||SPOILERS|| A truly fascinating and eerie episode this week, as "The Jet Set" whisks us to the sun-kissed west coast of California, where Don (Jon Hamm) and Pete (Vincent Karthesier) have arrived to attend a presentation on MIRV missiles and nuclear warheads...It's here that Don meets the appropriately-named Joy (Laura Ramsey), a beautiful woman who takes a shine to Don after seeing him suited and alone at the hotel pool. She introduces him to her European friends, and eventually persuades him to join her at Palm Springs ("why would you deny yourself something you want?") -– leaving Pete in the lurch during a prearranged business lunch.
For Don, Joy proves to be a gateway into a faintly bizarre world, populated by self-confessed "nomads" with the wealth to indulge their bohemian attitude in paradisiacal mansion. He meets an elderly Viscount called Willy (Philippe Brenninkmeyer) who casually wanders in on Don and Joy after they've slept together, before Don realizes Willy is actually Joy's father! More than anything, Palm Springs allows Don to cast off his "Don Draper" identity (out goes the flannel grey suit, after a "reset" caused by fainting from heat exhaustion) and the real Dick Whitman is allowed to emerge. A final scene even had Don calling someone who knows him as Dick and arranging a get-together, so revitalizing was his experience. Is this the woman he sent poetry to in the premiere, or the one who recognized him as a second-hand car salesman? Or both.The transatlantic flavour feeds into the New York-set subplots, too. Duck (Mark Moses) angles for a promotion from Roger (John Slattery), but is essentially mocked for believing he's earned one. Frustrated, Duck meets with his former employees in a restaurant – two British ad men from London agency PPL – and asks for his old job back. When they refuse, he instead suggested they buy Sterling Cooper as part of a readymade US division. Later, he meets with Roger and Cooper (Robert Morse) about a possible merger with the London-based group, which would be financially beneficial to their business, but also give his career the boost he thinks he deserves as the facilitator. It was also worth noting that Duck's maneuvering may not gotten so far if Don had been around, but "The Jet Set" was all about Don taking his eye off the ball...
Elsewhere, newbie foreigner Kurt (Edin Gali) told the junior execs of Sterling Cooper that he was homosexual, in a nonchalant way that stunned his colleagues. How distasteful was it to hear Harry (Rich Sommer) call Kurt a "pervert", to be reminded how far we've come since the '60s? Also worth noting closeted gay Salvatore's (Bryan Batt) muted response, who probably envies Kurt's bravery, but gets an earful of the private condemnation after Kurt leaves, which will likely increase his resolve to deny his own sexuality. Even Peggy, who has arranged a "date" with Kurt to a Bob Dylan concert, seemed a little taken aback by the revelation –- although Kurt proves to be another instrument of her piecemeal transformation, later giving her a sexy new hairstyle to replace her girlish curls.In a largely unconnected few scenes, we also get some insight into Roger's affair with secretary Jane (Peyton List), whom he asks to marry him. It's all very, very wrong and Roger's surely misguided that his wife won't get a bean after their divorce -- something Duck certainly doesn't believe, but knows will strengthen his position when masterminding the possible PPL merger.
Overall, this wasn't exactly a change of pace (Mad Men's always beautifully restrained and ambling), but the location shift worked well and Don's scenes at the Monteforte mansion were wonderfully off-kilter, while Duck's suddenly launched himself into a very interesting direction. Might season 3 involve the takeover of Sterling Cooper and the ascension of Duck, as Don slowly begins to lose his grip on his career and identity? Just how far will Peggy inch her way up the corporate ladder? Will Sal ever be confident enough to come out to his colleagues? Will he perhaps seek guidance and assurance from Kurt sometime soon?
21 April 2009
BBC Four, 10pm
Writer: Matthew Weiner
Director: Phil Abraham
Cast: Jon Hamm (Don), Elisabeth Moss (Peggy), Vincent Karthesier (Pete), Bryan Batt (Salvatore), John Slattery (Roger), Aaron Staton (Ken), Robert Morse (Cooper), Mark Moses (Duck), Laura Ramsey (Joy), Philippe Brenninkmeyer (Willy), Justine Eyre (Rocci), Bjorn Johnson (Klaus), Peyton List (Jane Siegel), Charles Shaughnessy (Saint John Powell), Alan Blumenfeld (George Rothman), Rudolf Martin (Christian), Kevin Christy (Stu Rogison), Emilio Roso (Carlos), Nina Franoszek (Greta), Patrick Cavanaugh (Smitty), Brandon Hayes (Alec Martin) & Edin Galijasevic (Kurt)
