Betty shooting pigeons on Mad Men
Photo credit: AMC TV
It’s
rewatch time!! For the first time ever this summer we will be watching an old
season of a television show over the course of several weeks. Installments will
be posted Sundays and Wednesdays with the posts spoiling only the episode that
is being talked about. This summer the rewatch is on the first season of Mathew
Weiner’s 1960’s period piece Mad Men, one of the great first seasons of
television.
Thoughts on Mad Men’s ninth episode “Shoot” coming up after
I take another shot at those pigeons…
“Look around here at what you have. Do you want to start
over?”
-Roger
Before we start anywhere, man that final scene. That final
shot of Betty shooting at those pigeons is sure something isn’t it? It’s a
great mix of both kind of disturbing, yet at the same time a little bit
triumphant and in an even stranger way kind of hot. It’s a great way to end an
episode revolving around the struggles of Betty and a culmination of the
feelings and emotions she’s been feeling all season.
The whole shooting sequence works because of the build of
the overall episode both with literal and metaphorical factors coming into
play. The whole plotline starts with a high level Maccan Ericson executive
wanting to take Don away and bring him to the agency. It starts with a little
talk at a Broadway play and begins to take off from there through pampering and
attempted negotiating. This is where Betty and her emotions begin to play in as
Maccan also offers Betty a modeling job, something that she hasn’t done since
marrying Don. It brings back nostalgic memories ones that allow her to attempt
to get away from the life of a housewife. Thus the pigeons being let out of a
cage at the beginning of the episode.
As the episode progresses Betty continues to regain
confidence in herself as the modeling continues. Of course the modeling is
clearly a ploy to get Don over the Maccan and as soon as the executive starts
sending Don pictures of the modeling session Don sees right through the dirty
tactics the agency is employing. Of course with Betty being naive and just
happy to be working the idea never passes through her head and thus she happily
goes through the motions of modeling and escaping from her life as a housewife.
Of course the initial metaphorical attack on the freed bird
comes from the Draper’s friendly dog and for Betty it comes from Don’s
unwillingness to come to Maccan. Of course as soon as the people at Maccan
can’t have Don they don’t want or need Betty at all. Thus comes the
disappointing dumping of Betty and the crushing of the somewhat naïve dreams
that she has of escaping the life. Of course well it is ultimately Don’s fault
that Betty ends up the way she does, but really you can’t blame him because the
tactics are dirty and the relationships he’s built at Sterling Cooper are too
large. The other part to the story is that Don doesn’t like to be tied down (as
we learned from the flashbacks last week) and three year contract simply
doesn’t work.
Either way he ends up unintentionally crushing Betty and leading her
to shoot her last bits of freedom from the housewife world down along with the pigeons
(see metaphors).
The rest of the episode revolves around Peggy and her
continued weight gain. It’s a mystery where Peggy is gaining this weight (many
different people have many different guesses throughout the episode) but
everyone seems applaud by it. The sequence allows the viewer to guess along
with the characters and also develop Peggy’s fearless personality. It never
matters to Peggy what the guys think of her but instead where she’s going with
her career and the only place that is going is up. The other part to the Peggy
equation is Pete who still, despite seeming over with her last week, seemingly
has feelings for her and decides to take out his anger out on Ken after he
gives a little bit of an insult towards Peggy’s direction. The scene is
perfectly dramatic yet hilariously comedic as it’s intercut with Don and Roger
quickly brushing it up and walking out of the office.
Overall the storyline in
general is a nice diversion to the Don and Betty story and works quite well.
“Shoot” is another great character episode revolving around
Betty’s life as a housewife. The episode is great for continuing to build the
detailed salk of characters who are becoming more and more complicated as the
episodes tick by. It’s truly fascinating to watch in every way.
Some other musings:
- Gotta love Pete getting shut down by everyone throughout the episode even as he makes some good agency related moves as the episode goes on.
- Still love Don and Roger’s calm exit after the fight; truly hilarious!
That’s just me though. What did everyone else think?
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