Grid Effect

You know, I really didn’t think this was the type of series to manipulate its audience with monumental cliffhangers in between seasons, but that is essentially what they did. And, usually I would resent it. But said cliffhangers have been building all season, and if I were to say I wasn’t curious about what direction they were taking, well the dishonesty would be transparent, even through your monitor.

Obviously, Peggy’s baby was the cheapest thing this series has ever done. Last Friday I wrote that I assumed her non-pregnancy a bit prematurely, it appears that was wishful thinking. This series is as much of an atmospheric as anything ever on television, but they showed Peggy going for birth control in the pilot, between that and not even mentioning pregnancy as a possibility, I just assumed her weight gain was either a subconscious decision to be recognized as an equal amongst the men in the office (as opposed to a potential wife), or her over-eating was a crutch for being rejected by Pete.

But no, she was pregnant and didn’t even realize it. For nine months. Obviously I don’t have any experience, and the series is set in 1960, but even in 1960, could a woman be that unaware? I guess she was so consumed with work that it slipped by? I don’t know. Either way, it makes for an exciting second season, Mathew Weiner has said he wanted to make the series run through the 60’s, it will be interesting to see how this effects her integration at Sterling Cooper. According to my mother, it won’t be advantageous.

Pete has probably had the worst two hours of any fictional television character in the history of television that didn’t die. For the most part, it’s deserved. But at this rate, even if he agrees to father Peggy’s child, which we all know he won’t, two years after the fact he’ll discover its not actually his, and that an immaculate conception is responsible for Peggy’s pregnancy.

We’re going to miss those opening credits.

Don teaming Peggy up with Pete for a Clearasil ad campaign is about the least Pete had coming his way from Don, what with attempting to ruin his life and all. If anything he should be thankful he still has a job. Plus, I don’t understand why he’s so bent out of shape about it, he’s still overseeing the project, its not like he has to take orders from her, something Pete just might shoot up the office with that shotgun over. You know you’re in an era of white male privilege when you can sleep with another woman while married, and then feel justified in complaining when the woman you had the tryst with now has to work directly under you.

This episode really focused on its core characters, and Betty was no exception. Really, this is the first episode she’s been in focus since, “Shoot”, where she rejoined the private sector as part of one agency’s courtship of her husband. Her revenge tactic was about the best she could do, take advantage of Don’s misdeeds by throwing them back in his face. Also, what a fantastic twist, one would just assume he would get in touch with Midge by surfing through his wallet, and it ends up being her psychiatrist, who actually took notes for the first time in one of her sessions when she starts spilling guts about his infidelities and whatnot.

This, in yet another cliffhanger, makes for an interesting second season, because Don has no idea that Betty is aware of his collusion with her psychiatrist. For all he knows, and for all we know, for that matter, is that Betty just left for her parents house a little earlier than expected. That’s probably what I would assume, if Betty was going to abandon him, she would have been more confrontational about it. Not pussyfoot around and deliver the message through her shrink. Then again, maybe she would.

Betty finding solace with Glen, the disturbed young man being raised by recently divorced new neighbor Helen, is about the last thing we were expecting, but appropriate, because it would seem that since her mother died, she’s been keeping to herself. Even her therapy was a sham, because she was reluctant to confide in a total stranger. Needless to say, if she did end up leaving Don it wouldn’t be terribly surprising, but given the submissiveness of her character I’d imagine she’d be around. Though a divorce/separation would probably suit both of them well, despite what Don or Betty may tell themselves.

And last but not least, the pitch meeting Don had where he delves into the metaphorical significance of the slide projector being a “time machine” as opposed to a “spaceship” was a great moment of self-reflection for someone whose been almost completely devoid of any altogether. I’m sure his devastation by his brother’s suicide has something to do with that. He is, as we saw last week and in the episode, “5G”, at least partly responsible.

As of now, he’s kind of in the same boat as Betty, with Rachel on a three month cruise and after parting ways with Midge, he has plenty of people he could confine to, but chooses otherwise. And the image of him sitting in his castle, devastated and alone, is a bleak but inevitable conclusion.

This was a fantastic, groundbreaking, television experience AMC has footed the bill for (according to reports it costs $2.4 million an episode to produce, which is an astronomical figure for a cable series), and the fact it’s been renewed really restores my faith in the industry. At least for the cable networks. With Friday Night Lights tanking by the episode, The Office overextending itself and nary a single likable castaway on Survivor, its not an impossibility that we eventually only cover cable series.