Mad Men: Season 6 – Episode 10 “A Tale of Two Cities”
The Whole World is Watching
Season 6 – Episode 10
“A Tale of Two Cities”
Written by Janet Leahy and Matthew Weiner
Directed by John Slattery
Setting: August 1968
Since the passing of musical genius Brian Wilson, I’ve been reflecting on the “myth of California.”
The Sun always shines.
The waves are calling for your surfboard.
And there is never any doubt that this is not the most blessed place on God’s green Earth… until after you go there.
California has always been an escape for Don. For the first time, it became a nightmare. He ran away from his problems to find comfort by a pool that carried none of the weight that the East Coast seemed to put on him.
California isn’t an escape. It is just as much America as New York or any city in between. America is now a nightmare; there is no escape from that.
A drug-induced vision furthers the nightmare by showing him a Vietnam soldier missing his arm even in the afterlife. This means that there is no escape.
Even California Dreamin’ becomes a vision of America’s decay.
My feeling on the California myth is that you can go there right now to sit on a beautiful beach and watch the sunset. Whatever music or food you like, you can have it as you choose your paradise.
But why are you going there?
Does seeking to find truth in a myth elsewhere bring you any peace in the life you know each day?
Does a New York skyscraper become more or less beautiful because you sought peace thousands of miles away?
Does America die when all of your hopes are placed on one spot in the Sun, only to find it cloudy?
As the myth of California dies for Don, so does the myth of the 1960s. It seemed as if a destiny of violence and destruction could be averted in the wake of events like the Cuban Missile Crisis. Now the streets of Chicago are in anarchy.
This anarchy is shot down by individuals who refuse to believe anything has changed.
They believe the past can become the future again.
In the aftermath of the Chicago protests, where the whole world saw police officers dragging demonstrators through the streets, Joan takes control of an account.
This isn’t her job to do, it’s Pete’s. Pete is the account man. He has been through the ringer plenty, and meeting with Avon would have been a walk in the park.
But this isn’t the same world anymore.
This isn’t the 1960s where there are rules and authority to be followed.
Joan found this account, and Pete has not given her the respect she feels she deserves. After watching live how those with power treat those below them, Joan took things into her own hands.
She is one of the few who saw the world changing and decided to be part of that change, even if it burned her. It may not have been the smartest move or won her any friends, but she took charge in a time when every voice told her no except for her own.
A Vietnam War protest that I think of often when reflecting on that time is the infamous “Levitate the Pentagon” march of 1967. Protestors gathered outside the Pentagon in an attempt to make it float off the ground.
This was insanity, but I am talking about it almost 60 years later, so insanity is not without its immortality.
The act of doing something is often more important than the outcome. Regardless of whether the business is secured or not, Joan showed that authority is not a right one has bestowed upon them like a king. It can always be taken away.
Leadership is earned with determination and understanding.
Pete will never understand that saying “you had no right” does not make him a leader. He yearns for a better America but clings to the established one when it benefits him.
Change comes when the past is allowed to die so that the future can be.
California is the only past Don yearns for. A time when he was called Dick Whitman and actually enjoyed hearing that name. The name of a dead man.
Now, it is a land of ghosts.
The ghosts are happy to see Don because they see him as a fellow ghost.
They talk to a man who died almost two decades ago in Korea. A remnant of an America that maybe never was, but that you can believe in when it is sold to you.
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Apologies for pushing the episode posts to Sunday! Been very busy, will have some more for you as we close out the season. Isn’t it crazy to think that Season 7 is right around the corner!