Mad Men's writing is so snappy, and the people are portrayed so perfectly. Pete is really the secret weapon; I'm reminded of the "evil surgeon" on ER who eventually took a beating (and then some) for his "tell it like it is" big mouth. Sometimes the best actor -- or at least the sharpest character -- is the villain.
Things are gelling all around, and of course the "knowing winks" that travel through time (like that recent crack about Romney, actually Mitt's father in the mid-'60s) to give us something to smirk about are enlivening. The baby juggling earlier in the season, making Pete and Peggy squirm so cruelly, was genius.
But I think like everyone, I'm still looking for more Don, specifically more of this unfortunate youth he spent growing up in a whorehouse and, more important to the show's arc, the transformation of this country bumpkin into man of the world and master of the universe. Did he read the encyclopedia while he was selling furs? Take some business classes at least? There was no google button to learn everything from back then. Ultimately, how did he get so educated, effective (if he really is) and cocky?
"You told me your mother died in childbirth. Mine did too. She was a prostitute. I don’t know what my father paid her but when she died they brought me to him and his wife. And when I was ten years old he died. He was a drunk who got kicked in the face by a horse she buried him and took up with some other man I was raised by those two sorry people." (Don Draper, to Rachel Menken)It's pretty hard to will yourself to the top. That kind of "inner game" doesn't come like flicking on a light. It's more like the sun gradually rising, and it cycles to some extent as your confidence ebbs and flows through life, unless you find a way to artificially hold it up. Mercurial Don makes being the kind of guy who walks in like he owns the place look as easy as glib Roger does wining and dining clients and acting charming in spite of himself, although we know they're both unhappy and faking it.
The brief discourse on being gay was notable. Pete's bluntness talking to Lane ("... he thinks you're a homo"), contrasted with the madame's supposed smooth operating with Don, marked an obvious character divide: Lane knows he's effete-acting and probably has been needled as a queer plenty; Don's knowledge that he's anything but -- of course ;) -- gives him supreme confidence to dismiss such a misguided appellation.
Anyway it's amazing fun to watch the lot of their stories unspool. Here's hoping the brimming subtext finds eventual dramatic explication. The man with the miniature orchestra ... what a clever way to wrap things.
Culture critic mode, disengage.
P.S. Much as I enjoyed this latest episode, the previous one -- I wound up watching them out of order -- where a tipsy Peggy bantered with Roger was equally genius. She seems to get some of the most prickly dramedy-type moments in the show. Clever indeed how she's the one wearing the pants, despite literally kicking up her heels in a skirt, as he begs her to do her job in a rush to cover his own ass, and she fleeces the rube. Despite the creepy sex-murder-mayhem undertone via Chicago, it was a joy to watch the character's fine bristle brush strokes.
