“American Airlines: pioneering vertical flight.” – Paul
“Flight 1” is the second episode of Mad Men Season 2. What’s new and what’s happening?
- There’s a bohemian-ish party happening over at the newly bearded Paul Kinsey’s place in New Jersey, the first time that Mad Men has traveled outside of New York City up until this point (save for Don Draper/Dick Whitman flashbacks). Also: have to dig Paul’s scarf and pipe to finish up his boho look.
- The main event, and the event that gives the episode its title, is the real incident in which American Airlines Flight #1 crashed in Jamaica Bay, located in Queens, New York. Much of the episode concerns how Mad Men’s cast reacts to the incident, including how it changes Sterling Cooper’s focus – which culminates with the firm cutting Mohawk Airlines loose in an attempt to win over American Airline’s advertising business.
- Pete Campbell learns that his father – a taciturn and cold East Coast patrician-type that we met briefly in Season 1 – was on board Flight #1 and died in the crash along with the rest of the passengers and crew. Interestingly, Pete decides to tell Don about this news first.
- And meanwhile, it turns out that pops was broke (offering some insight into why he refused Pete’s request to help fund the down payment for an apartment in “New Amsterdam”). “It turns out the Dykeman trust wasn’t as solid as one would have hoped,” Bud tells Pete.
- Carlton and Francine Hanson head over to Casa Draper to play cards. “Didn’t we just do that?” Don complains to Betty. There’s tremendous nostalgia here alone in seeing young Sally and Bobby sitting on the staircase, listening in to the adults (boozily) socializing in the living room.
- Major revelation about what happened to the child Peggy had at the end of Season 1: he’s being raised by her family out in Brooklyn. “Aren’t you going to say goodnight?” Anita drops on Peggy, and us, offhand. And at the end of the episode, Peggy is handed her child to hold while at church.
- Duck butters up and eventually convinces Pete to meet with him and Shel Keneally (Vaughn Armstrong) from American Airlines. “Hopefully something good will come out of it,” Pete tells Shel, which comes across as both funny and horrific. Which is, you know, Pete.
“Flight 1”: do we meet anyone new?
- We meet Paul’s “baby,” Sheilia White (Donielle Artese), at Paul’s party.
- I’m pretty sure this is the first time we meet Pete’s brother, Bud Campbell (Rich Hutchman), and his wife, Tammy (Aria Lyric Leabu). “I like to offer a nice bouquet of thoughts” is a hilarious line from the latter.
- Peggy’s mom, Katherine (Myra Turley), and sister Anita (Audrey Wasilewski) appear in what becomes an ongoing story arc out in Brooklyn. Peggy’s family life is interesting enough by any normal standard, but it’s one of my least favorite parts of the entire Mad Men series overall. That said, it’s quite a bomb drop when Anita says, “The state of New York didn’t think son,” when Peggy talks about being able to make her own decisions.
Things you might notice after watching the entire Mad Men series a bunch of times
- We briefly see Sal’s wife, Kitty Romano (Sarah Drew), at Paul’s party. She’s terrific in a small role.
- Joan is still a bit petty and propitious with regard to Paul, telling Sheilia that she didn’t realize her boyfriend is so “open minded.” And later, in the office: “A supermarket checkout girl? Conversation must be stimulating.”
- Peggy’s self confidence has come a long way since the early episodes of Season 1. Great example is when we see her tell Eugene, the Ivy Leaguer at Paul’s party, that she doesn’t buy his “presentation” in asking to take her home with him.
- There’s a classic shot of Don from behind in this episode as he heads into Sterling Cooper.
- It occurs to me that Pete’s search for a father figure – Duck in this case – helps drive his decision to agree to meet with American Airlines right after his father’s death in a plane crash from the very same company.
Mad Men, “Flight 1”: 1960s historical stuff
- Roger complains to Don in the elevator about traffic that related to a parade going on to celebrate Col. John Glenn. Presumably, this is in relation to Glenn becoming the first American astronaut to orbit the Earth (three times, while on board a spacecraft called Friendship 7.) This would place this episode sometime shortly after February 20th, 1962.
- Francine says of Bobby Draper’s behavior, “The book says they start fibbing at this age.” This is probably referring to Benjamin Spock’s classic, The Comm Sense Book of Baby and Child Care.
Mad Men, “Flight 1”: the advertising part of the show
- Beyond Mohawk, other Sterling Cooper clients mention include Stouffer’s.
- Duck Phillips engineers a shot at a pitch for American Airlines’ business, but it forces the firm to fire Mohawk Airlines, a good client that has much lower billings ($1 million versus a potential $7 for American). The creative team scrambles to quickly put together a major pitch for a coveted bigtime airline. Don reluctantly goes along with the plan – but only because he’s essentially forced to.
Mad Men, “Flight 1”: fun quotes
- “What are you doing out here? Not enough subterraneans in The Village?” – Pete
- Someone to Paul: “The man upstairs is here.” Paul: “God?”
- “Can I just fire everyone?” – Roger
- “American Airlines: pioneering vertical flight.” – Paul
- “There’s a pie cooling on the windowsill, and I’m not even supposed to smell it?” – Carlton
Mad Men, “Flight 1”: other odds and ends
- All banter between Don and Roger is absolute (Sterling) gold.
- “Look Bets, I’m not going to fight. I’ll say whatever you think I should say,” Don tells Betty. This is the ambivalent state of Don early in Season 2, which leads to him sliding into (another) affair, this time with Bobbie Barrett. He does turn down a come on from a cocktail waitress in this episode, where he uses the interesting response, “Not tonight.”
- “We’re practically family here,” Duck tells Pete. Note that this is always a red flag when an employer tells you this.
- Joan gets put on blast on the office bulletin board for having the audacity to be over 30 years old. The youth obsessed 1960s is in full swing.
Some stats and info about Mad Men, “Flight 1”
TV SHOW – Mad Men
SEASON/EPISODE – Season 2, Episode 2
AIRED ON – August 2nd, 2008
NETWORK/STREAMING SERVICE – FX
GENRE – Drama, Relationship Shows, Office Culture, Period Shows
CREATED BY – Mathew Weiner
CAST – Jon Hamm, Elisabeth Moss, Vincent Kartheiser, January Jones, Christina Hendricks, Aaron Staton, Rich Sommer, John Slattery, Kiernan Shipka, Robert Morse, Christopher Stanley, Jessica Pare, Jay R. Ferguson, Michael Gladis, Bryan Batt, Alison Brie, Jared Harris, Kevin Rahm, Mason Cotton, Ben Feldman, Mark Moses, Anne Dudek, Maggie Siff, Joel Murray, Harry Hamlin, Talia Balsam, James Wolk
This review originally appeared on TV Geek Army.