Mad Men Season 6, Episode 11, “Favors”

Roger begins this week’s episode by revealing that he can juggle, telling Don, “See? Not all surprises are bad.” However, this episode features a number of characters discovering surprises, nearly all of them construed as bad. The biggest and most portentous is a pair of mutual surprises Don and Sally give one another: Sally surprises Don by walking in on his latest tryst with Sylvia, while Don surprises Sally by revealing himself as a philanderer. My predictions about Don and Sylvia’s affair leading to disaster seem to have come to fruition, or very nearly so. After their mutual surprises, Don and Sally next confront one another late in the episode, at Megan's dinner table, where Sally cannot meet Don's eyes. When Arnold and his son Mitchell make an appearance to thank Don for helping Mitchell avoid becoming a draft dodger, Don gets Arnold’s thanks, which prompts Megan to fawn over how sweet Don is for helping their neighbors (an about-face from his disinterest earlier in the episode). This display of hypocrisy is too much for young Sally, who shouts at Don what many viewers have long wanted to shout many times over the course of Mad Men’s run: “You make me sick!” She then storms out of the dining room and locks herself in her bedroom. It’s a cathartic moment for those of us who’ve wanted Don to get his act together (although this shock is unlikely to change his habits or increase self-understanding), but it is also a profoundly sad moment, as it is a product of the destruction of whatever faith Sally still had in her father. However, once again, what’s bad for characters is exciting for viewers: this development significantly shifts the power relations between them, as Sally indicates when she subsequently refuses to open her door for Don, stating, “You don’t get to talk to me anymore.” Perhaps Don being beholden to Sally will lead Don to being a more attentive parent in a (futile?) attempt to redeem himself; or perhaps Sally will simply use her knowledge to try to manipulate Don – she would certainly do so were the same thing to happen between her and Betty.

However, Sally’s relationship with her dad has always been kinder and gentler than what she has with her mom, which is precisely what makes Sally’s discovery so sad. The episode goes to some lengths to emphasize this difference; near the start, Sally sticks it to Betty when Betty tries to block her from participating in a school activity, telling her mom, “You hate that daddy supports my dreams. He doesn’t think that I’m just a pain in the ass.” Sally storms off, and Betty sarcastically shouts after her, “Your father is a hero.” While the two are using Don as a prop in their own private war, there is some truth to what they say; Don has always been something of a life raft for Sally, albeit an unreliable one, as we saw in the wonderful season 4 episode, “The Beautiful Girls.” However, Don has never disappointed Sally in this way before. Kiernan Shipka is great in the subsequent scene where Don talks to Sally through her door. Don tells her that he was comforting Sylvia, and that what Sally saw is complicated. Sally’s streetwise enough to know the truth: this wasn’t comfort, but sex, and it wasn’t complicated, but terribly transparent (after all, she knows where babies come from: “the man pees inside of the woman”). Nevertheless, she limply agrees to accept Don’s lies, and tacitly agrees to keep his secret before collapsing onto her bed in tears, the picture of shattered innocence. Poor Sally.

The episode ends with Don retreating to his bedroom, looking down the hall to Sally’s door, seeming like he’s not quite sure if he just dodged a bullet. However, in dodging the bullet, he’s managed to wound Sally. Her lost faith in her father, coupled with her being pulled into Don’s web of shame and deceit, will only serve to make her even more disillusioned with the world than she already is.

Pete is also surprised by events this episode: not only does he learn that Bob Benson is gay, but that he’s gay, and in love with Pete! Oh, Bob. Poor Bob and his terrible taste in men. Still, if Bob had to fall in love with a straight man from Sterling Cooper & Partners, at least he picked one of the more politically progressive people at the firm as the object of his affections. True, Pete callously dismisses homosexuals as “degenerates” when Bob hints that Manolo (the nurse Bob recommended for Pete’s mother) isn’t interested in women. However, consider Pete’s reaction after Bob lays out his hopes and feelings for Pete in a thinly-veiled, moving, but ultimately futile inquiry about the possibility of Pete ever loving him: Pete doesn’t haul off and punch Bob in the face, nor does he fire him on the spot. Instead, he simply receives Bob’s overture coolly, and tells him in no uncertain terms that it’s never going to happen between the two of them, calling homosexuality “disgusting.”* It’s a sad moment for both characters: Bob has his heart broken (although he hides it well), while Pete dismisses a person who can provide him with exactly the kind of attention he needs: someone to dote upon him and treat him like the petulant child he is. This repartee is amply demonstrate throughout this scene as Bob orders Pete to sit down when Pete has a tantrum, then makes him drink his alcohol like a good little boy, and then asks Pete if he feels better afterwards, which he does.

* There is somewhat of a threat behind Pete’s words here, as he tells Bob to give Manolo 30 days notice, which could be construed as a warning to Bob: keep this up and you’ll be fired too. However, depending on how easily Bob is able to bury his feelings, I don’t think this is the last we’ll see of Bob Benson. 

Ted also has a surprise this week: he learns that Roger has been courting Sunkist while Ted has been soliciting Ocean Spray, which represents a conflict of interest for the firm, since both potential clients sell juices. This week provides a steady stream of insights into Ted: We get a bit of his home life, and discover things are somewhat rocky there, as Ted’s wife notices how consumed he is by his work (and with matching wits with Don). It’s an interesting contrast with how Don deals with his family problems: Ted tries to talk it out rather than drink it out, and seems genuinely engaged with his kids. Ted also puts his working relationship with Don in the following terms: “Imagine if every time Ginger Rogers jumped in the air, Fred Astaire punched her in the face.”* Without even trying, Don has wormed his way so far into Ted’s head that Ted reads everything Don does as directed at him; he seems to be unaware that Don simply isn’t interested in devoting his full attention to the company, or that Don is so invested in his love affair with Sylvia that he’s foolishly willing to jeopardize his relationship with clients.

* Aside from the high comedy of the mental image, I also like that in Ted's mind, he’s Ginger Rogers.

Ted sees all of this behavior as directed at him, and only after angrily confronting Don over his behavior at a Chevy dinner (where Don took the temperature of the Chevy reps regarding draft dodgers) does he realize Don is simply preoccupied. Nice guy that he is, Ted offers to help Don with Arnold’s kid through his contacts in the Air National Guard, but his help comes with a price: no more competition between the two of them. Don thinks this is an easy price to pay, but Ted tells him not to dismiss it, since it’s seemed impossible so far. Don agrees, and Ted makes his point explicit: “This is not a handshake of gratitude; this is a binding contract.” Don replies, “Of course. Whatever you want.” Perhaps I’m reading too much into it, but it seemed to me like Don is implicitly handing Ted authority over major clientele decisions.

Peggy was also surprised this week, first by a rat in her apartment, and then by inadvertently being reminded by Pete’s mom of Peggy and Pete’s romantic history, and the baby she gave away (which seems like it happened on another show, considering how long ago it was and how much Peggy has changed since then). Given that Peggy seemed to be clutching at romantic straws in this episode (as with her calling Stan in the middle of the night to help her with the rat, offering to “make it worth his while”), I was half-worried she was going to reach out to Pete, but she ends up getting a cat instead. At this point, a cat is a better option than any of the men in her life (also interesting to note: she's now a smoker, which she wasn't at the end of last season). Speaking of Pete and Peggy, Pete has also come a long way from the jealous guy who once told Peggy he disliked seeing her happy around other guys. Observing Peggy and Ted flirting after their Ocean Spray pitch makes him savvy to their feelings for one another, and he seems to encourage them. Ted also notes Pete and Peggy’s familiar repartee, and seems to get the false impression that the two might have feelings for one another.

Other thoughts:

- I trust that Sylva and Don are permanently caput at this point, which is fine by me. Notice that Don had zero interest in helping Mitchell (Sylvia and Arnold’s kid) until Arnold sobs to Don about his predicament over drinks. Don was done with Sylvia, but her gratitude to him for saving her kid pulled him back toward her.

- Don seems to have a moment of genuine remorse for his affair after Sally catches him with Sylvia. On the elevator down to the lobby during his search for Sally, he looks on the verge of tears – a rare display of emotion from him. However, after the arc we’ve seen Don go on over the past three seasons, I have little faith that it will prompt Don to clean up his act. Don is so ossified that change and introspection do not come easily to him

- Nice sound bridge: when Don tells Megan that Mitchell is not their problem, the sound of a propeller jet passing overhead provides a transition to the next scene of Peggy, Pete, and Ted drinking after their meeting with Ocean Spray. Very Vietnam film-chic.

- Arnold asks Don what he would do in Arnold’s situation regarding Mitchell’s draft status, and Don replies, “If it was my kid, or if it was me?” We know very well what Don would do. Also interesting: watching the riots at the Chicago Democratic Convention last week, Don put himself in the shoes of the police rather than the protesters, but this week, he is at least with it enough to know that the war is wrong.

- Sally’s friend explains to Megan that Sally has a crush on Mitchell after Sally storms out of the dining room and Don follows after her. Megan accepts this explanation, as if it explains what to Megan must appear to be very strange behavior. I suppose Megan needed to be given some sort of explanation, lest she appear an idiot for not becoming suspicious after Sally's outburst, but this explanation makes hardly any sense. I chose to interpret this as her being truly clueless about Don, rather than her being dim in general.

- Sylvia tells Don he was good to her. Sylvia needs to have her head examined.

- Pete’s mother might have dementia, but she’s still with it enough to accurately call Pete a sour little boy.

- Don deals with Sally's discovery by drinking. No surprise here, but I like the economy with which the show indicates it: a lone, beautifully composed shot of him at a bar (and then Megan smelling the alcohol on him when he comes home).