Mad Men's epilogue continued in "The Forecast" with a parade of more unsatisfied customers and an increasingly desperate-to-believe-in-something Don Draper. Also some uncomfortable May/December romances. Also Sally being the best.
In typical Roger fashion, Roger pawned a bit of work off on Don, asking him to handle a write-up of SC&P's outlook for the future, and Don's fellow partners argued that Don has always been better at painting a picture, talking about the future, rose-tinting the past, and selling everything from cigarettes to cheeseburgers. Unfortunately, Don's nervous-breakdown-in-progress made his usual miracle-working seem... less than marvelous.
Hindsight was everything in "The Forecast"—whether you actually lived through the '70s or just read about them. Regardless of the good time portrayed by Dazed and Confused, the decade experienced its share of suckage: Watergate, the '72 Olympics, gas shortages, recession, the Iran hostages, and, of course, disco. Don brainstormed ideas for his "Gettysburg Address" while fuming that people look toward the future assuming it will be better. He repeated, "It's supposed to get better," as though trying to reassure himself that it still could, or to talk himself out of the state of melancholy that's plagued him for so long.
It harks back to what Pete said last week while fretting about the tragedy of never getting past the beginning of your life. The Don Draper we followed in "The Forecast" is starting over, but he's already started over so many times that he's an expert at it—and with his expertise comes a level of cynicism that Don has never really encountered in himself before. He's reached the part where everything is supposed to get better: the latest career crisis has passed, Megan's been kicked to the curb with a check that should keep her happy for awhile, Dick Whitman is hardly an issue anymore. Don is free to reinvent himself yet again... and it sucks. He can't bring himself to do it, and these days, he doesn't even know where to start.
Don is a dinosaur in the wrong time period, and that's becoming more obvious with each passing episode. Wearing a blue shirt instead of the classic white was a huge step for him at the office, but his hair, the cut of his suits, his attitude—it all feels dated, and Don is starting to notice. His realtor lambasted his attitude about the empty penthouse he casually tossed onto the market: There's no furniture, no decor, no warmth, and the rugs are still filthy. It "reeks of failure," and that failure extends much deeper than Don's ill-fated marriage to Megan.
Throughout the past several weeks, Don has repeatedly been exposed to representations of what he could have had, or once had, in other periods of his life; in those times, when his marriage was crumbling, when his career was a wreck, when Anna Draper died and Lane Pryce died and Don's poor dumb brother died, his general feeling was that this lousy period would pass and the future would be better, even if only through sheer willpower. But Don's performed this routine a few times and it always seems to end in disaster, and now we're barely into this fresh new decade and he's already stuck in the past. He asked Meredith to find the press release about the founding SCDP, back in 1963. 1963 was comfortable. SCDP was a good thing. An accomplishment. A dream.
Don doesn't have dreams anymore, and it's a little heartbreaking. He's desperate to find one, even if it isn't his own. He sought out Peggy and Meredith, Ted, and even Sally's friends (especially Sally's friends), but none of them fit. Compounding his ennui: the theme of the address he was trying to write, the magazines littering every office with articles contemplating what would surely be a bright new future in the 1970s (oh, hindsight), and frequent confrontations with ghosts of his past lives. When Don finally sold his penthouse, it was to a young couple expecting a child, excited to be moving into their dream apartment and starting their lives. Several years ago, they could have been Don and Betty. Several years ago, their dream was Don's dream, but that's not the way things are anymore.
Dreams can—and often do—change, for better or worse. There was a time when all Joan wanted was a child and a husband, but now she resents her son and fantasizes about dashing off to Paris with Bruce Greenwood. Betty once yearned for kids and a posh wardrobe, then for all the trappings of a politician's wife, and now she's returning to college to work on a psych degree. Peggy once had very moderate, sensible aims to be a secretary and find a husband, but now she wants to blaze a trail as the first woman creative director at the firm and, though it's unspoken, she wants the husband too. She wants everything, and yet she still worries it won't be enough, that Don will mock her.
None of the dreams discussed in "The Forecast" caught Don's interest, but that's because dreams are personal; they can't be transferred from one individual to the next. That Don is so broken that he can't find a single tiny thing to nurture within himself says a lot about his precarious mental state right now. I mean, even Lou Avery has Scout's Honor, and for as silly and unremarkable as it may be, at least the man is putting his work out there and trying to make something of it.
"The Forecast" was a definite improvement over last week's less-than-stellar "New Business," though it still struggled at times with awkward storylines and hamfisted symbolism (Bobby Draper's gun, anyone?). With only a few episodes left in the series, Don Draper is going nowhere fast... but then again, that's probably the whole point.
PERIOD PIECES
– Sally and her sass are <3. From making me choke on her preggo quip to spitting out an exasperated, "I just want to eat dinner" in response to Don's philosophical prodding... I just love her so much.
– I like how we had to have Glen explicitly state that he's 18 now so the Glen/Betty sexual tension wasn't super creepy and uncomfortable... except it was still super creepy and uncomfortable.
– Glen's going to Vietnam. Think he's gonna make it back?
– Playland! Rye Playland! My little amusement-park-nerd heart swelled with joy.
– "The Forecast" took place after the shootings at Kent State, so it's post-May 1970. We're just flying through this year!
– Poor dumb Mathis.
– No Diana the Waitress this week. Did you miss her? Do you think we'll see her again?
– “I’m tired of this,” Peggy said to Don. "I’ve had quite a year.” You go, Peggy!
– "This looks like a place where a sad person lived." Understatement of the century.
What did you think of "The Forecast"?