CC has come out of her Phillies-induced mourning and finally watched Mad Men only to enter a new kind of mourning.
MAD MEN: 3.12 “The End of the World”
Camelot crumbled this week on Mad Men. The early ‘60s was an era obsessed with appearances, one in which emotions were never acknowledged; the national trauma of the Kennedy assassination forced Americans to confront their emotions, and boy, did they ever on Mad Men this week. Using live news footage from the two days during the Kennedy assassination, we juxtaposed the trauma of a nation with the personal triumphs and failures of the Sterling Cooper employees.
Before we heard the news that Kennedy had been shot/died, we caught a glimpse into the trivialities of the Sterling Cooper employees’ lives. The heat in the office wasn’t working. Pete was told he’d lost out on head of accounts to “Ken Cosgrove and his haircut.” Don was having a conniption about the lack of art director. Margaret is whining about her father’s new wife, Jane, and threatening to call off her wedding. Peggy is discussing the inconvenience of having a nooner with Duck.
Once the news breaks, however, all hell breaks loose. The phones are ringing off the hook, and no one’s there answer them. Then they go dead. Margaret’s crying in her wedding dress because these events have ruined the wedding.
Peggy knows nothing because Duck unplugged the TV so that he could get some and is horrified when Duck finally turns on the news. Given Peggy’s Catholicism, one would think this would be especially upsetting to Peggy, but Duck isn’t sensitive.
Others are more sensitive. Betty, in Jackie Kennedy pink, and Carla cry together. I’ve never really seen Betty and Carla acknowledge each other as equals, but they sit together and mourn. You’d have to think that this is more traumatic for Carla since Kennedy was such a champion for civil rights.
The obsession with the Kennedy story continues the next day. Don asks Betty to get ready for the wedding. Pete and Trudie are preparing for the day as well. Neither couple wants to attend, but Don and Betty do so. Pete refuses because “it’s one thing to go to the wedding and act like I don’t hate them. It’s another to go and act like the president hasn’t been murdered.”
They aren’t the only ones who don’t show up for the wedding, and the ones that do are glued to the TV. “They’re about to interview Oswald,” Jane cries when Roger tells her to get out for the toast. Betty and Don dance together, and Don tells her “Everything’s going to be okay.” Betty shoot him a withering look and in what had to be a continuation of last week, she asks “How do you know that?” to no response. He can’t say anything so he kisses her, while Henry Francis is watching. Henry’s daughter asks why he’s perpetually looking at that woman.
The next morning, Betty’s in her bathrobe watching the news, and they show Oswald being shot right on TV. Betty screams, and Don runs to her rescue. It seems that Don’s especially present for Betty and yet, he can’t do anything right. Don tries to console her, and she tells him to leave her alone. Betty decides to go for a drive, but won’t let Don go with her because “he’s been lying to her for years and couldn’t be in that house.” Henry tells Betty that it’ll be okay, that we’ve lost a lot of presidents, and we’re still standing. Betty and Henry wonder how they can be together, despite Betty’s children/husband. He’s willing to marry her, despite the fact that they’ve only been together, um, never. They make out in the car. I’m not sure that making out in a car is an upgrade from a hotel room, which Betty proclaimed “too seedy” a couple episodes ago.
Meanwhile, Pete and Trudie are watching slow-mo footage of Lee Harvey Oswald getting shot. Trudie says that Pete shouldn’t go to work tomorrow, but attend Tuesday and start gathering his clients. Before the assassination, Trudie told Pete his demotion would be fine. Now everything’s changed.
Also changed are Betty’s feelings for Don. She re-enters the house, and tells Don she wants to scream at him for ruining all that they have. She says that he’s trying to fix it all, and there’s no point. Don tells her that he understands she’s upset, that it’s painful and that it will pass. Betty, echoing last week’s intensity, tells him that she doesn’t love him anymore. She knows it because they kissed yesterday and she felt nothing. It’s the end of Camelot, and the end of Don and Betty as we know it.
