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Mad Men, Season 6, Episode 7 (Patreon)

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2024-04-10 22:55:58
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Man With a Plan

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Scott Pearson Eberly

This is the first time I've rewatched Mad Men since the series finale aired May 17, 2015. It's been a really enjoyable experience! Mad Men is equally as brilliant today as it was nearly ten years ago, however, some of the characters and their behavior hits differently a decade later. I just wanted to share a couple of times I crossed paths with the Mad Men universe. 1) During the summer of 2006 I was working a lot with a freelance editor who's wife invited me to a couple's dinner party--I was being setup--I knew nobody and was dreading it. I ended up sitting next to this guy about my age (mid 30's) who had the lookings of a bonafide movie star, I couldn't place how I might know him. I was producing sports at the time, he loved sports, especially baseball and the St. Louis Cardinals (grew up there). He said I'm John. I replied John, I'm Scott. We talked throughout the night (I can't remember a thing about my date) and he revealed he recently shot a pilot; he smirked that he knows people say all the time that they think their pilot is good. But he said he truly believes its quite good and he really thinks it might have legs. The following summer I'd see him daily on a billboard outside my office window for a AMC series called Mad Men. Yes, his name was John Hamm. 2) I moved to LA (1998) shortly after the film Swingers was released. It's a movie people should really see. Premise: About a group of twenty-somethings trying to make it in Los Angeles in the entertainment industry and its filled with scenes of unique, vibrant cocktail lounges that play characters as does the city, too. There's a classic lounge in Hollywood on Vine called Three Clubs; we'd seen it in Swingers and said we need to find this place...so, I spent a couple of nights a week there for a couple of years. One night it was closed for filming: we'd find out it was for Mad Men, it would turn out to be the interior location where Betty engages in a sexual encounter with a stranger in a back room. 3) The cable network where I was working was purchased by a British firm at the same time the second season of Mad Men were dealing with similar problems. Although, we never had a John Deere mow down any promising English execs, our new CEO wanted to bring a 'British Pub Vibe' to our conference room at 4pm on Fridays. It was a great idea to get employees to get to know each other more than just co-workers. However, the problem is in LA everyone has to drive, many over an hour in traffic, so after 2-3 weeks HR shut down our taste of British culture as it tended to clash with America's corporate world. 4) For several years I lived near Ferris Bueller's house. But for a year I moved to a place on a hill overlooking Catalina Island in San Pedro. While walking the dog I'd quickly realized that I lived a couple of blocks from Anna Draper's residence--I could almost hear the piano. Great character! Cute little house! Thanks for letting me indulge!

Actuarial Lurker

So now we have 2 "Rogers", 2 "Dons", a Joan who outranks Moira, one Peggy who doesn't know who her boss "should be" but has 2 bosses, a Pete who brought them to the point of an IPO who is always insecure, so lots of potential office drama that we did NOT see when PPL owned them in 1963

Actuarial Lurker

I'll stick my neck out and say that when Don went to Joan thinking she had not slept with creepy Herb that he thought he was her White Knight. He even got in trouble with Megan for consoling Joan when she was served the divorce papers. Afe was his "Madonna" despite being sexually active...now she is just another "whore" since women in his life ARE either idolized for a while and then when caught by him "or when they transgress" they become objects. He does call Betty a whore for "building a life raft" when he finds out about Henry from RogerThe firing of Jaguar was a slight hint that he has lost respect for Joan- and he is nobody to talk given that Bobbie Barett said he had a reputation among rich female execs of being a "kinky lover" and "sex toy"

Actuarial Lurker

Now you see how big they have become- CGC has St. Joseph's aspirin with Berts "little headaches" mention. Roger and Cutler are going after Konica camera, and they have are working on Fleischman's margarine. They have Chevy and still have Dow Chemical both of which are bigger than Lucky Strike...so CAN Don and Ted work together on this superteam? We see that even in a drunken stupor in a few minutes they come up with an ad with a Dairy Farmer who uses margarine rather than butter- something Peggy and even Ginsburg would not have thought off- so it does "look" promising...

Actuarial Lurker

Now the gut punch- we had a whole episode glued to JFK, we have an episode on MLK where the white privileged execs float like Noah's Ark above the chaos but it is still central to the vignettes in the episode. Now the RFK Sr event is just a throwaway before the closing credits...its really showing the demise of American culture and its spirit in 1968...echoed earlier by Peggy's staff guy who came from CGC saying he id for Nixon....

Actuarial Lurker

He is doing to Sylvia what he did when he tied up Bobby Barrett- reverting to S&M

Actuarial Lurker

We see the different work styles- Ted collaborates even on the kickoff session, when Don always expected people to comer to him with almost finished work- more proof that Ted is more 60s and Don is still 1950s

Actuarial Lurker

For your epilogue- I think Henry is so accepting of Betty that he is humanizing her rather than her being a "doll" in a playhouse

Jesus

Ive heard this episode be called people’s least favorite Mad Men episode, but its one of my favorites because - for the duration of the series until now - Don exists with no real contrast. In a way the firm acts as the show’s universe and he is its God, and then we mash this whole other culture into it after the merger and it becomes obvious how much of our own captivity in his talent and enigma has been because theres no other choice. Here comes Ted, an actual workaholic who loves ads and shows us a different way of doing things - and everything else about Don starts to seem even more transparent. We start to like (and more importantly respect) Ted just enough that his “aha” moment re Don’s ACTUAL profesional skill makes us question wether or not all his prior “genius” isnt just luck and pretty-privilege. The first time I watched I was in college (and completely invested in the show’s bravado) and it wasn’t until this ‘sode that I realized: Don Draper is kind-of a loser.

Dylan Hearts

I don't think this episode was "least favorite", it just that Don behaves in it in the most despicable way possible which probably turned off many viewers. Basically, Don (clearly talented, handsome, physically strong person) waste his life on... dominating a neighbor's wife and humiliating his co-worker. This is so gross and pathetic. But the episode is great, it's Don who's enormously dislikeable here. Linda Cardellini was brilliant here, very nuanced work. Apparently, John Slattery and she worked before on another film as a couple, and they had love scenes there, so when Slattery got to direct this episode, he provided delicacy and safety on the set during intimate scenes between her and Jon Hamm. Cardellini publicly stated that Slattery's direction in this particular episode is what helped her to make Sylvia Rosen's character more believable and complicated.

tom

It's a lot more on the nose and as you mentioned, darker, but I feel like the Don and Sylvia scenes are very reminiscent of Roger's first few scenes with Joan, way back in S1. A lot of upfront dialogue that confronts control & female agency. The line with Sylvia joking about standing on her head reminded me of Joan saying something similar to Roger back in S1, when they were also in a hotel. It's another thing that points to something you've mentioned with Don becoming more like Roger recently.

tom

Ah, the episode with Don's weird kinky roleplay. It's funny because as cringe-sensitive as I am, I didn't mind it so much in the past, but watching it with other people is sooo uncomfortable. There's definitely a bit of back-and-forth: Sylvia is kind of into it, then she's not, then she is, then she's not. I think it portrays the complexity of the affair well, the phases of murky emotions, hedonism and finally clarity. They both have their own reasons for doing this but it's so clear how deep it is for Don, you can see it on his face when she ends it. And I really like that scene, how Sylvia talks about the dream she had and Megan crying on her shoulder, then her finally saying that she's home.

tom

The Burt scene was so good! I'm so glad you guys felt the comedic weight behind it.

tom

It's interesting seeing Ted and Don's different approaches to leadership. Ted goes for the fun, laid-back involved angle and Don is more of a stoic absent paternal figure. Both have different ways of garnering respect, and it seems them merging only made the competition stronger. Ted is at least being a big boy about it -- he had his moment of smugness while flying the plane, but it's not like he planned for that. I like that about Ted, how he's cool in a sort of unique dorky way as opposed to Don's more reserved mystique. And as you mentioned Ted's talk with Gleason showing him wondering about Don is a good scene. It tells a lot that we're just getting that. We know that Don is having probably even more thoughts about Ted, probably more insecure too, but there's no way in hell he would ever vocalize them.

Robert Bauman

It's interesting how you guys picked up on Don becoming more and more unlikeable, I remember feeling that as well on my first watch through. He has always been flawed and had ugly moments, but I always felt like he was a decent person at his core who was very damaged and trying to deal with it, so for a lot of the series as the viewer you are rooting for him/are willing to overlook his flaws to some degree. But at this point in the series he's honestly just miserable to be around most of the time and he's really just getting by on mystique at work. It's pretty clear with how detached he is from both Megan and his work that and that the cracks in his psyche are deeper than they have been before. He really has nothing to fall back on right now if it goes off the rails

Youtalkingtome
>>134868359

When push comes to shove, Don can get himself out of a corner, but how much of that is luck? Ted might be smarter

Youtalkingtome
>>134869175

The demise of American culture is exactly what I was looking for when we were summarizing the episode. We are there

Youtalkingtome
>>134875962

You guys have such an understanding of this show that I am truly in awe. Bravo. Draper is a full blown loser at this point in the show

Youtalkingtome
>>134964331

Yeah, it's interesting that they had him evolve into Roger as the show goes on. I remember the episode where he out drinks Roger very clearly.

Youtalkingtome
>>134964573

Yeah, I knew that she wasn't as into as he was, based off of the last episode. He just has a certain allure to him

Youtalkingtome
>>134964876

I think the insecurity is going to come out knowing Don. I can't wait to see the contention come out between the two of them.

Youtalkingtome
>>135064525

We really just need an episode where he runs away again. I hate to say it but I feel like he figures himself out when he is isolated. We saw that in season 4.

Jesus
>>134875962

Dude im convinced theres an entire cohort of Millennial men that took entirely the wrong message from this show in regards to masculinity and success and are now ambling through their 30s/40s putting on what they think is a Draper but is at best a Pete. There was that period of early IG when memes of Draper being a stoic cool-genius who always lands the babe where rampant - the irony completely lost on the audience of those.

heheheheheh

Going back to costume design, here's an excerpt from a Mad Style post, written when the show originally aired: "It also should be noted just how out of style Sylvia is. She always has been, but it really ramped up this episode. Not only is this a dress more 1958-stylish than 1968-stylish, it also has some subtle signifiers that read stereotypically “Italian,” like the floral, the peasant neckline, and the once-again prominent cross. Similarly, Rachel Menken, who is the Don mistress most like Sylvia, was dressed in subtle signifiers that read as Manhattan Jewish, like the prominent jewelry, lacquered hair, exotic hats, and cigarette holder. The point isn’t that this is how Jewish and Italian women dress so much as it’s how Don sees each woman; as a fetish figure. My Jewish Mistress. My Italian Mistress. Similarly, when he dresses her up for sexual fantasies, everything about her is a decade out of style, from her Betty Rubble hair, right down to her underwear. It’s interesting that when he had the perfect 1950s wife; he cheated on her with a succession of very modern 1960s women, from Midge to Bobbie Barrett, to Rachel to Suzanne. Now that he’s married to a very modern 1960s wife, he takes on a 1950s mistress. Face it: he’s chronically unsatisfied." https://tomandlorenzo.com/2013/05/mad-style-man-with-a-plan/ There's no spoilers since it was written in real time right after the episode aired but before the next one.

Youtalkingtome
>>135324336

That's such a great detail. I knew her style felt like a certain generation but it wasn't screaming 60s. It felt Italian. The show uses material items to get a certain point across so well. It's brilliant

Weird Magic

Originally airing on May 12, 2013, 'Man with a Plan' is Episode 7 of Season 6 of Mad Men. It is the 72nd episode overall and has an IMDB rating of 7.9, placing it as the #10 ranked episode of this season and #58 out of all the episodes shown so far.