Welcome to your bi-curious Mad Men Post Mortem.
Warning: Spoilers Ahead
This week we had quite an episode so let’s jump right into it.
- The episode starts with Sally heading off to the Model UN. Looks like Francis is grooming her to follow in his footsteps which – actually – is nice. Certainly more fatherly attention than Don has ever paid her. 1968 was the first year the event was opened to high schoolers so she was quite the pioneer.
- Mitchell Rosen sure got himself into a fine mess. For those, like me, who weren’t entirely familiar with the jargon being tossed around, an 1-A classification would have meant that Mitch (Can I call him Mitch? Sure – why not?) would have been eligible for service. He was technically eligible for classification as 2-S which would have deferred his service while he was in school but he failed to file the proper paper work out of protest. Megan offered to hook him up with her relatives in Canada to help dodge the draft which was actually a thing people did to the tune of 50,000-125,000 voting age American males during the span of the war. Don instead worked out a deal where Mitch could voluntarily enlist in the National Guard which would mean serving domestically instead of overseas. This was also a thing people really did. In fact, this was actually a thing my dad did specifically having also served in the Air National Guard as a mechanic. The joke was on them, though. The government eventually got so desperate for bodies to send overseas they deployed around 7,000 National Guardsmen to Vietnam so it was not quite the risk-free venture it was made out to be.
- Mitch’s storyline also touched on the May 1968 Paris riots he supposedly participated in. The French uprising was part of the global New Left movement characterized by protest of the Vietnam War and a general left-leaning ideology. French society at the time was restrictively conservative ruled over by the paternalistic Charles de Gaulle. The uprising sprang from unrest in many sectors of society amalgamating into one giant movement. Students protested their restrictive curriculum. Workers protested working conditions. Women campaigned for women’s rights. The protests were of great enough scope that they could have overthrown the government had they been able to focus their efforts but unfortunately, similar to recent left movements, they were unable to do so. Ultimately de Gaulle granted some of the demands of the protesters and agreed to hold a special public election in which he was re-elected into office only to resign less than a year later after failing to pass a referendum restructuring the French Senate and local governments. Below is actual footage of the event.
- We saw a little Pete and Peggy interaction (Oh my gosh my heart stopped when his mom mistook her for Trudy) which reminded me why I love the two of them together. She’s the only one able to bring out that sweeter side of his. That is unless he’s gay (entirely possible – he’s certainly never had a fulfilling relationship with a woman) in which case perhaps there might be someone else out there who could also bring out that softer side which brings us to the knee nudge heard round the world.
- Is Bob Benson a friend of Dorothy? Is this the big reveal we’ve been waiting for? Opinions on the web vary. I’m of the mind that he is in fact a geigh. Weiner seems to like to set up minor characters to help tell the story of broader societal events and this would gear us up for Stonewall in ’69. Maybe Bob will finally get an awkward hug from Joan. Do I think all his hustling has been for the sake of getting into Pete’s pants? No. There’s definitely more to learn about this mysterious minx.
- The episode ended with Sally finally having her eyes opened to Don’s misogynistic ways. She felt betrayed by him before when he lied to her over the existence of the real Mrs. Draper but she was able to twist that one around and blame it on Betty. This time there’s no twisting. Not only did she catch him right in the act but he lied to her about it afterwards. If this isn’t a catalyst for Sally to get involved in the Women’s Lib movement I will be very disappointed.
