[Just as a warning, this and all future rewinds, Mad Men or not, will contain spoilers throughout for not only this episode, but others as well.]
Before I started watching Mad Men, Elisabeth Moss was on Chelsea Lately promoting, I think, the third season. They showed a clip from this episode, a very memorable clip. Months and months later when I finally got around to catching up before the third season began, I came to this episode and I was giddy with anticipation when I realized this was strangely familiar. It isn’t something you see all the time on television, or really ever! And that’s what makes Freddy Rumsen peeing his pants one of the greatest, funniest moments in Mad Men history.
It isn’t all fun and games this episode though, Don and Betty are still apart and Marilyn Monroe just kicked that bucket. When Don gets into work he has some conversation with Peggy and Hollis about Marilyn and walks into an office filled with crying girls. Jane is of course one of them, but Don’s crude “do you need to go home” remark stops her dead and she offers up some coffee and his morning meeting is waiting.
Don gets to the conference room to discuss their upcoming blood drive with the boys. Ken can’t wrap his head around the competition aspect, what’s to win? Don wants all the participation they can get, if they get almost full participation, they get a picture in the Times! Before leaving the meeting, Harry asks Don if he can show him and the missus off at some NBC shindig. Don declines, saying his kid is sick. This is a good excuse, if the show was that day but it’s like, days later. Get it together Draper.
Don returns to his office and Jane briefs him on his day. Before leaving Jane tells Don that she made a mistake. Sally called the night before asking when he would be back from his trip and she panicked and said Wednesday. She should’ve said never. Don excuses it and tells her what’s personal is personal and is actually pretty mean about it. He doesn’t want sympathy for his situation and maybe the best way is to be a complete dick to everyone around you.
Meanwhile, Betty enjoys a day at home in her housecoat. Not getting dressed in the 60s is the equivalent of killing yourself now. How could she?! She defrosts the freezer, lines the drawers and takes in a book with a glass of wine. Her (probably) impromptu nap is interrupted when someone rings the doorbell and Carla is nowhere to be found. Betty totally forgot Sara Beth was coming over to borrow a dress for some event that night. Betty informs her she isn’t going and while Sara Beth talks of her wonderful marriage, Betty suggests a few options. Betty shoos her from the house and promises she’ll be better by the time their lunch date rolls around on Thursday.
Back in the office, Pete, Sal and Peggy comes to Freddy’s office to run a dress rehearsal for their Samsonite meeting in a few minutes. Freddy seems drunk to me and offers Sal a huge drink. After a little spiel Freddy’s mind wanders and he pees his pants without even realizing it! He tries to hurry and think of a way to fix this and sits at his desk. And quickly passes out. Right as they get notice that the Samsonite people are there. Sal thinks this is the funniest thing to ever hit SC, Pete is completely disgusted by Freddy and Peggy is trying to rectify the situation in a way that keeps Freddy’s reputation intact. They decide to still do the meeting without him and tell Freddy’s girl that it was cancelled so there’s no wandering drunk guy situation on their hands.
Later on, Freddy wakes up on his couch confused. He sees his pants are wet and decides to call it a day. He covers himself with his jacket and briefcase but there’s no way to hide that squeaky, wet shoe. Everyone is the office looks on, confused. They’ll probably know the whole story by the end of the day.
Roger walks into his office to find Joan laying on his couch. She thought he was gone for the day, boozing it up with some clients across town. They discuss Marilyn’s death and what she meant to all the girl’s in the office and Roger doesn’t get it. He understood the grief when Roosevelt died even though he didn’t like him, but this girl? She had everything and pushed it away from herself. Joan tells Roger that one day he’ll lose someone close to him and know how painful this is.
Don comes home with the kids in the evening to Betty. This wasn’t entirely planned though, because of Jane’s mistake Don had to think quick and go home for a day before going on another “business trip”. Don and Betty discuss how this should work out for the kids but they don’t really reach any conclusions.
When Don comes in to work the next day, he finds that Jane bought him shirts to keep in his drawer, she saw his stock was running low. He’s appreciative of this and agrees to go to the blood drive with her.
Freddy stops in Peggy’s office to see how things went the day before and apologizes for his behavior. Peggy just smiles and says it wasn’t a big deal but it doesn’t seem like she can forgive much else in the workplace.Too bad for Freddy, not everyone can be so forgiving. Pete ratted him out to Duck and they meet in Roger’s office with Don. Roger says they have to let him go based on principle, Don isn’t exactly all for this but it doesn’t matter. Freddy is out of a job.
Meanwhile, back at home, Betty is trying to break into Don’s locked desk drawer. Carla bursts in thinking it was Bobby messing around but instead finds Betty, disheveled and hopelessly sitting there . She offers up some advice, go outside and see the world hasn’t changed at all. Betty take it and goes riding. While leaving, she sees Arthur and invites him out to her and Sara Beth’s lunch on Thursday. She also definitely plants a seed in him that maybe Sara Beth is a little too fond of him to just be friends.
Back at the office the boys are giving blood and making jokes about Freddy. Don walks up and calls them little girls and tells them to not capitalize off of someone else’s misfortune. Unfortunately the person he should be saying this to, Pete, isn’t there.
To give Freddy the proper send off, Don and Roger take him out. They discuss his options, six months leave, clean yourself up, go to another city, etc. and Freddy seems pretty okay with all of this. They decide to live it up and go to an underground casino, a little place Roger knows. Too bad he can’t remember the password, or else he wouldn’t be out an extra twenty. Once they get down there, they pay what I believe is craps. Turns out Freddy is having a good night, Roger as well.
Don and Roger are at the bar, and discussing business, totally disregard the woman looking to give them a good time. They look over at Freddy winning and who is that? Jimmy Barrett. Don casually walks over and socks him right in the jaw. The man in the gray flannel suit is escorted out, with Freddy and Roger and they decide to call it a night. Roger and Don give Freddy their heartfelt goodbyes and send him on his way.
Roger and Don sit at a bar, discussing the night. Roger points out that Don didn’t hesitate to come out, something must be up with the missus, he’s been there before. Don takes a while to warm up but he finally admits he’s staying at the Roosevelt. They talk of finding love and how you should just do what makes you happy. It all goes over Don’s head a bit, he didn’t find anything in cheating but he does feel oddly relieved. And no matter what you do with your life, there’s always a bad ending.
At the office the next day, while downing some Alka-Seltzer, Don informs Peggy that she’ll be taking over Freddy’s accounts. She is surprised by this but thankful for the promotion. She walks out of Don’s office and makes a beeline for Pete’s. She is furious he would take this opportunity to make himself look better and he points out that he made her look better too. Can’t argue with that. He congratulates her on her promotion and then makes her congratulate him as well.
I’m sure Peggy likes attaining her goals through hard work and her own effort so this seems like cheating, but when Duck asks her for her opinion in a meeting she didn’t really seem to mind.
It must be Thursday because Arthur just showed up and greeted a surprised and very happy Sara Beth at lunch. We see Betty at home, baking with the kids, phone unhooked. What a dirty little plan.
The day isn’t over at Sterling Cooper, Mona barges into Don’s office angry at him. He has no idea what’s going on and when she spits back some words he said last night at him he’s confused. Turns out Roger is leaving Mona for a secretary. And not just any girl in the office, Jane. Don is furious and this my friends, is the beginning of the end of this friendship.
A few notes and quotes:
- “Some people just hide in plain sight.” You think when Hollis said this, Don got really uncomfortable in the elevator? As if Hollis is really great at reading people and knew this would mean something to Don? I do.
- “I have to give a Chinaman a music lesson.” I have never heard this phrase before in my life so naturally, I looked it up. It has to do with peeing on china/porcelain. I…okay. Racism! Ha!
- When Roger and Don are sitting in the bar they discuss Roger’s coronaries. Finally. I think that once Weiner saw how popular Roger was he couldn’t really kill him off and made him a regular. But he had this looming health problem that in those days would probably not go away so it was just ignored. It becomes completely nonexistent later so maybe I should just let this one go.
- “Pete Campbell, huh? I would’ve never thought I was in his way.” Well Freddy, it doesn’t seem like there’s many people who aren’t in his way.
- Don says his punch was a “real Archibald Whitman maneuver–some drunk I used to know.” This totally went over my head before, but duh! His father!
- Betty is such a sneaky bitch! Carla tells her to go out and see everything is exactly where she left it and what does she do? Ruin Sara Beth’s life. She knew what she was doing and just wanted someone to be more miserable than her. This is probably what made her feel better more than anything else.
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