S7E1 Time Zones

Time Zones  (SPOILERS)

This blog consists of the authors own notes and some great ideas from /r/madmen.

Grant's notes:

First, in the last episode of season 6 Don killed some of his mysterious past during an important pitch to Hershey's chocolate.  It felt like an awful career decision and his subsequent termination (essentially) proved it.  It is only natural then that season 7 begin by giving us an idea of why he made that choice.  The most revealing dialog took place with the widow on the airplane.  Don tells us that he is trying to be better but he feels like a broken vessel.  He wants to change but he doesn't know if he can.  The most striking omission is that none of it has anything to do with Megan.  Guilt is his strongest motivator for the change yet it doesn't seem connected to a love for Megan.  He wants to change for himself.  Who knows if Megan is what he wants after he fixes himself.

Second, Don is still in advertising.  There was a part of me, before the season, that thought the Hershey moment was the end.  "If it was up to me you wouldn't be advertising at all".  His rhetoric was harsh and hinted at the high degree of discontent he must hold with the manipulative nature of being an ad man. However, it was clear enough that Don is back at it, although using Freddy as his mouthpiece.  This is important because I doubt the success of Don's change while within the ad world.  Drinking, women, manipulation are all part of the process and those are all things Don wants to get away from.

Third, most of the Peggy conversation via the MM blogosphere centers around Lou's comment to Peggy, "I guess I'm just immune to your charms."  The blogs are very eager to argue either that Peggy is getting a dose of reality from finally having a boss who isn't "in to her" or as Tom and Lorenzo put it, "Have absolutely no regard or use for her".  But isn't this debate missing out on a powerful fact?  The work that Peggy is going to bat for is good work.  The fact is beyond question as Don created it, Freddy signed off on it, Peggy recognized it, and Freddy says other agencies are now after Freddy because of the Draper bump.  Who knows what light future episodes will shine on this issue but it seems the first question must be whether Lou is incompetent.  Accutron is Accurate is a shit line and we didn't need Peggy to tell us that.  My stance is either that Lou is incompetent or has a personal vendetta against Peggy either 1) because he thinks she slept her way to the top or 2) he sees her as an internal competitor and a risk to his job security.

Fourth, is Ken Cosgrove's loss of depth perception a symbol?  Ken has been one of the most morally consistent characters on the show.  He has always remained affable and somehow insulated from the madness of the mad men world.  However, his positive qualities have been diminished like his depth perception.  Ever since the episode signal 30, where he reveals the plot of his short story where a robot has no control over his life, Ken has been falling.  Moreover, in Signal 30, the episode closes with Ken narrating his new story where Death stands in the doorway clipping his nails.  Ken is a bit of an artist and he is starving in a different way than the expression is usually used for.  His mad men life use to clearly be meaningless to him but now his depth perception is off.  He is nothing short of an asshole in the episode and seems absorbed in the monotony of the profession he use to hate.

Fifth, blundetto, made an interesting analogy between Chevy and Vietnam.  Both entities hosted energetic and ambitious young men who came back changed, broken, and disheveled.  I would also add that similar to our soldiers coming back from Vietnam, Ken's experience was extremely frustrating with hardly any progress being made.  When badgered by the partners back home he could only shift the blame to the conditions and people over there and how it was impossible to move forward.

Random Items of Interest:

• Don didn't smoke a cigarette in this episode!  (or maybe he was shown grinding out one in the diner)
• Don did not have an old fashioned.  This upholds the Old Fashioned as a symbol for Don's infidelity.  
• The closeout song, Vanilla Fudge's "You keep me hanging on", was informative in the usual vague way.  
• The widow scattered the ashes of her deceased alcoholic husband at the place where Don and Megan's relationship ended, Disneyland.  
• Don called Pete a hippie partly because of his clothes.  Those clothes today equate to a preppy fraternity douche bag rather than a hippie.  
• Subtle Reveals
• Don has not told Megan he is out of work.  
• Don is doing Fredy's work for him Cyrano style. 
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Questions:

Song use:

• Spencer Davis Group, I'm a man.  

Themes:

• Not being special anymore:  Don, Peggy, Roger, Joan?, Pete, 

Potential Symbols

• Broken Door
• Ken's lack of depth Perception.  
• Joan's Earing
• Megan's new TV

Things to Look for:

• Joan's conversation with the Professor seemed important.  Contingency fee vs. commission has come up before in the show and I wouldn't be surprised if the modernization of the advertising world into marketing and the 4P's becomes a larger and broader theme throughout the season.  
• A man falls in a hole and cannot get out.  After a doctor, a priest, and lawyer fail to get him out, a friend hops into the hole with him.  Our man says, "what you do that for, now we are both stuck down here"  The friend says, I've been down here before and no the way out.  I'm sensing Freddy is the friend Don needs right now.  He suffered a similar alcohol induced and forced exit from the corporate world and did ok in the end.  Maybe he can fix Don's patio door for him and bring him out of the cold.  
• Did sterling's daughter join a cult?

Paralels

• Peggy now has Lane's office, weird shot where her dress is hanging from the same hook Lane did.
• Megan is wearing the dress/gown thing sneakily featured in this promotional poster.    

References:

• Cyrano Debergeac
• Haven’t you ever dreamed of a place where there was peace and security, where living was not a struggle but a lasting delight?--Lost Horizon Title Card (credit to Tom and Lorenzo).  
• Sharon Tate--House in the hills.  Coyote sounds is reminiscent of Helter Skelter book.  
• The graduate via sideshot @ the airport.  
• Dracula's Tower
• Utopia/earlier conversation with Rachel Menken/California as the good place.  
• Broken Vessel/Psalm 31:12
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