By Jennifer Baldwin. Who are the rejected? The Sterling-Cooper-Draper-Pryce secretaries, crying in their focus group because they can’t find husbands? Peggy, who feels irrevocably rejected by Pete after finding out that he and Trudy are going to have a child? Pete’s father-in-law, whose Clearasil account is rejected for the more lucrative Ponds Cold Cream account? Allison, Don’s secretary, who has been rejected by Don after their one night stand a couple of episodes ago?
Perhaps “the rejected” is something else, something a little less concrete but nonetheless essential. According to Dr. Faye Miller: “It turns out the hypothesis was rejected.”
And what is that hypothesis? Basically, Don’s hypothesis is that women will use Ponds cold cream on their faces in order to pamper themselves and satisfy their own desires as part of a beauty ritual. But unfortunately for Don, that’s just not how the women in the focus group responded.
“I’d recommend a strategy that links Ponds cold cream to matrimony,” Dr. Faye continues. Turns out Freddy Rumsen was right after all: most women just want to get married and a cold cream campaign based around that will work.
The conversation between Don and Faye that follows may be the best summation of the culture wars to ever appear in a basic cable one-hour drama:
Don: “Hello 1925. I’m not going to do that. So, what are we going to tell the client?”
Faye: “I can’t change the truth.”
Don: “How do you know that’s the truth? A new idea is something they don’t know yet so of course it’s not going to come up as an option. Put my campaign on TV for a year then hold your group again and maybe it’ll show up.”
Faye: “I tried everything. I said ‘routine.’ I tried ‘ritual.’ All they care about is a husband. You were there, I’ll show you the transcripts.”
Don: “You can’t tell how people are going to behave based on how they have behaved.”
Don’s anger in this scene, of course, stems from his underlying guilt about what he has done to Allison.
But look closely at the conversation going on here: Faye is arguing that the truth is immutable, that these women want the traditional thing, but Don is arguing that people can change — if they are sold such change through advertising, media, and TV. And that, in a nutshell, is the culture war: The struggle to change human patterns of behavior through media and other channels. But the question remains: who is right, Don or Faye?
Other things of note this episode:
I loved that last look of angsty goodness between Peggy and Pete as she goes off with her new bohemian artist friends and Pete shakes hands with all the suits in the office. With news that Trudy is going to have a baby, it seems the Peggy/Pete relationship hopes are at last dashed. I loved that bittersweet look of regret between them at the end of the episode, but I can’t say I’m too broken up. I’ve always been Team Trudy.
Peggy continues her transformation into Don Jr. This time she’s hanging out with a bunch of hipster artists, just as Don did with girlfriend Midge and her friends in Season One, and just like Don, she doesn’t hesitate to deflate their bohemian posturing:
Hipster Artist: “Why would I ever do that [work in advertising]?”
Peggy: “So you could get paid [duh]. To practice your art.”
Peggy likes the hipsters, but she’s not about to throw off her professional ambitions any time soon.
Second episode in a row with no Betty. Can’t say I mind. Betty’s character was destroyed for me in Season Three.
And finally, I have to confess, I have no idea what that little scene with the elderly couple and the peaches was supposed to be about. Don certainly observed them with studied intensity, but for the life of me, I can’t figure out the point of it.
And even though she wasn’t the focus of the episode, here’s a picture of Joan. Because Christina Hendricks rocks:
Posted on August 18th, 2010 at 9:36am.
The scene at the end was interesting. I think it was about dependence. Recall that Don left his apt. keys in the office in a recent episode and had to call his secretary (whom he transformed into a sexitary) to bring them while he sat on the floor in suit and tie, outside in apt. In a sense, the old man in the neighboring apt. was Don fast forward into the future.
Don is in fact, very dependent on women…including the real Mrs. Draper who gave him…and continues to give him..love and support.
Anton, you rock! That theory fits perfectly with the scene at the end. Thank you. 🙂
Also, “sexitary”? I am now spitting pop all over my keyboard from laughing. Brilliant!
Even with all the media/pop culture’s attempts to reprogram women to not want love, marriage, traditional domesticity etc., the bottom line is women will always naturally want those things. Of course most women today want to find a way to balance being a wife and mother with having a career and being independent as well, but it’s unrealistic of an advertiser or anyone else to think that they can get women to drop wanting marriage just because they’re trying to sell them something. I think you’re right though, this probably is mostly a commentary on Don’s own guilt over how he treated Allison.
I think you’re right, Brightstar98, that human nature really doesn’t change.
BUT. What advertising and media can change is what we think we want. This is why the culture wars matter. New ideas can be introduced into society through media that are often in conflict with traditional wants and desires. And these new ideas and ways of thinking can take a strong hold.
Sometimes this can be a good thing. Sometimes certain traditional ways of thinking need to be changed or discarded because they aren’t good. But other times — when it comes to essential human nature things — traditional modes of thinking need to be maintained otherwise society gets all out of whack.
But yeah, Don is feeling pretty darn guilty about the thing with Allison — as well he should, that heel! I wonder if he’s going to try and write another apology letter or get in touch with her — or if he’s going to just pretend like it never happened as he’s done so many other times before.
Of course, my prediction is that by episode 7 he’ll be sleeping with Faye Miller. She seems like the Rachael Menken of this season.
Yes Jennifer….Don and Faye will be doing a tango of some sorts in future episodes. While it may not rival Tracy and Hepburn, it should be a nice joust nonetheless. Faye looks like she could use a good shagging, and Don needs someone who can hold her own with him. He also seems attracted to ice queens, so she is a good match. Also, secretaries are not high enough on the food chain for a man like Don…though I am missing the one that married Roger. She was an absolute hottie.
Regarding media influence….I believe that it is a temporary drug whose effect wears off as true human nature emerges. Moreover, I think the media has the greatest amount of influence around the edges and changes those things are merely superficial anyway.
I’m intrigued by the Don/Faye pairing. She certainly challenges Don and she’s a better ice queen than Betty, since Betty was too neurotic and mannequin-like, whereas Faye strikes me as having that Grace Kelly in Rear Window fire-under-the-ice thing going on.
But am I crazy or was Faye wearing a wedding ring in her first episode? Hmmm….
And yeah, Jane (Roger’s secretary-turned-wife), was quite a handful. Sneaking into Cooper’s office to see the Rothko; dragging Ken, Harry, and Sal into deviancy; and then manipulating Roger with the wiliest of feminine wiles to get her job back and eventually a marriage proposal — she was no mere secretary. That girl had chutzpa! She’s also probably the most “modern” looking of all the female cast members in terms of her beauty. Christina Hendricks is obviously a throwback to the 50s sexpot and January Jones is just classically beautiful. But Jane looks like she’d fit right in on a CW show like Gossip Girl.
I think you make a fine point about the media influencing “the edges.” But I also think these superficial, cosmetic changes can have a pretty damaging effect, even if they don’t fully pierce the heart of human nature. Even a temporary drug can leave scars.
And thank you for the wonderful comments, as always. Keep ’em coming! 😀