JFK Shot, Draper Bleeds as Mad Men Nears Season Finale

Was it really the end of the world on Sunday’s episode of “Mad Men?” Or are we just nearing the end of the season.
For most of the characters on the show, the death of the young, vibrant and idealistic President Kennedy was something affected them deeply and needed to be processed.
But Don Draper’s world was shattered even more when his wife Betty shot him through the heart by saying she no longer loved him. Indeed, even Don, the shape-shifting, identity changing cipher might himself have been shocked to discover the depth of his feelings caused by this rejection of him by the mother of his children.
After last week’s episode in which Betty forced Don to tell her nearly all of his dark secrets about his real background, it was surprising not to see Don and Betty for 12 minutes into this episode, which took place on Nov 22, 1963, and the days followed that tragic date. The show used clips featuring Walter Cronkite, Chet Huntley, David Brinkley and other black and white anchors of the day to tell the tale. “Mad Men” has always scrupulously maintained the reality of the period, and in this episode you got a realistic, powerful sense of how people reacted to the terrible news from the motorcade in Dallas.
But the scenes featuring the Drapers set against this historic background gave us another kind of wild emotional rollercoaster ride.
At first, the Drapers appears appear to have regrouped into the picture of a happy family. The baby cries and Don is holding him when Betty arrives.
“I thought you left,” she says. “I’m here,” he says. “Thank you,” she says. “I’ve done it before,” he says. “Go back to bed,” she says.
And when the news breaks about the president being shot, Don rushes home from work to look after and comfort his brood, including Betty, who can’t stop crying.
“Take a pill and lie down,” he says. “I can handle the kids.” And he tells the kids everything’s going to be O.K. “We’ll have a new president. We’re all going to be sad for a little bit. There’s going to be a funeral.”
“Are we going to the funeral,” Sally asks.
The day after the assassination, Roger Sterling’s daughter is scheduled to get married. Betty wonders if the wedding has been cancelled, but Don refuses to call Roger.
In fact, the wedding is on, but with only about half the guests in attendance and no cake.
Many of those who did show up for the reception are in the kitchen, huddled around the TV getting the latest reports. Roger invites everyone to move up to the front of the room and help themselves to both the roast beef and fish entrees. They’ll have to help themselves because the wait staff didn’t come to work, he observes.
When Roger delivers his toast, he says that because of a change in the mood of the room (and the country) his speech will be shorter than planned. He acknowledges his wife and praises his ex. “You’re a lioness. Thank You for resisting the urge to eat your cub,” he said.
“This could have been an awful day. We could have been watching the TV instead we’re watching you . . . If you can get through a day like this, marriage is a cake walk,” he says, managing a bit of class at an otherwise unseemly celebration.
The group hits the dance floor and Don again assures Betty everything is going to be fine. “How do you know that,” she asks, and Don kisses her. But there’s no smile on her Sphinx-like face.
Then into the room walks Henry Francis, Betty’s other man. His daughter catches him staring at the beautiful blonde woman, but he’s left high and dry when Betty leaves with her husband.
After seeing Jack Ruby shoot Lee Harvey Oswald on TV, Betty announces she’s going out for a drive. Don offers to drive the whole family somewhere, but Betty turns down the offer. She’s off to meet Francis.
He gets into the Draper’s Cadillac.
“Where does your husband think you are,” Francis asks. “I don’t care. My husband has been lying to me.”
Francis also tries to assure Betty that the world will go on after the assassination. “We’ve lost a lot of presidents and we’re still standing,” he says. But Betty feels like she “can’t believe in anything right now.”
He tells her he wants to marry her and offers to leave the Rockefeller campaign.
“You don’t have to say anything. If you search your heart, you know I can make you happy,” he says.
They kiss, but she cuts him short. “I should go,” she says. “I wish I could take you to the movies right now, some theater that’s playing your favorite movie,” he says wholesomely. Betty says the movie would be “Singing in the Rain.”
When Betty returns home, Don’s watching the coverage and the children are at Francine’s.
“I want to scream at you for ruining all of this. Then you tried to fix it and there’s no point. There’s no point Don,” she tells him.
“You’re very upset. I understand,” he says. “It’s painful but it’s going to pass.”
Then she drops the bombshell.
“I don’t love you any more. I know that. I kissed you yesterday I didn’t feel a thing,” she said.
Afterwards, Don, his manufactured life crumbling, is sitting alone upstairs looking like he’s had his guts kicked out.
The next morning, he heads to work despite the national day of mourning. Daughter Sally warns him it’s cold outside. But it’s much chillier inside the house.
At the dark office, only Peggy is at work. She’s got to redo the Aqua Net commercial, which featured two couples in a car that eerily resembled the way the Kennedys and Connellys were seated in their limo.
Peggy goes off to watch more coverage on TV. Don doesn’t want to watch. As the episode ends, the music playing is the old Nina Gordon song “The End of the World,” as in “Don’t they know it’s the end of the world if you don’t love me anymore.”
Other interesting points in the episode:
Pete Campbell has very right on reactions both to developments at the office—he feels like he’s been fired when Ken is appointed senior VP and he’s left as account service manager– and the tragic news about the Kennedy shooting—now it’s more of the same, he says about Lyndon Johnson being sworn in. “I don’t understand this,” says the Ebony reader. “No one voted for him.” His wife Trudy is supremely supportive, urging him to gather his clients because they’ll follow him anyway.
Peggy Olson spends the afternoon in bed with Duck, who was distracted by the early assassination reports, but not too distracted to interrupt their nooner.
After a wedding that has strained his relationship with both his new wife and his daughter, Roger calls Joan. “I wish you could have seen it. What a disaster.” Her husband, Dr. Greg is at the emergency room, where things haven’t slowed down.  “I’m glad he’s not home I had to talk to you. Nobody else is saying the right things about this,” he says. They console on another. “Hang in there red,” he says. “You too,” she responds. “Bye bye.”
One episode left and then “Mad Men” says bye bye for the season. Then what will we have to talk about?