“But it’s got to get
better. It’s supposed to get better” – Don
I wasn’t alive then, but based on everything we’ve ever
heard about the late 60’s/early 70s, the amount of uncertainity for the future
at this point in history was overwhelming. Possibly mankind’s greatest
achievement occurred when Neil Armstrong walked on the moon, but it was also an
era when the Manson Family and the Zodiac Killer terrorized the West Coast, an
unpopular war raged on in Vietnam and in just two years from the current era of
the latest “Mad Men” episodes, a group of men would walk into the Watergate
Hotel and spark doubts about our nation’s most powerful leaders.
In the world of Sterling Cooper & Partners, Don and many
of his co-workers have gotten seemingly everything they could want. Ever since
they cast off on their own at the end of the third season, the goal of the
agency was to find a way to stay afloat, especially after Lucky Strike left,
but now they are merged with a powerful parent agency and immensely wealthy, so
what is left to anticipate for the future?
That question of what is left once you have everything you
need seems to be dominant thematic question of these final episodes and “The Forecast” digs deep into what lies ahead
for these characters and what they hope for themselves. When Roger assigns Don
the task of preparing a speech for him to deliver to executives at a McCann
Erickson retreat in the Bahamas, it evolves into an opportunity for him to
examine what he foresees over the company’s future but Don takes it as an
opportunity to examine what he sees for himself.
When he’s unable to pull anything together, even resorting
to digging up the original SCDP mission statement from seven years earlier for
inspiration, he talks to Ted and Peggy, whose ambitions are tied to advertising.
Peggy has clear and well-thought out ambitions for her future, but her
work-related goals don’t do anything to help Don relieve his own personal
malaise.
We know from past seasons, that Don is more than just
cruising by on his looks, but when Mathis lashes out after insulting a client
by accusing him of basically
being an empty suit, it sticks with Don, who has pondered in the past
whether he’s responsible for anything of lasting value. And it’s clearly in the
back of his mind when he tells Sally at the end of the episode, “You’re a very
beautiful girl. It’s up to you to be more than that.”
Meanwhile Joan is left trying to reconcile the dreams she’s
had for her life throughout the series’ duration with the realities of her
current situation. She embarks on a whirlwind romance with a charming older man
(sounds familiar) and the spontaneity of it appeals to the woman who could have
any man she wanted with no strings attached when we meet her in the first
season. She also, like Don, now has incredible wealth, but she doesn’t have the
freedom she once possessed now that she has a four-year old son to take care
of.
When she storms out of her apartment telling the baby sitter
that she’s ruining her life, there’s a part of her that is probably really
saying it to Kevin. And though she’s obviously being sarcastic when she tells
Richard she’ll choose him over her son, Joan would also like a find a way to successfully
balance a personal life with being a working mom.
Out in Rye, Sally makes her first appearance of the final
season’s back half and with that we get a final curtain call for everyone’s favorite
bathroom snooper, Glen Bishop. In each of his annual appearances the last few
seasons, Glen has served as a sort of older brother figure for Sally,
commiserating and guiding her through the problems she experiences at home.
Just like most of the people in her life though, he lets her down not only with
his news about enlisting in the army, but also the mutual “Graduate”-style
flirtation between himself and Betty.
While Sally later on tries to make amends with Glen, she’s
less understanding about her mother’s impulse to put on the charm and even less
so when her father inadvertently gives off the same vibe during a dinner with
her school friends. “Anyone pays attention to either of you, and they always
do, and you just ooze everywhere,” Sally bemoans.
While Don isn’t in anyway trying to flirt with Sally’s
friend, Betty and Glen’s relationship has been strange and borderline perverse dating
back to him walking in on her sitting on a toilet while she was babysitting him
in the first season, but their strange bond makes a little bit more sense when
you factor in that Betty is emotionally pretty much an overgrown child
throughout the series’ first few years.
Their scene in the kitchen late in the episode is extremely
uncomfortable to watch, but ultimately shows that Betty has matured. Glen’s
about to report for duty and wants to leave with a good memory of this woman
he’s fantasized about for the last 10 years, but Betty has the good sense to
not follow through on her own slight attraction to her daughter’s now
fully-grown friend. Ultimately she ends up feeling sympathy for the boy she
once barred Sally from seeing.
Some other notes:
·
I had assumed Lou Avery was long gone after the
events of last year’s midseason finale, but he also has a contract with the
agency, so it appears Roger solved the problem by exiling the
wannabe-cartoonist to the Los Angeles office. Still no appearance from last year’s other
villain, Jim Cutler, and I doubt that will change. He likely took the payout
from the merger with McCann Erickson and crawled out of the Time-Life Building
with his tail between his legs.
·
Following Marie Calvet’s furniture heist last
week, Don’s living room now consists of the furniture from his patio, reminding
me of a similarly sparse living arrangement.
·
Lots of pop culture references in this episode: Joan’s
son is seen watching “Sesame Street”, which had recently premiered in late
1969, while Bobby and his apparently mute brother Gene want to watch “The Brady
Bunch”, which was also just debuting. In addition Betty refers to Sally as Jane
Fonda, referencing the actress’ well-known anti-war stance while Sally reacts
to Glen’s news about enlisting in the army by citing the Kent State shootings,
which had occurred in May 1970. Finally, the credits tune was Roberta Flack’s “The
First Time Ever I Saw Your Face,” one of the most popular songs of the era.
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