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Episode 10 of MAD MEN was the arc and bridge that will tell how things play out in the final three episodes of season two. The usual cast of characters are set in place to play out what the circumstances of their fate and it will be very interesting!

Pete Campbell is under pressure from his wife to seriously consider adoption as a viable alternative to not being able to have a baby. When his recently widowed mother caught wind of this, she threatened to cut him off, unaware that her husband squandered away the family fortune. At least now, Pete has something to really kvetch about! Then there is a baby shower in the office for Harry, head of broadcasting, whose wife is due to give birth any minute and poor Pete can’t find a calm port at home or work minus the baby factor. Ever the suck, Pete tries to elicit sympathy from Peggy Olsen that it will be the first time he’s been on a plane since his dad died in a plane crash earlier that year.

Paul Kinsey was supposed to go with Pete Campbell out to California for an aerospace convention to talk to all involved in the burgeoning space program (this is 1962) and hit up scientists, industrialist and politicians with how Sterling Cooper can help them all with their lofty goals. Paul going to the show upsets his African-American girlfriend (this is 1962) Sheila’s plans for them to join the Freedom Riders in Mississippi and help a Civil Rights march sign up black voters (this is 1962).

Best of all last night was the sad set of circumstances that brought Don & Betty Draper together. Not for the ability to bring the estranged couple together, but instead for how Betty deftly used the circumstances to give Don a taste of his medicine by letting him see what it feels like to be unscrupulously manipulated. For someone who claims that if it weren’t for her husband, she would ” just float away” Betty seems to be able to beat Don at his own game and do it a lot better than he can.

Betty’s father suffered a serious stroke and appears to be suffering from an advanced state of dementia and his behavior is what we know to be the onset of Alzheimer’s Disease (this is 1962). Betty had to put on a good show for her step-mother whom she despises as the woman who erased her mother’s memory from her father’s home. Appearing to everyone’s eyes to be in wedded bliss with Don, who took her for the visit. Betty’s brother and wife were also there while Betty literally bore the brunt of her father’s illness in the worst possible way.

Don did his best to be the dutiful husband and son-in-law and when it seemed that Don’s concern and participation in a very difficult situation brought him and Betty back together when they shared a passionate encounter that night. Betty told Don when he drove her home after the visit to her father, that he should go and not stay with her at the house, he was floored thinking that a midnight mambo that Betty initiated was his in, back into the house. No matter what he said, it wasn’t going to be the right answer and she has effectively stripped him of all his power.

So Don has had enough and when gets back to the office, early and unannounced, he tells Joan Holloway who is again filling in as Don’s secretary that he, not Pul Kinsey will go with Pete Campbell to California for the aerospace convention. Joan delights in telling Paul he’s out from going on the trip, in front of people at the baby shower for Harry. Paul is furious and Joan loves every minute of it as payback for Paul having a big mouth about the two of them when they dated briefly in the very recent past.

Paul shows his advertising prowess and spin abilities by telling his disappointed girlfriend Sheila that he had a “change of heart” and will join her and the Freedom Riders for a Civil Rights march in Mississippi after all. What a guy! On the way down south on the bus ride, Paul pontificates that the market dictate a colorblind society and “The consumer has no color”. (Remember, this is 1962).

JOEL KIRSTEIN is a Creative Director who has been in the Ad Agency trenches for 25 years and nothing sucks more than getting bumped from a business trip at the last minute! Wait until it happens to you…

Article Tags: aerospace convention | Civil Rights | Freedom Riders | http://www.amctv.com | Mississippi | sign up black voters | space program | this is 1962
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