A panel of viewers here at Curiata.com will engage in a roundtable discussion following each episode of Mad Men’s seventh and final season. Check back throughout the week for new entries in the series.
Sometimes, analyzing an episode of Mad Men is, well, maddening. The show can be furiously uneventful at times — or, at least, hard to understand. The third episode of the final season was one in which a few things happened, but a lot of things were hard to make sense of. For example, what was the point of the entire Betty Francis story arc?
Betty has been a strange character since her divorce from Don. There’s really no reason to follow her outside of her interactions with her ex-husband. So after spending the day trying to figure out the thought process of the writers, I’ve come to the conclusion that the episode was meant to be an illustration of Don’s history and future, using his two wives to show how he has grown as man.
“Field Trip” followed Don’s struggles with Megan and his ex-wife’s problems with Bobby Draper. Bobby can be seen as a stand-in for a young Dick Whitman, as Don has shown several times throughout the show how much he sees himself in his son. The interactions between Bobby and Betty make more sense in this context.
Bobby is a good kid dealing with a parent who is petty and childish. He tries his best to show his mom how much he loves her, only to receive a severe response to a youthful mistake. In fact, Betty wasn’t simply mad about his error, but she viewed it as a personal attack, as though Bobby was going out of his way to hurt her.
This attitude was also on full display recently from Peggy Olson, who attacked her secretary for attempting to be kind. Peggy saw it as a personal attack, rather than an honest attempt by Shirley to do right. And where did Peggy learn to think this way? From her old boss, Don Draper, who learned it from his abusive father and stepmother.
Despite Don running from everything in his previous life as Dick Whitman, it seems he still found comfort in a woman like Betty, who is cold and emotionally abusive, like his own parents — though admittedly not as extreme. Betty’s behavior serves as a reminder of the man Don used to be, when he would berate those who dared to challenge him. Conversely, in his storyline with Megan, we see how much Don’s attitude has changed.
Megan’s behavior dealing with a Hollywood director seems as childish as Betty’s sentiments toward Bobby. Don, who would slam the behavior of Betty or Peggy in the past when they did something to disagree with him, treated Megan with respect, trying tactfully to address her actions and finally being honest with her about the mistakes he’s made. It seems as though Don’s evolution into a more honest man is continuing, even if it hurts the people he loves. But now that Don is back at work, we are left to wonder if Don will revert to his old attitudes. Does habitat truly play a role in our behavior?
The questions going forward are numerous. Are Don and Megan going to get a divorce? Will this lead to Don finally finding happiness with a more mature woman? Or perhaps Don moving into Lane Pryce’s office is foreshadowing the finale of the series, and Don’s second divorce will lead him to finally hit rock bottom, both figuratively and literally.