Mad Men 609 'The Better Half' Recap
So. This was the episode that Mad Men went totally MAD.
‘You obviously had a traumatizing experience.’ Peg said.
‘Don’t patronize me.’ Abe answered.
S6E9 revisited the traumatizing experience, casting the shadow of confusion, chaos and violence on those who were not on the spot and claimed that a few lunatics would not ruin their gorgeous nights.
As if answering to Don’s epiphany in the last episode - It is nothing but history that holds people together, people of the past did appear or was mentioned in this episode. Here was Duck. And they mentioned the late Pryce and Gleason and Robert Kennedy.
Due to its role that drew people together, the past was obliged to be something precious and wonderous. Or, as the popular ‘Planet of the Apes’ indicated, the past was ‘the paradise’. Soon after Duck disclosed that the wellspring of his confidence was his family, we saw a family-reunion - in a camp site or a countryside b&b. Lost in the amazement of the oozing sweetness of Bobby and his handsome father and beautiful mother, we found ourselves cannot but agree with Duck- Family could be paradise-y.
Or could it?
Because it was an episode about the collapsing of family and of loving couples. Its theme wasn’t Duck’s motto, it’s Betty’s - ‘Loving you is the worst way to get closer to you’.
The couples, if not families, broke up. It sent a thrill down the spine of mine to see Abe accused Peg ‘you are always the enemy’. Maybe he was confused, or maybe it was true and it was because he said nothing and we couldn’t tell that he had long been frustrated about his girlfriend being a conservative high-brow bread-maker. But the accusement still was horrible, as horrible as the stabbing (why people keep stabbing??), considering of the high possibility that he might not survive and the accusement would hurt and haunt Peg, for, like, ever. To quote Arlene, you could not disagree, but you didn’t have to embarrass or in this context destroy, her. This scene resembled the previous quarrel between Pete and Trudy. Pete could not tell Trudy the unspeakable deeds of her father, yet he did. Anyhow, thanks God Abe made it.
Then it was the issue between Peg and Ted. It did not work out. It was like a blow in the face to see two men closing the door with unconscious indifference in front of Peg, in the acme of her vulnerablity. But in the end, there was nothing wrong with Ted being the guy who went to bed before 2 p.m., otherwise it would be too confusing.
To stop the confusion, Joan asked Roger to stop dropping by without notice. ‘I know you want to. But I can’t count on that’, Joan shrugged when Roger claimed that he only wanted to be around.
‘The forbidden zone is once a paradise.’ This depressed episode was a manifesto of the invalidity of love of all sorts, showing that love was a mere intermezzo, a midway thing. It was in the constant threat of violence - the robbery, the neighbourhood chaos, the stabbing spines, the words of wrath. Midway it was cut short. And you went astray, finding yourself alone in the darkness of the forbidden zone.
Maybe Matthew Weiner was confused or maybe it did happen. Alert when you are in love, but the other part just says ‘I missed you.’
Don’t count on that. Take a note.
