"When is everything going to go back to normal? - Roger
Mortality.
This is something we as people deal with every day. Mortality of our life, who we are. Mortality of our career. Mortality of our societal beliefs. It's everywhere. Where we go. What we do. It is an inevitable part of life, and a part of life some of our characters are dealing with prevalently.
Roger is seeing the mortality of his career staring him down. It has been since Lee Garner, Jr decided to move Lucky Strike away from SCDP. In "A Little Kiss," we see it start to manifest itself when Pete tries to get Roger's office. It's starts screaming at us when he's getting up to be at a 6 am meeting in Staten Island that isn't there. I think Pete's actions in "Tea Leaves," especially at the end, has cemented Roger being on the way out. Yes, he's going to handle the day-to-day for Mohawk, but Pete is the one who's in control.
Don is facing the mortality of what he sees in society. His talk with the girl backstage at the Rolling Stones concert really highlights this. He doesn't seem to understand the newer generation, which in reality includes Megan. He doesn't think she can handle raising the kids if something happens to Betty. The world is changing around him, and he doesn't exactly feel prepared.
With Betty, it's a combination of the mortality of her actual life (thyroid cancer scare) and who she is (gained weight/depressed). She goes to the doctor looking to get diet pills (after a nice little passive/aggressive talk from her mother in law), but the discovery of a lump in her thyroid gland derails it. Betty doesn't really know how to cope with this. Her dream just set her more on edge. She's also scared that if she dies, her children will only ever hear bad things about her. We find out later that the tumor is benign, which brings up a whole host of other issues for her, namely being overweight. Betty used to be a model. She is used to being able to get any man she wanted just by the flick of her blond locks or the bat of an eyelash over her baby blues. But she can't anymore, and it's depressing her. She's facing the mortality of who she was as a person up until that point. The illusion of the control she had (she was never really in control) is gone. I have an inkling the diet pill story line isn't over, and we could be seeing the beginning of the downward spiral of Betty Francis.
It will being interesting to see how the situations for each Roger, Don, and Betty play out over the next 10 episodes. Facing one's mortality, whether it's career, beliefs, life or image, is never an easy thing for a person to handle.
The Episode
After the slight backfire in the EOE ad during the premiere, SCDP has hired a new black receptionist who works for Don and is coincidentally named Dawn. Roger finds this hilarious.
Peggy was put in charge of finding a full time copywriter for the Mohawk account, and it makes her think about her own mortality as a female copywriter.
The copywriter hired is Michael Ginsburg, an eccentric but smart Jew who lives with his father. The scene at the end between the two is very touching, a father showing pride in his son. Michael looks like he's going to be an interesting character.
Harry and Don go to meet with the Rolling Stones to see if they'll do a Heinz commercial. Harry gets stoned and signs the wrong band. Shows he's unhappy with his life. Is still a skeez. Megan still hates him. Don may know why she does.
No Bert or Joan this week. It's always sad when there is no Joan.
"Tea Leaves" was written by Erin Levy and Matthew Weiner. It was directed by Jon Hamm.
Notable Quotes
- "They're going to want a full time copywriter. With a penis." - Roger to Peggy while meeting with Don over the Mohawk account.
- "You know, your book really does have a voice." "That's what they said about Mein Kampf. 'Kid's really got a voice.'" - Peggy and Michael after she interviews him the first time. Great example of Michael's hilarious eccentric personality.
- "I wanted to smooth the ground by working the Jew. Turns out everyone's got one now." - Roger telling Peggy to hire Michael. Roger really does represent the divide of old and new. Yeesh.
- "Shouldn't we wait for Roger?" "For what? He doesn't even come to the meetings that are important." - Peggy and Don during Michael's interview. Indicative of what Don, as well as Pete and probably the rest of the agency, thinks of Roger.
While the episode was slow, I thought it was good. Moved the story line of Roger's decline along (I expect to see Pete as full partner by the end of the year) while adding expanding Don's problems to include his adaptation to the changing times.
What did everyone else think?
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