Mad Men
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New York is Israel, Israel is Utopia, Utopia is Babylon, and Babylon is New York.
He wants to pick her brain about Israel, the place and the idea.
Why arent you there?
Israel, she says, is more of an idea than a place.
Utopia, Don says.
Rachel says she learned in college thatutopiais a Greek word whose meaning changes with its pronunciation.
Don seems like a possible Utopia to Rachel, and Rachel to Don.
Shes one of three potential Utopias in Dons current sexual landscape, the others being Midge and Betty.
Hes endangering his Betty utopia by visiting the others.
Betty doesnt know about her rivals, but she still worries that Dons too desirable to be faithful.
Theres another Utopia in the hotel where Joan and Roger enjoy matinees with room service.
Do you have any idea how unhappy I was before I met you?
As directed by Andrew Bernstein, Peggys focus group epiphany captures Peggys sense of social isolation.
The scene feels like an answer to the slow-motion scene of Peggy at her desk in Ladies Room.
A place can be a place but also an idea.
A persons identity can be at once emotionally true and quite obviously constructed.
Don Draper is Don Draper and Dick Whitman.
He is straitlaced and uptight but also more open to lifestyle experimentation than anyone who knows him could imagine.
When Don slips on the stairs, early in the episode, he experiences the series first flashback.
He sees his childhood family standing over young Dick Whitman after a fall.
This is a glimpse of the life Don fled and repudiated, triggered by Adams reappearance.
Adams arrival is one of many disruptions of the fragile world Don has built for himself.
But even though its vicious, its also funny, because its not entirely unfair.
(Symbolism intended, he explains.)
When you say anyone, I assume youre talking about thou, Roy says.
Hes right, and Don knows it; thats why he laughs.
the birthplace of the theater of mediocrity.
Each time we see Don he seems closer to tears.
Excerpted with permission fromMad Men Carouselby Matt Zoller Seitz.
