Ep. 12 - The Mountain King

MAD MEN

Notes on Season 2, Episode 12 - The Mountain King

written and aggregated by Mad-Mango

***SPOILER ALERT***

If you are new to Mad Men, you might learn things you don't want to know by reading any further.  This blog aims to enrich your Mad Men experience, and we don't want to give anything away.

So if you're still reading, you must be OK with that.

So, we're good, right?

Right.

OK, here we go!

Jumping right in to this rich and juicy episode, here's some frame-by-frame nitty-gritty detail - the check Betty forges Donald's signature on (which in itself is kinda funny, because Don's signature is a forgery of a guy who isn't him) has the following details:

Sterling Cooper Advertising

405 Madison Avenue New York, 17, New York

Guarantee Trust Savings Bank

Check No. 1652

Date October 11, 1962   

Pay to the order of Donald F. Draper

$947.75

Employee No. 402-970-503

Little Sally Draper gets caught smoking - if the adult is acting like a child, then why shouldn't the child act like an adult?

Little Bobby Draper has a Huckleberry Hound mask on.  One of those plastic ones with the very thin elastic strap stapled onto the mask, and almost certainly accompanied by a very cheap (flammable) plastic overalls-type getup with ties in the back.  We know it's close to Halloween!

Betty mentions taking away Sally's Barbie.  Barbie came onto the scene in 1959.  Her look evolved year-by-year, and from the official Barbie website - here's the history specifically for the year 1962:

Barbie® doll wears a ponytail, although the popular Bubble Cut is produced in much greater numbers. 

Hmm...  No more ponytail - sounds like Peggy's new 'do.  (That Kirt IS good.)

Betty puts Sally in the closet - we briefly see Don's returned suitcase already in the closet.

SALLY - "Why won't you let Daddy come home?"

BETTY - "Is that what you think?"

SALLY - "His suitcase is here, but he's not."

The truth Betty cannot face, literally in the closet!

We're off to the office to develop the popsicle campaign...

The Catholic stuff here is out of control!

Sal describes his mother breaking the popsicle in two to share with his brother and compares it to The Last Supper.

Peggy says the breaking is a "ritual."  "It's like Communion."

And when Cosgrove points out how Catholic this all is - she replies "it's behavior, not religion."

Then she says "let me tell you something, the Catholic Church knows how to sell things."

Yeeow!  Sounds like Don's rubbing off on her.

Weird interlude with Peter Campbell ticked off because his secretary tells him his wife told her they're looking to adopt.

Bertram Cooper's sister Alice calls on him in his office - 

BERTRAM - Florence with you?

ALICE - No, she's taking care of her mother, and we were thinking about going to the Breakers through New Year's

BERTRAM - She's a good companion, isn't she?

ALICE - (deadpan) she's moody.

So Alice Cooper is gay.  Well there you go.

When Alice asks if she can have a drink - sweet vermouth - she just wanted the waiter to have to leave the room - she knew there wouldn't be any sweet vermouth in Cooper's office.

BERTRAM - "I promised to always take care of Roger."  

To whom did he make this promise?  Sterling and Cooper seem to be a generation apart - was this promise made to Roger's parents?

We learn Bertram is not well - and that he loves his cattle in Montana.  But he has been like an oracle on this show, and his "but you can't trust the Brits" has an ominous sound to it.

Enter tonight's musical theme - "Hall of the Mountain King" by Edvard Grieg composed as an accompaniment to the play "Peer Gynt."

The famous two-phrase theme, written in the key of B minor, runs thus:

Wiki on Peer Gynt's central themes:

The play focuses on the problems of choice, and of identity. "What is it to be one self", Peer asks in the end, and gets the answer: "to overcome one's self". Peer’s central conflict, and the most widespread conflict in the play, is Peer’s inability to be constrained versus a world that demands that of him. In a central scene, we find Peer pondering his identity, and picks an onion to look for the core of it. He declares himself an onion, and in the process finds nothing but layers. Who has he really been? Despite his capricious outward identity, Peer maintains that he stays true to the “Gyntish I.” There exists an intangible, natural something that shapes Peer’s assimilation of his surroundings in a uniquely “Gyntish” way. As with the core of the onion, this “true” Self cannot be exactly defined, but, within the parameters of its nonexistence, it exists nonetheless.

Sound familiar?

We go back in time and see the woman who confronted Don/Dick at the car dealership about his identity - the original Don Draper's widow.  She enters Don's room, and it looks so much like an Edward Hopper painting, I think I even know the specific one it reminds me of:

It's called "Night Windows" (1928) and to me it looks like this is the outside view of the room they are inside.

Here's a still from the show:

We learn the original Don Draper's widow's name is Anna:

The girl's name Hannah \ha(n)-nah\ is pronounced HAN-ah. It is of Hebrew origin, and its meaning is "favored grace". Biblical: mother of the prophet Samuel. Being barren, she asked God to bless her with a child, and her prayer was answered. Hence, the name literally means "God has graced me with a son". Ann, Anne, Anna, etc. are the European forms

"God has graced me with a son" - and I would argue that son is Dick Whitman.  And in her, Don finds the mother he never had.

Back to the present - Teddy, the piano student is finishing his rendition of "The Hall of the Mountain King."

DICK/DON - "It's scary."

TEDDY - (smiling) "I know."

Peter Campbell returns home, and goes off on his wife - and throws a baked chicken off their terrace!

CAMPBELL - "Hell's Bells Trudy!"

Then - "The Day the Earth Stood Still" is playing on the television in the bedroom of Joan and her fiance doctor - tonight's "Million Dollar Movie"  and it does more than stand still when Joan plays initiator in sex play - curiously reminiscent of the way Betty got on Don on the floor two episodes ago.  The Doc doesn't like it, and inquires "where'd you pick that up?"

Freaking doctors, always want everything "just so" - but I digress.  We'll have more reasons to not like this guy soon enough.

Peggy pilfers a cig from a secretary desk, then stretches her arms and looks over the office at night.  Just like Sally Draper - smoking and acting like an adult.

Don/Dick drinks a PBR on Anna'a porch.

ANNA - "You like the porch?  You paid for it."

Don/Dick has taken better care of Anna than he did of his brother.  He has told Anna things he has never told Betty.  The guilt is crashing down all around him.

Anna sounds and looks so maternal during this whole scene.

DON/DICK - "I have been watching my life.  It's right there.  I keep scratching at it, trying to get into it, but I can't."

ANNA - "I'm sorry."

Roger enters Cooper's office and sells the merger to Bert, and Cooper responds/threatens with a Board meeting.

Peter gets the call from his father-in-law, Tom.

Tom looks like he's in the room from the first scene of "The Godfather."

Goodbye Clearisil.

Anna buys Don/Dick some clothes, and we flashback to their last Christmas together where, for the first time we see... 

Don/Dick in LOVE!  Happy happy Don Don...

We learn Betty's name is Elizabeth:

The girl's name Elizabeth \e-lizabe-th, el(i)-za-beth\ is pronounced ee-LIZ-a-beth. It is of Hebrew origin, and its meaning is "God's promise; God is my oath". Biblical: the mother of John the Baptist. Popular name since the 16th-century reign of Queen Elizabeth I of England.

DON/DICK - "I like the way she laughs, I like the way she looks at me."

 "His oath to God" began in happiness anyway...

Peggy makes her Popsicle pitch:

POPSICLE CLIENT - "The mom reminds me of something..."

PEGGY - "No it's original."

 

The Virgin Mary - complete with halo and Peggy's new 'do!

Betty calls Sara-Beth on the phone...

The look of these scenes reminds me of a cross between "Twin Peaks" and a Douglas Sirk melodrama.

Betty's friends have failed the test she put to them.  Someone needs to be the adult, and apparently it is her.

XEROX REPAIR GUY - "I'm going to tell you this, and you can tell all your little friends.  This is a delicate piece of machinery...  If you want it to work, you have to treat it with respect."

Peggy realizes she deserves at least as much respect as the Xerox machine, and makes her pitch to Roger to get Freddie's old office.  She always takes inspiration from insult.

Just as Peggy stands up to a man, Joan will be trampled by one - their story lines sometimes seeming like inverse mirror images of one another. 

Doctor Greg Harris, Joan's fiance quickly proves to be an insecure monster.

Horribly, Joan is raped by her fiance in Draper's office.

Matthew Weiner said the scene "was choreographed like a fight scene."  The Joan POV shot - looking towards the sofa - was an attempt to show how Joan copes.  See the rest of the Matthew Weiner interview concerning this episode at:

http://link.brightcove.com/services/link/bcpid895162757/bclid1672161042/bctid1847311193

This is the poem Roger quoted to Cooper's sister, Alice, when she entered for the board vote:

Buckingham Palace - A.A. Milne
They're changing guard at Buckingham Palace -
Christopher Robin went down with Alice.
Alice is marrying one of the guard.
"A soldier's life is terribly hard,"
Says Alice.
They're changing guard at Buckingham Palace -
Christopher Robin went down with Alice.
We saw a guard in a sentry-box.
"One of the sergeants looks after their socks,"
Says Alice.

They're changing guard at Buckingham Palace -
Christopher Robin went down with Alice.
We looked for the King but he never came.
"Well, God take care of him, all the same,"
Says Alice.

They're changing guard at Buckingham Palace -
Christopher Robin went down with Alice.
They've great big parties inside the grounds.
"I wouldn't be King for a hundred pounds,"
Says Alice.

They're changing guard at Buckingham Palace -
Christopher Robin went down with Alice.
A face looked out, but it wasn't the King's.
"He's much too busy a-signing things,"
Says Alice.

They're changing guard at Buckingham Palace -
Christopher Robin went down with Alice.
"Do you think the King knows all about me?"
"Sure to, dear, but it's time for tea,"
Says Alice

He only quoted the first couplet, then exclaimed she was a great babysitter.

Don/Dick sees the hot rod guys - this could be the next world Draper drops into...  Kess, his kid doogie and Walt from Indianapolis, who drinks his beer from a pitcher...

The Board votes unanimously (minus Draper) to proceed with the merger...  

Alice makes a withering remark to Roger regarding his child bride to be.

ALICE - "you have your children to think of."

ROGER - "I have just the one."

ALICE - (deadpan) "Really."

The next shot is a slow withdrawal from Bertram's office.  The world goes on without him...

Kinsey returns from the civil rights march - his girlfriend broke up with him "three days into it."  (making him available for Joan again?  if she dumps the wretched doctor)

COSGROVE - "Have we heard from Don?

JOAN - "Yes.  And he wants you all to get back to work."

then the (hilarious) throw away from Cosgrove to Peggy regarding her new office - "Better get a new couch!"

Betty gives her daughter riding boots, and let's her know what's happening with her father, but that "everything will be OK."

The moment she assumes the role of adult, Sally says "Mommy, you're bleeding!'  Adulthood now in role and reality.

At Anna's house, Dick/Don is mending a chair, creating a strange resonance with Betty's destroying a chair before the night of the big dinner several episodes ago. 

Dick/Don's TAROT CARDS:

by "Thirteen" from the Mad Men Blogs website:

Tarot Reading! 

Did I mention that I read tarot cards? The problem is that there are many different types of Celtic Cross (the spread Anna is using) and they each have different meanings for the card positions. However, the story is generally clear. 

We start with Don as the Sun. But what Anna fails to mention is that he's a reversed Sun. The Sun is about youth and reason, optimism and a new day. What struck me most about this episode was how boyish and kidlike Don was with Anna in the past. Sunny and optimistic. Now he's the reversed Sun, a man who is confused, dark, pessimistic. 

What's getting in his way, "Crossing him" is the 8 of Cups. This is a card about leaving behind what you know, even what you love, to follow after dreams or illusions. Clearly, Don's usual practice of leaving the past behind is not an asset right now. It's keeping him from being the best he can be. 

Below, the root of the situation, is the Page of Pentacles. Which is what Don used to be. A hardworking young man striving for money and security. That's not enough now, however. Above, as Anna points out, is Judgment, which is not only about resurrection, but wiping the slate clean. You have to face the past and come to terms with it. That is what "crowns" Don, what is in his best interest. 

Behind him is the three of Wands reversed. The three of wands is a man waiting to see if his hard work will pay off. Clearly, just recently, Don has felt that all his hard work has not paid off, or brought him something back rather than good. Ahead is the five of swords. Uh-oh. Not good. He's going to get into a fight he can't win. 

Up the "staff" part of the Celtic cross we start with the World, which is, as Anna said, about having the whole world at your command. This is a wise person, a knowledgeable person. A traveler. He can make his home anywhere, and he can make his living at anything. 

Above that we have the 9 of Wands, which is about a lone soldier holding the fort against enemies. I suspect from this and the five of swords that Don will be the lone hold out against the merger. This is likely his "environment." 

Above that we have the wheel of fortune. As we've already seen, fortunes are changing. Some rise like Peggy, some fall like Pete. There are ups and downs for everyone. Don both hopes and fears for a change in fortune. 

The outcome? The 8 of Wands. Things are going to move very fast, and Don is going to find himself in a new position, possibly going up in position and responsibility. 

Any other readers have takes on this spread? 

more from "Thirteen"

Can we interpret this to mean that Don returns to New York, takes on Duck in a losing battle over control of Sterling Cooper, and then moves on to create his own advertising agency?

I'm going to guess that the writers, being into accuracy, knew what they were doing when they laid out that spread and, yes, are making it predictive. In which case, the scenario you suggest for the future sounds about right. Certainly, the 9 of Wands suggests that Don alone will be the one to stand his ground. It's also possible, just possible, that Duck's British friends might betray him and put Don in charge of SC, which would also work for that 8 of Wands. We'll have to wait and see how the writers play out their own tarot card predictions.

Would the cards tell us why Don is promiscuous and such a liar? Is there anything in the cards that would explain Don's special relationship with Peggy?

Anna's spread likely only covers Don's immediate situation. That is, where he's been recently, where he is and where he's going in the near future. Certainly that 8 of Cups, a man leaving 8 cups to follow the moon, could suggest turning his back on Betty and his family and going after other loves and romances. Remember that this is a "crossing" card. That means that, in this spread, his tendency to do this should be read as an impediment, a problem.

There is no indication of his lies, but there is indication of Duck's treachery, his "take-over" attempt in the 5 of Swords. That card shows a swordsman winning everyone else's swords in duels. Duck has out-fenced all those sharp minds running SC, and he's tricked them into handing over their swords to him.

As for Peggy--I'd like to point out this World Card:

The woman in this card holds out her batons there in pretty much the same way the mother in Peggy's ad holds out the popsicles. This world is a mother figure, Peggy's Virgin Mary, offering to all her children whatever it is they need. To Don, Anna is that mother figure.

Now that we've met Anna, I think we can say that Don might see in Peggy something Anna-like. Certainly, his support of Peggy, freely given with no asking for anything in return, is very much like what Anna gave to him. Anna was his mentor when he was naive and still had a lot to learn. Now he is the "master/mentor" to Peggy.

The World is a card that signals both the end and the beginning. It says that you've learned all you need to learn, and now your job is to pass on that learning. To be the teacher, the giver.

Anna's comment when Don told her about meeting "Elizabeth" was that he was in a "lavender haze." I assume that meant she was seeing an aura of happiness surrounding him.

I hadn't thought of that! You're probably right. Good call.

Meditations in an Emergency:

from the blog The Best American Poetry (http://www.bestamericanpoetry.com)

The title of the book began as a very sophisticated literary joke, an allusion to John Donne's "Meditations on Emergent Occasions." But as sometimes happened in O'Hara's poetry, the joke turned out to have a surplus of meaning. His poems are meditations -- but not the kind that comes after hours of quiet thought; they proceed from the heart of noise; they are written on the run, in a hurry, on a lunch break, in a perennial emergency. O'Hara's poems perfectly capture the pace of a New York day in 1962. He is a master of the art of gentle self-laceration: "Now I am quietly waiting for / the catastrophe of my personality / to seem beautiful again, / and interesting, and modern."

Peter Campbell knocks (for the first time) and finds Peggy sipping a drink, celebrating her new office.

PETER - "How the hell did you swing this?"

PEGGY - (deadpan) "I'm sleeping with Don, and it's really working out."

Campbell accepts her as an equal.

Don walks out into the ocean.  Baptism?  The out music, "The Cup of Loneliness" by George Jones would definitely seem to suggest as much.

I see Christian pilgrims so redeemed from sin

Called out of darkness a new life to begin

Were you ever in the valley when the way is dark and dim

Did you ever drink the cup of loneliness with Him

Did you ever have them laugh at you and say it was a fake

The stand that you so boldly for the Lord did take

Did they ever mock at you and laugh in ways quite grim

Did you ever drink the cup of loneliness with Him

Did you ever try to preach then hold fast and pray

And even when you did it there did not seem a way

And you lost all courage then lost all your vim

Did you ever drink the cup of loneliness with him

Oh my friends 'tis bitter sweet while here on earthly sod

To follow in the footsteps that our dear Savior trod

To suffer with the Savior and when the way is dark and dim

To drink of the bitter cup of loneliness with Him

My biggest question still is:  How did Don Draper/Dick Whitman land his job on Madison Avenue?  He went from the farm, to the army, to the used car lot, to Madison Avenue?  That's the big mystery for me, and I don't foresee disappointment when we find out!

***

Lines to puzzle over:

Anna to Dick/Don (about the original Don Draper) - "He wanted to marry my sister - she looks just like me, with two good legs."

Betty to Sally - "Someday you'll want something, and I won't be able to give it to you."

Alice to Bertram - "You ruined that poor architect's life."

Anna to Dick/Don - "You are part of the world.  Air, water, every living thing is connected to you."  "The only thing keeping you from being happy is the belief that you are alone."

Random note - I remembered who Duck reminds me of - he's like if you took both the Darrins on "Bewitched" and combined them, 60% Sargent, 40 % York...

Until next week's season finale,

Mad-Mango!