Summer's Over

"The Summer Man" has a split personality.  I wonder if two plots clashed in the writing room.  One is a soul-searching Don wondering what's become of his life, the other is office intrigue with Joan and Peggy.  It was a good episode, but after the concentrated emotional punch of last week's Mad Men, a bit more evasive.

Don's been drinking all year, and is now swimming. Literally, and the New York Athletic Club.  He goes every day, looks like. He's also keeping a diary, and we hear him narrate passages.  This is odd.  Don's usually a guy who doesn't invite us inside, but now we hear his inner dialogue.  Outside the club, Don smokes a cigarette and we hear the Stones' "Satisfaction."  You can't really get more mid-60s than this--with or without the line about advertising and smoking, is this too on the nose?  It certainly wakes us up--this is not the old Mad Men, still living in the 50s, that we first loved.

Don's talks about smelling summer.  It's the middle of the decade, and I wonder if he can smell bigger change ahead.  At the office, Don makes another date with his on-again off-again teenage romance Bethany. Meanwhile, the boys--the temp boys (the summer boys?) are messing with the new candy machine.  Joan is unhappy, but they give her lip.  (We also see a bit of Pete.  That's all. Almost no Lane either.  And Roger and Burt are MIA.)

Joan calls Joey, the central troublemaker, into her office.  He tells her off and is tremendously rude. In a way that people would now make a federal case out of.  Back then, it was more boys will be boys, as Don later notes.  Joan, in general, feels disrespected--they think she's a glorified secretary, not to mention an aging courtesan.

Joan goes home to Greg, her rapist-husband, who's shipping of to basic training.  She breaks down--it's no fun being the office scold, especially when no one listens.  Greg is drawn more sympathetically this season, but is he enough for Joan?  Even if he is, he'll be going off the Vietnam soon.

Speaking of which, Don's watching the news, and this Vietnam story won't go away.  I pray the series doesn't overdo Vietnam.  He also eats Diny Moore and drinks Budweiser--bachelor life.  Sunday is Gene's birthday, to which he's not invited.  Gene must think his dad is Henry Francis.  Don writes about what he'd like to do, though I'm not clear if he really means it.

At the office, the Mountain Dew account needs work.  Ken, Stan and Peggy meet with Don, and Don demands more work from Joey, who's already on the account. They call Joan, who makes it clear she's got a problem with Joey, but she'll comply for now, anyway. Don also wonders about his drinking.  He's been going hard this season--is the swimmer, the summer man, ready to change his ways?

Harry (who still hasn't had a major episode this year) is talking to handsome Joey about making him a star. Just like Ryan O'Neal (five years before Love Story--a bit convenient.) Harry's gone Hollywood, but Joey just figures he's the office homo.  As a freelancer, he's been through this before.

Peggy is unhappy with Joey's rudeness. (He used the phrase Big Ragu.)  Peggy respects Joan, who was her original mentor, and is a "sister."  Joey just sees her as an overbearing mother.

At a fancy Manhattan restaurant, Henry and Betty are having a big political dinner. Henry may be the man who works with John Lindsay (the liberal Republican who seemed to have a great future but would burn out pretty spectacularly in a few years).  However, Don and Bethany are there, too.  Henry says Hello, but Betty can barely contain herself.

Bethany refers to The Odd Couple, then only a Broadway hit.  Don has seen it too.  (Did they see it together).  She wants more commitment--a very modern 60s gal--but Don still plays it close to the vest.  They don't really seem to have chemistry. Bethany seems fascinated by Betty.  The other woman. The older woman.  And probably the most stunning woman in the room.

Betty has to excuse herself and run to the bathroom to settle her nerves.  It's not great for Henry's big dinner.  On the drive back (how many times did we see Don and Betty drive back home) Henry isn't happy and Betty's a bit drunk and gets ugly too.  It almost seems like they're ready to end it, even though Henry is usually pretty rational (though he had to be impulsive to marry Betty).  Henry feels Don stills plays too important a role in Betty's life.  Just forget about him, don't obsess over him.

In another car, Bethany is ready to make her first big move with Don, which he appreciates, even if he thinks (in his diary) she's not really for him.  In any case, Don is in a place where he likes sleeping alone.

When he goes back to the office the next day, he overhears Dr. Faye shouting at her boyfriend.  Sounds like it's off.  Time to make his move?

Betty's slept things off and is much nicer.  Henry's off to work, and is willing to forgive, but when he sees Don's old boxes in the garage he knows he has to do something.

At the office, the temps work on Mountain Dew.  Meanwhile, Joan talks to Lane as the boys talk dirty about her (and assume Peggy is one of the boys).

Henry calls Don.  Get your boxes out of my garage.  On Saturday, the birthday's on Sunday.  Of course.

The boys do a disgusting drawing of Joan. Now they're really going too far.  Joan has an amazing speech telling them off--she can't wait till they get shot at in Vietnam, and reminds them they won't be fighting for her because she never liked them.  Wow!

Then Peggy goes to Don to complain. He tells her handle it herself, don't be the office tattletale.

Then Dr. Miller comes in and Don successfully makes a date with her.  About time.  They've been fated to be mated for a while.

Peggy calls Joey aside and demands he apologize.  He just gives her more lip (and sexism, a word that didn't exist then) and she fires him.  He's pissed, and reacts childishly, but that's what happens when you give women power.  Guess Stan will take the account.

At the old Draper house, who should drop by but Francine, played by the great Ann Dudek.  She figured a lot in season one (as Betty's sounding board) but we've hardly seen her since.  I wondered if she's moved.  They talk about Don. Betty hates him, thinking he wants the best of both worlds--family when he wants it, high life in Manhattan otherwise.  Francine sees him as merely pathetic.

At the office, Peggy and Joan meet in the elevator.  Peggy figures Joan will be happy she defended her, but Joan isn't.  Joan's a master of office politics and would never have played it that way.  Now she looks like a glorified secretary like everyone already believed, while Peggy comes across as the office bitch.  Joan thinks Peggy did it for herseld.  Joan could have gotten the guy fired if she wanted, after all, but knew better.

Don picks up his boxes on Saturday, and puts them in a dumpster.  He wonders (and writes) about his life.  Where is he going?  What does he want?

Don has his date with Dr. Faye. She tells him Aesop's fable about the wind and the sun--warmth gets your further than the other approach (she tells to the summer man).  They hit it off, but maybe he's changing his approach to life, since he's the one who wants to go slow.  (During the dinner, Don does the bent nose to signify the mafia.  Was that popular back in the 60s?)

Don swims a bit on Sunday, then decides to go to Gene's second birthday.  He's being the man he wants to be.  Betty isn't insulted--she now realizes how she has everything, he's not nothing.  Don raises up his baby while Ann Dudek smokes at the kid's party.  And we end on this note with no music playing--most (all) episodes end with a song.  I don't know who started it, though I think Matt Weiner picked it up from The Sopranos, and I can't say I entirely approve. It's a little too pat.

A good episode, but we're now getting to the second half of the season, and expect big revelations or moments are coming.