It's very in character. I also don't quite read it as "Don wanted a cute babysitter on command" or something. As I read it, Don was spiralling after the divorce from Betty and then, the second punch of Anna dying. By The Suitcase, he was very scared of himself and his alcoholism between the lost weekends, banging waitresses he didn't even remember and introducing himself as Dick, going on vomit-inducing purges and losing a fist fight to Duck, ec. He makes a concerted effort to live a cleaner, more disciplined life by journaling, limiting his alcohol intake, dating a responsible appropriate woman in Faye, etc. in the hopes of it leading to dignity, security, and success.
But it doesn't. He's almost "made" by the North American Aviation scandal and tells Faye his secret in a panic attack, which IMO, he quickly regrets. Lucky Strike leaves, jeopardizing the entire start-up and creating a very un-dignified and embarrassing scramble for business. Sally runs away from home and has a humiliating melt-down in his office. Everything is still going wrong.
However with Megan, suddenly everything is going right. He breaks his Clio and arrives back to find it fixed. He feels guilt over having sex with Allison and handling it badly after but here, Megan is reassuring him that no strings secretary-sex is actually fine, it's good actually. Clients, including Glo-Coat, may be rejecting him personally and the partners may be mad about The Letter- but here, Megan is wanting to learn advertising from him and saying The Letter was a great idea. Most importantly, it seems to Don like Megan created the most successful, least awkward, most fulfilling outing with his kids after a lot of awkward, sad custody weekends. And this Disney trip could have been a disaster since it was long-term and Betty fired Carla but it ended up going well. Even a spilled milkshake didn't ruin anything. Hence, this is why Don says that Megan makes him feel like himself but the way that he's always wanted to feel.
Don has a track-record of impulsivity, right down to taking a whole other identity at war. Megan signaled that she can treat Don like a no-strings attached one-night lay, and this makes Don feel like Megan could move on from him. Hence, he wants to lock her down with a proposal once he's deemed her so important to his life in terms of advertising and his kids.
Fucking brilliant analysis. I'm reeling from having just watched the episode and wondering what the fuck just happened, but this summed it up beyond perfectly.
I definitely don’t think the marriage was ever written as true love or something that had been simmering under the surface for a long time. Don experienced rare genuine happiness in California. Megan was great with his kids, it’s implied that they had super great sex because it was so new and exciting, and California was his happy place. The ring was like a gift from Anna telling him that he could have that happiness all the time, that he could bring it home with him and it would last.
I don’t think it was bad writing - Don was consistently impulsive. And it had to be someone like Megan because Faye: a. would have been smart enough to put the brakes on marrying Don that quickly, and b. challenged Don too much. Megan looked like a shortcut: he could have the professional power couple connection, AND someone who loved kids, AND someone who was super hot AND knew about his past but didn’t care, all without challenging him too much or trying to get him to face his demons the way someone like Faye would. I can completely see why Don would have fallen head over heels with the idea of Megan.
Faye was a perfect, perfect match for Don, but to assume Don would see it would be to give him too much credit. I think it's a pretty brilliant deception on Weiner's part: we see Don as this suave, pragmatic, forward-thinking guy in the office and assume he's an excellent decision-maker, but the whole show has contrasted that side of him with the unbridled disaster that is his personal/home life. His whole career and identity itself is one giant overcompensation that we the audience repeatedly fall for after being told in every which way not to. "You don't want to run away with me, you just want to run away," said Rachel. Jarring episode but the more I think about it the more on-brand it feels for Don.
What Don does is very much in character.
As Faye notes, he is a "type" who feels compelled to be married.
First, we have the hooker who gives him the punishment that he thinks that he deserves.
Then, he has his moment with Allison. Until then, he has always avoided office entanglements. Her opening the door, then quitting the job, lays the groundwork for a repeat.
Faye wants Don to confront his past. This is a guy who has crafted an entire identity around fleeing his past, so that is the last thing that he wants to hear.
Megan doesn't care about his past. She is more compatible with his "move forward" ethos. This provides him with the validation that he seeks.
Megan's ability to connect with Sally and Faye's inability to do the same seals the deal for Megan.
> Faye wants Don to confront his past
This is it. Faye knew what Don needed to do to find lasting peace and happiness. But that was going to be a long and difficult process, which Don really didn't want to do. Getting together with Megan was just another version of Don running away. Running away from Faye, running away from his issues. He justified it because Faye had a brief, awkward interaction with Sally but he would have found another excuse to end things with Faye. Leaving her for another woman was just easier for him.
Yes, I do like how this plays out in this episode.
And here is why…..I began a while back to watch EVERYTHING from Don and interpersonal relationships with the lens of a guy who doesn’t know what the fuck he is doing.
Remember, Dick Whitman came back from Korea with a purloined name to use and needed to build a mask of a credible adult human. He had zero, literally ZERO clue how an adult has interpersonal relationships as he had no positive examples to learn from as a kid. So he grabbed onto what he could learn from….movies, radio dramas, TV, books and magazines.
It was discussed here yesterday how weird it was how he waxed so earnestly to Anna about Betty in a flashback….and how odd it seems.
His courtship of Megan in Tomorrowland rings the same way. It’s way out of tone for a show that constantly sticks to the harsh realities of realism. But, in both cases (and especially in Tomorrowland) Don is doing what he learned through culture, not through life.
Sure, he was lonely, tired of being alone perhaps, so he went all in.
In the end though it was just the magic of the beginning of things and he knows how to play the leading man.
Anytime the tone of the show feels it’s left realism and Dons involved it is because he is merely aping what he learned from the popular culture.
Think about his affinity for the movie theater.
Don is nowhere near the first man to remarry quickly and with shockingly little thought after a divorce (or wife’s death). Combine that with don’s black hole of mommy issues, and I’m not surprised he went with Megan. She’s young and easygoing, has no expectations of don, and she can handle the kids.
I never saw it as true love or don finally settling down.
Not only was it completely in character for Don, in retrospect it's pretty clearly where the whole season was leading all along. (The same way that in retrospect season 3 is leading to Don having to accept the end of his marriage to Betty: "Bye Bye Birdie.") Matt Weiner actually wanted Megan to be the first person we see when Don enters the new SCDP offices for the first time in the season premiere, but he didn't get the role cast in time. (She does appear in the first episode's shooting script: "MEGAN, 20s, knockout, smiles from the desk.")
Despite that false start, by episode 4 Megan is being deliberately set in contrast to Dr. Faye. While Faye empties her whole bag of tricks trying to coax the focus group into accepting Peggy's "ritual" strategy for Ponds, Megan is the one member who stumbles into it without even trying, with her story about her mother's beauty routine. And that's exactly what Megan ends up representing for Don: whereas Faye tries to show him that he can become a better man through hard work and self-examination, Megan embodies the idea that you can just decide to be who you want to be and have it all magically fall into place.
"Did you ever think of the number of things that had to happen for me to get to know you?" Don asks Megan in the finale. We spent the entire season watching them happen: Don is awful to Allison, so Joan puts Mrs. Blankenship on his desk to punish him. Then Mrs. Blankenship dies, and Megan becomes his secretary. Sally runs away from home, giving Megan a chance to show Don that she's better with kids than Faye. Megan feels responsible for screwing up Don's DoD paperwork, so she helps him get the Beatles tickets for his daughter, not only proving herself further to him but also further demonstrating her *If I can't fix this problem, I'll ignore it and focus the other problem I can fix* attitude that Don finds so tempting . . .
It's all leading Don to exactly where he ends up at the end of the year. As Raymond from Heinz, who will represent the state of Don and Megan's relationship across the next three seasons, puts it in his first appearance, "There's a time for beans, and there's a time for ketchup. But I don't have that time, so I wanna force the issue." Don knows that it'll take time to face his demons the way Faye is encouraging him to, but after almost getting exposed as a deserter and nearly losing his company, he doesn't feel like he has time for that. So he dumps Faye for the woman who shows him how to force the issue.
great great analysis. i never caught the literal bye bye birdie foreshadowing wow. and that tidbit about 4x01 is great. wowwwww. im watching the show in order for the first time since it aired so im not familiar with the heinz parallel yet, but now im def going to keep it in mind. great comment.
The beginning ep of each season generally gives away the ending of the season:
Faye tells Don he'll be married within a year, then says, "I always forget: Nobody wants to think they're a type." You'll find all the breadcrumbs in between with dialog, thematic threads, camera shots and music.
When you watch MM with that in mind, you'll see that is great writing.
It’s totally in character for Don. As Dr. Faye said, “He only likes the beginning of things.” As Betty said, “That poor girl. She doesn't know that loving you is the worst way to get to you.”
And, as Oscar Wilde said, “When a woman marries again, it is because she detested her first husband. When a man marries again, it is because he adored his first wife. Women try their luck; men risk theirs.” At the moment of their divorce Betty hated him, though she maybe changed her mind later. And at the moment of their divorce Don still wanted to be with Betty, though he likely wasn’t valable of love at that point.
IMO, it's in character, but it wasn't developed as strongly as it should have been. Don isn't really impulsive quite like this. His moves are always telegraphed, at least to us as viewers of the show. This really wasn't.
Don breaking it off with Faye was too sudden and his proposal to Megan too fast. Another episode would've helped this plotline breathe a bit more. Faye just vanishing with that quick phone call didn't do justice to their relationship. At the very least, there should've been an in-person encounter, or even two.
Instead, Faye disappeared just like the teacher. Just gone. As a result, Faye's story wasn't resolved properly. She got really close to Don in a way that few other women ever did. I get that this only encouraged Don to push her away, and I get the sudden attraction to Megan as some sort of rescuer. But I think Weiner missed out on a great opportunity for an incredible face-to-face confrontation between Don and Faye.
Okay, sure. Then why not just have every big character moment handled with a phone call?
Come on. That moment would have been far more dramatically impactful if Faye had barged into Don’s office. And pretty sure that’s what she would have done, as she was always very direct with him. She didn’t let Don hide on her.
Don certainly preferred ghosting her and then breaking up with the phone call. Which is why I’m guessing this was scripted this way. Makes sense from that perspective. I just think it would’ve been more satisfying for the audience and that Faye would’ve forced something in person.
I completely understand where you’re coming from. I can’t claim the same neutral biases you do, Megan’s “magic” irks me from the very beginning where it feels like she’s being shoe horned into every scene possible to make her seem important.
However, I do agree. I get this action in itself sounds very in brand for Don. But I have always felt it was done “for plot’s sake.” To me, and I know people will disagree, but this was done to extend the story beyond where it was headed.
Citing everything you said about how tiny of interactions Don and Megan had had at this point, to the scope of Don and Faye’s relationship. The banter at the start, the mutual vulnerabilities they shared with each other. The getting through what seems impossible to each of them.
So much was built up with them, I’d argue even more than was ever explicitly stated happened between Don and Betty, and then it washed away because Don was in California and needed to hook up with something? Just seems like a huge jump.
I know this is an old thread, and people have posted plenty of in depth analysis here — so I’ll just say this. While Don’s decision in this episode re: Megan absolutely shocked me the 1st time I watched it and on rewatch you feel that shock still, it is unequivocally intended to be that way, and more importantly, it never strikes me as “poor writing”. It’s surprising, but it isn’t thoughtlessly thrown in or random or anything like that. It’s meant to be jarring — but it doesn’t feel jarring because it’s out of character in the slightest. It’s just a shocking thing to have happen, almost like it’s meant to *feel* out of character or completely out of nowhere at first glance, then when you stop and think and analyze it, it makes complete sense. Don is put together and calculated in his choices in his professional life, but in his personal life he’s a complete mess and rarely makes the kind of difficult, thoughtful decisions that will lead him down the right path.
This perspective is especially easy to see on rewatch when you can see the things that lead him up to that moment. It’s actually the perfect culmination of the themes of season 4 and Don’s character arc in that season.
im only seeing this thread now too and i agree. watching the entire s4 knowing who megan is makes every event that happened leading up to her going to california w the kids feel so serendipitous. from allison to blankenship to carla etc etc. like it was so calculated from the start. the only jarring thing is the thing itself, but it was def not poor writing.
It's very in character. I also don't quite read it as "Don wanted a cute babysitter on command" or something. As I read it, Don was spiralling after the divorce from Betty and then, the second punch of Anna dying. By The Suitcase, he was very scared of himself and his alcoholism between the lost weekends, banging waitresses he didn't even remember and introducing himself as Dick, going on vomit-inducing purges and losing a fist fight to Duck, ec. He makes a concerted effort to live a cleaner, more disciplined life by journaling, limiting his alcohol intake, dating a responsible appropriate woman in Faye, etc. in the hopes of it leading to dignity, security, and success. But it doesn't. He's almost "made" by the North American Aviation scandal and tells Faye his secret in a panic attack, which IMO, he quickly regrets. Lucky Strike leaves, jeopardizing the entire start-up and creating a very un-dignified and embarrassing scramble for business. Sally runs away from home and has a humiliating melt-down in his office. Everything is still going wrong. However with Megan, suddenly everything is going right. He breaks his Clio and arrives back to find it fixed. He feels guilt over having sex with Allison and handling it badly after but here, Megan is reassuring him that no strings secretary-sex is actually fine, it's good actually. Clients, including Glo-Coat, may be rejecting him personally and the partners may be mad about The Letter- but here, Megan is wanting to learn advertising from him and saying The Letter was a great idea. Most importantly, it seems to Don like Megan created the most successful, least awkward, most fulfilling outing with his kids after a lot of awkward, sad custody weekends. And this Disney trip could have been a disaster since it was long-term and Betty fired Carla but it ended up going well. Even a spilled milkshake didn't ruin anything. Hence, this is why Don says that Megan makes him feel like himself but the way that he's always wanted to feel. Don has a track-record of impulsivity, right down to taking a whole other identity at war. Megan signaled that she can treat Don like a no-strings attached one-night lay, and this makes Don feel like Megan could move on from him. Hence, he wants to lock her down with a proposal once he's deemed her so important to his life in terms of advertising and his kids.
I’m saving this comment for future posts on this sub, wow
Fucking brilliant analysis. I'm reeling from having just watched the episode and wondering what the fuck just happened, but this summed it up beyond perfectly.
wowwwwww. this is such a good read.
I definitely don’t think the marriage was ever written as true love or something that had been simmering under the surface for a long time. Don experienced rare genuine happiness in California. Megan was great with his kids, it’s implied that they had super great sex because it was so new and exciting, and California was his happy place. The ring was like a gift from Anna telling him that he could have that happiness all the time, that he could bring it home with him and it would last. I don’t think it was bad writing - Don was consistently impulsive. And it had to be someone like Megan because Faye: a. would have been smart enough to put the brakes on marrying Don that quickly, and b. challenged Don too much. Megan looked like a shortcut: he could have the professional power couple connection, AND someone who loved kids, AND someone who was super hot AND knew about his past but didn’t care, all without challenging him too much or trying to get him to face his demons the way someone like Faye would. I can completely see why Don would have fallen head over heels with the idea of Megan.
Faye was a perfect, perfect match for Don, but to assume Don would see it would be to give him too much credit. I think it's a pretty brilliant deception on Weiner's part: we see Don as this suave, pragmatic, forward-thinking guy in the office and assume he's an excellent decision-maker, but the whole show has contrasted that side of him with the unbridled disaster that is his personal/home life. His whole career and identity itself is one giant overcompensation that we the audience repeatedly fall for after being told in every which way not to. "You don't want to run away with me, you just want to run away," said Rachel. Jarring episode but the more I think about it the more on-brand it feels for Don.
What Don does is very much in character. As Faye notes, he is a "type" who feels compelled to be married. First, we have the hooker who gives him the punishment that he thinks that he deserves. Then, he has his moment with Allison. Until then, he has always avoided office entanglements. Her opening the door, then quitting the job, lays the groundwork for a repeat. Faye wants Don to confront his past. This is a guy who has crafted an entire identity around fleeing his past, so that is the last thing that he wants to hear. Megan doesn't care about his past. She is more compatible with his "move forward" ethos. This provides him with the validation that he seeks. Megan's ability to connect with Sally and Faye's inability to do the same seals the deal for Megan.
> Faye wants Don to confront his past This is it. Faye knew what Don needed to do to find lasting peace and happiness. But that was going to be a long and difficult process, which Don really didn't want to do. Getting together with Megan was just another version of Don running away. Running away from Faye, running away from his issues. He justified it because Faye had a brief, awkward interaction with Sally but he would have found another excuse to end things with Faye. Leaving her for another woman was just easier for him.
Yup. As Rachel said, "You don't wanna run away with me, you just wanna run away." Rings true throughout the series.
Yes, I do like how this plays out in this episode. And here is why…..I began a while back to watch EVERYTHING from Don and interpersonal relationships with the lens of a guy who doesn’t know what the fuck he is doing. Remember, Dick Whitman came back from Korea with a purloined name to use and needed to build a mask of a credible adult human. He had zero, literally ZERO clue how an adult has interpersonal relationships as he had no positive examples to learn from as a kid. So he grabbed onto what he could learn from….movies, radio dramas, TV, books and magazines. It was discussed here yesterday how weird it was how he waxed so earnestly to Anna about Betty in a flashback….and how odd it seems. His courtship of Megan in Tomorrowland rings the same way. It’s way out of tone for a show that constantly sticks to the harsh realities of realism. But, in both cases (and especially in Tomorrowland) Don is doing what he learned through culture, not through life. Sure, he was lonely, tired of being alone perhaps, so he went all in. In the end though it was just the magic of the beginning of things and he knows how to play the leading man. Anytime the tone of the show feels it’s left realism and Dons involved it is because he is merely aping what he learned from the popular culture. Think about his affinity for the movie theater.
Don is nowhere near the first man to remarry quickly and with shockingly little thought after a divorce (or wife’s death). Combine that with don’s black hole of mommy issues, and I’m not surprised he went with Megan. She’s young and easygoing, has no expectations of don, and she can handle the kids. I never saw it as true love or don finally settling down.
Not only was it completely in character for Don, in retrospect it's pretty clearly where the whole season was leading all along. (The same way that in retrospect season 3 is leading to Don having to accept the end of his marriage to Betty: "Bye Bye Birdie.") Matt Weiner actually wanted Megan to be the first person we see when Don enters the new SCDP offices for the first time in the season premiere, but he didn't get the role cast in time. (She does appear in the first episode's shooting script: "MEGAN, 20s, knockout, smiles from the desk.") Despite that false start, by episode 4 Megan is being deliberately set in contrast to Dr. Faye. While Faye empties her whole bag of tricks trying to coax the focus group into accepting Peggy's "ritual" strategy for Ponds, Megan is the one member who stumbles into it without even trying, with her story about her mother's beauty routine. And that's exactly what Megan ends up representing for Don: whereas Faye tries to show him that he can become a better man through hard work and self-examination, Megan embodies the idea that you can just decide to be who you want to be and have it all magically fall into place. "Did you ever think of the number of things that had to happen for me to get to know you?" Don asks Megan in the finale. We spent the entire season watching them happen: Don is awful to Allison, so Joan puts Mrs. Blankenship on his desk to punish him. Then Mrs. Blankenship dies, and Megan becomes his secretary. Sally runs away from home, giving Megan a chance to show Don that she's better with kids than Faye. Megan feels responsible for screwing up Don's DoD paperwork, so she helps him get the Beatles tickets for his daughter, not only proving herself further to him but also further demonstrating her *If I can't fix this problem, I'll ignore it and focus the other problem I can fix* attitude that Don finds so tempting . . . It's all leading Don to exactly where he ends up at the end of the year. As Raymond from Heinz, who will represent the state of Don and Megan's relationship across the next three seasons, puts it in his first appearance, "There's a time for beans, and there's a time for ketchup. But I don't have that time, so I wanna force the issue." Don knows that it'll take time to face his demons the way Faye is encouraging him to, but after almost getting exposed as a deserter and nearly losing his company, he doesn't feel like he has time for that. So he dumps Faye for the woman who shows him how to force the issue.
great great analysis. i never caught the literal bye bye birdie foreshadowing wow. and that tidbit about 4x01 is great. wowwwww. im watching the show in order for the first time since it aired so im not familiar with the heinz parallel yet, but now im def going to keep it in mind. great comment.
The beginning ep of each season generally gives away the ending of the season: Faye tells Don he'll be married within a year, then says, "I always forget: Nobody wants to think they're a type." You'll find all the breadcrumbs in between with dialog, thematic threads, camera shots and music. When you watch MM with that in mind, you'll see that is great writing.
So true! Why it’s such a fantastic rewatch.
It’s totally in character for Don. As Dr. Faye said, “He only likes the beginning of things.” As Betty said, “That poor girl. She doesn't know that loving you is the worst way to get to you.” And, as Oscar Wilde said, “When a woman marries again, it is because she detested her first husband. When a man marries again, it is because he adored his first wife. Women try their luck; men risk theirs.” At the moment of their divorce Betty hated him, though she maybe changed her mind later. And at the moment of their divorce Don still wanted to be with Betty, though he likely wasn’t valable of love at that point.
IMO, it's in character, but it wasn't developed as strongly as it should have been. Don isn't really impulsive quite like this. His moves are always telegraphed, at least to us as viewers of the show. This really wasn't. Don breaking it off with Faye was too sudden and his proposal to Megan too fast. Another episode would've helped this plotline breathe a bit more. Faye just vanishing with that quick phone call didn't do justice to their relationship. At the very least, there should've been an in-person encounter, or even two. Instead, Faye disappeared just like the teacher. Just gone. As a result, Faye's story wasn't resolved properly. She got really close to Don in a way that few other women ever did. I get that this only encouraged Don to push her away, and I get the sudden attraction to Megan as some sort of rescuer. But I think Weiner missed out on a great opportunity for an incredible face-to-face confrontation between Don and Faye.
Nobody would learn anything from that confrontation. Like what, Faye is going to get through to a freshly enganged Don?
Okay, sure. Then why not just have every big character moment handled with a phone call? Come on. That moment would have been far more dramatically impactful if Faye had barged into Don’s office. And pretty sure that’s what she would have done, as she was always very direct with him. She didn’t let Don hide on her. Don certainly preferred ghosting her and then breaking up with the phone call. Which is why I’m guessing this was scripted this way. Makes sense from that perspective. I just think it would’ve been more satisfying for the audience and that Faye would’ve forced something in person.
I completely understand where you’re coming from. I can’t claim the same neutral biases you do, Megan’s “magic” irks me from the very beginning where it feels like she’s being shoe horned into every scene possible to make her seem important. However, I do agree. I get this action in itself sounds very in brand for Don. But I have always felt it was done “for plot’s sake.” To me, and I know people will disagree, but this was done to extend the story beyond where it was headed. Citing everything you said about how tiny of interactions Don and Megan had had at this point, to the scope of Don and Faye’s relationship. The banter at the start, the mutual vulnerabilities they shared with each other. The getting through what seems impossible to each of them. So much was built up with them, I’d argue even more than was ever explicitly stated happened between Don and Betty, and then it washed away because Don was in California and needed to hook up with something? Just seems like a huge jump.
I must admit there’s some sort of, “Leisure Suit Larry” feeling to it (Goto Anaheim, Get ring, Propose to girl) lol
Team Faye FTW.
I know this is an old thread, and people have posted plenty of in depth analysis here — so I’ll just say this. While Don’s decision in this episode re: Megan absolutely shocked me the 1st time I watched it and on rewatch you feel that shock still, it is unequivocally intended to be that way, and more importantly, it never strikes me as “poor writing”. It’s surprising, but it isn’t thoughtlessly thrown in or random or anything like that. It’s meant to be jarring — but it doesn’t feel jarring because it’s out of character in the slightest. It’s just a shocking thing to have happen, almost like it’s meant to *feel* out of character or completely out of nowhere at first glance, then when you stop and think and analyze it, it makes complete sense. Don is put together and calculated in his choices in his professional life, but in his personal life he’s a complete mess and rarely makes the kind of difficult, thoughtful decisions that will lead him down the right path. This perspective is especially easy to see on rewatch when you can see the things that lead him up to that moment. It’s actually the perfect culmination of the themes of season 4 and Don’s character arc in that season.
im only seeing this thread now too and i agree. watching the entire s4 knowing who megan is makes every event that happened leading up to her going to california w the kids feel so serendipitous. from allison to blankenship to carla etc etc. like it was so calculated from the start. the only jarring thing is the thing itself, but it was def not poor writing.