“This is America. Pick a job and then become the person that does it.” – Bobbie Barrett
“The New Girl” is the fifth episode of Mad Men Season 2. What’s new and what’s happening?
- We learn that we’re a few months out from the events of “Flight 1.”
- Pete and Trudy visit a fertility doctor, during which we get maximum levels of Pete’s pervy/awkward side.
- Joan flashes her engagement ring (to Greg the doctor) around the office, which sends the secretarial pool atwitter.
- Bobbie Barrett tells Don that they sold her husband Jimmy’s show, Grin and Barrett, and convinces him to join her at Sardi’s to celebrate. That leads to them driving out to Bobbie’s place in Stony Brook (more on this below), and by driving out I mean drinking and driving out – smash cut to Don getting into a car accident that could have easily been fatal. Instead, Don ends up in the drunk tank, with he and Bobbie bruised up a nice amount.
- Peggy is called upon to drive out all the way from Brooklyn to pay Don’s fine – a miraculous slap on the wrist for crashing his car while drunk by today’s standards – and then is further tasked with hosting Bobbie for the night. Bobbie’s self-confidence is striking, and she takes it upon herself to give Pegs some advice: “You’re never gonna get that corner office until you start treating Don like an equal.”
- After renting a car in Ossining, Don does the walk of shame into his own house. Betty sort of buys that he was in an accident, and that his blood pressure medication, “mixed with the drinks,” caused his accident. There’s zero talk of “maybe you should like not drink and drive,” or anything.
- Enter the titular “new girl,” Jane Siegel, who becomes Don’s latest secretary after Lois Sadler is sent back to the switchboard. Jane is everything that Joan could have hoped for Peggy on her first day, back in Season 1’s “Smoke Gets In Your Eyes.” But then there’s that whole be careful what you wish for thing…
- We get a major revelation that comes in the form of a flashback: we learn that Peggy had a mental breakdown after she gave birth at the end of Season 1, and was institutionalized at St. Mary’s hospital for some period of time. Don shows up, and tells her that he was told she was “quarantined for TB.” “Do whatever they say,” he then says in what breaks down Don’s ability to compartmentalize. “Get out of her and move forward. This never happened. It will shock you how much it never happened.”
- Back in 1962, Peggy calls her boss “Don” for the first time at the end of the episode, when she’s forced to remind him that he owes her the bail money she had to cough up. We recognize that there’s now a new dynamic in their relationship.
Mad Men, “The New Girl”: do we meet anyone new?
- Don spots Rachel Menken (Maggie Siff), a woman he had an affair with back in Season 1, while at Sardi’s with Bobbie. Rachel is with her now husband Tilden Katz (Nick Toran), who expresses no sign that he knows Don and his wife had had a romantic relationship. We also learn that Menken’s department store has moved their advertising account over to Grey (which is directly on Don for losing Sterling Cooper a client).
- As noted above, we meet Jane Siegel (Peyton List), who would go on to be Jane Sterling, Roger’s second wife.
Things you might notice after watching the entire Mad Men series a bunch of times
- Pete’s upper crust accent comes through at times, such as when he says OH-cassionally.
- I’m from the north short of Long Island, so I am intimately aware of how far Stony Brook is from Manhattan, and let me tell you that it is far. Don and Bobbie deciding over multiple cocktails to head out to her place in Stony Brook is super half-baked if we’re taking the geography seriously here.
- More fun logistics stuff: Peggy offers to pick up Bobbie’s dry cleaning from The City the next morning “first thing” – which, even if she lives fairly close to Manhattan, is a pretty epic errand to run.
- Ken Cosgrove is a bit of a mystery in that he can be sweet, earnest, and reasonable at times, and a bit creepy at others. As we see repeatedly, the game he tries to sell to the ladies of Sterling Cooper often goes unsold. And for what it’s worth, Pete can also be charming and even vulnerable at times, though he’s obviously often super slimy, immature, and obnoxious.
Mad Men, “The New Girl”: odds and ends
- Bobbie is a mix of hustler, early feminist, and cynic. She’s also a fascinating character and figure who I wish could have showed up in some capacity in later Mad Men seasons.
- It’s also wild that Don and Bobbie continue their affair after the events at Lutèce in “A Night to Remember.”
- Pop culture references include A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (the Broadway play version), Spartacus, and La Notte.
- Don has 1.5% blood alcohol content at the police station. That’s like double the drunk driving BAC level that will get you into deep trouble by today’s standards.
- Bobbie is amusingly casual about crashing out at Peggy’s place, but it also shows us that she’s self-assured no matter what’s going on. Also it’s noteworthy that Peggy is doing well enough to live by herself at this point.
- Sight gag: Pete preparing to provide his, uh, sample at the fertility doc’s office segues to Roger playing with a paddle attached to a little bouncing ball. “No one knows what I’m doing,” he tells Joan with a gleam in his eye. “It adds to my mystique.”
- Jane reminds me a bit of the star of Van Halen’s “Hot for Teacher” video before Joan chastises her about her “décolletage.”
- Side note that there’s a great song by ska punk band The Suicide Machines called “New Girl.”
- Roger mentions Burt Peterson, a character who we don’t actually see on screen until a few more seasons go by.
- I love that Jimmy Barrett (Patrick Fischler) calls Ken “blondie.”
Mad Men, “The New Girl”: fun quotes
- “This is America. Pick a job and then become the person that does it.” – Bobbie
- “God, I feel so good.” – Bobbie. “I don’t feel a thing.” – Don
- “You promised you wouldn’t disappear like this anymore.” – Betty
- “What is all this for?” – Trudy Campbell
- “This guy. I can’t tell if he’s being smug or not.” – Jimmy Barrett on Don
Some stats and info about Mad Men, “The New Girl”
TV SHOW – Mad Men
SEASON/EPISODE – Season 2, Episode 5
AIRED ON – August 24th, 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.