Season 3: Episode 1: "Out of Town"
MAD MEN ORIGINS: DICK WHITMAN
Season 3: Episode 1
“Out of Town”
Written by Matthew Weiner
Directed by Phil Abraham
Setting: April 1963
Throughout my Season 2 breakdown, I had one consistent observation that echoed throughout 1962.
Man… not much is happening. Like, it is… but it also isn’t.
Everyone felt stuck in mud and was waiting for things beyond their own lives to take control. Cuban missiles are an odd relief because at least something is happening. For people who don’t look forward to the future, Don Draper certainly hopes that it will save him.
In season 3 of Mad Men, we have escaped from limbo.
Betty is pregnant.
Sterling Cooper has officially merged with the British agency Puttnam, Powell, and Lowe.
And the viewers are nervously aware that November 22, 1963 is coming.
While change may not be immediate, we know that this season has a destiny. The almost surreal inaction of Season 2 where Don disappears in California and Peggy is seen in church as much as she is in the office has no place in this narrative. The dull and uncomfortable moments of 1962 are a necessity for the shock and change of 1963.
We know what’s coming.
1963 is a slow-building storm that will consume the country and Don Draper. Some like Salvatore Ramano will disappear in this storm forever.
This episode focuses on the dual stories of two charismatic and attractive adulterers, one just happens to be discovered as a homosexual. The great hypocrisy of men like Don is that it is okay to lie so long as it is a lie like his. He does not see how Salvatore’s lie is in fact the same as his.
There’s a case to be made for a queer reading of Don Draper. I don’t mean that Don is gay, what I mean is that he has built himself to be the quintessential American of the 60s when he is in fact always hiding part of himself. Don understands what it is like to live in a society that would shun him if the truth of who he really is got revealed.
You think this would make him sympathetic but it just makes him treat Sal’s homosexuality in the same way that he does his own birth.
It should not and will not be discussed because it will harm the men they are both pretending to be.
The episode opens with the tragic birth of Don Draper AKA Dick Whitman. As his delirious mother dies, the show reveals that Dick is not just short for Richard.
Dick is named after his father’s penis which his mother was hysterically threatening to cut off and boil in hog fat as she died in childbirth.
The real name of the 1960’s most sexed-up ad man is quite literally… Penis-Man.
Yep, Mad Men is BACK.
Following these horrific reflections on the birth of an unloved child, Don and a very pregnant Betty share an outwardly loving moment… that isn’t too loving.
They mostly talk about a suitcase and Betty jokes that their daughter is a lesbian.
Despite a reconciliation at the end of the last season, this opening immediately reminds the viewers that Betty and Don’s marriage is doomed. As they prepare to welcome a new child to the family, Don’s thoughts are on his own birth that killed his mother and Betty’s thoughts are on demeaning the children she already has.
An inevitable change is coming and not just from the stork.
At Sterling Cooper, the “everything is fine” mood is the same. Look at this bustling workplace full of happy and fulfilled coworkers! Time to see your favorite employees of… oh, we’re firing people?
Like Betty and Don, everyone at Sterling Cooper is putting on a good show. Smile and wave or Joan will be waiting with your rolodex by the door. The moment that head of accounts Burt Peterson is given the bad news, the mask drops and rage reveals itself as the old guard is wiped out.
Let’s meet the director of this workplace kabuki show, LANE PRYCE joins Mad Men.
Seems like an interesting character, I hope he’ll hang around for a few seasons.
[booing, tomatoes thrown, subscriber count dropping]
When Jared Harris shows up on your TV, you know that you are about to start eating good. That said, there’s no indication here that Lane has promise as a character. He is intentionally stiff and at odds with the characters we care about. By introducing a new regular that we become invested in after a boring start, Lane represents the character difference in this season from Season 2.
Change is good and necessary.
Compare Lane to Season 2’s Father John Gill or Bobbie Barrett who have always been who they are and only seek to bring others into their established ways. Lane is not liked by his coworkers and only respected because of the fear he holds with their paychecks. As the nation changes, so does its newest resident from across the pond. We’ll learn to care about him too.
These characters aren’t in limbo anymore but it is hard to convince anyone that they are in Heaven. There is a mask being wore during almost every scene of this episode. Even during Pete and Ken’s promotions where they show honest joy, Lane plays a game by not telling them that they will share the head of accounts role.
Don and Sal’s masks are only removed when a trip to Baltimore (or Baldimore as hometown boy Sal pronounces it) becomes a sad escape into a hidden life.
Don gets to be Dick and Sal gets to be homosexual.
The two spend the evening comically pretending to be G-men on the hunt for Jimmy Hoffa, impressing a couple of flight attendants who didn’t even need words to be interested.
Sal’s eye; however, is on a bell boy he spots in the elevator. These two also do not need words to be interested.
We have only seen Sal repress his homosexuality which makes his first onscreen kiss with a man liberating but sad. It’s a brilliant performance by Bryan Bratt, Sal carries the fear of being discovered and the guilt of not being able to be himself throughout the rest of this season. In this moment, Salvatore has no thoughts of who he pretends to be. He is overwhelmed by the feeling of at last being himself.
Contrast Sal’s experience with Don who seems bored by the flight attendant he has barely lifted a finger to seduce.
Don’s sadness also comes from a guilt of not being himself. When the flight attendant tells him that she is engaged, Don pathetically pleads for sex by saying that it is his birthday.
While Don Draper’s birthday is on June 1st, Dick Whitman’s birthday falls in April. For ONCE this man is actually telling the truth, it is his birthday.
After years of living in the shadow of another persona, Dick is a sad man. Both Dick Whitman and Salvatore Romano have revealed who they are when they are not pretending.
They are sad.
Change never came for them because these men were locked away by another man who wears their face. Both will learn that hiding the truth will make change harsher and more unkind.
The hope this episode ends on is in Sally Draper. After we are reintroduced to Mad Men with the usual deceit and lies, Sally sits on her parents’ bed and asks to hear the story of the night she was born.
Don’s fears of bringing another child into his life are contrasted by his daughter who seeks to know the past and be true to herself. She apologies for damaging his suitcase rather than hiding behind a lie. Sally’s past is interesting to her because it is also the past of the people she loves.
Don cannot share the past with his family as he fears they will reject him.
Who can love Dick Whitman, he thinks.
Who ever did?
[All images © AMC]