Finally, the killer episode from Mad Men, the most promising show of the summer. After a terrific start, the resulting three episodes were setting the stage for something big. Oh, I thought, Don Draper has a mysterious past. His wife is a blank slate awaiting relief thanks to a future cocktail of valium and Betty Friedan. His co-workers are going to have their interesting lives that will touch us and horrify us in short order. It's been a frustrating few weeks to watch the set up, especially since the executive producer worked on The Sopranos, a show where a lot of groundwork was laid but sometimes nothing grew, but this week's episode delivered.
Don and his wife return from an awards ceremony where Don wins a coveted award, a golden horseshoe. They are dressed to the nines, more than a little wasted and too tired and content to have sex. Even with the swanky lingerie, which looks like battle armor designed by Edith Head, his wife is a knockout. No zombie here.
They wake up, cough up their smoker's lungs and start their day. Don is in his sharp late '50s suits, the type that only he and his boss seem to have a tailor who knows how to make a suit fit. A mysterious young man dressed like an upstate farm hand shows up. It's Don's half brother with the last name Witcombe. Don is scared and disgusted to see someone from his guarded past. The kid clearly adores him and Don doesn't want anything to do with him. He has created this life and there is no room for someone from his early days. We see a picture of Don in Army khakis with his arm around a young boy. Some talk of family members long gone, an uncle who thought he was soft. Don looks like he about to be sick. His head -- and ours -- are spinning.
Meanwhile, Don is pushing a client to create a bank account for the new man. Statements sent to the office, nothing that the little wife has to know about. This is another bracing fact tht the show delivers -- what wife doesn't know the flow of every dollar in her house? What secretary would cover for a boss' afternoon affair? Who has time to sleep with someone outside the home?
Don's life is a contradiction, and it is the photo opposite of Tony Soprano. The gangster was a dangerous man who dealt with killers, drug dealers and whores. On the inside, he was a family man who loved his family even as they were driving him nuts. Here, Don Draper is all external perfection, a true leader, a creative type and a family man. Inside, he beds women, crushes his competition, drinks to escape problems and has a secret past that cannot see the day of light.
Mad Men is slowly becoming excellent television.
