Ep. 11 "Indian Summer"
-Adam Whitman's suicide. It seems a bit too melodramatic, given that we don't know that much else about the character. It's a too easy way to get the character out of the series, isn't it? I'm starting to wonder if the real Don Draper's family is gonna start looking for him...
-The blunt way Peggy gets the 'weight-loss device' assigned to her to write copy for. She discovers it has other, er, benefits to it...
-"Red, you are the finest piece of ass I ever had, and I'm glad I got to roam those hills!" Roger's statement to Joan as she's doing his face is both bizarre and touching...
-Betty's 'distraction' while against the washing machine. (She's fantasizing about the pushy young air conditioner salesmen that Don chewed her out for letting into the house earlier.) The song playing on the soundtrack while she's lost in her um, reverie is "Agua de Beber" ("Water to Drink") by Astrud Gilberto.
-Bert Cooper's formal offer to Don to make him a partner. Bert offers to introduce Don to Ayn Rand. (I kinda hope we get to see her...)
-Pete gets a package meant for Don. (It's from Adam...)
Ep. 12 "Nixon vs. Kennedy"
-This one's a pivotal episode, in which we get Don Draper's 'origin story', if you will. In the transformation from Dick Whitman, Army private who wets himself when fired upon, to king of New York, Don Draper, he finds that trading up your identity has some immediate benefits, as the young woman who offers him a drink makes clear. The cost, leaving behind a younger brother who idolizes him, doesn't become evident until much later.
-I love how the theme of Draper's secret being unmasked is treated as anticlimactic. It's Campbell's fate that the stick he thought he had to hit Don with has absolutely no effect whatsoever on Bert Cooper. Don's panicking and running to Rachel to leave with her to Los Angeles comes to nothing. Did Don seriously think she was going to take him up on his offer? As I said earlier, a lesser series would drag Don's fear of being unmasked throughout the whole run. Once it's settled here, there's other avenues it can take which can surprise both the audience and the creators of the show...
Ep. 13 "The Wheel"
-"Nostalgia - it's delicate, but potent. Teddy told me that in Greek, "nostalgia" literally means "the pain from an old wound." It's a twinge in your heart far more powerful than memory alone. This device isn't a spaceship, it's a time machine. It goes backwards, and forwards... it takes us to a place where we ache to go again. It's not called the wheel, it's called the carousel. It let's us travel the way a child travels - around and around, and back home again, to a place where we know are loved."
Don's using his own life to sell product, with emotionally devastating results. (He has a giddy fantasy of going with his family to her parent's place. The episode ends with Don all alone, his head in his hands.) It's a powerful scene.
-Another touching scene is Betty's meeting with the weird kid of Helen Bishop, the divorced neighbour. "Please tell me everything's going to be okay..."
-Peggy's casual cruelty towards the voice actress during the readings wins her the respect of Ken Cosgrove. (That whole scene was hard to watch...)
-Peggy's pregnancy and Adam's suicide were, for me, the only false notes of this season. They have kind of a soap-opera feel to them, and in a series like this, where subtlety and nuance run the show, even if they're going to have repercussions later on... Well, they come close to throwing me out of the show.
Season Two, ep. 1 "For those who think young" notes.
-I nearly shat a walrus when in the middle of Betty and Francine gleefully/horrified-ly discussing the fate of Betty's old roommate- she's a prostitute- I realized that Francine is in fact, Heartless Bitch from the last season of House! Betty's flirting with the mechanic to fix her car for two-thirds cheaper makes us think how excited her former roommate's profession has made her, especially after her failed tete-a-tete with Don in the New York Savoy, no less.
-Funniest scene in the show: the montage showing various cast members reacting to Jackie Kennedy's T.V. tour of the White House. Joan is enthralled, as is Salvatore. (Is he married now?) Don is-meh, and then we cut to Pete Campbell, eating his wife's Valentine chocolates whilst watching a kid's sci-fi program. Pete reminds me of Dave Foley, during his 'Kids in the Hall' phase.
-Is it just me, or is Duck Phillips turning out to be a douchenozzle? His confrontation with Don had a little more acrimony in in than I'd think necessary...
-the running theme of youth: Don and Peggy's angle to pitch to the airline people, the younger-than-they-look new writers, Pete watching T.V., the young, pretty First Lady on the T.V.
-Was Peggy being helpful to Don's new secretary, or was she just passing the bitch ball along in frustration? Note how Joan demands the other office girl call Peggy, "Miss Olson". Then Joan moves the new Xerox machine into Peggy's office, much to Peggy's consternation.
-Remember Don's annoyance over the V.W. ads from last season? With the younger ad men being interviewed-I'm sure those two prospects were boyfriends-, the younger men in the elevator making crude jokes and one not taking his hat off when a woman enters the elevator, and the doctor telling Don to watch his smokin' and drinkin' (Note how Don spitefully eats a big, fat, egg and sausage breakfast in the bar.) Don seems about to have a coronary over his advancing age.
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