Mad Men Season 7, Episode 10, "The Forecast”

“The Forecast” is an aptly-named episode, as it finds many characters thinking about what they want out of the future and who they want to be. This episode finds Don having to write a speech for Roger about the future of SC&P for their bosses at McCann. Don’s at a loss for what to write about, and I think there are multiple competing possibilities for why it’s such a struggle for him.

Perhaps it’s a struggle because he’s already achieved his professional dreams: he’s the creative head of an agency at which he is a partner; he’s famous and highly regarded in his profession, and he’s wildly rich (even after giving Megan a million dollars). Or perhaps he’s at a loss for what to write because, for a man who thinks that happiness is the feeling you have before you want more happiness, the future offers only the false hope, and that true satisfaction is impossible.* Or perhaps it’s because in living his life as Don Draper, he’s achieved his own dream of escaping from life as Dick Whitman (despite how problematic this has been for his personal life). I.e., Don Draper has no goals for the future because he’s a put-on that Dick Whitman acts out every day.

* Don’s description of happiness is the most well-remembered part of his business pitch to Dow Chemical, but even more telling is another of his lines from that scene: “Even though success is a reality, its effects are temporary.” 

The latter possibility is particularly compelling in light of a couple of interactions he has throughout the episode. In the course of firing Mathis for screwing up an account (and for insubordination), Mathis accuses Don of having no character, and of just being handsome. Like many other scenes throughout this episode, this one ends with a shot of Don looking visibly upset; perhaps he secretly feels the same way about himself.

Something similar happens in a conversation he has with his realtor, Melanie, about different approaches to selling his apartment (or selling things in general). Don, of course, is an advocate of making up a story about the apartment that helps get the prospective buyers to see it the way he wants them to; projecting a fantasy that they can live in long enough for them to buy what he’s selling. Melanie throws cold water on the fantasies Don would try to spin, describing what the apartment actually is: “It looks like a sad person lives here…. He got divorced, spilled wine on the carpeting and didn’t care enough to replace it, even for himself…. This place reeks of failure.” If Melanie knew Don better, her ability to see his personal life for what it is would probably terrify him. Don still wants others to see the persona he’s created for himself, the fantasy he tries to live, shying away from the sadness that still eats away at him, and that prompted him to spin the fantasy in the first place. His approach to his personal life is what has made him so successful professionally, but it leaves him at a loss for what to write about in a speech about the future.

In the course of Don’s struggle to write the speech, he turns to a succession of other characters to ask them about what they want for the future. And I’m glad he does, because it leads to a scene between Peggy and Don (finally!) where he asks her about her dreams. Their scene together is more along lines of what I had been hoping for from a Peggy storyline for the rest of the series, albeit a bit more explicitly than what I expected. Don pushes her here, asking for her to describe bigger and bigger goals, and she tells him that not only does she want to eventually become the first woman creative head of the agency, but that ultimately, she wants to create something of lasting value. When laid out like this, it’s clear that there isn’t enough time left in the series for us to see Peggy achieve all of these goals, but just knowing that this is the kind of future she wants for herself is relatively satisfying.

Also satisfying is Peggy’s reaction to Don’s incredulity that she can ever achieve something of lasting value in the advertising industry. Don does not seem to have malicious intent in laughing at her here, but it upsets Peggy, who is sensitive to this kind of reaction from Don after so many years of putting up with his abuse. The same is true of her nonplussed reaction to his earlier smile when she tells him about wanting be the head of the agency: “That’s funny to you?” I saw pride on Don’s face, not patronization, but Peggy is wary of being vulnerable in front of Don, given their past. Peggy leaves in a huff, telling him to write down his own dreams so she can shit on them, which I liked because it once again shows how far the two have come. Peggy will not tolerate even the slightest whiff of bullshit from Don, and knows how handle it when it comes her way. Moreover, Don seems stunned by her storming off, which can be read a couple of ways: perhaps he didn’t realize she would be so upset over his reaction, or perhaps he realizes then that he has no dreams for her to make fun of.

Near the episode’s end, Don finally does come up with a statement about the future, but it’s not about his future or the future of SC&P, but about Sally’s future. He has dinner with her and her friends before they leave on a whirlwind bus trip down the east coast, asking each of them what they want to be when they grow up. Sally’s friend Sarah uses this exchange as an opportunity to flirt with Don. Naturally, this disgusts Sally, who just went through the same thing earlier in the episode with Betty and Glen (more on them below). She thinks the worst of both her parents here, which is unsurprising, given her tenuous respect for Don and complete lack of respect for Betty.*

*Sally’s inference about Betty’s attraction to Glen is more accurate than accurate than her inference about Don. However, in Betty’s case, Sally does not know Betty’s intimate history with Glen. She might understand her mother’s reaction better if she had, although she would also probably still be grossed out.

When Don asks Sally about her dreams for the future in the restaurant, she dodges the question, but when they get a moment alone before Sally boards the bus, Sally scolds Don, and gives him the most poetically just response she could possibly give, one that demonstrates unequivocally that she’s just as much Don’s daughter as Betty’s: “You know what I want for the future? I want to get on a bus, and get away from you and mom, and hopefully be a different person than you two.” Essentially, Sally wants to do exactly what Don did by becoming someone else. And it horrifies him. In an effort to protect his daughter from making the same mistake he did, he tries to tell her that there’s no escape from who you are, and that it’s up to her to be more than that. It’s a sobering moment for a man who lives in the illusion he created for himself, to so thoroughly impress upon his closest kin that she must do the opposite to be happy.

If only Don could think clearly about his own life in those terms. At the episode’s end, Melanie has successfully sold Don’s apartment, and she cheerfully tells him, “Now we have to find a place for you.” She’s referring to a new apartment for Don, but given Don’s reaction, it can easily be read in terms of the dilemma Don’s been struggling with throughout the episode: figuring out what he wants for his own future, outside of living the evidently unfulfilling life he created himself when choosing to become Don Draper.

Joan is also thinking about the future in this episode, but has trouble reconciling what she wants with what she already has. Joan meets a new romantic prospect, Richard, and eventually tells him that she finally has the job she’s always wanted. It’s nice to hear her say it, as this has not been the way she’s viewed her job in the past, even as recently as last week, where she needed yet another character (Peggy) to make her see the kind of power she has. Granted, she might be telling Richard that she loves her job just to put on a good face for him, but even so, it’s taken her a long to time to even be able to fake professional contentment.

Even if she has the job she’s always wanted, she clearly doesn’t have the life she’s always wanted. As she told Bob Benson in the first half of the season, she wants love. And she thinks might have found it with smooth-operator Richard. It’s easy to see why Joan is drawn to him: he’s slick, well-mannered, and spontaneous, but also honest and self-aware. He knows what he wants, and is clever about expressing it.* He also puts Joan on a pedestal, which is comforting for her, as that is how she’s used to being treated by people that are seriously interested in her. Moreover, he also seems to match Joan in his penchant for picking up on subtle cues (if not her ability to make accurate inferences). When he notices Joan checking her watch during their dinner date, he immediately assumes she’s married and asks her where she told her husband she would be.

* One of his best lines: “A woman like you wants to talk to me? I’m a little nearsighted, not blind.” 

However, their courtship is not without hiccups. When Richard reveals that he has no interest in being a father to Joan’s son Kevin, he appears to be yet one more disappointing man in Joan’s life, which seems to be the only kind of man she gets involved with (Roger, Greg, Bob, even Paul Kinsey). And for the first time (or at least the first time the show has revealed), this leads Joan to resent her son. The next morning Joan gets into an argument with her babysitter before leaving for work. The babysitter picks up Kevin as Joan is on her way out the door, and before she leaves, she turns to them and says, “You’re ruining my life!” It’s a part of her conversation with the babysitter, but it’s really directed at Kevin. It’s selfish of her, but Joan never wanted to be a single mother trying to find love, and she can’t help but unfairly resent Kevin for scuttling her prospects with Richard.

Before she leaves, Kevin says bye, and Joan pauses on her way out the door, her posture seemingly a mixture of shame and exhaustion, before saying goodbye back. Thus when Richard visits her at the office to apologize, it’s shocking to hear her tell him she’s willing to send her son away so that they can be together. A part of me thinks this is a step too far in the writing of her character. Previously, she had been a stalwart defender of Kevin’s childhood, having her (obnoxious) mother move in with her to help her take care of the child, and refusing to let Roger get too close to Kevin or to tell him the truth, lest Roger be given the opportunity to disappoint Kevin just has he had so frequently disappointed her. Now, she’s suddenly willing to send Kevin away? For a guy she just met?

Perhaps her resolve has been worn down by assholes like those she encountered last episode at McCann; gentlemen who can treat her the way she wants to be treated are becoming rarer, and she's desperate to latch onto the latest one to show an interest. Or perhaps she’s just being impulsive here and doesn’t really mean what she said (even though that’s not how Christina Hendricks plays it). However, to me it feels like the show needed to spend more time developing her unfair resentment of her child and the difficulty she’s had finding love in order to make me believe she’d be willing to give him up this quickly. On the other hand, maybe I also don’t want to believe she would actually do it because it would make me like her less as a character.

UPDATE: Several people have pointed out to me that Joan is being sarcastic here, making this exchange make a lot more sense. I guess I missed it because Hendricks lets the implausibility convey a lot of the sarcasm, rather than her tone of voice.

Thankfully, Richard has a change of heart and is open to the possibility of a life of being involved in Kevin's life, allowing us to forget what Joan just said to him. He seems like kind of the guy with whom Joan could end up, not the least of which is because he’s basically a better version of Roger. They’re both witty older men, rich, and divorced for seemingly similar reasons (Roger wanted Jane, whereas Richard wanted freedom). Richard, however, wants more from Joan than a “the best piece of ass” he’s ever had; he genuinely seems to care for her, and he’s much more responsible, as indicated by his willingness to take on Joan’s family.

Despite its title, “The Forecast” isn’t entirely future-oriented, as the episode picks up a long-dormant storyline about Betty. Glen returns for what is likely his final appearance of the series, and has his first encounter with Betty since the end of season 4 (6 years, in show time). Glen has been a foil for Sally for the latter half of the series, but his appearance in this episode recalls the way he was used in the first 3 seasons, as Betty’s kindred spirit. Despite their age difference, Betty forged an unlikely emotional connection with Glen in season 1: the two had approximately the same degree of emotional maturity, and connected with one another over their mutual loneliness. In one early episode, Glen even says to Betty that he wished he were older, implying that if he were, he’d be able to provide her with the kind of (sexual?) comfort they both clearly wanted (and in another, he offers to rescue her from her unhappiness). Eventually, Betty and Glen became estranged from one another: Betty recognized their relationship as inappropriate, and turned Glen down when he was still a child. When Sally grew older and also started to forge a connection with Glen (one built on commiseration over their mutually unhappy childhoods), Betty jealously forbid Sally from seeing him again (perhaps slightly embarrassed over her own previous feelings for him).

Now, however, Glen is finally nearer the age he wished to be back when he and Betty first met. He stops by the Francis residence on the pretense of seeing Sally, but he’s really angling to encounter Betty again. He has the desired effect. Betty fails to recognize him at first, and is completely shocked when he introduces himself, but when she recovers, she is immediately drawn to him again, striking up an awkward flirtation and more or less ignoring Sally and another young woman Glen’s brought to their house (apparently Glen’s latest girlfriend). I enjoyed how January Jones played Betty’s attraction to Glen. When Sally tries to get Betty to leave them alone, Betty shoots Sally a dagger-filled glance, and when Glen returns later in the episode just to see Betty, she absentmindedly adjusts her hair.

However, when Glen makes his move, Betty turns him down. She says it’s because she’s married, but we know better: it’s because she’s no longer the lonely person she was when she was married to Don. She’s changed; she’s matured emotionally, just as Glen has matured physically. She might still be chronically unhappy and a poor mother, but she’s no longer an insecure person playing at what she thinks adults are supposed to do. I haven’t been a big fan of Glen’s appearances in recent years, but his appearance here offered some nice resolution to one of the more compelling Betty storylines from the early years, and also highlights the way in which Betty’s become a more complete person. I was moved by their reconciliation here.

Other thoughts:

- Given the stories we’ve seen about Peggy and Joan thus far, it seems like Matt Weiner is primarily interested in resolving the romantic lives of the main female characters. I suppose there is precedent for other shows introducing promising romantic partners near the end of the series (Six Feet Under comes to mind), but I wonder if it would be more satisfying if these romances were introduced and developed earlier on.

- Don’s solution to Marie stealing all his furniture: move the patio set into the living room.

- I like Don’s “disheveled” look when he’s forced to go to the office without a shave, shower, or the use of any hair products. His hair looks nicer with a little body to it.

- Another light Roger/Pete episode. With only four episodes left, you have to figure they’ll each get a spotlight in at least one of them, right? They’re relatively low in the rankings of my interest in the major characters (above only Megan and Betty), but I still want a bit more from them than what we’ve been getting these past three episodes.

- FYI, here's how I rank my interest in the show’s surviving major characters, from most to least: Don, Peggy, Joan, Sally, Roger, Pete, Megan, Betty. And I’d rank minor characters Ken, Ted, Stan, Trudy, and Harry above Betty (and Megan, now that she’s divorced from Don).

- With only four episodes left, it also seems unlikely that we’re going to get much in the way of an explanation of what’s going on with Ted, who once again appears to be at ease in this episode, and who describes his greatest (professional) desire to Don as landing bigger accounts. Perhaps Matt Weiner thought Ted’s story simply wasn’t interesting enough to warrant even a B-story in this final season, or that Ted was only relevant so long as Peggy was interested in him. However, given season 6’s emphasis on Ted’s interiority, I can’t help but feel the show is dropping the ball here. Ted was an interesting character because of his conflicting personal desires, and as the first half of the season alluded, those conflicts didn't just evaporate. If all Weiner and company could think of for him in this final stretch of episodes was that he simply got over Peggy and moved on, then he should have left the show when SC&P was acquired by McCann, just as Jim Cutler appears to have done.

- Although perhaps Jim will reappear, just as Lou did in this episode. Apparently, Lou has been exiled to the west coast. He’s still worthless as ever, although I’m tickled by the idea of him trying to sell his awful cartoons to Hanna-Barbera.

- It’s nice to see Sally joking with Betty, especially at Betty’s expense. “I’m sorry mother, but this conversation’s a little late. And so am I.” Tee-hee!

- Some good Meredith comedy in this one: Meredith tries to play guard dog for Don when Peggy wants some of Don’s time, and Peggy snaps at Meredith to stay out of it. She also uses the word prognostication. Someone’s been reading Don’s thesaurus!

- I’m digging Peggy’s hair this half-season. Also, the outfit she’s wearing when she argues with Pete for Mathis’s soul is the best she’s made mustard-yellow look in a long time. Peggy be stylin’.

- Speaking of futures, Glen might have a short one, considering that he’s enlisted in the Army to go fight in Vietnam. I’m making jokes, but this is upsetting to Sally, who has a nice scene where she gets emotional as she tries to leave a message for Glen.

- Poor Mathis takes Don’s advice a little too literally when he asks about how to apologize to a client, and ends up making things worse with an off-color joke. I enjoyed the scene where Mathis first approaches Don, as it nicely conveys how Mathis both looks up to Don and is intimidated by him in equal measure. Mathis is trying to forge a bond here, but Don wants no part of Mathis. The whole scene reeks of a guy desperately trying to seek out mentorship, but inadvertently aggravating his mentor with nearly everything that comes out of his mouth. This scene was also interesting because it seemed to echo some of Don and Peggy’s earlier interactions from the first few seasons of the show. Peggy was similarly intimidated by Don, and he was often just as short with her as he is with Mathis here. Peggy eventually worked her way into Don’s confidences and forged a real connection with him, but she seems to have used up all of Don’s mentorship energy in doing so (or nearly used it up – he was eager to mentor Megan back when he was in love with her).

- Don’s hypocrisy in the scene where he fires Mathis would be staggering if we weren’t so used to it by now. He tells Mathis, “Everybody has problems. Some people can deal with them and some people can’t.” Don implies that he knows how to deal with his own problems, but as we’ve seen time and again, he’s terrible at it. His solutions are alcoholism, womanizing, infidelity, putting others down, creating a fantasy in which to live, and denial. I’d say that Don lacks the self-awareness I want to award him, except for his wounded reaction to Mathis telling him he has no character.

- Outside of the Don/Peggy and Don/Sally scenes, my next favorite part of Don’s struggle to write the speech is when he turns to Meredith for inspiration, asking her what her favorite part of the World’s Fair was when she offers that as her vision of the future. Talk about scraping the bottom of the barrel.

- While I liked the resolution provided by Glen coming back to reclaim Betty, I also think it’s somewhat of an artificial conceit – nothing about Glen’s behavior over seasons 4-7 strongly indicates that he still thinks about Betty the same way as he did back in seasons 1-3. But then again, it’s a story, and stories (often) resolve, so I’ll take it.

- Also, listen to that music during the second scene between Betty and Glen. It’s like something out of a Douglas Sirk film, which is like a callback in its own right to the 1950s lifestyle Betty lived in the show’s early years.