A Day's Work

This week's appropriately titled Mad Men episode 'A Day's Work' was successful in illuminating just how difficult it is for our cast to complete a full day's work. How could they, what with bouquets of card-less flowers causing confusion and secretaries who are incapable of being in ten places at once! Even if it wasn't Valentine's Day, it's a wonder anyone gets anything done!

Let's talk about Peggy. Poor, poor, poor Peggy. She's been treated like she's on of the boys for so long that she forgets how girlish she really can be. What started as a normal day in the office, quickly turns after one elevator ride with the guys who tease her about her single and sad status. She exits the elevator, realizing it's Valentine's Day and immediately assumes a card-less bouquet of flowers sitting on her secretary's desk is for her. Not only that, she assumes they're from Ted.

In what should have been a quick answer to the identity of the flowers, Shirley, Peggy's secretary, lets her believe they're for Peggy and goes off to sulk. Throughout the day, Peggy's frustration with the possibility that they really are from Ted gets the best of her. She returns the flowers to Shirley's desk claiming that she doesn't want them in her office anymore only later to come out insisting that they should be thrown away. Only then does Shirley confess that they're actually from Shirley's fiancee. Peggy explodes, claiming that everyone knows Shirley is engaged, why does she need to rub it in everyone's faces with flowers and embarrass Peggy like that. It was mortifying to watch and I was thankful when it was over.

And across the office, another battle of boss vs. secretary brews. Sally Draper, after ditching a funeral in the city for shopping, quickly loses her purse and finds her way to her father's office for help. Only she discovers the despicable Lou sitting in her Dad's office. Confused, she makes her way to her Dad's apartment to wait for him. Dawn returns to her desk from buying perfume for Lou's wife only to get an earful from Lou about how this is all her fault. My favorite scene follows in which Dawn and Joan are called into Lou's office with a request that Dawn be taken off of his desk. I really like the way that Mad Men is handling this issue of race in the workplace because we actually get to see Dawn scream, rather justifiably, at her wretched boss. Joan lets this happen because it's the right thing to do. I guess I enjoyed this scene so much because after so many years of seeing race being handled in the way that, well, race was handled in the 60s during this show, it was refreshing to see this issue changing in the way that it presumably did during this time.

Dawn is moved to reception only for Cooper to wander out and see her, making claims to Joan later that we can't have a "person of color" sitting as the face of their company. "People can see her from the elevator." Maybe it's just me, I never would've pictured Cooper's character saying this. So in an effort to quell the furies of unrelenting bosses, Joan does what any good head of personnel would do: she gives her title and position to Dawn, removing her from reception and rewarding her with a much better job. Joan then takes up Jim's suggestion and rewards herself with a better office, leaving her personnel responsibilities to someone else. I loved how that all played out.

But now to the matter at hand, (ugh), Don Draper. Last week I was frustrated over the fact that I couldn't decide whose story this was anymore. This week I'm going to say that I hope this turns into Sally Draper's story. She has completed her metamorphosis into a full-blown teenager and is walking and talking beyond her years. Realizing that her father has been lying to her about temporarily losing his job, he drives her back to school trying to engage in conversation with her. Sally has become one of the only voices of reason in Don's life, challenging him when he's caught in a lie and forcing him to tell the truth, or at least a version of it. Don has a lot of apologizing to do with Sally and Sally certainly isn't waiting around for her father to magically become a father. But they're trying. The car fight was one of the best father-daughter spats I've seen in some time.

And when Sally finally exits the car at her school, she pauses at the door and says, "Happy Valentine's Day. I love you." Seeing Don's face absorb what just happened as the door closed was both heartwarming and heartbreaking. His daughter has barely expressed anything to him in the past few years and he certainly hasn't earned it. To see his daughter not only tell him that he loved her, but to mean it must have blindsided Don like nothing else could. While I still have ice running through my veins at the mention of Don Draper's name, Sally was able to melt away a few paths with that last line.

And let us sing.