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This Week in Mad Men #10 – “Hands and Knees”
Mondays at 7pm PT
The hosts discuss Episode 10 of “Mad Men’s” 4th season, entitled “Hands and Knees.”
Hosts
Lon Harris
Jaime Fox
Jacob Burch
Jason McIntyre
Introduction
Episode 10 is always where things really start to pick up, and this season is no exception. Feels like we’ve turned the corner and have entered Season 4′s “end game.” Setting up the dramatic finale.
Discussion of Episode #10, “Hands and Knees”
TONIGHT’S THEME: BEGGING, COWERING AND PLEADING
The men are put into subservient positions, made to bend the knee, cower, grovel.
Examples of characters cowering, pleading, begging:
– Don having panic attack
– Lane being beaten
– Roger begging Lee for time on Lucky Strike
– Pete gets snippy, petulant but bows to Don anyway
– Megan begging forgiveness, but maintaining poise and dignity
– Roger asks for time to “put his affairs in order,” Lane is told to “put his house in order”
JOAN
Pete and Peggy also got pregnant based on a one-time fling. That seems to be a recurring theme for the show. Couples have troubling conceiving together but trysts always result in guilty babies.
Roger getting chewed out by Joan’s doctor is both satisfying and horrifying (Joan has been “used” and “ruined”? Wow.)
This will be, we now know, Joan’s third abortion. Joan is really being punished this year.
Her story ends ambiguously. Did Joan go through with it? Her line to Roger – “Greg dying isn’t a solution to this” – felt almost like a nod at the audience, who surely have been suspecting that that might happen
BEATLES AT SHEA STADIUM
Shea kicked off a US tour on August 15th, 1965. Over 55,000 people in attendence; grossed $304,000, a show business record at the time. This was The Beatles second concert tour of the US happened in the second half of August, 1965. Tour ended here in LA at the Hollywood Bowl on August 30th. After this tour, the Beatles took a 6 week break and then reconvened to produce “Rubber Soul.”
The Beatles LIVE A Hard Day’s Night Shea Stadium
SECURITY CLEARANCE
Betty lies to the government for Don. He looks pretty terrified. It’s still the most pleasant discussion they’ve had in months.
Great moment from Draper: “They interviewed Betty…G-Men!”
Don is a criminal here! He’s a thug with Campbell. “Get rid of it.” Just like that. He’s now totally dependent on others to save him – Faye, Pete, Betty – and to LIE for him!
MEGAN
Megan is a seriously lovely person. Did they just need to write one healthy, fully realized individual?
Final shot: Is Don thinking about how Megan, a relative simpleton, may have caused his eventual undoing? Or is it that Don wants Megan now…Because she doesn’t really know him? Can he not be with a woman romantically who knows who he really is? The deception is necessary for him to let go. Either could tie in with The Beatles’ “Do You Want to Know a Secret?”
(Lawyer’s comment seems to hint at what might be coming down the road…And Don’s already violated his secretary rule once.)
Closing Song: Beatles, “Do You Want to Know a Secret”
“Listen…do you want to know a secret…do you promise not to tell…”
Clip from Episode #11, “Chinese Wall”
