The question “Who is Don Draper?” has always to some extent been Mad Men’s bread and butter. Fourth season opener Public Relations makes no attempt to answer this question – rather, it goes some way to muddying the waters as Don learns to adapt “who he is” in order to suit his new circumstances.
On the subject of new circumstances we pick up in 1964, a little less than a year after season 3’s conclusion. The newly formed Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce have moved on up from their cosy hotel suite (a little disappointing not to see that setup in action) to small but swanky new digs inside the Time-Life building. They’re still ironing out some issues with the space– namely its fictional second floor and lack of a conference table – and struggling to compete with bigger fish for accounts.
Hence the need for Don to endear himself to the press; unlike at Sterling Cooper where the reticent, enigmatic persona worked for him, he’s now effectively the public face of a company that’s in desperate need of promotion. In other words, Don Draper has become a human ad campaign for SCDP. Like the high profile Glo-Coat campaign he masterminded, his role is to look convincingly enough like something else that the public forget they’re being sold to at all.
Unfortunately he’s not very good at it initially, for ironically the very same reason that he dismisses the Jantzen clients: prudishness. He, just like them, wants to “find a way through without playing in the gutter”, in other words courting the press. Pete and Peggy, though, are young and go-getting and have none of the same qualms about grabbing headlines, and hence cook up a scheme whereby two women fight publicly over a meat client’s branded ham to create a buzz around the product. Admittedly, there are one or two hiccups along the way – most notably a bail charge Peggy’s forced to ask Don to front – but Sugarberry sell more hams, and that’s ultimately all that matters. And so Don is forced to learn his own lesson, and accepts the need to figuratively whore himself out to the press. The episode ends with a second interview, now to the Wall Street Journal, Don narrating the victorious story of SCDP’s founding like a seasoned pro, embellishing here, throwing in Western-inspired metaphors there, transforming their "scrappy upstart" into something altogether more attractive for potential clients.
It’s not just Don who’s adapted to his surroundings - Peggy, sporting a bouncy new ‘do and an artistic assistant with whom she shares both office space and in-jokes, is tangibly more confident. There’s a self-assurance in the way she casually admonishes Joey, perches atop her desk sipping malt on the rocks, stands up to Don’s posturing, that is entirely new and suits her very well. But there are still chinks in her armour; in her phone call to Don, Elisabeth Moss played very subtly the almost childlike fear of admonishment, her little “…hello?” as she’s afraid he’s hung up. As she tells him, no matter how much any of them have changed, all they want is to please him.
Pete, who’s probably been more defined by a desire to please Don than any other character, has also matured noticeably. Though still on classic obsequious form (telling Don other companies can't compete “because you don’t work there”) he’s also sharp, attentive and very, very good at his job. He was the only person to really handle the HoHo situation calmly, Roger seemed confident that he could talk the Jantzen guys into meeting again, and he even seems to have developed an amicable working relationship with Don. Don’s weary “You don’t say that to the clients, do you?” spoke of a comfort and familiarity that hasn’t existed between these two before.
Pete and Peggy, too, are now working effectively as a team - being chosen for the new company seems to have reshuffled both of their priorities, and they’re both ambitious enough to put their history aside for the good of SCDP. Whether this will last remains to be seen, and there’s still a part of me that wonders whether the baby storyline won’t rear its ugly head again.
Roger and Don’s relationship also seemed a little different, with Roger coming down much harder on Don than he has in the past. Compared to last season where Roger barely had any stake at all in the company, now he cares what happens, and by extent he cares what Don does. You know things are bad when Roger Sterling is telling you that your behaviour “isn’t appropriate”. It's interesting to see the sheen coming off Don a little bit – instead of sitting in awe after his latest inspired pitch, this episode saw everybody cringing after he lost them the Hi-Li account, with only Joan staying back to reassure him that the crisis will pass.
Similarly, his date with Jane’s friend initially goes well but his advances in the car come off as “grabby”. His downtown apartment is drab and dark, he’s not eating properly despite his stoical housekeeper’s efforts, and he seems to work constantly even when his children visit. In an especially low moment, he hires a prostitute to slap him around, even asking her to do it "harder", and it's pretty clear that this isn't the first time. There’s all kinds of ways this moment could be read, and aside from clearly tapping into Don’s deep, deep self-loathing issues, it recalled the idea of him as a “whore child”. The fact that he enjoys being beaten and dominated by a prostitute, when his own prostitute mother named him after her wish to emasculate him, probably isn’t a coincidence. Although Dick Whitman wasn’t referenced in the episode his shadow was writ large – the reporter who asked “Who is Don Draper?” lost his leg in the same war the real Don Draper died in.
Last and quite possibly least, we caught up with Betty late on in the episode, whose new hair and costume choices have aged her by roughly ten years. She's married Henry Francis, is living with him rent-free in the Draper house, and is still contending for Mother Of The Year with her treatment of an increasingly rebellious Sally. Interesting that the cracks are already beginning to show in the new marriage – Henry’s mother seems to have Betty’s number from the get-go, telling him that the children are terrified of her and that he could have got what he wanted from her without marrying. Ouch. Henry himself, by the way, is shaping up to be a decent enough guy and actually sides with Don on the totally unreasonable house situation, though Don’s “Believe me, everybody thinks this is temporary” was mighty enjoyable nonetheless. Betty’s insistence on staying in the house seems to be more about punishing Don than anything, and it can’t be too long before Henry starts to question her feelings for him, which to me are based very much on an idea rather than a reality. Wouldn’t be the first time.
Other thoughts:
- So Roger’s writing a book? Intriguing. Can’t wait to hear the title.
- Speaking of Roger, he was on form this episode - I counted seven Sterling patented zingers in this episode alone. “They can’t even afford a whole reporter” was up there with his ‘foot in the door’ line from last season: terrible, but hilarious. Nothing like missing body part humour.
- Did anyone else think Don’s secretary looked like a brown-haired Anne Dudek, a.k.a. Betty’s BFF Francine? Now THAT would be an interesting dynamic.
- Pete had a couple of great lines, too, notably “I can use my expense account if I say they’re whores!” and Vincent K’s great delivery when he mentioned he thought Ho Ho was crying. Heh.
- Much as I’m sure he can indeed do a button, I just can’t picture Don Draper sewing anything. Doesn’t sit right.
- Harry’s “I wish we really had a second floor so I could jump off it”, is possibly a reference to the dropped first season plotline which would have had Harry committing suicide from an office window, mirroring the credit sequence.
