it trauma in the military? Was it that everyone assumed he was a worthless daddy's boy because his father's name is on the building and Bertram still calls him "peanut"? Forever trying to be the "big man"? Ironic since that's exactly what Roger castigates Pete Campbell for. Take away his military service and Roger is Pete, only without that soul that's buried deep, deep, deep inside of Pete that occasionally peeks out just a tiny little bit.

Re: Betty and the tow truck driver

Was Betty trying to get raped?
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It's like she wants to take chances. It's her way of chafing against the rigid, defined social role designated for her. Potentially very self destructive behavior. Betty's trying to exert power by having influence over men, to prove she's still attractive and can have a sexual influence over them. It's her only form of power. Betty's an angry person. She's turned 30. That has to be traumatic for a woman raised to believe her looks were her only sense of worth. Witness how embarrassed Joan was to be "outed" as being 31 years old and unmarried. Pretty sad.
 
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Dorian Thompson said:
Re: Betty and the tow truck driver

Was Betty trying to get raped?
Click to expand...

It's like she wants to take chances. It's her way of chafing against the rigid, defined social role designated for her. Potentially very self destructive behavior. Betty's trying to exert power by having influence over men, to prove she's still attractive and can have a sexual influence over them. It's her only form of power. Betty's an angry person. She's turned 30. That has to be traumatic for a woman raised to believe her looks were her only sense of worth. Witness how embarrassed Joan was to be "outed" as being 31 years old and unmarried. Pretty sad.
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Don was strangely unable to "perform" when he was in bed with Betty. How much of a factor was that?
 
In my opinion it probably exacerbated the problem with Betty, yes. She didn't know about the blood pressure meds, but (subconciously at least) it has to piss her off to all hell that Don didn't respond to her physically. There she was being assertive, putting on her black lingerie like Don's "other women" probably did...and he can't get it up. She wants to have power over him since he was calling the shots for years, fooling around, calling her a child, going behind her back to talk to her psychiatrist, being a total asshole with her when Roger made a pass at her...but he doesn't respond to her. They just don't connect. On paper they're ideal spouses, but they're really all wrong for each other. Not that Betty hasn't done anything wrong, but she's been pretty powerless up until now and that makes a person angry, especially when society tells her that she shouldn't be angry, that she should look the other way because she has a rich husband who provides well. Society would judge her negatively as a divorcée. The Feminine Mystique was written for women exactly like Betty. She's a classic case.

EDIT: Also, I don't think the blood pressure meds were entirely responsible for Don's limp state that evening. Don strikes me as a man with a classic madonna/whore complex. Betty is supposed to be the "good" woman, the mother of his children. He complains about her being childlike, but when she tries to step out of that role and is too sexually assertive with him, he's not aroused. He'd appreciate that behavior from Midge, his bohemian girlfriend, but not from the mother of his children. Don's birth mother was a prostitute, so the mother of his children must be "good," but good doesn't interest him all that much sexually.
 
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