The Future is a terrifying thing, especially when so much is at stake. Don wants to know what comes next, not just for him but just in general. He asked Peggy; he asked Sally and her Friends even his Realtor at the very end tells him he needs to find what’s next. And the second subplot of “The Forecast” aptly named title; was Joan meeting a suave older millionaire Richard (Bruce Greenwood AKA Batman) who just had a divorce and wants all the freedom that en tales. And then we got to see Betty react to Glenn’s Massive transformation from pudgy little kid to Hairy chested soon to be war vet. Even Sally had a ‘what does the future hold’ plot, With going on a trip with her friends.
Seeing Don’s empty apartment filled with beach furniture, made me laugh and feel sad. The reason I laughed was pretty obvious but the reason it’s sad is because you know for a fact that Don doesn’t care about any of it, he doesn’t find that situation sad or funny, just life as it is. Even his Realtor says that it looks like a sad person lives here. And of course he shrugs it off in a very Don Draper way but its true, and he probably doesn’t realize it. And throughout the day Don keeps pestering people about their future to either chastise them for caring or Lecture them for not knowing. He chastises Peggy and her response is to say “Why don’t you tell me your dreams so I can sh*t on them!” it’s a pretty funny line and probably well deserved she didn’t go in there to debate the meaning of life she wanted to talk business.
The punching bag of this week’s episode
Don Talking to Ted Certainly puts things in perspective for how Don looks at the world. You get the feeling that Ted doesn’t have the cinematic depressing moments that Don has, but they have similar jobs. Ted was saying he wanted to land a big account in the future was laughable to Don, Probably because Don is always looking at the big picture, and that’s not always a good thing. Ted wants to land a big account that is a respectable thing to aspire towards, and Don wants to know what the meaning of life is. That’s how these two men think. Seeing Don fire one of the creative guys after he made a critical error in a meeting was justified in many ways, he used a line that only Don Draper could get away with and he was endeared to the client. This kid was in no way able to pull off the neging move. I’ll be honest though seeing Pete, Peggy, and the clients faces when that guy said “Cant believe you guys have the balls to walk back into this place after you embarrassed yourself” was pretty funny.
Joan got swept up in a whirlwind romance with the most dashing man ever to pull off a baby blue trench coat and an ascot in the same episode. Bruce Greenwood was great as a hopeful paramour for the ever single Joan. His dilemma about the future was understandable in the sense that he has lived his life, and now he wants to retire and be free from all of the life’s burdens. And since Joan has a kid he’s skeptical, him freaking out at the hotel room was a bit much but again he didn’t want any part of a younger child at this point in his life. So seeing Joan lash out at the babysitter saying “You’re ruining my life!” was obviously meant for her child, and then hearing her throw away a future with her child to live with Richard (Bruce Greenwood) was really shocking, she said it so coldly and matter of factually that is was a bit weird. Thankfully Richard talked her down from that ledge and decided that he does want to be a part of her life kid and all.
“I love a man wearing an ascot”
Watching Sally throw away all her relationships was classic Draper, she learned from the best. After she loses her mind about Glenn, she then tells her father that she wants nothing to do with her parents. When in all honesty she is more like them than she admits. Even though, Don was being obviously sleazy towards that 17-year-old she seems to hate everyone in typical teenage fashion. Her parents are a mess, and all she can hope to do is be more than them, which is what Don said in so many words. I was a bit surprised to see Betty turn down Glenn. Seven wears and that kid still can’t catch a break. He’s even good looking now.
“The past…lets assume that it was good, but it has to get better” laying on his couch “working” on a speech for Roger was the definition of how Don thinks, he isn’t satisfied without a big goal in front of him. He told Ted that before being acquired by McCann he only had to worry about will we be in business next year. But now he was so much security and downtime that he needs something more to push him. So piling on top of that he then loses his house, granted he was selling it but still its real punch in the face to lose that much of his life in a split second, that’s a lot of history, he even said that there were a lot of great moments there. But who knows maybe he can sleep over at his Pretty Realtor’s House in classic Don Draper fashion.
