MAD MEN 3.8 - "Souvenir"

WRITER: Lisa Albert and Matthew Weiner
DIRECTOR: Phil Abraham
GUEST CAST: Jeanne Simpson, Deborah Lacey, Julie McNiven, Giuseppe Raucci, Federico Dordei, Nina Rausch, Ned Vaughn, Mark Metcalf, Josiah Polhemus, Anne Dudek, Christopher Stanley, Chelcie Ross, Alison Brie, Edoardo Beghi, Kiernan Shipka & Jared Gilmore

[SPOILERS] This was a wonderful showcase for Betty (January Jones), as we witnessed her temporary transformation from demure housewife to worldly, sophisticated siren on vacation. As a piece, "Souvenir" saw characters try on new identities, mostly as a means to while away a hot summer's weekend in August, leading to mixed results...

Things started with a rare moment of achievement and stimulation for Betty, when her Junior League group attended a meeting of the Tarrytown Board of Trustees, to try and convince them to halt the damaging reservoir project that's planned. Betty's business contact Henry (Christopher Stanley) arrived in the nick of time, as he promised, and managed to have the development delayed pending a lengthy water chemical analysis -- which in itself is likely to derail the whole project. Henry clearly only got involved to help and impress Betty, of course, whom he seizes a chance to kiss inside her car before she leaves for home.

Betty, racked with guilt but also surging with more self-esteem (check out her victory wiggle when she tells her husband the good news), decides to embrace a chance to accompany Don (Jon Hamm) on a business trip to Italy offered by hotel tycoon Connie Hilton (Chelcie Ross). Leaving the kids with nanny Carla (Deborah Lacey), the couple's jaunt to Rome gave us a fascinating look at the Drapers abroad, both enjoying the chance to play make-believe together amongst strangers.

Don's obviously a confident and experienced pretender (his entire life's a web of lies), but it's Betty whose personality and life skills took flight in Europe. She speaks fluent Italian (learned during her modeling days), which gives her a clear advantage over Don with the locals, and naturally attracted plenty of male attention because of her film star beauty. There was a fantastic moment when Don stole Betty away from two Italian admirers at an outdoor café, by posing as a handsome American stranger who quickly enfeebled their own attempt to win her affections.

For me, it felt like a glimpse at what Don and Betty were possibly like when they were dating and didn't have children tying them down -- or maybe we saw the kind of person Betty could have become had she continued her modeling career? At any rate, Don seemed particularly taken by his wife's playful and alluring demeanour while on holiday, and the incident with the Italians led to steamy sex back at their hotel suite -- one of the more erotic moments I can remember between them in a long time. Don himself is barely aware that it's Betty who's numero uno in this land; even finding himself sleeping on his wife's side of the bed, signifying how their roles have flipped. I guess the real tragedy is that Don is always pining for gorgeous, independent and strongwilled women, and seems unaware that he's married to one. Or perhaps he does know this, but the natural order of marriage and kids has tarnished the fantasy he sold himself on.

The second storyline focused on Pete (Vincent Karthesier), who faced a weekend home alone because wife Trudy's (Alison Brie) out of town. As the other "adult child" on the show alongside Betty, his weekend took a different turn on home soil with no company to guide him. In fact, we first see him almost literally reverted to a childlike state in his apartment: guffawing over kid's TV, eating cereal and napping. However, after he bumps into German au pair Gudrun (Nina Rausch) trying to dispose a dress belonging to her employer she borrowed and accidentally stained, Pete seizes a chance to help repair the garment. Genuine neighbourliness? A job to soak up some free time? Perhaps, at first. But there may also have been a more calculating reason for his kindliness from the start.

After managing to get the dress replaced, free of charge, by the department store -- thanks to the coincidence Joan (Christina Hendricks) is working there as the new supervisor -- Pete handed the identical replacement to a grateful Gudrun. Later, having spent the evening drinking alone in his apartment (for Dutch courage?), Pete returned to wake the German nanny and manipulated her into letting him inside, despite her plea that she has a boyfriend. In her bedroom, they kissed.

There followed some really interesting fallout the next day, as Peter found himself chastised by Gudrun's angry employer, Ed Lawrence (Ned Vaughn), who's upset with Pete after hearing why his au pair's been crying all morning. Exactly what happened between Pete and Gudrun isn't really made clear, although from what we know of Pete I'm guessing it was a night of "consensual" sex -- if resulting from Gudrun's fear of what Pete might say if she didn't oblige him as "payment" for his kindess. How close is that to rape? It's open for debate, I guess -- but I doubt Pete saw it as anything criminal. It was especially fascinating to see Pete's reaction when Trudy returned from her trip, as he very quickly "confessed" through a combination of tears and quietly suggesting he doesn't want her to go away anymore without him. His marriage is, rather pathetically, more like that of a nanny taking care of an overprivileged child.

There was some parallel to Pete's storyline in the third strand to "Souvenir", where Sally (Kiernan Shipka) spent the day playing with her little friend Ernie (Josiah Polhemus) -- pecking him a kiss that was witnessed by her brother Bobby (Jared Gilmore), who teased her about it and earned himself a beating from his embarrassed big sis. Like Pete, Sally acted on a sexual impulse during a period of boredom, both playing up while those who keep them on the straight-and-narrow (Trudy, Betty) were away, although Betty's handling of the situation when she returned was a lot better, Trudy essentially forgave her husband for something I doubt she fully understands, or wants to know about -- likely afraid of making any cracks in their marriage grow bigger. Ignorance is bliss. However, Betty actually sat Sally down and gave her a pearl of wisdom about first kisses ("it's where you go from being a stranger to knowing someone"), and suggested that every kiss that follows is but a shadow of the first. In that case, Betty's kiss with Henry might just have been a one-off thrill in her mind, never to be bettered? Likewise Pete's smooch with Gudrun? Both are bored kids swimming in the adult world.

Overall, "Souvenir" was a fabulous character study of Betty, that also offered us some insight into Pete's peculiar character, too. I always like it when Mad Men plays loose with its usual format, too -- here, only giving us one scene at Sterling Cooper, with the majority of the cast absent. It just gives you more time to focus on the minutae of the few characters chosen to go under the microscope and soak up the ambience all the more.

Asides

-- The reservoir may not be safe after all, according to a worried Francine (Anne Dudek), but Betty's past caring in such parochial piffle after having her horizons broadended by Rome. She even confides in Don to that affect: "I hate this place. I hate our friends. I hate this town." I'm sure Henry's rejoicing that there's going to be a sustained fight, as it means an excuse to keep meeting with Betty. Is Betty fed up enough to ever leave Don for another man? Surely that has to happen at some point in Mad Men's future.

-- Joan was, like Betty, playing a role as a contented store supervisor, for Pete's benefit. But he clearly didn't cotton on, and her veneer only cracked after he'd left the premises. I found it a little too coincidental that Joan worked there, but also interesting because I'm unsure how she'll get back to Sterling Cooper (which I assume she must by season's end.) Will it be as simple as her admitting she's made a mistake and asking for her old job back?

-- While totally understandable, it was a shame the glamour of Rome was reduced to a few interiors, a nondescript café and a fake view out of a window. It didn't ruin the episode, and I didn't really expect them to fly the crew out to Rome especially, but I can't help being a little disappointed.

10 MARCH 2010: BBC4/BBC HD, 10PM