That’s not a
coincidence. That’s a sign – Ken
Of what? – Don
The life not lived – Ken
She lived the life
she wanted to live. She had everything – Barbara Menken
We’ve known since the first season of “Mad Men” that Don
Draper is not the man he says he is but in fact an imposter living another
person’s life. This duplicity has resulted in Don never feeling truly
comfortable or satisfied with any of the parts of his life – whether it’s work,
his marriages or his family.
In most instances Don is able to lie to himself and fully
inhabit his created identity with no outward remorse, but throughout “Severance”, the first of the
series’ final seven episodes, Don is confronted with the possibility of truly
finding happiness.
As the episode opens, Don is perhaps the most confident and
carefree we’ve seen him in a long time. The opening scene is an amusing
reversal as Don gives a beautiful woman instruction as she stands before a
mirror in a chinchilla coat. It’s played as one of Don’s many seductions, but
it is actually a casting call for Sterling Cooper & Partners.
This is no longer the cowed Don, shamed by his past
mistakes and writing tags for Peggy like last season. The purchase by McCann
Erickson outlined by Roger Sterling at the end of last year’s episodes has gone
through and Don and the rest of the partners seem to have everything they
wanted. Jim Cutler and Lou Avery are nowhere in sight (Don is even back in his
corner office) and Don is so relaxed that he’s willing to comfortably tell
anecdotes about his childhood as Dick Whitman while sitting in a diner with
Roger and a trio of models.
As he mentions to one of his later conquests, Don is soon
to be divorced again and he’s happily living the life of a middle-aged
bachelor. His untroubled demeanor is shaken though when he has a dream about Rachel
Menken, a department store heiress and Don’s mistress from way back in the
first season. He’s further unnerved when he finds out soon after the dream that
Rachel has recently passed away from leukemia.
Don has of course had many affairs over the course of the
show, but the one with Rachel was established as serious and one of the few
where he entertained the idea of abandoning his life and running off with her. Rachel’s
passing causes him to look back and perhaps wonder what might have been, but
after visiting her wake and speaking with her sister, who clearly knows all
about their illicit relationship, she assures him that Rachel led a very happy
and fulfilled life after her time with Don.
Don isn’t the only character seeking out fulfillment in
his life. Ken Cosgrove began the series as maybe the least troubled character
on the series, but working in advertising has beaten him down both mentally and
physically, as it appears his that his eye is permanently damaged from his
hunting accident with the Chevy lunatics in the sixth season.
His wife would love for him to quit and focus on his
writing career, so it seems an amazing coincidence when the next day he’s fired
basically because McCann Erickson is still upset Ken badmouthed them after he
was stuck working for them when the rest of Sterling Cooper jumped ship in the
third season.
Ken tells Don he believes the chain of events was more
than coincidence and we think maybe he’s going to finally pursue his passion,
but it’s something of a surprise when he informs Roger and Pete that he’s using
his connection to his father-in law to move on as the head of advertising at
Dow Chemical, one of Sterling Cooper & Partner’s accounts. It’s an amusing
maneuver, but also kind of sad in that it is vengeful in a way you wouldn’t expect from the Ken we saw
earlier in the series. If nothing else, hopefully it ensures that we haven't seen the last of him on the show.
Joan, like the rest of the partners, is now extremely
wealthy but as we see in her and Peggy’s cringe-inducing meeting with some sexist
McCann Erickson flunkies, any power she has attained is negated by the fact
that she is still a woman in the workplace in 1969. Even as she’s facing an
uphill climb though, it’s clear from her later scene shopping at the department
store she used to work at that she is not willing to go back to accepting a
lesser role.
Peggy continues to excel professionally, but her personal
life going back to last season is a mess, so much so that she has nothing to
lose by going on a date with underling Mathis’ brother-in law. The date starts
off awkward, but as they both get increasingly intoxicated, the two seem to
click. It’ll be interesting to see if it’s a relationship that is further
explored or if Peggy will write it off as a drunken one-off.
Like most season premieres (and even though it’s supposed
to be the eighth episode of season seven, this definitely feels like a season
premiere) “Severance” is a table-setting episode, but it does an effective job
of setting in motion what we can expect to see from the final six installments.
Some other notes:
·
Holy mustaches Batman. The one Ted Chaough is
sporting is pretty awful, but it’s nothing compared the monstrosity Roger is
now displaying. I’m sure it’s era-appropriate, but hopefully there is time in
one of the final episodes for a character to tie Roger down and shave that
thing off his face.
·
Pete is still Pete. Even after attaining immense
wealth, all he can do is complain about how it’s simply causing him tax
problems. He also gets a great meta moment after Ken suggests he could write about
hs advertising career by retorting, “This world is boring.” Thankfully, Matthew
Weiner didn’t feel the same way.
·
It appears Lou Avery is gone for good and if
that’s true, I’m kind of bummed we didn’t get to see Don tell him to get the
hell out of his office.
·
Most of the series regulars are accounted for
here, but Betty, Sally and the rest of the Francis clan are no where to be
found this week. Looks like they will show up next week though based on the
previews.
·
The song used at the opening and close of the
episode was “Is That All There Is?” by Peggy Lee. As well as having been
released around the time of the episode, it’s a pretty effective summation of
the episode’s themes.
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