Mad Men – Recap & Review – Out Of Town

photo: amc

Mad Men
Out Of Town

Original Air Date: August 16, 2009

Brittany D. – Staff Writer
brittany@thetwocentscorp.com

Well, did you re-watch seasons one and two in anticipation of tonight’s premiere? Have you turned yourself into a Mad Men character over at amctv.com? Have you taken the quiz to see which Mad Men character you are? (I was a Betty, by the way.) I’ve done all of this to get ready for the season three premiere and believe me, it’s been a busy couple of weeks. Let’s stop wasting time and get to it!

In case you didn’t get a chance to re-watch, last season ended after Betty kicked Don out of the house, only to ask him to come back at the height of the Cold War scare – and she was pregnant. Pete confessed to Peggy that he was in love with her, and in return she told him she gave up their baby. And Joan, poor Joan was raped by her own fiancé. Now where could Matthew Weiner and company possibly pick up?

In the Draper kitchen, Don is making warm milk for Betty while he thinks about his past. Not a past he remembers because it’s a woman miscarrying after being at the mercy of an abusive husband. Then, a prostitute gives birth to a son before she dies, and Dick Whitman is given to the family that raises him. Don finally takes the milk to the bedroom, and a very pregnant Betty laments that she wants everything to be perfect when they bring their new baby home.

In the meantime, Don goes on a trip to meet with the London Fog account and takes Sal along with him. Sally broke Don’s luggage by hitting it with a hammer (Betty so charmingly remarks that ‘[Sally’s] taken to your tools like a little lesbian’), so he uses his spare luggage which is labeled ‘Bill Hofstadt thanks to his brother-in-law. When the stewardess calls Don ‘Bill’ and Sal ‘Sam’, neither one of them corrects her. The men and the ladies get together for dinner, and after wards, Don and one of the ladies head upstairs. Because it wouldn’t be Mad Men without Don being with another lady.

Sal is in the same hotel, a couple of floors below Don when his air conditioner goes out. A bus boy comes and fixes it, and as Sal is checking out how much to give for a tip, he’s suddenly being kissed by the other man. Clothes come off and things are getting hot and heavy when all of a sudden the fire alarm goes off. Don and the stewardess take off down the fire escape, and Don stops to bang on Sal’s window…getting an eyeful of both men putting their clothes back on. They share awkward glances once outside, but the next day it’s business as usual. The meeting with London Fog happens, and on the plane ride back home, Don makes it very clear that he thinks nothing less of Sal because of his preferences.

Over at Sterling Cooper the current head of accounts, Burt, is fired by the new British overlord, Cooper, and Don. Burt goes on a rampage, yelling obscenities in the middle of the secretarial pool and pushing things off of desks. Pete is called into the new British overlord’s (from here on BOL) office and is told he’s the new head of accounts. Then Ken is called in and he’s told the exact same thing. Needless to say, Pete is the one not happy at all by this revelation, but it’s exactly what the higher ups want to see: Who will prevail in this new war of accounts and will eventually be the permanent fixture?

Joan is now matching wits with the BOL’s male assistant, and he’s perturbed about being treated like all of the other secretaries. He demands to be called by his last name, Mr. Hooker, and first it seems like there will be friction. Instead, Joan goes out of her way to get him an office and a girl. However, when Mr. Hooker shows the BOL, he says that it doesn’t look very becoming when he’s firing employees and Hooker is suddenly taking their offices over. BOL demands that Hooker get rid of it.

The episode ends with Don back at home, and Sally sadly apologizing for breaking Don’s luggage – she just didn’t want him to go away again. He tells her he’ll always come home, and she finds the stewardess’s wings that must have fallen off of her clothes. Cleverly, he says the wings are for Sally before she climbs into bed with Don and Betty, asking them to tell her about the day she was born. Don starts the story but gets too emotional to finish. The episode fades with Betty picking up where Don left off.

Certainly, this episode got us out of the gate and running down the track, didn’t it? I loved all of it, from the little moments like the flight attendant telling Don that people always ask her if she modeled as a throw away to Betty, and ‘Bill’ and ‘Sam’ telling the flight crew that they were federal agents investigating Jimmy Hoffa. I even loved the small moment Don got to be brilliant with London Fog. The company was afraid that people would have no need to buy their products, but as Don pointed out: It’s always going to rain, and people will always need raincoats.

How did you feel about the episode? I thought it was a solid start, though I would have liked to see more Joan. All of our speculation that Weiner and company were going to skip a couple of years seems for naught. I want to hear your ideas on where the season is going to take us from here now that we’ve seen the first episode! Leave me your Two Cents in the comments, and I’ll see you next week!