Mad Men Season 3 - Page 2

This episode was one big "WHAAAAAAAAT" from beginning to end. Don's real mom as a child prostitute, Pete Campbell doing his best Anakin Skywalker (although it's clear from the list of accounts that the Home Office favors Ken in a big way), Sal finally getting some and then getting caught by Don, only to be given a pass. Not to mention the complete shift Don does when he realizes the stewardess has snuck her pin into his bag and turns around and gives it to his daughter.

SO GOOD.

Dick Whitman grew up being told he was the son of a whore, and he probably heard that story more than a couple of times when his father and stepmother were tearing into him. It's not that he's realizing no one ever told him the night of his birth, it's that he'll never hear the story told like the way he tells it to Sally.

I think the fact that the jump between November of 1962 and (based on what I've read) April of 1963 means a lot of this stuff is still up in the air. Don and Betty may still be together because of the baby, but as Weiner's pointed out in that interview, if it werent' for that, the marriage probably would have been over. Don is still a bad guy in a lot of ways, and I do think it's interesting how he seems to be back to his pre-California self. (We also got another glimpse as to who Don Draper is as this was probably the most extensive foreplay scene we'd seen on the show, and it fit with what we know about Don's proclivities.) You couple that with the way the last season ended, and there are a lot of questions that remain. You wonder what Don and Betty really did talk about, and, even though it's clear Don was more important to the Brits than Duck, what they did to get him back. (I like how Don seems a little uncomfortable in his new role as the "face of the company.")

But I'm in Phil's boat -- I spent so much time freaking out over what was going down and was so happy it was back, I need to watch it again fo sho.

The idea that Draper has two birthdays is one thing that's sticking with me. It's been a while since I saw the first season but I seem to remember the actual Don Draper being a bit older. I wonder how old Don really is.

I mentioned this above and Alan Sepinwall talked about it in his blog on the show, too, but I do tend to lean towards the idea that the origin/story of Don's birth were something at were used against him as a "whorechild." But it seems, upon reflection, that the very stylized, theatrical, Steinbeckian opening sequence show that Don -- as others have said -- has taken that hurt and twisted it into something that makes his parents look bad and his mother look good. Don is taking the reality and selling himself a fantasy. Not to mention the mythological aspects of being almost literally left on a doorstep in the middle of the night...in a basket, no less.

I definitely think this is something we're going to return to over the course of the season, whether it's finding out the truth behind the fantasy* or having Don's perception of things catch up to him...I'm excited to find out.

As someone who enjoys talking about reactions to the show as much as the show itself, I really liked this blog from Newsweek about female reactions to the series and the character of Don Draper. I know a lot of people who share this opinion of Draper the character and Hamm the actor, and I also know a lot of women in their twenties who feel the same way about Elliot Stabler/Chris Meloni from SVU -- that he's a "man's man," the kind that isn't around anymore.

*As was pointed out in many commentaries/blogs, the whole London Fog thing is a great summary of the episode, and the show. London Fog is a "great name," but the reality behind it is that it was this dirty, disgusting thing. And you could very easily apply that to what we saw of Don's birth and see that there's probably a dirty truth behind it.