Grid Effect

We mentioned on Friday that Mad Men last Sunday, along with the Entourage episode on the same night seemed a little off-beat to what we are accustom too from both series. The difference being the Entourage episode was the television equivalent of a puppy being stomped to death, while Mad Men managed to uphold the series’ integriy and simply continue their current story arc with a relatively irregular style.

But there were a lot of firsts for this episode. The first time we’ve been out of Sterling Cooper for that long, the first time the story has shifted so sharply in the middle of it (from Betty and Don at visiting her Dad to Betty and Glen at her home), the first time Don Draper has been off camera for that long (from leaving Betty’s to the shot of him on the smoke-filled plane) and the first time we’ve seen Pete Campbell lash out as his ungodly parents.

From when we first saw them in New Amsterdam, I never got the impression that his mother was such a burden on his obviously troubled soul, and I kind of suspect that the mom being the overbearing parent is strictly in lieu of having the actor who played his father, the substituted him for the mother so as not to be forced to rewrite one of the major plotlines.

But this was a sufficient B-story for this episode so were not going to complain. We’ve waited awhile for more Pete Campbell and this episode, as abnormal as it was, finally delivered. It’s a shame that through some ironic twist of fate, the two people he tries to communicate with in the office are easily the two most isolated (Don and Peggy). As despicable as he can be, we’ll have a hard time despising him like 90% of the audience who watches this show. At least until he does something like get Freddy Rumson fired. Then again, it seemed everyone learned about that long before he told Roger Sterling (as evidenced by his walk of shame out of the office).

If she is going to look like this, we would probably confide to her as well.

Now to the meat of the episode. So, they do not seem to have any intention of getting Betty and Don back together, thus he is usurping Paul and all his pompousness out of his trip to LA. As is the case with everything now, Betty now stands up for herself, and doesn’t let Don’s misassumptions dictate her life. Obviously we can understand why Don would be confused, but his crestfallen face when she kicked him back out of the house pretty much indicates that if they are going to get back together, it will not be at Don’s insistence.

Keeping them separated is counter-intuitive to Mathew Weiner’s claim that this season would revolve around the theme that people seldom change (a standard Sopranos subtextual element), so we’re not entirely convinced that they will stay separated, even with Don on the coast for the next episode. But you will notice that while Betty did sleep with Don, she didn’t invite him back into the bed and she didn’t wait for him to wake up the following morning.

Betty’s parental issues aren’t quite as severe as Don’s. She isn’t completely dysfunctional socially even if her behavior is often akin to that of a child (see her “yeah” response to Glen saying that his mom “doesn’t understand”), but she hasn’t been so effected by her overly-protective parents that she is incapable of reform. The death of her mother shortly before the first season, and the pending death of her mentally-ill father will only expedite her  growth. whereas Pete will always be burdened by the memory of his mother and father, and will constantly strive to look for a surrogate replacement for both (and will probably find one in Trudy, as creepy as it may be).

This was all evident in the short-term at least with Glen. She begins by sitting there eating sandwiches and watching cartoons with him in a very Mary Kay Letourneau type fashion, eating sandwiches with him, kvetching about her parents and the full nine. It isn’t until he offers to rescue her and suggests they run away together that she finally snaps out of it, sends him off to play with age-appropriate friends in Sally and Bobby, then calls his mess of a mother.

Coming into this episode we weren’t sure which was the more tragic storyline of this series. Betty, Joan and Sal were in almost a dead heap for whose internal suffering is more palpable. As of now we’d rank it Sal, Betty, Joan; but if Betty turns out to be a lesbian she will take it in a landslide.

Other notes from “The Inheritance”:

-Following up last week’s scene with Freddy, Don & Roger commencing their night of debauchery, we get one similarly poetic between Joan, Don & Roger this episode when Roger bursts in railing like neither of them should have any issue with him at all. Then exits just as clueless as when he entered. And that was all the continuation we got from last week’s announcement that he was leaving his wife for Jane. Shit, we’re still waiting to hear who that woman was that showed up at Don’s car dealership in 1952.

-Joan at least got to inform Paul in front of all his cohorts that he wasn’t going to be heading west, which seemed unnecessarily bitchy, but she has to take it out on someone. And at that specific moment there wasn’t anyone else to be on the receiving end of her anger.

-At least Paul managed to spin it into a positive and win the approval of the girlfriend he is always parading around to demonstrate how progressive he is.

-The issue with Pete, and why it is so hard to want to see anything good happen to him, is because of the visible glee he took in informing his elderly mother how much her late husband betrayed her and their trust. That is in addition to the weird kinship he has with his brother laughing about how insane his parents are. Still, she probably deserves it.

Strong effort as always from everyone involved. We are interested to see how they build on the different formatting or if it was a one-shot deal. If this becomes par for the course (less Don, less time in the office, etc.) we wouldn’t necessarily complain. I’m am prepared for anything when it comes to Mad Men. A good chunk of the episode will be set in LA so they won’t have to hide the fact that that is where they regularly shoot from, that is about all we can tell you to expect tomorrow.

Back Monday with more shit.