"This is America; pick a job and become the person who does it."-- Bobbie Barrett (Melinda McGraw)
Spoilers. The first truly excellent episode of Mad Men this season, because it focused on one of the most interesting relationships within the show: lady-killer Don (John Hamm) and timid Peggy (Elisabeth Moss). Casanova Don is back to his old ways, having received the '60s version of a "booty call" from Bobbie Barrett (Melinda McGraw), all on her lonesome in a city bar. After a swift drink (amusingly interrupted by Don's previous mistress, the now-married Rachel Menken (Maggie Siff)), Bobbie suggests a seaside romp that finds Don driving to them to coast in the middle of the night... only for them both to be involved in a car accident...
Arrested by the police, Don's forced to ask for Peggy's help given the circumstances, and his employee arrives to post his bail, drive them both home, and look after the convalescing Bobbie at her apartment, while he goes back to work. What follows was a wonderful study of these characters: Peggy clearly knows Don was cheating on his wife, but is only worried about how he'll treat her at work; Don's trust in Peggy is later explained, when a flashback reveals he knows Peggy gave birth to an unwanted child (so now they're quits in the secrecy stakes); and straight-talking Bobbie comes to appreciate and respect Peggy's kindness and work ethic, seeing some of her own ambition reflected in this meek copywriter. She even gives her invaluable advice -- treat men as equals, but don't lose your femininity while you do it. This leads to one of the show's typically underplayed but glorious moments, when Peggy asks for Don to repay her his bail money, ending their conversation with a pointed "thank you, Don" -- instead of her usual, acquiescent "Mr. Draper".It's also fun to consider the type of woman Don seems to go for: aspiring, successful, confident and progressive women. The kind of people who will fight for women's liberties and lead to the sexual revolution. The exact opposite of his homebody wife Betty, basically, although she clearly has potential that's being strangled by her family commitments.
Peggy is someone who straddles both worlds, although it’s already come at a terrible emotional cost -- even if she's doing a good job putting it out of her mind, acting on Don's bedside assurance that "this never happened. It will shock you how much this never happened", clearly speaking as someone who’s entire identity is a façade. But what exactly is he suggesting Peggy lie about? The flashback to Peggy in hospital shows her sister Anita was also heavily pregnant, perhaps meaning the baby the Olsen's are bringing up is Peggy's niece. So did she give her own child up for adoption? That seems more likely now. I suppose it's possible the child died, but that's too much of a narrative dead-end, surely. We need to see Pete (Vincent Karthesier) discover he has a child.
Speak of the devil, Pete also gets more screen time at last, accompanying wife Trudy (Alison Brie) to a doctor's office to discuss their difficulty conceiving a child. Pete feels quite philosophical about the possibility he'll never have offspring (once Trudy's safely out of the room), viewing the death of his father as an omen that he'll be the last of his particular branch of the Campbell family tree. Test results later confirm that it's Trudy who's infertile (as we've known for awhile, seeing as Pete fathered Peggy's child) and he's typically brusque about the fact it's been her fault all along.
The title nominally refers to the arrival of a sexy new receptionist called Jane Siegel (Peyton List), who puts on a show for the men in the office, much to Joan's (Christina Hendricks) disdain. An accomplished tease herself, she can't help but scoff at Jane's unsubtle flirting. Joan herself is blissfully happy that she's now engaged to her boyfriend, who we haven't really seen much of, and Roger (John Slattery) is clearly jealous someone's made an honest woman of her -- even if she claims that marriage is no barrier to having fun, as he's proven.Overall, "The New Girl" was interesting and fairly average until the car crash, then suddenly began to twist into some fascinating areas and character-led situations. The joy of this show is the combination of perfect performance and razor-sharp writing, and this episode was a real masterclass. Funny, too; a clever transition from Pete taking a sexy magazine to help him give a sperm sample shifts to Roger furiously shaking a bat and ball; and a marvelous non sequitur when Ken's (Aaron Staton) attempt to chat-up Jane is interrupted by Fred Rumsen (Joel Murray) playing Mozart on his trouser zip.
10 March 2009
BBC Four, 10pm
Writer: Robin Veith
Director: Phil Abraham
Cast: Jon Hamm (Don), Elisabeth Moss (Peggy), Vincent Kartheiser (Pete), January Jones (Betty), Christina Hendricks (Joan), Bryan Batt (Salvatore), Michael J. X. Gladis (Paul), Aaron Staton (Ken), Rich Sommer (Harry), John Slattery (Roger), Joel Murray (Fred Rumsen), Alison Brie (Trudy Campbell), John Getz (Dr. Eric Stone), Nick Toren (Tilden Katz), Jack Impellizzeri (Officer Hahn), Peyton List (Jane Siegel), Maggie Siff (Rachel Menken), Myra Turley (Katherine Olson), Audrey Wasilewski (Anita Olson Respola), Melinda McGraw (Bobbie Barrett), Patrick Fischler (Jimmy Barrett) & Donald Sage MacKay (Dr. Gosman)
