Mad Men @ the Movies: "The Milk and Honey Route"
Tuesday, May 12, 2015 at 10:34AM 
Lynn Lee on the penultimate episode of Mad Men...
As we get closer to the end of “Mad Men,” I’m growing increasingly confident it will stick the final landing. There’s been a new energy and sense of direction offsetting the sadness of saying goodbye, and the penultimate episode, while packed with even more emotional bombshells, continued to bring what felt like natural closures to several major character arcs. As with Joan from last week, even if we see Betty and Pete again, it seems unlikely the finale will contain any further major plot turns for them.
The biggest remaining question mark, not surprisingly, is still Don, the wandering soul of the show. But let me start with the other two, because they are two of my favorites, despite (or maybe because of) the fact that they’ve spent most of the series’ run competing for the title of most-reviled major character on “Mad Men.”
They’ve benefited from absolutely pitch-perfect performances by January Jones and Vincent Kartheiser, and if this episode was their swan song, boy, did they both go out on a hell of a high note—though, in Betty’s case, also a terribly sad one.
If you’d asked me how I thought Betty would end up, “dying of lung cancer” would not have been one of my guesses. I suppose it’s fitting for a show about the ’60s and advertising that the chickens of that pro-smoking culture would finally come home to roost. But the timing felt especially cruel, given that Betty only recently found a new groove and seemed happier and more comfortable with herself than we’ve ever seen her. Nonetheless, she took the news stoically, true to herself to the end.
Some might see Betty’s treatment of poor Henry and Sally as cold and unfeeling, but we should know by now that she reacts the way she does because that’s how she was trained to be since childhood, and she’s never quite been able to break free of that mold. Nowhere was this more painfully evident than her reaction to Sally’s surprise appearance. Unable to express her conflicting emotions, she brushes right past the tentatively smiling daughter who half-moves to hug her, breaking our collective heart. Fortunately, we get a small if equally heartbreaking measure of solace in their last conversation and the letter she leaves with Sally.
I always worried about you because you march to the beat of your own drum. But I now know that’s good. I know your life will be an adventure. I love you.”
Betty sees that her daughter, despite her own best efforts, is in no danger of falling into the same trap she did—and that’s what makes her farewell letter such a touching capstone to their often prickly and combative relationship. (Kudos to Kiernan Shipka, who made me sob right along with Sally, and who’s matured wonderfully as an actress over the course of the show.) Of course, Betty being Betty, she spends even more time detailing just how she wanted her corpse to look, right down to the dress and shade of lipstick. But in another sense, she’s simply embracing who she was for the better part of her life. If she spent too much of it looking her best rather than doing her best, she might as well look her damned best to the last.
On the flip side, Pete may finally be able to get the second chance that Betty was denied. I say “may” because I’m skeptical of any source of good fortune that comes from Duck Phillips, and also because it’s hard to imagine Pete being happy in Wichita. His vision of a fresh start felt like the Hail Mary pass of his life. Amazingly, it seems to have worked on Trudy, and I hope it works out for real. Pete’s worst faults have always stemmed from his frustrated need for love and recognition; the question is whether taking the Learjet offer and reuniting with his family will satisfy that need. Maybe it will, now that he understands the value of what he gave up to get where he is now. As his conversation with his brother reveals, Pete’s learned that “always looking for better, always looking for something else” will only leave you permanently dissatisfied, and, at worst, bereft of the love you once took for granted.
It’s a lesson his former role model is still in the process of learning. Don’s unplanned sojourn in an Oklahoma backwater town crystallizes everything he’s spent his entire life trying to escape. Shameful memories of the war, dragged up by the veterans at the American Legion. The small-town, small-minded greed and hypocrisy of an ostensibly pious community. The young hustler-in-training who for all the world looks like a young version of himself in his Dick Whitman days. Even the ghost of Coca-Cola comes to haunt him, in the form of a broken machine he’s asked to fix, as a reminder of the bait that almost trapped him for good.
You knew we’d catch up with you eventually.”
Don can unburden himself of some of the guilt he’s carried all his life, but never all, as evidenced in his half-confession to the vets and his attempt to discourage young Dick Whitman 2.0 from following in his footsteps. Being somebody else is “not what you think it is,” he says, and adds, in a peculiar phrase that conveys both self-advancement and self-imprisonment, “You cannot get off on that foot in this life.” (Jon Hamm is especially impressive in that scene, and not just because he’s literally towering over the kid.) Don’s whole life can be distilled in that one bleak warning. So it’s both ironic and appropriate that his next step is to leave one of the last vestiges of his life as the false Don Draper – the fancy car – with this callow reminder of his pre-Don Draper self. Post-Don Draper’s come full circle and looks lighter, even happier, than he has in a while. But he isn’t truly free of baggage, and I expect the finale to show he never will be.
Movie references:
-The young students at Betty's college refer to her as "Mrs Robinson," confusing the doctor who first admits her to diagnose the cause of her fall. The Graduate had been a sensation in movie theaters just a couple of years earlier than the episode.
-When Don is asking about local attractions he's told that the only movie theater nearby is a drive-in that he can’t access because he doesn’t have a car. No movies for you, Don, until you figure out your life instead of trying to run away from it!
-Pete’s prospective new employer, Learjet, was apparently known for its glamorous Hollywood clientele (Elizabeth Taylor and Danny Kaye get name-dropped). But Pete isn’t interested in Hollywood anymore; he’s set his sights on the “wholesome” appeal of Kansas. Of course what we’ve seen of its neighbor Oklahoma doesn’t seem particularly wholesome, but maybe for once Pete will be luckier.
-Don’s reading The Godfather, perhaps while pondering his own efforts to leave behind his criminal background, though the movie wouldn’t come out until 1972. The hotel “maid” also provides him James Michener’s Hawaii (echo of Don’s past?) and Michael Crichton’s sci-fi thriller The Andromeda Strain (hopefully not a hint of his future), both of which were also adapted into films released in 1966 and 1971, respectively.
-Don diving into a pool will always bring to my mind the surrealist John Cheever story “The Swimmer,” which was made into a 1968 film starring Burt Lancaster. In a nutshell, the main character starts out as a seemingly well-liked, well-off man in the prime of his life who “swims his way home” via his neighbor’s pools only to find himself old, cold, homeless, and alienated from everyone at the end. Here’s hoping Don’s fate is less grim.
The Final Promo
Reader Comments (13)
A B- episode raised to a B+ by the focus on Pete and especially Betty. Everything with Betty was aces. And I agree, even if the show gives Pete a happy ending I have a hard time imagining he won't screw it up. The Don parts of the episode were meandering and not all that great. Seems like this season doesn't know exactly what to do with him unfortunately. I NEED at least one more heartfelt scene between Peggy and Don before it ends, don't disappoint me Mad Men. Scratch that. I'll take one more meaty scene, heartfelt or not.
I think this season KNOWS exactly what to do with Don, but it is not what we had expected. I am preparing myself for the "disaster" everyone told Weiner he wrote. But In Matthew Weiner we trust.
Btw. please, please, please, you should record a Mad Men podcast.
i'm still recovering from this episode; i fear the finale will break me right in half
[and ffs tv academy, nominate vincent kartheiser for an emmy while you still have the chance]
That scene of Betty narrating her letter juxtaposed with her trudging up those stairs to continue fulfilling her dream of returning to school was a flat-out masterpiece. I cried my eyes out along with Sally.
You could really see in the scenes between January and Kiernan how crucial it was that they had nearly 10 years of a working relationship together to make those scenes so realistic. And how great that they didn't change Betty in the end. She was never sentimental and death would not make her so. Maybe if this was a network drama it would've went down that way, but in the end, she found her own way to tell Sally that she loved and accepted her. They didn't hug and kiss, but that letter was just as powerful.
I've seen a ton of pieces in the last day praising Betty. It makes sense that a character as complicated as she would not be appreciated until her death! Weiner and Co. got that message and truly gave her a beautiful send-off.
Don is enjoying this moment of pure unburdening -- he's confessed a part of his Korean War past he'd never before spoken about, he's left behind advertising, he's abandoned the Cadillac, that symbol of prestige. He's living according to the Hobo Code, at least for this day. But ... if I had to place a bet, I'd say he'll be back in NYC dealing with Betty's death for the finale.
As for sticking the landing, I just want a juicy Peggy episode. Everything else will be gravy.
I can't imagine at this point how wrecked I will be at the finale. I have been in mourning all week. This is my favorite show of all time, having surpassed my previous favorite shows of all time (Buffy / Twin Peaks) during its run. The quality has RARELY dipped below "very good" though most episodes of seven whole seasons range from great to pure genius.
thanks for writing this season up for us Lynn. and for defending Betty who is one of my favorite characters and I''m so pleased the show didn't abandon her (as many hoped) once Don did.
I agree, Nathaniel. The characters on Mad Men are like real people to me. I can't believe I won't see them anymore after next Sunday.
I love Betty, and for many of the reasons the Internet at large seems to loathe her. January Jones, unfairly maligned, should've won an Emmy for season two (just as Elisabeth Moss and Christina Hendricks should've for season four and five, respectively). Her interactions with Kiernan Shipka, who's the actress Chloë Grace Moretz *wishes* she were, feel so volatile, thorny, real and lived-in. One of my favorite pairings.
I also appreciate how much continued verisimilitude Matthew Wiener and Co. seem to understand and inject into the characterizations, although, truth be told, I haven't been all that interested in Don, Mr. Malcontent, since season three. It's a little disconcerting, though hardly surprising, the amount of narrowcasting around Don till the bitter end. I kind of hope the D.B. Cooper theory actually pans out in the last episode.
Poor Betty. She won't even turn 40. I don't know why but I think she would have loathed the 70s and loved the 80s with the shoulder pads, the hairspray and Jane Fonda's workout.
The internet did loathe Betty until Megan showed up. I've always, Liked Betty, but a lot of women even today let their loved ones know what they want to look like when their buried. I don't think that gesture was specific to Betty.
Peggy Sue: that is AMAZING and so true.
All of the Betty and Sally stuff destroyed me. If there was a Hit Me With Your Best Shot feature for season 7 of Mad Men it'd be the shot of Betty halfway up the stairs looking upwards as she narrates her letter. It was fantastic. The letter was incredible and while I'm kinda bummed out that a character as hated by the wider public as Betty isn't getting the fuck you happy ending that I'd hoped, I'm just glad they remembered her enough to give her something worthwhile and something that Jones could truly sink her teeth into. Her season 2 still stands out to me as one of the finest season performances I can recall watching. The scenes between the two even beat the Peggy/Stan scene from two episodes back.
I also wonder what this means for Don and the children? Hmmm. Will the final jump forward six months to when Betty has died?
Could January Jones get an Emmy nomination? I can't imagine people watching this and not wanting this nomination. January Jones was just perfect in it, and I think she deserved it more (for this season) than Hendricks (who was also great).
The show once and for all demonstrated that it always knew what it was doing with Betty. This was both a perfect send-off and entirely true to who she was. Whilst I love Don, Peggy and Joan as much as everyone else, Mad Men's legacy might lay with its more difficult characters, Betty, Pete, even Bob Benson.
As much as I'm resigned to Mad Men never winning the acting Emmys it deserves, a nod at least for January Jones seems its most-assured at this point in the most clear-cut acting showcase of S7.2 yet.