Mad Men 1.6: Like a dog playing the piano

It's Mother's Day. Don has prepared a breakfast for Betty. While bringing the tray up the stairs, he slips on a toy and falls. He flashes back to the day of Adam's birth. "He's not my brother," he declares jealously. Grownups explain that he and Adam have the same dad.

Betty is terrified of old age, but she thinks the therapy is helping. Don, who never knew his own mother, disapproves of mourning. Betty tells Don she thinks about sex with him at all day long.

The client wants to promote Israeli as a tourist destination. The madmen have difficulty brainstorming about a place that they associated with Jews, Arabs, and guns. I think one of them says that Bermuda is nearby -- zzt, wrong, Bermuda is in the Atlantic ocean, nowhere near Israel.

I have a note here that says "Roger's wife Mona and troubled daughter Margaret." I don't recall what this is in reference to. It might have been when they showed up at the office and there was some talk of getting Margaret a haircut; Joan charmingly told Mona she'd recommend a good stylist.

Roger and Joan meet somewhere for a tryst. They've been having an affair for a year. Roger wants to "keep" her, but even one week is too long Joan. She says she and her roommate Carol have bigger plans with boyfriends. Roger thinks Joan should get a bird to keep her company instead. Joan jokes that the '61 models are coming out soon, and they have bigger fins; her flippant tone hides a not-too-subtle sadness.

The madmen are still brainstorming Israel. There's a Paul Newman movie out called Exodus. One of them jokes about enjoying danger. Don reminds them to leave religion out of it. Paul thinks the place is "too communist." The movie makes them think of women with guns. Sal says to change it to women and diamonds.

Don calls Rachel to ask her to lunch. A male secretary answers.

At home, Betty tells Don her first kiss was with a Jewish boy. The other girls were jealous. It's incredibly hot; she asks Don to get an air conditioner.

A new client, Belle Jolie, sells lipstick. The men don't understand about lipstick, so they recruit "morons" from the secretarial pool to do a focus group. The madmen watch the women through one-way glass as they try on questions and answer apparently intimidating, complicated questions about lipstick, such as how many lipsticks do they buy in a year. Joan, who is wearing a bright red dress, gives the men a show by sticking her butt out them in the mirrored window.

At lunch, Rachel is amused by Don's mention of the "Exodus" movie. "Don't cross the Israelis," she advises Don. She is annoyed by his ignorance and presumption. Israel is more an idea than a place, she tells him. Utopia means both "a good place" and "a place that can never be."

After the brainstorming session, Peggy refers to the discarded facial tissues as "a basket of kisses." One of the men asks, "who told you that?" (Is that not the most insulting thing? When you say something and someone asks you how you knew that, or who taught you that? Gaaaah!! I'm glad I wasn't born any sooner than I was!) Peggy has other good ideas. Watching through the glass with some other men, Joan (who had no original or clever ideas of her own) is scornful and dismissive. She says it's like watching a dog play the piano. One of the men (I don't remember if it's the client or someone else) wants to give the writing assignment to Peggy.

Rachel calls her sister to talk about men. She hints around about Don.

A very pissy, envious Joan tells Peggy about the writing assignment. She'll get no pay or comp time for this work. It's obvious that Joan is very envious, even if she may not realize it herself. I think she simply sees Peggy as an uppity female who will never gain the prize that is required of all true women - to find a husband.

Don meets with Midge (I'm not sure if he called first). Roy is there. They have plans to listen to hippies, or beatniks, or whatever they were called in 1960, at a coffee house.

Roger and Joan meet for another tryst. He's bought her a bird. Joan is self-conscious about having sex in front of the bird.

Don, Midge, and Roy go to a coffee house full of would-be avant-garde artists mingling with pretentious wannabes and drips. Roy presents Don with questions about his profession which Roy probably thinks are evocative and challenging, but Don finds him self-important and pretentious.

Roy: How do you sleep at night?
Don: On a bed made out of money.

Roy's friend Ian shows up and sings a song about Zion. Don leaves.