Mad Men Season 4, Episode 8: "The Summer Man"

After last week's tour de force, I expected a slightly more low-key episode, and that's what we got--which isn't to say that this episode wasn't interesting or satisfying.

[Standard disclaimer: 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.]

After we saw Don so drunk that he couldn't land a punch on the equally drunk Duck Phillips, it seems he took that as a sign that he needed to get his act together. As the summer begins, Don is making a conscious effort to drink less and take better care of himself. The pool was a pretty obvious symbol of cleansing, of purification, but the use of "Satisfaction" reminded us that Don has a long way to go on his journey, and there's no guarantee he'll make it.

I don't recall Mad Men using a voiceover before, but I quickly realized it was being done in order to allow us to share Don's thoughts as he wrote them down. This raised the question: is he in some kind of therapy? That seems unlikely, but it also seems unlikely that Don would begin such a self-examination process on his own. AA? Probably even less likely, given the fact that he's still drinking, somewhat.

Joan was a bit on edge due to her husband's impending departure for basic training, and was having a rough time at work with Joey the freelancer, and with the whole class-clown boys' club in general. Perhaps the looser environment at the SCDP office lends itself to creativity, but you know this sort of behavior never would have been tolerated at the old Sterling Cooper.

Peggy tried to help Joan, and in doing so thought she was standing up for her, but Joan pointed out that firing Joey was really about trying to feel powerful, like a man, and that there were other ways of accomplishing the same thing without either of them ending up being disliked. Peggy still has a lot to learn, both about being a woman and about making it in a man's world.

Don had a good time on his cab rides, especially with Bethany. But the idea of engaging in any sort of intimate behavior in a taxi is completely unappealing to me. In a limo with tinted windows and an opaque divider, maybe.

In spite of Bethany's effort to keep Don interested, he overheard Faye break up with her boyfriend (in the lobby phone booth, just like Peggy last week) and seized the opportunity to ask her out again. It's been fairly obvious since they met that she was as attracted to him as he was to her. Not only is she closer to his age, but she's much more intellectually interesting to him. But even with her being newly available, I'm inclined to think that if Don hadn't gotten himself straightened out, Faye would not have accepted his invitation. And I think that he chose not to go home with her (or to go to his place, "right around the corner") showed that he's serious about her.

There was a nice reprise of the parallel structure used in "The Chrysanthemum and the Sword," with Betty's therapeutic conversation with Francine followed by Don's similarly insightful dinner conversation with Faye; afterward, each was able to let go of at least some of the lingering anger and resentment, and put the hurt feelings aside for the sake of Gene's birthday party. That image of Don holding Gene aloft at the end may be one of the series' most touching moments to date.

P.S. Little Gene's cake looked awfully lopsided when Betty was frosting it.