“To Monday morning: it’ll be here faster than you think.” – Freddy Rumsen
“Six Month Leave” is the ninth episode of Mad Men Season 2. What’s new and what’s happening?
- The opening moments of the episode quickly establish time and place. Don Draper is living at a hotel after getting booted out of his home in Ossining by Betty, and when he retrieves the newspaper, the New York World-Telegram lead story is “MM: Accident or Suicide?” This lets us know too that the date is August 6th, 1962.
- Back on the home front, Betty remains out of sorts and devastated from having it out with Don about his affair with Bobbie Barrett, though on some level she has known that her husband has been a combination of unfaithful and keeping secrets from her for a long time now.
- We’ve known for some time that Freddy Rumsen has had a serious issue with alcohol – even by Sterling Cooper standards – for some time. This is the episode where things come to a head… or maybe a leak is the better, if crude, analogy. When Freddy gets blotto before a presentation to Samsonite, Peggy is able to step in and ably cover for him. And later that day, Freddy does a Walk of Shame of a different kind while extricating himself from the office. Shortly thereafter, Roger and Duck outrank Don and decide Freddy needs to take a “six month leave” of absence.
- The repercussions of Don’s affair with Bobbie Barrett (and throw in “all the others” if you like) continue to play out: Don and Betty have to negotiate the painful, awkward fact that daddy’s not living at home for the time being with regard to the kids, especially the older Sally. Betty is decidedly not impressed nor pleased when Don spins up a story on the spot involving his being on an account located in Philadelphia, which allows him to conveniently return to Ossining to visit the kids on the weekends.
- Betty continues her breaking bad streak, 1962 edition. Playing off of her horse-riding friends’ feelings for both her and each other, she sets up the young and engaged Arthur Case with the older and engaged Sarah Beth to run into each other at lunch (Café Soleil in Old Town) – which is to say she invites them both and then conveniently doesn’t show up herself.
- Don and Roger take Freddy out to deliver the news and as a convenient excuse to have one final “night on the town” for the three old time Sterling Cooper hands. We learn that Freddy knew Roger’s father well, and he tells them that he “could outdrink the two of you put together.” The trio then head to a illegal speakeasy and gambling hall, where Don eventually runs into – and then decks – Jimmy Barrett.
- Huge reveal at the end of the episode: Roger has left his wife, Mona, to be with Don’s secretary, Jane Siegel, after 25 years of marriage. When Don finds out, he coldly tells Roger, “I want her off my desk.”
Things you notice after watching the entire Mad Men series a bunch of times
- It’s rare to see Don in modes where he’s not completely done up in suit or other carefully put together attire, especially in the early seasons. In the opening scene, we see him in his boxer shorts. We’ll see him in his boxers again later, in Season 4, where Anna Draper comments that she never minds seeing Don in his skivvies (although their relationship was decidedly platonic overall).
- I enjoy every time we get a small moment with Hollis the elevator operator, played by La Monde Byrd, during the early seasons of Mad Men.
- When Jane attentively leaves a department store bag full of dress shirts by his desk, it displays the Menken’s logo.
- The events leading to Freddy being gently but firmly put out to pasture in this episode are repeated, broadly speaking, with Don’s alcoholism (and related trauma) leading to his getting put on “leave” in Season 6. Don’t situation was more complicated in some respects – especially due to his being a partner in the firm – and of course he eventually found his way back in.
- Mad Men is a TV show lousy with incredibly talented actors, and Joel Murray as Freddy Rumsen is one of them.
- Don jokingly (and drunkenly) refers to himself as “Tilden Katz” when he, Freddy, and Roger are entering an illegal gambling hall in Manhattan. That name refers to the husband of Rachel Menken, which Don found out about earlier in the season).
- It’s kind of wild that Don feels justified in punching Jimmy Barrett, given that Don had an ongoing affair with his wife, Bobbie, and Jimmy – while an unpleasant drunk some of the time – really only crossed Don in revealing to his wife, Betty, that he strongly suspected that the affair was taking place.
Mad Men, “Six Month Leave”: the advertising side of the show
- In one of the odder Sterling Cooper-related things we get to see, there’s a focus on a blood drive in this episode. However, it’s leveraged as a means to highlight that Don has so little going on in his personal life – including living at a hotel in Manhattan – that he has the time and energy to focus on something that it’s pretty clear he would normally care nothing about.
- A major ramification of Freddy’s “leave of absence”: Don tells Peggy that she will take over all of his accounts. Peggy, who genuinely cares about Freddy, is much more shaken than elated. She then storms into Pete’s office, castigating him for telling Duck about what happened with Freddy. “If it wasn’t for him, I’d still be a secretary,” she adds. “I refuse to feel bad, we’re all going to get raises,” is all that Pete can respond with.
Mad Men, “Six Month Leave”: odds and ends
- Peggy deftly notes to Don that had Playtex had moved forward with the “Jackie or Marilyn: Two Sides” campaign, Sterling Cooper would have had to pull all of its creative in the wake of Marilyn Monroe’s suicide. And it’s a nice moment when we see Don recognizing how savvy his protégé has become.
- Speaking of deftly: Jane Siegel (of Jane on Jane St. fame) deftly handles the fact that she is the first person at Sterling Cooper to learn that Don is not living at his home for the moment (Sally called the office, asking when her father would be back from his business trip). For the brief time that she’s on Don’s desk, she’s shown herself to be quite capable (escapades into Bert Cooper’s office afterhours besides).
- Betty reads “Ship of Fools,” by Katerine Anne Porter, to pass the time while Don is away and the kids are being looked after by Carla. “Ship of Fools” also happens to be a song from The Doors off of Morrison Hotel (#129 of best 1,000 albums ever).
- Any scene involving Roger and Joan stands out. Their quiet discussion – and relative differences of philosophy – regarding Marilyn Monroe’s death is great stuff. “One day you’ll lose somehow who’s important to you. You’ll see,” she ends with. “It’s very painful.”
- Freddy tells Don “goodbye” and it seems like a final farewell. However, Freddy will play an occasional but important role through to the end of the series.
- Roger eventually gets Don to admit that he’s not living at home (he’s staying at the Roosevelt Hotel), something that he’s suspected for some time.
- When Roger playfully hits Don on the shoulder, it really looks like he punches him hard.
Mad Men, “Six Month Leave”: fun quotes
- “Some people hide in plain sight.” – Hollis
- “Freddy, do you have another pair of trousers here?” – Peggy
- “That’s it for today.” – Freddy
- “I’m usually part of the meeting before the meeting.” – Don
- “Your loyalty is starting to become a liability.” – Roger to Don
- “It’s just a man’s name, right?” – Don
- “There’s a line, Freddy, and you wet it.” – Roger
- “Do you want to be right, or do you want to be married?” – Don
- “If I don’t go into that office every day, who am I?” – Freddy
Some stats and info about Mad Men, “Six Month Leave”
TV SHOW – Mad Men
SEASON/EPISODE – Season 2, Episode 9
AIRED ON – September 27th, 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