Wednesday, January 07, 2015

Re-watching ‘Mad Men’: S2/Ep4, “Three Sundays”

An episode that starts off a little soft (I’m not a big fan of the Peggy/priest storyline, in general) ramps up in a big way halfway through when Sterling Cooper learns its pitch to American Airlines is happening a week earlier than expected. Everyone comes in on Palm Sunday, and for the first time we truly get to see Don work a problem from the beginning. Knowing the effort that goes into the pitch makes the final aborted meeting with American all the more of a gutshot.

Best Scene: It’s really one long sequence in three parts: Don comes home after the failed American Airlines pitch and Bobby does another thing to make Betty mad, leading to an intense fight between Betty and Don that ends with them shoving each other. But the tension melts away as quickly as it began when poor little Bobby appears in the doorway and asks Don about his father. In a crushing line, Bobby says: “We have to get you a new daddy.” The sequence concludes that evening as Don and Betty are turning in for the night; Betty is still after Don to spank the children, but Don refuses. “My father beat the hell outta me,” he tells her. “All it did was make me fantasize about the day I could murder him. … And I wasn’t half as good as Bobby.”

Best Line: Don to Betty: “You want me to bring home what I got at the office today? I’ll put you through that window.”

Grade: B+

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