Mad Men 2x10 Reaction
Added 2025-08-29 21:16:32 +0000 UTC
Comments
Gene is a typical tribalist, judging by other things not relative instead of the man. People who have conformed or are afraid not too cling to that belief. It leads directly to clans, cliques and tribalism. “A man is whatever room he is in right now – Japanese Proverb”
INFJ-T Tyrone
2025-09-01 02:24:46 +0000 UTCYeah if he got shot and killed he’d be a hero. TBH he prob would be for just going. Most white people did nothing and like you said were against civil rights.
cheech
2025-08-31 12:44:50 +0000 UTCI love this so much, and I can't wait for you two to react to the next episode
Rafael Faithful
2025-08-31 09:31:17 +0000 UTCYep. Helen coming into Betty's life was a wake-up call about the circumstances her own marriage, so it's just as important now to show Helen (and by extension, divorce) as an imperfect solution. Separating from Don obviously seems like the right choice for Betty, but it isn't a magic bullet where she suddenly gets to live a perfect life. Things are messy on both sides.
Mike
2025-08-30 22:59:21 +0000 UTCRegarding Kinsey & Sheila, I think you're both kind of falling into the trap of thinking about "the Sixties" instead of 1962, when this episode takes place. This is six years before MLK's assassination. Four years before the Selma marches. Eleven months before "I have a dream". For most of America in 1962, this is not a popular movement -- broadly speaking, the country is actually against civil rights. Kinsey is a phony and he's (mostly) dating Sheila to seem interesting, but even being in the orbit of someone going to Mississippi in 1962 to register voters makes him more For Real than anyone else in that office, even if he's doing it to seem interesting (or because Don stole his trip to California).
Mike
2025-08-30 22:33:36 +0000 UTCEveryone thinks they're a Ken when they're a Paul
bondbond53
2025-08-30 22:03:11 +0000 UTCWho is the worst of the 3 musketeers? For what it’s worth, Pete is arguably worse than all of them! I love him as a character too, but everything you listed for the others Pete is probably the worst offender. Crude office talk? Yup. (especially in season 1). Cheated on his wife before and after marriage with Peggy and then once more with the model he met in the elevator. Yes, the bar is on the floor but Harry is the only man in the show so far to explicitly feel bad about cheating… he regretted it as soon as he woke up and immediately confessed to his wife.
JJ
2025-08-30 09:06:53 +0000 UTCI liked the Helen part in this episode. She's not a role model or a cautionary tale. She's a better example for Betty by seeing a real person make mistakes and try to learn from them, while also showing the benefits of leaving an unhappy relationship. Gene is right to be suspicious, but you also get a sense from Pete's mother how he would react if Don told him his actual background, even leaving out the Don Draper part. Not that Don should lie of course, but you can see why he wanted to leave his past behind for many different reasons. But also how, as cold as it may be, his past has damaged and him and can't just be buried, especially for a parent.
Mark M
2025-08-30 06:30:09 +0000 UTCPete owning his landlord mother #PACKWATCH 🔥💯
Nazım Metin
2025-08-30 06:19:26 +0000 UTCGene is right. Don having "no people" is absolutely a huge red flag. Lots of people in this world have lost their families but an adult that has hasn't managed to form close relations or a semblance of community that can stand for him as "his people" is sus af and Gene is right to pick up in that. We all know Don doesn't get close to people and we know why. Gene doesn't know but he is 100% right to be wary of that when this guy is the man marrying his daughter. How would anyone here feel if their loved one (or child!) took up with and wanted to marry someone with a vague background and literally NO relative or close human being at all?
Julien
2025-08-30 01:45:05 +0000 UTC"The most important thing to realize about parents is that there is absolutely nothing you can do about them." -- Nick Smith, Metropolitan (1990)
Thomas Fahey
2025-08-30 00:56:12 +0000 UTCHot take, I like the Glenn subplot lol
Taya
2025-08-30 00:44:20 +0000 UTCshe's like azealia banks, there's truth in her words but the words themselves are HEINOUS
Kara
2025-08-30 00:39:27 +0000 UTC"I think I might die in a plane crash like my daddy 🥺👉👈" son VERSUS "If that happened it would be, statistically speaking, rly fucking cool 🙂" daughter
Kara
2025-08-30 00:38:28 +0000 UTCI do agree with Gene that its pretty weird to seemingly have NOBODY important in your life. No family, no close friends. Did Don have a best men or groomsmen at his wedding even? It can be somewhat explained with "I'm an orphan, I don't have siblings or cousins" etc but... no old family friend? No close friends like siblings? It's pretty odd. I doubt Don bothered explaining it well either, from S1 we know Betty just inferred a bunch of stuff about his family and childhood.
Kara
2025-08-30 00:33:59 +0000 UTCI think a good way of framing this is, how would we feel if a busy / stressed Betty at home without Don asked Sally to help brush Bobby's teeth? We'd probably be fine with it. I doubt Helen is an amazing parent but yeah, we dunno how much of what she does is actually that bad / neglect as opposed to just, not amazing parenting.
Kara
2025-08-30 00:26:33 +0000 UTCThe thing with Glen's story about his homelife, is that it's all been filtered through his perspective as a child. And that doesn't mean he's wrong about anything, but it also doesn't mean he's right about it. He complains about his mother's many boyfriends, and that could mean that she is neglecting her children in favor of a string of short-term flings. Or it could mean that she once had a male friend over to her house a few times, and also had a romantic boyfriend at another time, and Glen doesn't understand the difference. He says that he takes care of his sister and himself, mentioning brushing their teeth and tucking in to bed at night, and that could mean that Helen is parentifying him by forcing him to take on an adult role that he's not ready for. Or it could mean that she asks him to do one chore as part of his nightly routine and he doesn't understand how much else she is doing that he doesn't see. Helen herself admits that she's not s good mother anymore, and that could mean that she really is letting everything fall apart and abandoning her kids. Or it could be self-criticism stemming from shame at not being able to measure up to the idealized image of "a woman who has it all" and she is struggling under the giant societal pressure. It's hard -- if not impossible -- to judge based on just the information from this episode. All we know for SURE is that both Glen and Helen aren't happy.
JBK405
2025-08-30 00:17:41 +0000 UTC12:27 What Gene meant to say it's that Don has no one to vouch for him, no one that can talk about his character or life before meeting Betty, so ultimately there is no proof besides his word that Don is the man he presents himself as. It's not an attack on his status per se. In a way Betty's dad is right, you can't fully trust a person when there is no one that connects them to their past because they have full power to create any persona they might want, and Don is an extreme example of this.
Gaboxxy
2025-08-30 00:05:47 +0000 UTCI should try Pete's pick-up lines, they seem killer. "I don't like my mother. What do you think about that?"
Nina
2025-08-29 23:57:06 +0000 UTCIt's kinda funny how Joan's comments to Paul earlier in the season come across as EXTREMELY offensive, rude and racist (and they are to an extent) but now that we see what Paul is really like... well ... "I'm sorry, which part of that was wrong?"
Taya
2025-08-29 23:55:52 +0000 UTCYour comment about the Civil Rights Movement is so on point. I almost look at people that claim similar things today with such disbelief like "have you ever opened a history book? do you know how we got the things we have today?". It's mind-boggling how human nature never changes
bondbond53
2025-08-29 23:21:18 +0000 UTCIt's so true too, even today with much less societal initialization of women it's extremely tough going from a two person team household to a one person household with kids.
Kara
2025-08-29 23:11:25 +0000 UTCGlen's line to Betty "We can go anywhere, I have money" is almost exactly what Don says to Rachel Menken in S1 when he's panicking and trying to run away with her, literally child magical thinking haha.
Kara
2025-08-29 23:09:57 +0000 UTCThis is a really dense episode. Betty's father's comments toward Don imply that he had an absolute nightmare when first dating her imo. From her dad's perspective Don is this slick-talking "new york city" guy who rocks up, takes away his daughter, and has no (real) friends or family at the wedding. It's not a fair accusation but it does get at something: Don has not spent his newfound free adult life making deep personal connections. His best friend is Roger Sterling and I'm not sure we've seen anyone else get close. His only surviving family was Adam, RIP. It's a complex situation but basically, you can imagine how much of a struggle Don had trying to convince Betty's well off suburban family that he's worthy of her etc (he knows Viola well enough to kiss her on the cheek). And how much there's a part of Don in there somewhere who wishes he could have brought Adam home to meet Betty and the kids. Martin Luther King Jr will deliver his famous "I have a dream" speech in August 28, 1963. We are in 1962, and you can imagine what the year running up to that speech was like. I'll talk about this more in future eps, but the US Civil Rights movement in the early 60s was actually deeply unpopular. A contemporary poll showed 60% of Americans opposed MLK's march on washington, they thought that Black people were "asking for too much too fast" (sound familiar?) and that they should accept slower incremental change and stop being so loud and disruptive about it. Conveniently when Civil Rights became popular later and laws were passed, everyone remembers that they ALWAYS supported the civil rights movement 100%. Funny how that works 🙄 Random small details: 9(?) year old Glen saying "We can go anywhere, I have money" is almost verbatim what Don said to Rachel Menken in season 1. Betty dresses Glen in one of Don's shirts and then looks after him, like she's playing housewife as a distraction (later she forgets about her father for a moment when Carla asks). At night, Betty moves from HER bed to Don's floor to have sex with him, she doesn't invite him into her space even though it'd be more comfortable. Mad Men knows how to end an ep. The final scene is great with Don sitting in a window seat, looking out as the sunlight tracks up his stoic face. Recall his words from an earlier episode: "When I get on a plane, I don't care where I'm going. I just want to see the city disappearing behind me."
Kara
2025-08-29 23:07:29 +0000 UTCYes, Kinsey is the epitome of performative. Also, christ, I just remember how much I hate the Glenn subplot. But hey, whatever gets the showrunners kid some acting time, no matter how awkward and wooden his acting is.
Yami
2025-08-29 22:58:54 +0000 UTCCALI-FORN-I-A
cheech
2025-08-29 22:56:26 +0000 UTCMy first instincts about Glen are his similarities to Don. Has no people, doesn’t like ham (no idea if Don does but his dad did), has money to rescue Betty- sees her aspirationally/ possibly hates her
Wayne
2025-08-29 22:41:38 +0000 UTC"The hardest part is realizing you're in charge". Always loved this line from this ep.
Eric Viola
2025-08-29 22:28:18 +0000 UTCThere's an episode that if anyone spoils how important it is I swear I'll find you personally
bondbond53
2025-08-29 21:26:58 +0000 UTCGet in line pussy
Jay Craig
2025-08-29 21:26:31 +0000 UTCGuys stop telling them what episode you're excited about and spoiling them. I've had enough of that during HunterxHunter and it just made the experience worse
bondbond53
2025-08-29 21:26:03 +0000 UTCFUCK IS THIS SHIT?!? WHERE'S MONSTER?!?
fionan franklin
2025-08-29 21:21:52 +0000 UTC
