Though naturally the promos for the episode never hinted at it, Sunday’s episode of “Mad Men” was one of the few that aligned with a major historical event. Eclipsing even the episode depicting the assassination of John F. Kennedy, Sunday’s episode about the death of Martin Luther King in Memphis seemed to hit everyone in the series much harder.
It was tough for the few black secretaries on the show in what are still the smallest parts on the show, but also for the ad staff, where Pete Campbell is seen shrieking about how shameful it is.
The announcement of the death is at first barely discernible, coming during a speech at the fourth annual awards night by the Advertising Club of America, where Megan of all people is up for an award. During a speech by Paul Newman (or someone imitating Newman — this is new ground for the show) promoting antiwar Presidential candidate Eugene McCarthy, someone pipes up with the shocking news.
Everybody flees or tries to get to a pay phone. Peggy’s boyfriend Abe goes up to Harlem to help write a story for the Times. Many call family or ex-wives.
Don’s neighbor Dr. Rosen and his wife (Don’s latest paramour) had been on their way to D.C., where a lot of rioting occurred and Don is full of worry for most of the episode when he doesn’t hear from her.
In an episode that included the widest possible array of characters, the young brash ad man Michael Ginsberg is set up for a date by his father, Betty is preventing the kids from watching TV because “you never know what they’re going to show” and her husband Henry is called into the city where he’ll help Mayor John Lindsay march into Harlem and effectively end riots up there (though Henry says they were saved by dealing with gang leaders days earlier).
Even as we’re checking up on old characters, new ones are continually introduced, as the guest star floodgates have opened: Harry Hamlin is a billing executive at the firm where Peggy works; more shockingly, William Mapother, familiar as Ethan Rom on “Lost,” pops up as an insurance executive whose mind is blown, who meets Don at the awards dinner and insists on a second meeting the next day, though many businesses are closed due to the events.
“I was trying to communicate without words and it didn’t work,” Mapother’s spaced out character Randy Walsh says. “I was visited by the spirit of Dr. King. It’s time to question the whole property thing.”
He doesn’t get his point across, though Don and Roger humor him.
The assassination and riots hit people different ways. Harry wonders how round the clock coverage will affect their ad billing and Pete practically jumps down his throat for being so insensitive. Since when was Pete such so concerned with race issues?
The episode began wittily enough, with the back of Peggy’s head (echoing all those episodes that began without he back of Don’s head). She’s thinking of buying an apartment on the upper East Side not far from Don. The area will really boom once the Second Avenue subway opens, says the real estate lady (played by Lennon Parham of the sitcoms “Best Friends Forever” and “Accidentally on Purpose”). Funny line, since work on that subway line is still going on.
The episode reveals a key moment in Peggy’s relationship with Abe since he says once they don’t get the apartment that he didn’t want to raise their kids on the Upper East Side anyway. Peggy is delighted, since they’ve never talked about that step in their relationship yet.
Don has his own revelations with his own tikes, too, as he complains that he has to go out to Rye to pick them up even during the height of the rioting. He skips going to a vigil with Megan and Sally and the baby and instead goes to the movies with Bobby. It’s a good one: “Planet of the Apes,” which they see twice. (You better believe it was released that same weekend: it had opened on April 3, 1968; King was shot on the 4th).
Between screenings, Bobby days something nice to the black usher and Don swells with pride, for perhaps the first time.
In what may be his most expansive speech about parenthood in the series, he tells Megan, “From the moment they’re born, you’re proud and excited, you hand out cigars and you don’t feel anything — especially if you had a difficult childhood. You want to love them but you don’t, the fact you’re faking our feeling makes you wonder if your own father had the same problem. Then as they get older you see them do something and you feel that feeling you were pretending to have and it feels like your heart is going to explode.”
Kind of a cool moment.
Henry has a moment with Betty about how he didn’t feel good about how exactly Lindsey kept the peace, mentioning the bribes and such. He says he feels he could do better. So he floats the idea of running for the state Senate, which he says would be easy to do, unopposed as a Republican.
Betty likes the idea. Henry says he wants to introduce her to people. Then she looks at the mirror and her hair and we won’t be surprised if this is the last we see of not quite so Fat Betty and her unfortunate brunette hair. Old Betty, ahoy!
Betty had punished Bobby for peeling off the wallpaper in his room – the kind of strong memory I have of my own 60s childhood — it’s kind of an addiction once you start. But it’s fitting in Mad Men too not only for the accurate specific detail but how it relates to peeling off layers of the characters as they very slowly open up as the world around them burns.