In the “Monolith,” the fourth episode of the final season of Mad Men, Don Draper took two steps backwards in his personal journey toward redemption, but — as Lane Pryce’s Mets pennant suggested — there is still plenty of reason for hope. 1969 was the year of the Miracle Mets, who began that season as a deeply mediocre team, 18-23 through 41 games. Like our hopes for Don Draper, they mounted a comeback, and in the end and surged past the Chicago Cubs (uh, Lou Avery?) with a late-season run that was one of the largest turnarounds in Major League Baseball history. Lane Pryce may have been the 1960s Mets — perennially last place finishers. But Don is the 1969 Mets, the team that closed out the decade with a championship.
But before Don could continue along his journey, he’d need to hit rock bottom, and that was what “The Monolith” was about, mixing in a sh*t ton of allusions to Stanley Kubrick’s 1968 film, 2001: A Space Odyssey. “He’s spent three weeks in that cave and he hasn’t clubbed another ape yet,” Roger said of Don in one of many references to Kubrick’s film before recommending him to the Burger Chef project. That’s where the proudly mediocre, bureaucratic sh*tstain Lou Avery stepped. “I like to think of myself as a leader.” F*ck you, Lou.
He assigned Peggy as the head of the Burger Chef team and put Don on the project in hopes that the two most creative minds in the office would destroy each other and thus the threat to Lou Avery, whose niceness in the episode was even more sinister than his sneering prickitude. Die Lou. Die.
But Don wasn’t going to sit around and eat Peggy’s sh*t. He pulled an Office Space on Peggy, freezing her out, giving zero f*cks while simultaneously aiming to bring in a new client. But as we learn over the course of the episode, that potential client — Lloyd Hawley — was Satan himself (“you go by many names”), that goddamn computer was the apple of knowledge (the temptation) and Don nearly bit into it (the fall of man), which would have gotten him ousted from Sterling Cooper (the garden of Eden).
In the end, Freddy Rumsen — Don’s pants-whizzing guardian angel — saved Draper’s ass from ouster. He kept Don’s drunkenness hidden, nursed him through the hangover, and gave Don the motivational speech he needed to hear. “Fix your bayonet and hit the parade. Do the work, Don.” It was full circle for Freddy and Don, who was the only one to defend Freddy after he pissed his pants.
It also made The Hollies “On the Carousel” a fitting song for the credits, because it recalled Don Draper’s very best ad campaign in the series’ run, and arguably the best few minutes of the entire first season of Mad Men. This is where Don’s trying to return:
Meanwhile, while new technology is threatening to destroy man in the offices of Sterling Cooper & Partners, Roger’s dealing with just the opposite: Margaret has left the world behind, joined a hippie commune in upstate New York far away from technological advances, where she changed her name to Marigold. And while the subplot certainly hinted at the Woodstock to come in August of that year, I think the storyline ultimately was more about Roger than Margaret.
Roger and Margaret are living parallel lives, and I think it took Roger spending the night and assimilating into Hippie Summer Camp for him to see his own selfish choices in the actions of Margaret. She abandoned her kid for free love and sex and no responsibility, which may have been the opposite of the reason that Roger abandoned her, but it’s exactly why Roger has abandoned his son with Joan. He’s just as guilty as she is, and I think it took Roger wiping out in the mud and finding his way home on foot to hopefully see where he’s supposed to be. Like Don, Roger has gotten a second chance at being a good father, and I hope he’s walking straight back to Joan and insisting he be just that.
Random Observations
— The episode’s major theme was about temptation. The temptation of new business for Don. The temptation to drink. The temptation of progress for for Sterling Cooper in the form of the computer, and the temptation to abandon responsibility for Margaret. And if the two overt references to apples in the episode weren’t enough to drive home that theme, there was also an actual apple in the episode:
— The first image that Don Draper sees when he steps off the elevator looks just like the Monolith in 2001.
— Have you ever seen a guy deliver news of a man’s father-in-law almost dying of a heart attack with such a gleeful expression, as George Peyton did to Pete with news about Tom Vogel (Trudy’s Dad). “Right after Tom’s heart attack, I thought of you.” How sweet?
— Speaking of George Payton (above), I didn’t realize this until Maske pointed it out, but that’s Josh McDermitt, who you may otherwise know as Eugene Porter from The Walking Dead.
— Meanwhile, I think Pete’s trying to overcompensate for his hair loss by growing out his sideburns even further. Dude.
— Burt Cooper’s line to Don was motherf**king cold: “Why are you here?” / “Because I started this agency.” / “Along with a dead man, whose office you now inhabit.” It’s obvious that the partners — except for Roger — want nothing but for Don to fail.
— “These people are lost, and on drugs, and have venereal diseases.” Never go full hippie, Marigold.
— The book that Don was reading was reading was Philip Roth’s Portnoy’s Complaint, which centers on a lust-ridden, mother-addicted young Jewish bachelor who masturbates constantly. It’s about a guy whose deep-set morality is being challenged by his sexual impulses, and I thought that was a little ironic in a season in which Don’s sexual impulses have not been an issue.
— After Jim Cutler stole the best lines in last week’s episode, Roger gets the best one in this episode:
— Although Ginsberg was a close second with this one, in reference to the office couch…
