Julia Ormond returns to her Emmy-nominated role as Megan's motherLynn Lee, back again to discuss Mad Men at the Movies.
The title of this week’s episode was “New Business,” which may or may not be meant ironically. The episode felt contrived to strike certain thematic chords at the expense of developing the characters believably. Diana the waitress feels more like a construct than a person, designed to appeal to Don’s hang-ups (the lover to be saved, the mother who abandoned her child); even their awkward elevator encounter with Sylvia Rosen just reminded me of how bored I was with that affair. Megan does a 180 from the regretful wife bidding Don a tearful goodbye to the bitter ex-wife who accuses him of stealing her youth. And her bickering French Canadian family shows up for no discernible purpose other than to bring back Julia Ormond and leave Don with a literally empty home.
That said, it’s Megan who brings Mad Men as close to the movies as it can get in an episode without any specific movie mentions. Megan’s film career has stalled, to the point that she’s subsisting on handouts from Don while their lawyers fight about divorce terms. She’s apparently desperate enough to seek help from Harry Crane, of all people - Harry, the noob who's been lusting after her since her show-stopping performance of “Zou Bisou Bisou.”
After seeking permission (sort of) from Don, Harry meets Megan for lunch and loses no time buttering her up. He can’t believe she hasn’t gotten bigger parts! He compares her to movie stars, both foreign and domestic...
You are every man’s fantasy. You’re like Ali MacGraw and Brigitte Bardot had a baby.”
Assuming we’re still in 1970, Love Story, the blockbuster weepie that made Ali MacGraw one of the biggest stars on the planet for at least a while, hadn’t yet come out. (It was released in December) But she’d already won attention the previous year with her role in the Philip Roth novella-based Goodbye, Columbus (where, in an interesting bit of trivia, she plays the obverse of her character in Love Story - a Radcliffe blueblood who falls in love with a prole).
Bardot, by contrast, was already a big-time star who was just a few years away from an unexpectedly early retirement from acting. The comparison to Bardot, whom Megan hardly resembles except maybe her air of quasi-French sophistication, suggests Harry still has “Zou Bisou Bisou” on the brain.
Megan, arrayed in her most Hollywood-alluring blue number, seems pleased by the flattery. Unfortunately, things get gross fast, once Harry puts his hand on hers and suggests they retire to the room he’s booked, where he can “make some calls.” To Megan’s credit, she immediately rejects his clumsy advance, and doesn’t even throw that glass of wine in his face.
Afterwards, Harry, in full CYA mode, attempts to re-spin the story for Don by implying that Megan was “crazy” enough to throw herself at him. Don, however, takes one look at Harry and sees right through him. He can guess what actually happened, and has nothing but contempt for the man who would try to take advantage of his wife’s position. (The look of contempt Jon Hamm conjures is a beaut.)
Still, Harry’s debacle may be the impetus for Don’s next move. Figuring he can finalize the divorce, cleanly, so he can move on, while discharging any lingering feelings of responsibility towards Megan, he writes her a literal million dollar check. Megan, hating that she has to take it, fires the only insults she has: that he isn't “real.” That he’s just “an aging, sloppy, selfish liar.” Nothing she says, however, has the impact of the final blow (which doesn’t even come from Megan, but from Marie, with an inadvertent assist from Roger): an apartment stripped bare of every vestige of not only their marriage but Don’s entire home life. As a final shot, it poses a striking contrast to the opening, warmly familial scene of Don making milkshakes with his sons - mind you, in the home of his other ex-wife and her new husband.
This is what Don wants, though, isn’t it? A clean slate? Except we’ve seen that he always fills it with a script we’ve seen before. Or, in the words of Pete (the most unlikely Cassandra ever):
You think you’re gonna live your life over and do it right. But what if you never get past the beginning again?”
Other random thoughts:
• Megan’s story had a more interesting counterpoint, in many ways, in the subplot involving the photographer, “Pima” Ryan (played by Mimi Rogers), Peggy hires to shoot a vermouth ad. Stan, seeing Pima as a source of artistic validation, is an easy target for her advances; Peggy less so, seeing her as just a “hustler.” The truth may lie somewhere in between, and illustrates another theme of “Mad Men”: how much of art is selling yourself?
Mimi Rogers guest stars!
• The expansion of the Diana storyline isn’t doing much for me, but the echoes of Mildred Pierce continue: Mildred Pierce had two daughters. The older one she spoiled rotten, driving her and her husband apart; the younger one died tragically, causing her to spoil and coddle the older one even more. Is Diana an alternative Mildred Pierce, if the other daughter had died? It would explain why, as she says to Don, she doesn't want anything.
• Don and others may snark, but I for one would be thrilled if Betty ends up becoming a psychologist. She certainly can’t be worse than the one he hired to spy on her, back in season 1.