Mad Men - "Favors" - Review

I know there’s a lot to discuss in this episode, but let’s set that aside for that one moment that’s lingering in our minds. It comes from the Sally Draper Will Need Therapy Someday department. 

I’ve been complaining about the lack of use of Sally, but here we finally get a Sally storyline and it’s fantastic. It doesn’t seem to be going anywhere (it’s still entertaining – Sally reluctantly gossiping with a friend feels very much like the sort of thing you’d expect from kids this age) and then suddenly the story's true motives come out. And dear lord at that point I was upset beyond all belief. Sally through a series of coincidences finds herself witnessing her father cheat on Meghan (with Sylvia). I don’t think I’ve fully processed this.

Behind all that outward teen sass Sally's sporting is a quiet innocence. In many ways we could argue she’s the soul of the show. And if Don has lost the battle for her, then he may not stand a chance save his own dark black pit of a soul. I could definitely see the rest of the season being about the fallout from this moment and I would be thoroughly satisfied by it. The slow buildup of Kiernan Shipka’s part in the show almost feels now like it was all prologue to this moment. I can see a version of the show where Don’s attempts to regain his sense of self can only be fixed through Sally. Don and Sally have always had a strong relationship. Sally even states that she likes her father more than her mother right to Betty’s face early in the episode. (Of course, this is some nice foreshadowing). 

Don’s relationship with Sylvia looked like it was going to blow up in Don’s face at some point, but could we have ever imagined that this was the way it would blow up. The show dropped the affair earlier than we might have suspected and that now appears to have been misdirect. The affair gets off our mind just enough where we don’t see the moment coming where Sally walks in on her father. It hits us like it does because of not just the underlying emotion of it (which is powerful) but due to how surprising it is. 

Don has been so caught up in himself lately that he’s failing to see the things going on around him. He’s slacking off at work and he’s getting sloppy, in his affairs, his work, and his relationships. He looks like a man who’s all but given up. We see this in the storyline with Ted who has been increasingly pissed off (rightfully so) with Don. Ted is carrying the creative side of the company right now. Ted is getting distracted in his own right; his infatuation with Peggy (along with his work) is causing him to neglect his wife. But at the end of the day, Ted doesn’t shack up with Peggy. He gives her a ride home and then heads to his own home to watch tv with his kids. 

Sometimes we need these relationships to give a sense of order to our lives. Peggy without Abe is having trouble keeping house. She spends the episode trying to kill a rat scuttling around her apartment. It gets caught in a trap but still lives (is the rat symbolic of Don, or perhaps even of many of these characters at this point in their lives?). She calls up Stan asking for help (even offering to fuck him in exchange), but Stan refuses her offer. Sometimes though, the episode suggests, favors aren’t worth giving out or taking. 

The favor Don gives to Sylvia and Arnold, helping their son Mitchell get out of military service, is all a ploy to get back in Sylvia’s good graces (which it does, but to disastrous results). Don in turn gets a favor from Ted (who has the connections necessary to save Mitchell from service); the cost here is that Don gives Ted the upper hands with accounts, dropping a conflicting account. Ted appears to be the only one trying to make sure the company doesn’t fall into an all-out civil war. 

Pete accepted a favor from Bob Benson to hire a Spanish helper Manolo, but Pete fires the man when he learns that the man supposedly slept with his mother (a fact he learns from Peggy in a hilarious scene) and also when it turns out he might be gay. Pete is also turned off from what he takes to be a suggestion by Bob to repay the favor (some knee brushing that seems to imply some homoerotic subtext -- Also, anyone else miss Salvatore? I wonder if he’ll return).

This of course brings us full circle to the favor the doorman provides to Sally that causes her to witness her father’s affair. The doorman thinks nothing of Sally asking for the keys; she asks for that favor and it proves devastating. Sally was simply trying to avoid the embarrassment that came with her friend giving Mitchell a list she and her friend had written providing qualities they liked about him (including his ass). This is a bit of a contrivance but the episode does such a nice job of making it unclear the purpose of this story that when Sally goes into the Rosen’s apartment we’re not sure what to expect. Don’s phone call with Sylvia doesn’t entirely suggest they’d be sleeping together right away. Sylvia comes off as someone being thankful and also tying up the awkwardly ended place things left off in, but not necessarily rekindling things. But at the same time, it’s not a stretch that this is how she repays the favor to Don.  

And then there’s that final scene which is absolutely wonderful. Don returns to find his disillusioned daughter at dinner. Meghan’s there and Sally’s friend. It’s deeply uneasy (and rightfully so). And then Arnold shows up with Mitchell, and it becomes ten times more uneasy and also really intense. It’s somewhere between a feeling of I’m going to me sick and holy shit this is exciting. "What is going to happen next?!" we ask ourselves restlessly. Then Sally gets up from the table, tells her father she’s sick with him, and Don chases her to her locked bedroom door. Besides the reveal, this scene is the episode’s best scene. Don and Sally stand on opposite sides of the door. They’re so close and yet so distant from eachother in this moment. Don tries and fails to properly find the words to cover for himself and make his daughter forgive him. Don hasn’t been in the right state of mind for a long while to sales pitch his way out of this. 

Don’s done some damage in his life and especially this season, and he’s done some damage control. But here’s perhaps some damage he can never fix. This makes me think of what Joan said recently to Don (in "For Immediate Release"). She chastises Don after losing the Jaguar account. Don didn’t think of the concerns or feelings of others. He's so self-interested that he’s missing the big picture lately. However, it’s one thing when it’s employees of SC&P but it’s another when it’s his daughter. Hurting Joan is terrible but hurting Sally is irredeemable. 

Stray Thoughts:

*I love how the scene with Peggy and Pete’s mother recalls Peggy’s baby she had to give up. This episodes treatment of Peggy and Pete’s relationship is really excellent. Pete drunkenly telling Peggy she’s the only one who knows him is just so well-observed. And them laughing as Ted walks in is funny and awesome.

*Betty sends Sally to Don’s to avoid her being around a bunch of boys and so of course she runs into a pretty boy in the apartment lobby. Betty, once again, (although this time accidentally) uses Sally as a pawn in her war with Don. (Oh the irony of Sally attending a Diplomacy Club trip).

*Pete picks up on the feelings between Peggy and Ted. Peggy better keep that in check. It could come back to bite her. Just ask her mentor.

*Don killing the conversation with GM is just terribly uncomfortable. Don really has lost his touch.

*There was a nice montage at the end of the episode. Lots of lonely people fucking up. 

*I see Sally as the soul of the show in a similar way to how Meadow functioned in The Sopranos.

*I like all the uses of "Mrs. Draper" referring to Meghan. It really subtly foreshadows what's to come. Sally may not appear to have the strongest bond with Meghan but she still can't tolerate this kind of behavior from her father. 

*Nice piece of meta humor when Harry Francis asks why they only use this one room when they live in a mansion. 

*Some "At the Codfish Ball" resonance here in the Sally storyline in the way she witnesses her father sleeping with Sylvia. 

*Kiernan Shipka has rightfully been praised for her performance, and she's an exceptional young actress. But some of her finest work is in this episode. That scene between Don and Sally is chilling and Shipka totally holds her own. 

*Directed by Jennifer Getzinger who also directed "The Suitcase", another great (perhaps the series' best), emotional episode.

*Don Draper has never seen so loathsome. This season is really dragging down our ability to like him. And this may be the breaking point.

Grade: A