Mad Men Season 4, Episode 4: "The Rejected"

I'm trying something different here: normally I watch the episodes twice, on Sunday nights when they are broadcast, and again on Monday evenings with the Mrs., because she goes to sleep too early to watch the Sunday broadcasts. I usually do the writeups on Monday mornings, but it seems like after watching the episodes a second time, I often find that I feel differently about something and want to go back and revise what I've written, so I thought I would try watching twice before doing the writeup. Of course, this means it doesn't get posted until Tuesday (or, theoretically, late Monday night), but I just thought I'd experiment with it...

[As usual, the standard disclaimer applies: I have avoided reading any other recaps, writeups, or other commentary on this episode before writing this, so if I express something similar to thoughts you've read elsewhere, it's entirely a coincidence. If you have not watched the episode, assume there are spoilers ahead and act accordingly.]

This week's episode was titled "The Rejected," and there was plenty of rejection going on. It was also decidedly less Don-centric than this season's episodes so far, and that's a good thing, because we needed a bit of a break from his moping and drinking and leching. Instead we got Pete, Peggy, a touch of Pete and Peggy together, and a return appearance by Ken Cosgrove.

We've all had to deal with rejection, and it comes in many forms. Pete is told he has to reject his father-in-law's business due to a (questionable) conflict, and that he has to do this for the good of the agency. He in turn feels like his work is being rejected by Roger and Lane. Peggy rejects the advances of a lesbian, whose friend's photography has been rejected by Life magazine. The ladies in the focus group end up talking about the things they do for the men in their lives, men who end up rejecting them. Allison rejects Don's rejection of her by quitting, with a flung paperweight for emphasis. Don rejects Dr. Miller's analysis of the focus group, after they rejected the concept of beauty products and rituals as an indulgence. Did I miss any? (Probably.)

Here's a question: if Joyce's friend the photographer wouldn't want to have anything to do with working for an ad agency, why would he want his photos to appear in Life? It seems like a countercultural rebel would consider a glossy, mainstream weekly magazine (one full of advertising) to be just as much a part of the establishment as an ad agency. Perhaps because, had they been published (which they never would have been, at the time) they would have been considered transgressive and boundary-breaking?

Unfortunately Peggy didn't get to probe that far, because her conversation with him at the party was interrupted by the police raid, but lucky for her she was swept off her feet and into a hiding place by Abe, the crusading journalist. Could Peggy become a Factory girl? Probably not, but she's getting exposed to new ideas and subcultures that are bound to affect her own thinking, and ultimately her work. And I do wonder if she has ever thought about writing anything else besides ad copy.

Pete's finally going to be a dad (for real this time). It's still difficult for me to think of Pete as anything other than a petulant, spoiled little boy, but he takes the news in a pretty grown-up way. Pete also showed his business acumen (with a little nudge from his conversation with Ken) by turning the rejection of the Clearasil account into an opportunity to capture the business of his father-in-law's entire company. Does this mean the agency will then have to reject the Pond's account?

Since Peggy rejected both Pete and his baby, I also tend to see her as no longer having any feelings for him, but the news of Trudy's pregnancy obviously affected her. Perhaps her status as a single career woman (which she gave up Pete's baby to preserve) isn't quite everything she hoped it would be, or maybe she's just at a point where she's feeling a desire for motherhood, but I don't really think she's ready. I think her path is going away from normalcy, from the accepted and expected roles for women of this time, and away from Pete; the symbolism of the two groups of people on opposite sides of the glass doors at the end of the episode reinforced this.

When Joyce came to invite Peggy to the party, did you notice that she called Megan, the receptionist, "sweetheart"? Just like a man (or a mannish woman who likes other women). By the way, the actress who played Joyce is the daughter of David Mamet and Lindsay Crouse. Trivia: Back around 1990, I was working at a local cultural institution, and I can remember seeing Mr. Mamet on a couple of occasions with his children (I believe he was living in Boston at the time, but that may not be correct), so it's entirely possible this young lady was one of them.

I loved seeing Peggy's head pop up in the transom window after Allison and Don's dustup.

Nice job by John Slattery (Roger) in what I believe was his directing debut.