The hosts discuss Episode 12 of “Mad Men’s” 4th season, titled “Blowing Smoke.” In this episode, an old character from Season 1 returns, we discuss the age-old beans vs. ketchup rivalry, Lon bloviates about Dylan Thomas, Betty and Sally battle over Creepy Glen and we theorize whether SCDP will survive until Season 5 or whether it really is just a state room on the Titanic.

Cold Open

Tonight on This Week in Mad Men…

- We’ll recap the goings-on in Season 4′s second-to-last episode, “Blowing Smoke”
- We’ll offer our season finale predictions
- And we’ll whip up a delicious chicken cordon bleu

It’s This Week in Mad Men starting RIGHT NOW. Have your girl make reservations.

Introduction

Thanks to viewer MisterWinter, who shared with me his notes via e-mail.

Discussion of Episode 12, “Blowing Smoke”

DEATH THROES

- Lots of death metaphors for SCDP:
“Walls fall down around us”
“The wind is blowing ice cold out there.”
American Cancer Society
“Stagnant and decaying”
Trudy calls it a Stateroom on the Titanic
- It’s about knowing you’re at the end and fighting or giving in? Or the way that things change in reality that force us to change personally. Don rejects cigarettes in a calculated way, but Megan seems to think it is genuinely the right decision

Death and desperation elsewhere:
– Midge is on heroin
– Betty begging for more time at the kids therapist

[MisterWinter feels it's about "instant gratification": Midge wanting money in cash, the company wanting a "quick fix" account rather than a trickle in of new work.]

HEINZ

- Ketchup is King
- Food is cyclical; There’s a time for beans and a time for ketchup. (Is this a metaphor? A time for staple foods and a time for frills?)
- Fight “the way beans are funny” (A “Mad Men” fart joke!)
-”I will have an exciting idea…”
- The Heinz representative basically tells Don that Pete is more central to the business than “creative.” This bugs him the whole episode. (He later tells Peggy “We’re Creative, the least important most important thing there is.”)
- It’s clear that Don hates to see the agency go down not because it means so much to him, but because it reflects poorly on him personally. “Don Draper” the construct only makes sense if he’s successful.

SALLY

- She wants to eat with the adults
- Creepy Glen returns!
- Glen calls that Betty hates being a Mom…Sally’s not ready to face that one.
- “She doesn’t care what the truth is…as long as I listen to her.”
- Dr Edna seems to have been good for her
- Sally’s an atheist. This conversation felt a bit forced. Do 11 year olds really have complex ideas about infinity?
- Glen sees Betty and runs away
- Betty: “I know him better than you do.” She’s jealous of Sally’s relationship with Creepy Glen

NEW TOBACCO ACCOUNT

- SCDP is “stagnant and decaying”…death imagery…
- Tobacco is your ideal boyfriend. “Can you get us a date?” Peggy seemed to just find her own ideal boyfriend, after some initial distaste/bitterness. Is there something here? Is “Mad Men” saying that the things that are right for us are also wrong for us?
- What’s with the music behind the “cigarette” montage?

MIDGE!!!!

- Meet her husband…”It’s not romantic.”
- Brendan Behan vs. Dylan Thomas (Both were alcoholics. Thomas died in 1953, Behan in 1964, after bouts with drink that left them sickly)
– The Dylan Thomas reference. “Do not go gentle into that good night…Rage, rage, against the dying of the light.”
- Is her husband pimping her out?
- She tracked you down…oh snap…it’s a con.”I just wanted you to buy a painting.” Others have hit rock bottom too. she’s now hooked on heroin.
- Why does he pay her? As an addict himself, he must realize this will make things worse.

DON VS. TOBACCO

- “Jerry Maguire” connection? (It’s really reverse Maguire. He’s 100% sincere. Don’s full of BS.)
- No good tobacco ads because people can’t stop using it
-”We knew it wasn’t good for us, but we can’t stop.” Midge’s real-world heroin addiction inspired Don’s fakeout “addiction” to tobacco in his letter. She sort of oddly earned her money. (Was he concerned for her at all, or just inspired?)
- Don changes the conversation
- The genius Draper move of all moves. Turn weakness into strength. It’s the Karl Rove trick!
- Burt Cooper quits.”We’ve created a monster.”
- Forces Faye to quit…he didn’t think about that. Again, his job before hers. She takes the deal. (“Have your girl make reservations.” Is there something more to that?)
- American Cancer Society…The birth of the PSA?
- Title is double meaning: Blowing Smoke as in he’s full of BS and not quitting cigarettes and blowing smoke like blowing up all the tobacco accounts

WILL SCDP SURVIVE?

- Winter says yes, but it will be slow and painful
- I say maybe. Big end-of-season shocker could be the departure of more main cast members for other agencies, and we wait to see what happens until next season.

QUICK HITS

- Why did Don pay Pete’s share? Loyalty? Guilt? A thank you? Fascinating…
- MisterWinter: “Props for the perfectly framed shot of Don and Faye talking at the beginning of the episode. Megan, sitting in the background, is nicely juxtaposed between them almost like a spectre hovering over their relationship.”
- Was Midge’s husband disappointed or excited at getting $10 out of Don?
- When you bet big and lose, you don’t double down
- Megan loved the letter. Don implies that she doesn’t get it but she does.
- Emerson Foote? He was a legendary ad man from the ’30s who was still active in the ’60s. He had previously handled the Lucky Strike account. (Hat tip: Winter) He was the former head of McCann-Erickson, who resigned in 1964 in protest over cigarette advertising
- Peggy told others will be fired.”Oh good.”
- Shot of Henry reading Don’s tirade. An indication that the Lindsay campaign may come on board?
- Lane moved his family back
- Peggy looks up to Faye
- Philip Morris’ new cigarettes for women are Virginia Slims, launched in 1968
- Closing song: Etta James, “Trust in Me”

Mad Men: The Illustrated World

We’ll be reviewing this new book of Dyna Moe drawings next week, and giving it away to a lucky viewer on the series finale!

Look Ahead at the Finale

- The panel issues their predictions for the final episode of Season 4, titled “Tomorrowland.” No preview clip was available on AMC.

Closing

There’s only one more “Mad Men” left this season, and two more episodes of our show. We’ll be doing a season wrap-up the week after the finale. Then, on November 1st, join us for our newest show, “This Week in Walking Dead”!

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