The Great Purge. The Revelation. The Reformation. We’ve seen it from Don Draper before. He’s so close to the threshold of human decency. Then. Suddenly. He retreats.
The latest season of “Mad Men†has been deceptively hopeful. We are finally given permission to enter Don’s private thoughts, and subsequently believe we have won something all his trysts try desperately to attain: his inner self. There are suggestions of self-transformation in Don’s philosophical musings and latest ‘mature’ relationships. But close examination of his current relations reveal a different story. Or rather, the same story, over and over.
The devastation of divorce may incline viewers to excuse this season’s destructive womanizing. But there is nothing new about Don’s behavior. It follows a consistent pattern of manipulation. The show is about Draper’s struggle for ‘self,’ but it is not a solo exploration. It is made possible by the women who shape him: those who enhance his machismo ego and those who offer true companionship.
The great test presents itself in Dr. Faye. Intelligent, sassy, proud of her independence. Is she Don’s chance at redemption? In another place, at another time, with another man, she could be a strong and healthy match. But at this moment in Don’s life there is no evidence that his fascination with her is different from his preoccupation with all women who offer something unique.
Draper is consistently sexually drawn to women who fulfill archetypes – the hippie school teacher (Miss Farrell), the beatnik (remember Midge?), the aggressive businesswoman (who could forget Bobbie?). By choosing women who exemplify ‘types’ his relations become not about the other person, but about what she helps Don experience, what worlds she opens him to.
Through Dr. Faye, Don is exploring the exciting new world of psycho-analysis! The majority of their conversations revolve around Don’s shallow secrets – (he’s divorced and unhappy about it!) – and how she lures them out of him. To the ultimate manipulator, this is a dream come true. Don’s admiration for Faye’s particular intelligence is very much tied up with acquiring her tricks (maybe even for his own future use). The idea that she tears down his guard completely is a bit of a stretch. (He goes their entire first date without revealing he overheard her highly personal break up earlier that day.)
As their relationship progresses to the bedroom and seeming exclusivity, it becomes obvious that Faye is – while special – still a woman in Draper’s traditional view. When his secretary passes away, he, in a state of frenzy, asks Faye to care for his daughter (something he would ask his secretary to do ‘but she’s dead.’) The assumption is that as a woman she can easily fill in as his daughter’s babysitter, his personal lacky and caretaker. Faye’s reprimanding of him later in the episode shows some self-awareness on her end, but it is not enough to put the brakes on what is happening to her, on what happens to all women who enter his life romantically. These women, Faye included, believe they will figure out Draper. This becomes the goal above all else – to be important. That is his mystique. But as soon as they let their guard down they are trapped in a world only big enough for one.
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