I eat Pop Culture.

Oh, baby! Lots of stuff happening on Mad Men, let’s get down to business…

*********SPOILER ALERT, so in honor of Peggy finally having someone take her out for a business-related lunch, in a fancy restaurant with mini lamps on the tables and scrumptious Bloody Mary’s, please don’t read any further if you don’t want to know what happened in Episode 5***********

The stork stopped by, it’s a boy! …  Betty finally gave birth to the surprise baby, and oh boy, she was not a happy camper, throwing insults all over the place and making it clear to the hospital staff, and all of us wincing from the other side of the TV screen, that she is not excited about having another baby. Meanwhile, in the waiting room, Don seemed relaxed, reading the paper, a stark contrast to the other husband in the room, soon-to-be-first-time-dad Dennis Hobart, who could hardly contain himself. But was Don’s coolness due to this being the third time, or an honest lack of enthusiasm? I think both reasons are likely, but I also think Don may have had a possible moment of clarity when Dennis freaked out to Don about the thought of losing his wife during childbirth and then blurted out, “how could I love that baby?” We of course know Don’s mother died during childbirth. So did Don consider that even if he wasn’t thrilled about this new baby, that regardless, no baby should go unloved or carry the burden of  how he/she came into the world? After all, he did say to Sally later, during their midnight snack, that “not all surprises are bad.”

With Betty arriving home from the hospital, smiling and cheery, could it be possible that her “fog” lifted too (she even referred to the birth as a fog), is she ready to happily accept the new addition to the family, and not just go through the motions? Only time will tell. That scene at the end of the episode left room for way too much ambiguity: yes, back to business as usual, Betty tends to the children, but my goodness, she really took her time, there was no running to crying Baby Eugene’s side. And on top of it all, after all that labor and weird anxiety dream where she thought she was dying, she didn’t even get the little girl she was so badly hoping for.

Will Duck steal away Peggy & Pete?… Peggy asked for equal pay and got turned down by Don. Pete knows he is redundant, basically having the same job as Ken; and then got in trouble with a client and Roger and Burt for wanting to pursue the African-American consumer market. Peggy and Pete are both undeniably frustrated, and both are probably in their respective Manhattan apartments, right now, strongly considering Duck’s offer: to join him at his new firm, where ideas and creativity will be rewarded. I say the two of them should do it, I’d love to see how all of that goes down, and how the show deals with rivaling ad agencies, especially if one is  more progressive than the other–who can and will keep up with the times, for they are a-changin’.

Hot for teacher…one final thought: is Don considering going there [Sally's lovely and young teacher]? I picked up that she was putting it out there as a possibility, but he didn’t seem entirely interested. Due to bad timing (um, time to go have a baby) or is he swearing off the relationship cheating and just sticking with convenient and no-attachment options [the flight attendant in Baltimore]?  Draper doesn’t love change, so I’m guessing it was timing…we may see something with those two down the road.

Ok, next week’s episode: “Guy Walks into an Advertising Agency,” will feature a surprise visit at Sterling Cooper, and Joan gets some unexpected news.

It’s only Episode 4, and already the jackets are coming out (Sally wearing one on her way to school, Don asking his secretary if he needs to take his coat). One more detail the Mad Men kids pay attention to, telling time through wardrobe. Oh, and if it’s already early fall, does that mean Kennedy’s assassination will occur mid-season rather than finale? I hope so for two reasons 1) if it happens at the end of the season it will be too much like last season ending on the Cuban Missile Crisis and 2) I think it would make this season much more interesting to really take the time to see how the President’s assassination affects everyone on Mad Men. Ok, on to discussing Sunday night’s episode, “The Arrangements.”

*************SPOILER ALERT so for the love of Don’s latest secretary, Allison, and the hope that she lasts for awhile, do not read further if you don’t want to know what happened in Episode 4 *********************

R.I.P. Grandpa Gene…we knew it was coming, but man, didn’t make it any easier. And just when Sally and her Grandpa were starting to bond, how great was that driving scene?–now her world is shattered. The preview for next week’s episode looks like Sally starts to act out. I think we are in for some serious character development this season with Sally dealing with death/reality, and with Don and Betty as parents dealing with a sensitive and strong-willed daughter.

Bye-Bye Patio, Hello Jai Alai…some interesting stuff happening with the Sterling Cooper accounts. The kids at Patio ended up not liking what they asked for, a TV commercial with an Ann-Margaret look-alike singing about the product a la the opening scene of “Bye-Bye Birdie.” Despite the ad being almost identical to it’s counterpart, no one could put their finger on it, but there was something “off” about the ad. Roger said it was because it wasn’t Ann-Margaret. Is this a little metaphor via diet soda? No matter what you do to it, call it, whatever, it will never measure up to the real thing? You could say that about most things: the true original of something is always more desirable than the imitation.

Moving from beverages to athletics, Pete Campbell talked his wealthy college pal, Horace, into going with Sterling Cooper to promote his dream of making the sport jai alai bigger than baseball. Since it’s 2009 as we are watching this, and jai alai hasn’t become bigger than baseball, we quickly realize that Pete’s friend, which he affectionately calls Ho-Ho,  has a lot of money to burn on an underwhelming product.  Don tries to take the high road and get Horace’s father involved, put a stop to the foolish investment. Horace’s father sees it as a necessary life lesson, let him fail. As Bert Cooper says in the meeting, “Kill or be killed, eat or be eaten, that’s how I was raised.”

And that brings us to the theme of Episode 4, advice. Yes, this episode had a lot of advice getting thrown around…

…Don, not feeling as comfortable as his wealthy colleagues with watching one of their own fall flat on their face, told Horace he could do better, find something else to do with his fortune. Much to Pete’s relief (commission!) Horace ignored Don’s attempt to be more fatherly than even Horace’s own father.

…After Peggy’s ad for a roommate in Manhattan resulted in prank calls by her fellow Sterling Cooper staffers, Joan stepped in and told her to change her boring angle and be adventurous, that it’s about two young single women in the city. Peggy took her advice and changed the ad, and found a lovely and exciting roommate.

…Grandpa Gene tells Sally that she can be anything, despite what her mother says/does.

Those are the biggies, any more that I forgot?

One thing I want to point out…Don supporting Sal’s commercial, despite it not getting them the Patio account. Don knew it was good work, and he told Sal that he was now officially a commercial director. It was a nice moment between the two. And now we see Don has another alliance  with someone else who has a “a secret.” First Peggy, with her pregnancy and now Sal, who we know is secretly gay. Don, with his own bag of secrets, really has empathy for these individuals, he supports them and cares about them. He knows what its like to live two lives, bury a past, and be really passionate about work. They are all outsiders in a way, not privileged like Roger and Pete, they feel they have more to lose and have to work twice as hard to be taken seriously.

This season, Mad Men has taken a deeper look into class issues, something that I feel scripted television doesn’t really delve in to enough. It’s not polite to discuss money, right? But that’s one of the important elements about this show, it doesn’t strive to be polite, it wants to expose the issues, the hypocrisy, explore the human condition. Formalities and etiquette are what we use to keep things even on the surface, while ignoring the emotion and motivation that’s really going on underneath…I’ll save some of my further discussion for a night that AMC airs a repeat.

Looking ahead…next week is episode 5, “A Guy Walks into an Advertising Agency”…Don and Betty deal with Sally and her issue, and Betty has a weird dream.  Ohhhhhh, a dream, can’t wait to analyze that!