MAD MEN 6.03: The Collaborators

Back in the pilot, Don told Pete that if he continued acting the way he was acting, he one day would end up in a corner office alone (losing all his hair) where no one would like him. 8 years later and huzzah! Pete Campbell is all alone, no one likes him, he is losing his hair and after Trudy kicked him to the curb; he is all alone (it was worth mentioning twice, and a ton of times below).

Roger said in the premiere that all he has to look forward to is losing everything, well, Pete is well on his way there. Pete may get his name on the door, and with Lane's death he probably has a higher stake in the company. But at what cost? The apartment he now has in Manhattan demonstrates amply his decline; it is filthy, dark and gross...like Pete Campbell (too be honest I would not want to sit anywhere there!). Don cannot even enter his apartment, because he knows that it contains a life that Pete does not realize he is on his way to getting...one that he does not want anymore.

I have always known (even form the pilot) that Don treats all women like whores, and my opinion has not really changed over the course of the series:

1) Midge was paid with an airline ticket to Paris and Don always picked up the cheque for her and her friends.
2) Bobby Barrett may not have had money thrown at her, but the way Don always physically accosted her it was the same.
3) Allison was given her 'Bonus' money and sent on her way.
4) Dr. Faye was being paid by Don to work for the agency, so she was on the old payroll.
5) Megan ultimately showed her true colors in the way she whored herself for a copy writers job and then actressing dream.
6) Sylvia had her cookie jar money thrown at her.
7) When Don called Betty a whore in the season 3 finale, I first assumed he was just angry at the time and was being irrational. Now reflecting on the moment, I think he was just calling her what he thought she was all along; an expensive whore who was only there to service Don's needs and the image he thought displayed the American dream everyone was living.

The flashbacks show that Don really does not know any better. He saw that his step mom paid her way by letting Uncle Mac bang her for cash. Since, that is what Don assumes is the way life goes; women are there as a function, they are not supposed to want anything and they are a service that Don can disregard as soon as they have worn out their welcome.

I really hoped Pete could learn from Don, but looking back throughout the series it has become apparent that he is lost and does not know how to act or be. Pete manufactures placated-riddled conversations, because he thinks that is what people want  all the time (Megan's dad was a great example). He follows Don's example because he does not know any better. He never questions the morality of this path or whether it is right or wrong type of behavior. He looks at Don as the right way because his upbringing never told him it was a downward spiral. His father was a user who wasted the family fortune, his brother was always out for himself and unless Pete finds a better role model or wakes up to Don's disastrous example, then he will never pull out of the tail spin that is his wreckage of a life.

The above makes me so happy that Peggy recognized Don's bullshit and left before she could get dragged down with him. Peggy is being awesome at her job, she may be part Don, but not quite all, yet! She does not have the man management skills that Don has at his disposal. She cannot tell her employees to swim the English channel and drown in champagne. She cannot tell her employees that if they are not careful they will end up like Paul Kinsey, because life in the Advertising game is tough and if you do not cut it soon you are out on your ass. I am sure she will learn, Ted will harden her up and force her to up her game and go toe to toe with Don. But I do wonder at what cost, she has already inadvertently screwed Stan over.

You go Trudy! I am glad she wised up to rapey Pete, if only he could have and realized what he had, ugh, idiot. It is no coincidence that Pete is deluding himself. The only women he can get are either very conservative like Trudy or are Suburban housewives who have not lived the 60's yet and probably have not lived in that world because they got married in the 50's and assume someone like Pete is a catch. I find it hard to believe that a woman of substance in 1968 would go for a slime ball like Pete Campbell, he is stuck because the only way I see him having company is if he pays for it, I mean Trudy has forbidden him from going anywhere near the suburbs to find similar women.

If this show is about all the characters losing everything by the end, then most of them are almost at the end of the journey. Lane is gone, Pete is on his way along with Don and Roger; and Burt finished once he sold out to the British.

The only hope I have for these characters are the dreams of Stan, Peggy, Joan and Ginzo! Megan is a gonna if I am being honest and even if Joan was part of the older generation; she is still living the dream that Helen Reddy's song in 1971 encapsulated for women. Joan is a partner in a industry that is the most backward and decaying. Ad agencies were torn to shreds for the racial backward arseness of their ways and the blatant misogyny in the 60's and 70's, so you go girl!

I hope these people can catch a few of Petula Clark's upbeat tunes and fucking change for the better or it is going to be a dark and tragic journey to the end.

Grade: A-

Shawn Mahone