Betty in deep though on the penultimate episode of Mad Men
Photo Credit: AMC TV
A review of the penultimate episode of Mad Men as soon as I
find something better than that two headed cow…
“Say yes with your voice, not with your eyes”
-Pete
Mad Men has been a battle of conflicting change. As we’ve
moved through the changing landscape of the 1960’s we’ve seen profound social
change alongside little character change. “The Milk and the Honey Route” more
or less tries to work against this finding little pieces of change within each
of the characters presented. This was a powerful, at times strange, and 100
percent Mad Men penultimate episode, an hour of characters coming back together
and veering apart. It’s a great showcase for characters we may never see again
and a great tipping off point for the direction that our main character may
ultimately be headed.
I guess a great place to start is with the DEATH OF BETTY.
Seriously! After all my sometimes complaining and sometimes praising of Mad Men’s
favorite housewife (in later years sadly it veered more to the complaining side
of the coin) Matthew Weiner managed to give her an awesomely emotional send off.
In an episode of characters desperately looking for an opening to try and start
anew when Betty is diagnosed with lethal lung cancer she realizes that her time
in the world is indeed over and that it’s time to move on. What it turned into
was a fantastically emotional goodbye not only to Betty but to the entire
Francis/Draper children section to the story. Kiernan Shipka has been one of
the very brightest lights to shine throughout this great series and one could
not have had a better farewell for her. The reactions to the death of her
mother and the reading of the final letter were truly powerful moments that
really shown off how far Sally and the young actress who plays her have become
over the course of this series. While I am really sad that I am probably not
going to see Sally there was no more perfect way for her to depart the season
then the final sentence of her mother’s letter that said that it was a good
thing that Sally marched to the beat of her own drum. While I can only imagine
the future for Sally at this point I feel at least that it can only be
positive.
January Jones was also fantastic throughout this episode. If
we can give Betty one thing throughout the series it’s that when Matthew Weiner
puts in the effort to put an emotional twinge to the Betty arc it, more than
often works. The same applies here, Betty figuring out that she needs to move
on was devastating and the best portion of the episode. The sadness yet
confidence in Jones’ eyes throughout the episode was near perfect and made for
nice emotional sequences between her and the characters around her. It’s not
that Betty wants to leave everyone behind but she also does not want to cause
them pain in her final year and knows when to move on. It was powerful and
while I have not been a fan of the character throughout parts of the run her
final payoff made a lot of the bad spikes seem less painful.
Then there was Pete, and Duck, and Trudy and this is where the
penultimate episode of Mad Men became a tad strange to me. Pete getting a sort
of kind of maybe happy ending felt strange, not really wrong or contrary to everything
that has happened before but a little bit strange. Sure there was a clear
return to a connection between the two a couple of weeks ago during the conversations
about Tammy’s schooling but I had no expectations of them getting back together
in the way they did. Not only that but SOMEONE ACTUALLY TOOK A JOB PITCHED TO
THEM BY DUCK PHILLIPS (as far as I remember with the main characters on the show…
correct me if I am wrong). Maybe this ending does signal profound change for
Pete I just don’t know that I entirely buy it. Maybe I am not really supposed
to buy it that is entirely possible, as an arc it did seem to come out of nowhere
and the final scene between him and Trudy seems to indicate that Trudy is
trying desperately to buy it and in the moment does but as Pete is walking out
the look on her face indicates a little bit of doubt. All the sequences between
Trudy and Pete were really good and Duck’s constant attempts to trick Pete into
taking Job interviews were quite fun. Maybe Pete will be a better husband and
father and maybe he’s learned a valuable lesson over the last few years as
indicated in the conversation he had with his brother about cheating. Maybe
getting away from New York is entirely what Pete needs at this point to stay
faithful, I just maybe don’t know how much I buy it. I will say this though,
with all my confusion about this the scenes themselves did work for me, and to
give Weiner and crew a bit of credit maybe there is a since of conflict that is
supposed to be created through the heads of the audience as Pete and Trudy reconcile.
With that all out of the way it seems that we are headed to
a potentially Don only finale. I won’t say too much about Don in “The Milk and
the Honey Route” because to me the arc felt very background save for a few key
scenes, but at least his final moments in the penultimate episodes were very
interesting. Don is finally in full hobo mode, giving the con man kid (who
clearly reminds Don of a younger version of himself) his car and taking the bus
to nowhere is seemingly the final shedding of the previous Don Draper persona
(or maybe he’s just finally going through his “come to Jesus moment of sorts).
Don has finally gone all the way with running away from his former life and I’m
fascinated to find out where Matthew Weiner is going to take our main character
in his final hour.
“The Milk and the Honey Route” was seemingly the final
goodbyes for everyone but Don. It was strange at points and often times really
quiet for a penultimate episode of a television show, but it was a powerful and
ultimately satisfying episode of a one of a kind show. Whatever strange or
maybe even conventional place that Weiner takes us I am ready to take it all
in. I’m sad that this show is over in a week, but am fascinated to see how the
book is finally closed.
Some other musings:
- Don is a mechanical genius… At least to the people from the Midwest. Not only does he get to fix a typewriter but a coke machine too! It’s too bad that Don has to get overcharged for his car though…
- I’m happy we did get one final appearance of Duck who is again trying to not only find a replacement for Don Draper (a running joke at this point) but to also yet again try and trick Pete into taking a job that he has zero interest in (at least for a little while). Oh and he does it while drunk. Classic Duck…
That’s all I have for this week! I don’t think that I am
going to be able, due to lots of time constraints, to do a series of posts on
Mad Men’s five finest but I will try to be back on Saturday to discuss a lot
about Mad Men’s legacy and some thoughts about my overall experience with the
series headed into a probable all-nighter writing about the finale on Sunday…
Only one episode to go… I’m bracing myself for the end…
That’s just me though. What did everyone else think?
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