Betty visits her ailing father and confronts both Don and Glen, that creepy neighbour kid. Betty also makes a tentative connection with an unusual contact. Paul's girlfriend asks for a bigger commitment from him. Pete confronts his family about legacies.
-"Madmen" seems to be divided into episodes that mostly set up, and episodes that mostly pay off. (Episode 13 of last season being a 'pay-off' episode, for example.) This episode's a set-up one, with the impending trip to L.A., Pete's intent to adopt, and Paul taking a 'Freedom Train' to Birmingham with his girlfriend.
-It's Betty's story here, with her realization that for all intents and purposes, she's now an orphan. It's a tribute to the nuanced writing on this show that while Betty toys with Don and Glen, she never loses our sympathy. She's going to let Don back home, eventually. It's just a question of when. (And when she kicked Don out again, weren't you thinkin' 'You go, girl!')
-We haven't seen the last of Glen Bishop, the creepy kid of divorcee' Helen. I figured she'd be back this season. She was too prominent a character in season 1 to be pitched on the discard pile. And yes, Betty putting him in one of Don's t-shirts and combing his hair in Don's 70-30 split was intentional...
-"He has no people! You can't trust someone like that!" exclaims Betty's dad, before he mistakes Betty for his late wife in the wrongest way possible. While that statement sums up Don in a nutshell, I bet Betty lets Don back home after her father's funeral.
-Pete's Creepy Family makes an appearance, and I suspect Pete and Trudy will adopt a child, more out of Pete's need to spite than out of any desire to have a real family.
-Harry's the most morally grounded character on the show. He feels genuine guilt over his drunken office fling with secretary Hildy from last season, which Hildy smooths over during the baby shower. Remember his bit of slapstick over opening Ken Cosgrove's pay stub?
-This episode's best moment? "Well, Happy birthday!", exclaims Bert Cooper as he pops his head into the baby shower.
-Paul is rapidly becoming unlikable to me personally. His treatment of his girlfriend makes me hope she dumps him in Birmingham. ("From a Marxist standpoint, the markets dictate a colorblind society. The consumer has no color," he smugly pontificates to the black passengers on the bus.) You just know when the rocks start flying, Paul'll be hightailing it back to New York, rationalizing all the way. ("Ultimately, I can effect more change in one day in my position at Sterling-Cooper than walking a hundred miles through Georgia!", he will say, than demand a double martini from the stewardess on his first class trip back home...)
No comments:
Post a Comment