AT THE CODFISH BALL
Mad Men: Something’s Fishy
WE OPEN AT A BOYS’ SCHOOL, AND IT’S REVEALED THAT GLEN AND SALLY STILL TALK. Often. And as creepy as Glen can be, this still manages to make me smile.
Sally tells Glen that Betty and Henry took Baby Gene and hit the road for Michigan — are they like, EVER home? Paulina is staying with them again, and Sally still pretty much hates her. As she calls the kids to dinner, Paulina trips over the phone cord, and Sally must call for help. Naturally she calls Don, who goes to pick them up during a visit from Megan’s mother and father. When Don returns to the swanky apartment with Sally and Bobby in tow, Sally reveals that Paulina is recovering from a broken ankle, and Don brags that Sally held down the fort while the police came to the house. She’s really growing up, past Betty, I’d say.
At bedtime, Megan and Don discuss their plans for Megan’s visiting parents. Megan talks about how her mother is competitive with her because Megan is her father Emile’s favorite. Don is surprised by this, and Megan says, “She touched you six times during dinner.” Don looks at her, confused, and goes, “She’s FRENCH.” Like it’s the answer to all strange behavior. Someone touch you too many times? Well they must be French. Someone blow cigarette smoke in your face? French. Someone slap you with a loaf of bread? You guessed it, French. You just have to embrace their customs. They discuss the upcoming honor Don will receive at the American Cancer Society dinner – an honor for that letter/ad he wrote about why he was quitting tobacco. Yes, he still lights up like he’s got a date with a firing squad in ten minutes. But that is apparently beside the point. Now all we need is for MADD to publicly award him a lifetime supply of Canadian Club.
Roger is discussing his breakup with Jane with ex-wife Mona, who is utterly amused by every detail. He tells her about his LSD trip, and how Don is being honored by the American Cancer Society, can she hob-nob and help him win the Firestone account? “I thought you married Jane because I got old. And then I realized it was because you had.” Mona agrees, only because Roger is still supporting her and the family.
The next day at work, Megan comes to Don with an idea — she had served the kids spaghetti, and realized that her mom did it for her, and her grandmother for her mother, all the way back to the beginning of time. She tells Don about the whole idea, and it’s pretty good, so Don puts her on Heinz, and has her adapt the idea for that bean campaign Peggy almost napalmed last week. Naturally, Stan and Ginsburg hate that Don killed their ideas for Heinz, in favor of his wife’s. Abe wants to meet with Peggy later, and he’s really pushy about it, so Peggy actually cancels some work plans to be with him. She talks to Joan, the office advisor, about it. Joan says when a man insists on a meal, he usually has something important to say, and it’s typically a proposal. This freaks out our normally put-together Peggy, but Joan’s advice, if she LIKES you, that is, is typically worth its weight in gold. Peggy arrives at dinner dressed to the nines, in a shitload of pink, dying to know what Abe wants to talk to her about. Abe tells her they should move in together, and Peggy was all set up for a ring, so she’s kind of placid in the face and a breathy mess on the inside, but then she goes for it. Maybe this is the way it should go for her, for right now.
Roger, who confesses that he’s actually been working today, comes to chat with Don about the Cancer Society dinner. Roger is going along to gain clients, and Don is not interested. He wants his in-laws to respect him, because Emile is a communist, who doesn’t like what Don does for a living. At the dinner, Megan and the Heinz client’s wife, Alice, tells her that she hopes she and Megan can continue to be friends. It’s clear that Heinz is on the way out the door, so she whispers the news to Don. He and Megan tag-team Megan’s idea, right there at the table. Raymond and Alice are riveted, the account lives to see another day, Don and Megan bang in the cab, and, since the apartment is full of other people, in the office too.
The next morning, Peggy tells Joan that “it was better” than a proposal — she and Abe are shacking up. And Joan is totally cool and congratulatory, probably because of her own rocky marital status, and that whole getting-something-she-didn’t-expect thing. It’s nice to see how far the relationship between Peggy and Joan has gone. No cattiness. No bullshit. And that transfers to Megan. Peggy congratulates her and tells her that the celebration she’s receiving is “as good as this job gets.” Which, unbeknownst to Peggy, is not at all what Megan wants to hear. Later that night, Peggy and Abe have Peggy’s mom Catherine over. And it goes really well, until Peggy tells her that she’s moving in with Abe. As a true old-school Catholic, Catherine’s judgment is swift and self-righteous: she chooses to simply walk out, and take away the cake she brought, as she is not celebrating Peggy’s choice to live in sin.
Across town in a much more posh setting, Sally asks Don if she can go to his award dinner. Megan’s mother encourages a yes by saying that every girl should get to see her father as a success. This pisses off Emile, and they FIGHT. Since Don doesn’t speak French, he asks his wife-slash-closed-captioner to translate: Turns out Emile’s publisher wasn’t interested, AND Emile is cheating on his wife with one of his grad students. Don rolls his eyes, because he’s totally been there, done that – the cheating, not the publishing. Roger arrives at Don’s and asks someone to tie his bow tie. Megan’s mother flirts shamelessly with him. Sally emerges, and looks like a little woman. Don is amazed at her transformation, and Emile, noticing this, says, “There is nothing you can do, Don. One day your little girl will spread her legs and fly away.” Megan, down but not out, gently corrects him: “WINGS, Daddy, wings.” As the adults angle, mingle and schmooze, Sally picks at her fish dish, trying to acquire a taste for fancy food like fish with its eyeballs still intact. I never understood the concept of being so rich that you insist upon only the grossest of foods – caviar, horseradish, bleu cheese and other shit that tastes like feet. Roger has captured the fancy of Megan’s mother by the end of the meal, and Sally has done the same with Don. Emile advises his daughter not to let her love for Don get in the way of her dreams – he doesn’t think this is what she loves. Speaking of dreams being crushed, Sally makes a wrong turn out of the ladies’ room and discovers Roger and Megan’s mother engaging in some oral exercise. Everyone reconvenes at this lovely table, disillusioned.
As if that weren’t depressing enough, Sally phones Glen after the dinner, and he asks her how’s city life, to which she responds: “Dirty.”
Miz J has an attitude. Deal with it. Check out her NSFW comedy podcast, I SAID IT, on iTunes or follow her on Facebook or on Twitter @askmizj.
