Mad Men

“The Grown Ups” (Season 3, Episode 12)

Pete’s hot coco, “It’s instant.” “I don’t know how you can tell.”
— The (fading) distinction between the real and the fake
“Sorry about that; this really is hitting the spot.”
— Pete and Cosgrove are engaged in the same futile rat race that Kimmel cites as a
characteristic of the white collar version of manhood in the 1950s/1960s. Their difference in
job titles is almost comically meaningless.

Margaret: coming of age, but with plenty of recriminations — most of which are targeted at
Roger and his new wife. Roger has failed as a father, and a husband.

Decline of patriarchy/authoritative masculinity: Roger (Jane), Pete (Trudy)

Pete to Trudy: “Stop it with the Ellery Queen.” – infantilization

Don is taking care of his and Betty’s newborn; he’s helping, and/but Betty takes over. Kurt
and Smitty are “a couple of homos.”

Minor traumas: Margaret, Pete (“I couldn’t even hear him”)

Harry is watching As the World Turns.

Pete: “Can you turn that off?”
Harry: “Not really.”

Pete: “What does it mean?”

Harry: “It’s not good.”
Pete: “I know it’s not good; there’s no future for me here.”
-- Occurs simultaneously with the interruption of As the World Turns, and the airing of a
special bulletin from CBS News about shots being fired in Dallas. Pete’s planned future —
and, by extension, one model of masculinity — is coming to an end.

Pete: “How did you do it? You made your job up.”
Harry: “I didn’t; I looked at other agencies and saw that they had TV departments and
wondered why we didn’t.”

Duck, Walter Cronkite; he unplugs the television to make sure he and his “nooner” aren’t
compromised. Afterwards, when Duck finds out that President Kennedy has died, he calls his
children; his responsibilities as a father come rushing back.

Don argues with Mr. Price about hiring a replacement art director for Salvator Romane, who
was asked to leave because Don found out about his homosexuality. The power play/transition
that’s enacted here mirrors the one that’s about to unfold on the national level.

Harry: “I’m gonna die at this desk unnoticed; you have any idea what I’ve done for this
company?”
Don: “What the hell is going on?” The woman he asks the question to doesn’t answer; in fact,
she doesn’t even turn to face him.
-- Momentary disruption of (male) authority.

Betty is watching Chet Huntley/NBC.

Carla: “Is he okay?” She sits down next to Betty, lights up a cigarette.
-- Mirror image of Don; same leveling of hierarchy.

Margaret, in her bride’s dress, brought to her knees and sobbing: “It’s ruined; it’s all ruined.”

Don: “Why are the kids watching this?”

Betty: “What am I supposed to do, Don? Am I supposed to keep it from them?”
-- Television democracy/egalitarianism.
Don: “Turn this off; I’ll make us some dinner.” Don takes over from Betty.
“Can you to look at me? Everything’s gonna be okay. We have a new President, and we’re all
gonna be sad for a little bit, and then on Monday, there’s gonna be a funeral.”
Bobby: “Are we going to the funeral?”
-- Intimacy of the medium and of the media event.

Don: “I can’t sit in front of the TV all day.”

Pete: “It felt for a second like everything was about to change.”
Pete: “Why are we going?”
Trudy: “There’s a system, Pete, you always say that.”

The interruption/possible cancellation of a marriage: another classic media event, as well as a

defining part of the nation’s social fabric (and it’s patriarchal underpinnings), is
overshadowed/outclassed by tragedy.

Pete: “Not to celebrate some spoiled brat’s wedding.”

Of course, JFK too could be/was branded a “spoiled brat.” In fact, Margaret’s sickly
emotional nature was mirrored by JFK’s numerous ailments.

Trudy: “I don’t care what your politics are; this is America: you don’t just shoot the
President.”

Pete mentions that Harry Crane was calculating “how many commercials weren’t going to be
aired.”

Guy at the table: “Three months after Roosevelt died, we bombed Hiroshima; that’s how we
got over it. I say we hang Lee Oswald and then we take care of Texas; hell, the whole South!”
Mona: “What did everyone think of the sweetbreads?”
-- “Humorous” collision between the political and the everyday.
Betty and Henry Francis, the change of guard/leadership.

The predominance of TV: a group of the guests is assembled in the kitchen to watch Oswald’s
interview: “I’m just a patsy!”
Jane isn’t interested in Roger’s “toast,” which she’s heard “a million times.”
-- The formal seating arrangement gives way; the guests can double up on their main courses.

Roger: “This could have been an awful day, but here we are, not watching TV, but together
watching the two of you.” Life continues, but not in the same way.

Betty begins to drift away, escape out of Don’s gravitational pull.

Don: “Everything’s gonna be fine.”
Betty: “How do you know that?”
Drawn out kiss, and then: “You’ll see.”
-- But the spell has been broken.
Don to her left, Henry to her right.

Roger calls Joan.

Roger: “Joannie, I wish you could have seen it; oh my god, what a disaster.”
-- Honesty, facing the facts.
Roger: “I can’t believe how quiet it is out there.”
Joan: “Not everywhere … People are still getting sick, car accidents are happening, babies are
being born.”
Roger: “Nobody else is saying the right thing about this.”
Joannie: “You’re really upset.”
Roger: “What’s that about?”
Joannie: “Because there’s nothing funny about this.”

Jack Ruby kills Harvey Lee Oswald.

Betty: “What is going on?!”
And then, “Oh, please, leave me alone.” — the script is being shredded.

Role reversal: Don lies prostrate on the couch, with a hand shielding his eyes, while Betty
wakes him up to announce that she’s “going out.”

Betty, to Henry: “Don’s been lying to me for years; I can’t be in that house right now.” “I wish
I could believe you; I can’t believe anything right now.”
-- Henry responds in much the same way Don does and against expectations, Betty does not
immediately revert back to her former, co-dependent self.
Henry: “Have you thought that there are other ways to live? Listen, I’m not in love with the
tragedy of this thing; it’s not Romeo and Juliet.”
“But if you search your heart, you know that I can make you happy.”
Henry: “I wish I could take you to the movies right now.”
Betty: “Singing in the Rain.”

Slow-motion technology on television to show the shooting of Oswald in more detail.

Trudy, to Pete: “Those people don’t care about you, and honestly, what’s the difference? You
did everything you asked them to do, but you don’t owe them anything. You should start
gathering your clients.”

Betty: “I don’t know where to begin. I want to scream at you for ruining all of this. But then
you’d try to fix it and there’s no point. There’s no point, Don.”
Don: “I know it’s painful, but it’s going to pass.”
Betty: “I don’t love you.”
Don: “You’re distraught.”
Betty: “It’s true, but I don’t love you anymore. I know that.”
Don: “Stop it.”
Betty: “I kissed you yesterday; I didn’t feel a thing.”
Don: “You’ll feel better tomorrow; you’ll see.”
Betty: “You can’t even hear me right now.”
Don: “You’re right.”

Don breaks down in the bedroom; a callback to the closing scene of “Maidenform.”

The penultimate ending: the picture of nostalgia/the show in the pilot: Betty serves the kids
breakfast as the husband heads off to work. But Don has been moved to the outside, and is
forced to look in on something which already no longer exists.

Peggy: “My mother was crying and praying so hard; there wasn’t room for anyone else to feel
anything.”

Peggy: “The funeral’s already started.” “Are you coming?” Don shakes his head no.