This is new, right?  A prostitute and S&M?  Wonder what this means...

And who's he fantasizing about?

That particular girl - which seems like his regular - was a redhead, busty and particularly assertive.

Hmmn..

(Haha, interesting observation randedge!)

@ InfiniteMess: Could it mean that Don is feeling the need for a little bit of submission in his world, where he is normally so "in control"? Isn't this kind of classic arm-chair psychology?

(just a wee observation from here in the cheap seats...)

Drapery: Yes!  But it is a pretty big change considering how assertive he usually is with women. 

And yes, she did look familiar.  Double hmmmm...

I had a huge problem with these scenes. I shudder to think that Don has lost his mojo so completely that he has to resort to an older, heavy-set hooker. The masochism BS was just the nasty icing on the cake. Ugh.
I guess the idea is to show how far they've fallen personally and professionally.

Hey, if it's wrong to pay a hooker to slap you around a bit over the holidays, I don't want to be right!

But seriously, this glimpse into his personal life doesn't detract from his mojo - it amps it up!  He's enjoying a luxury he never had before: the ability to order women to his home like pizzas! 

Give the guy a break, huh?  Everyone should enjoy a little stuffing at Thanksgiving, am I right?

I think that was my point. He struck out with the young bimbo, coming off like an old, leacherous divorced guy with the same old hackneyed lines. Just sad. I hope he doesn't have to time travel to get his mojo back.

Naw, there's nothing wrong with the playbook.  She was up front about wanting to see him again, telling him so in the cab.  She just didn't want to appear cheap (though maybe that restaurant's chicken kiev was an expensive dish, I don't know).

If Don came off as leacherous, then why did she gossip to Jane about how she liked him?  Besides, as a girl who's paid in opera tickets, we can assume that she will be filling the...leach niche.

Also, was it you that called his apartment "crappy," or was that someone else?

I googled his address (6th and Waverly) and saw that it was in the heart of Grenwich Village.  Another sign Don's ahead of the times.  Not content to be comfortable, but dead...he's intent on being edgy and very rich.

Since the title of the show was public relations, I think they were giving us glimpses into character's private lives to show us how they differ from their public personas.  Thus we see Don may enjoy being submissive once in awhile.  Henry appears to be kind of a wimp compared to his political operative role.  Peggy dreams up a scenario that is a complete lie. Gee, Peggy, how easily that idea came to you.  We're meant to think about our own public relations and how we are doing maintaining our "costume."  Gypsy, hobo, or something else?

Me I am just curious on what Don was writing on the steno pad during his ill-fated talk

He was drawing boobs.

I think Don was dreaming of boobs. The one-legged reporter was taking the notes, some type of shorthand.
Inside Episode 401:

By the way meneeley, I just had another look at the hooker, and she's neither old, nor heavy-set.  She's hot, in fact.

Who's boobs are these?

Uh...Joan's.  Joan's boobs.  He could only fit one per page.

Whatever floats your boat, White Bread.
I'll have to watch it again. That was my impression from the first viewing.

Mneeley -

I would guess based on your discription "Don has lost his mojo so completely that he has to resort to an older, heavy-set hooker" you would desire Calista Flockhart as your ideal sex partner.  After you’re done with dinner and sex you can use one of her elbows as a tooth pick.  The hooker was hot, a good face/body maybe late 20s /early 30s?  I suspect top shelve as far as call girls go in 1963? 

And what is the big mystery about the slapping?  An artistic creative type with a history of childhood physical abuse likes kinky (not my cup of tea) sex?  I am more upset by his being rude the house keeper. 

And he didn’t strike out the 24 year old on his date.   He expressed interest in “walking her in” and she said no and that’s the first date mating dance for 1963 and still for the most part most people don’t screw on the first date or so I think.

Yeah, what he said ^

(Which is what I said)

re: James
But if Don's one night stands from previous seasons are any indication, screwing on a first date is neither unusual nor out of the question. I think Don was cautious about getting involved with another version of Betty.

re: Jacksprat
Interesting comment on the relevancy of the title. Rather than difference between the two (public vs. private lives) I thought it had to due with how the latter influenced the former. We definitely seem to be seeing the results of Don's "demons" coming out in both of his worlds.

@ John Drake:  one of my friends reminded me that Don's mother was a prostitute and he has referred to himself in the past as a son of a whore.  Do you think this plays in to anything?

@ jackspratt:  Yes, Don is clearly playing out an Oedipus fantasy in his Grenwich Village apartment.

Do you find them attractive?

Mneely490

I think the whole point of the hooker and all the slapping around is to slap us into the reality that we really don't know who Don Draper is.  His "persona" of the rakish family man, with the brilliant mind for advertising, and a regular bit on the side, really was his creation.  Alone, in that apartment, the real Dick/Don can come out.  And hence the opening line of the episode "Who is Don Draper?"

@ FutureMenz:  Joan's got a nice rack, yep.

and she's cute too












Love looks through a telescope; envy, through a microscope.  ~Josh Billings

"I think the whole point of the hooker and all the slapping around is to slap us into the reality that we really don't know who Don Draper is. "

I wrote this in a post from season two.  Who is Don Draper?  Don Draper is a sex addict.  AND sex addicts have families and hold professional jobs that they excel in – IE a golfer we’ve heard of.

Don’s limited sex addictions actions are local women (teachers) women on trips (stewardesses.)  I’m sure he would be texting his porn-star mistress or going online if he had that technology.   Who knows what the line is between a slut/cad and a sex addict but being the son of a dead prostitute and having your father Archie beat you could lead you down the road to filling the hole in your heart with lots of different sexual partners.

I would suspect that the prostitute has some similar baggage that makes her who she is.  So rather than Don pony up (what was it $50 for Betty’s psychiatrist?) for a weekly visit to help him solve his problem (I don’t think they guy could) he will just indulge his addiction and his sexual kink.   I don’t think the slapping stopped on his ‘upper checks.’  Smart/creative people are complex and there’s nothing more complicated than someone’s sexuality – throw a bit of abuse, shake well, and spin the wheel kinkiness and see what comes out.   Someone being “wild and experimental in bed” is always going to be someone else’s “eeeuuuuuu that’s sick!”

So maybe the new blonde could be a match for Don's  S/M needs and that would be enough to keep him from straying and become a one woman man.

Geez, all I was saying is that I think he could have done better.

Well Mneely490... you should know that your seriousness spawns the same!!

I am serious. And you're all missing a basic fact. Don's free and single now (or should be if he didn't still have problems with the ex.) I still believe that if he had his mojo, the women would be flocking to him. He should not have to pay for sex, rough or otherwise.
He's stuttering and stalling, both in his professional and private life. He's lost control, and the persona of Don Draper is all about control. After nearly a year, the firm is going nowhere fast, and he can't even get his ex to disappear quietly. Maybe he blames himself for this, and that's where the slapping comes in. As a penance, of sorts.
Only when he kicks out the Jantzen guys does he seem to reclaim that "in-control" part of himself.

And I took another look at the call girl. Ok, she isn't as old or quite as heavy as I first thought. Maybe it was the shock. I first watched a taped version on a widescreen tv. It tends to stretch the image sometimes. But still, she might surpass your standards, but she certainly isn't up to Dons.

James your avatar is hilarious! I love.
I have to agree with MNeely490 I was so uncomfortable with the slapping not because of the S&M but it was strange seeing Don submissive and having to buy sex. I need time with this one.

Quote from mneeley490:



I'm afraid you're totally misinterpreting the situation.

You've been using the word "mojo" quite a bit, as if your impression of the 1960's has everyone behaving like Austin Powers or something.  That's not the kind of character we're dealing with in Don, despite his previous affairs. 

No one is missing the fact that Don is now single.  The divorce has gone through.  However, even though he and Betty's marriage knot has been formally untied, he isn't "free" by any means.  The marital union of Sterling-Cooper-Draper-Price in the business world has given him him a great potential opportunity, but along with it, a heavy burden of responsibility he never carried at the old firm.  There, he was contract-free and able to behave like a bossy, creative wizard, who could do no wrong.  But no longer.  It was only after he said, "Who gives a crap what I say?" in last week's episode that he came to realize that everyone does.   

The new "professional marriage" I alluded to above is quite accurate, because like a wife, it too has taken his name.  As a result, the new agency is heavily reliant on Don's savvy, which is why the other partners are wanting him to do these little courtship dances with the media.  Don's the only one who can.  Cooper is an eccentric fossil with one foot in the grave; Sterling is partner in name only, and merely drinks, smokes, chats on the phone, and watches TV while at the office; and Price is simply the guy who looks after the books. 

It's all on Don.

So, in addition to those daunting expectations, consider what he's dealing with from Betty (the fourth child he's paying to support).  Not only is she making visitation with the kids difficult, but she's squatting in his house, weeks after she agreed to vacate!  As a result, Don is tied up both emotionally and financially with that nonsense, and still Betty has the nerve to indignantly respond with, "WHAT?!" when Don says he's going to have to collect rent. 

Oh yeah, Don's free as a bird, isn't he?  Ha ha! 

As for his behavior in the client meeting when he kicks them out?  Well, you're a little off on the notion of control.  There's a difference between being in control and being controlling, which is why Sterling says, "Control yourself!" after Don storms out after the botched pitch.  (When he's at the meeting with the Wall Street Journal at the end?  THAT was him being in control.)

So despite all of these pressures, responsibilities, and cronic irritations that Don has to deal with, I couldn't help but be a little baffled at your myopic view of what's happening with his character.  He has had no time to pursue relationships and put his "mojo" to work.  For that reason, he opts for the dial-a-date route to get his rocks off at his convenience...no strings attached.  Pretty simple.  And when he did finally agree to that blind date Roger's wife was pushing on him?  Well, he charmed the hell out of a girl over a decade his junior without even breaking a sweat. 

In conclusion: I am right in every respect. 

White Bread, you make some good points.
But with respect to Jane's friend: Don made his pitch (which in my opinion was less than stellar, but that's beside the point), and failed to seal the deal. I think she may have been less "charmed" than you.
Consider that Don has the Golddigger trifecta going on right now. Power, wealth, and looks. Charm doesn't enter into it. After all, she is a friend of Janes. And look how well Jane did for herself? Two, maybe two and a half out of the three, with Roger? She's been an extra on a stage who dresses up and lives her life in a fantasy. But how long can she live on free theater tickets?
A girlfriend might put out on the first date (at least in '64). But if she wants to present herself as "wife material", she has to play it coy for now. She needs to get him hooked, and then she can reel him in later. Now I'm not saying that this is where the storyline is going, in fact I don't think it will. She's probably just a one-episode throwaway character.

As to the term "mojo", yes I probably did overuse it. And it was originally an allusion to Austin Powers. So how about a more fitting one than confidence, self-esteem, or game?

Well mneeley, it seems you're arguing my point now.  The girl he was out to dinner with is undoubtedly trying to make theirs a proper courtship, and while they both probably would have enjoyed knocking boots that night, she was trying to be respectable about things...as a lady should. 

So it doesn't really reflect Don's mojo.  Or game.  He can go back for seconds at the slut buffet any time he wants, and I'm confident we'll see him do so throughout the season.

I actually hope the girl Don dated is a one season throw away character, but I fear we'll see her again. I can't help but see her as another Betty for Don to fit into the social milieu with as attractive arm candy that will play the wife role. She does seem to be more honest or assertive than Betty as she states her intentiont to see him again.

   As for the slapping, I too was very uncomfortable. This wasn't a sexy slapping to me, but a man who needed further punishment for the failures at his marriage and poor job performance. Why not bring his deteriorating self image into the bedroom? I agree that Don was losing control in the boardroom with the conservative bikini crowd. Actually, I mentioned this somewhere else, but I think Peggy set his confidence in motion with the ending interview where he claims to be the man behind SCDP. AND, I loved the rock n' roll music at the end of the show. I read it was the first time they used it to end a show and it seems so fitting as he starts to remember the image he has created in the last three seasons. Who is Don Draper? Well, I may not know, but a new image self importance may emerge... or not, but I can't wait to see!

Serious? Me I'm as serious as a Roger Sterling heart attack.
"He should not have to pay for sex, rough or otherwise. "

Mneely - I don't think Don having or using prostitutes is because he has too.  During the Hiddi Flise trial an interesting item was how many movie stars and even some rock stars where her clients.  These seem to be the exact people who never would have to pay for sex.  The S/M thing is also a Don in control thing.  Don is dictating and controlling the actions of the prostitute he ordered her up and told her what to do.  If Don wanted to bed the new blond (she played the preachers wife on True Blood) he could and would have worked harder than a throw-away line "can I walk you up."  I suspect that line did two things. It helped him gage what kind of girl she is, if she said 'yes' she would have been a loose girl, lots of fun for six months but not marriage material.  And the line told her served as a way of telling her that he found her sexually desirable and that he is a willing, red blooded male that she should continue to pursue.   

Also, I don't think for a second Don thought the bikini family guys were going to go for this risqué campaign.  It was the complete opposite of what they asked for and was a total "F U" to them and to everyone at the firm stating that he wasn't going to be anyone's dancing monkey and whore himself out.   

____ I wrote the above comment on Saturday and Sunday’s show proved every point. 


The romp with the secretary shows that Don can still very easily force his way onto women with plenty of mojo intact.  But there was fallout he got that he doesn’t with the prostitute.  There would have been similar.  If he would have had sex with the bond there would have been an even more awkward when Jane pressed him on what his plans are for being alone on Christmas.

And the Peggy premarital sex storyline, “why buy milk when you can get the cow for free” or whatever.  Freddy made it clear that is she considered him marriage material to hold off on sex.  The blonde and Don were doing this same dance.

Now that he's "free", Don should go back to that Tiki bar from season 2 that had the gorgeous Chinese waitress.

Wow!

Conrad I would have loved to see that duo, now that Don's "free"...  By the way, the Chinese dudette is Elizabeth Tsing and she was a good cast.

As for Joan's rack, I hate to burst your bubble White Bread but I don't think it's all real...natural... or so I'm made to believe. There's something synthetic about it... 

Elizabeth Tsing, gotcha.

She made more of an impression on me in a 30 second walk-on than January Jones has in 3 full seasons plus.

I'm not picking a fight, but when I heard that JJ was nominated for an Emmy, I really thought it must be a joke. She is a lovely girl, but even Baby Gene has a more interesting screen presence.

I'm sure JJ wouldn't be too happy to hear that...but I am - I couldn't agree more! There's something nondescript about JJ's acting, not her role, but her manifestation of the role... I too think that she was somewhat undeserving of that Emmy award.

Oh but she sure knew how to dress the part for the grandeur occasion! She may be lacking in screen presence with "uumph" but style, elegance, taste, flair...she's sure got it!

Surely the limo "rejection" of DD leads us into "women's lib," doesn't it?

I am so aware at every minute of how we are heading into the hippie/free love/civil rights generation.  Watch Sally, the daughter.  She is going there for sure.

I new that Glen would go after Sally....

Its ironic on one incident where Betty answered the phone by saying, "Francis residence?" Who's Residence? I thought Don is still financing the mortgage....

Yeah, the Carla answered the phone like that before she handed it over to Sally.

Everyone thinks that Don has a rocky heart, some of you have even claimed that it would take longer for Don to fall love and or even open up his heart to anyone. Does this guy ever been in love,  what was his marriage all about with Betty?

He once said to his kids how lucky they were to have such a beautiful mommy and how he always wished he'd had one himself.  After his sketchy upbringing, DD wanted a picture-perfect adult life.
I think he did love Betty.  I think he married Betty for her beauty.  But he turned out to be sexually uninterested in Beautiful Mommy and couldn't even bring himself to tell her his true story.  The one he really seemed softer with was the teacher, Suzanne.

Then again Don was hitting on Anna's neice. Which is  just  terribly disrespectable to Anna in lame light of their entire relationship.

I don’t think Anna would have been that upset about Don and her niece.   I think she’s such a free lovin pot smoking UFO seeing, tarot card readimg gal she may have shrugged and assumed that Don has a weakness or just human nature.

Agree, James.  It doesn't seem that anything DD would do would upset Anna.  She's the classic "good sport," even in dying.

Have you ever asked yourself what will happen if Don marries Anna as Dick Whittman?

I think DD is confused and lost, sleeping with secretaries, employing hookers. He even signed his name on a agreement with Anna that time he signed on her wall. 

Do you remember psych woman last words to D at the Christmas celebrations: "You''ll be married within a year, you're the type".

Anna did marry a Dick W - cohabitated with a DD who she divorced.   So while DW and Anna never got married (DD DW) did get a divorce.   I have a few trees with JB + (some other girl) I hope they don't come back to me saying that was an agreement...