Mad Men Rewatch 2013: Season 1 Ep. 10 “Long Weekend” Total Eclipse of the Heart

Roger and his twins on the couch 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 tenth episode “Long Weekend” as soon as I search for the right pair of twins…

“I know people say life goes on, and it does; but no one tells you that’s not a good thing. Why is that?”

-Betty

At the beginning of “Long Weekend” one would never expect to be leaving the hour feeling like one’s gut has been punched. The episode starts out like a more fun episode of Mad Men that would serve ultimately as an analysis of the lives and friendships of both Don and Roger and Joan and her friend Carol. It all seems like awkward fun with different elements of each friendship being examined so that new light can be shed on each of the characters… Then suddenly Roger has a heart attack and the entire emotional landscape of the episode changes.

Before the sudden heart attack “Long Weekend” seems to focus on the dynamic of friendship and the need to escape from one’s family. Roger hasn’t been happy in his relationship for a while longing for Joan to sleep with him while Mona and the kids are away. Don would do almost anything to get away from his estranged wife Betty who is going on and on about whom her father is courting. Both of them use the excuse of having to work and Roger takes in to twins he found at casting to help them “celebrate.” Don doesn’t necessarily want to be there, he has his own people he would rather be with, but they both spend the night together to try and escape their families. Roger enjoys every second of the evening and even begins to have fun with one of the ladies and the escape seems to be working quite well.

Then Roger has the heart attack. It doesn’t really come out of nowhere; Roger is as drunk as a skunk and is having a little too much fun for his old good thus putting a lot of pressure on Roger’s old heart. The moment hits like dynamite though, not really from a plot perspective (Mad Men isn’t really known for its plot revelations) but from an emotional one. Suddenly there is a since of fear and weakness that appears for these characters, a fear of impending doom. Roger survives but is now emotionally broken and is clinging to life. Suddenly his family is the most important thing to him. His daughter whom he was just having troubles with early on in the episode is now the greatest person on earth. At this moment Roger couldn’t care less about what he was going to try to do with Joan on the weekend, when he sees the end only his true family matters.

Don on the other hand takes the fear of death in different ways. Instead of fearing death and immediately returning to his family so that he can cherish them he goes straight for Rachel whom he has been hunting for the whole season now. He fears that he is so estranged for his family that the only thing that he can do now is start with another woman and tell her things that he has never told anyone else. Yes after a long talk and eventually convincing her to have sex with him Don decides that he can reveal more things about himself than to anyone else. It’s not that Don feels more comfortable with Rachel but instead the fear death is knocking after Roger’s heart attack and Don feels he has to get the info off his chest at one point. At this point Don can’t tell Betty as the lie may crumble their relationship, but bringing it to Rachel feels like the right step with their relationship. Don’s strange reaction shows that he is moving further and further away from his family and that he begins to care more about his outside life in crisis than his actual family.

The main subplot of the episode involves Joan and her friend Carol. The subplot is fairly simple as it involves the juxtaposition of the two friends and where they are in their lives. Carol is lost, emotionally broken and begins even hitting on Joan. Joan seems to have life figured out, she has money, she’s attractive, and emotionally stable. The rest of the subplot involves Joan grieving Roger’s heart attack and dealing with where this puts her emotionally. It puts Joan in an interesting place, one that allows her to evaluate how she’s actually doing in her emotional life.

“Long Weekend” starts off simple but by the end becomes a deeply tragic and complicate emotional study of where some of the characters in the Mad Men world are and where they are going. The episode provides great set up for where the arcs of the season are going to finish and the places where the characters may eventually end up.