Sunday, April 22, 2012

Megan Draper Must Die

Megan Draper makes her husband Don happy.  She keeps an eye on his drinking, encourages him to socialize with his co-workers, and is sexually available to satisfy his kinks.  She's good with his kids, doesn't (overly) abuse her position as his wife with his co-workers, and has done nice things for him, like throw a surprise birthday party.  Don speaks glowingly of her, rebuffs the entreaties of a former paramour and tells Pete Campbell that had he met Megan before Betty, he never would have erected a double life of suburban husband and philandering advertising executive. 

Pretty awesome, right?  After watching Don's tortured life unspool over 4 seasons, he's now in a good place, with a wife he dotes on and adores and a healthier attitude toward work and people.  Unfortunately, this happy place has made the Draper character 99.9% LESS interesting than he was before we caught up with the Mad Men crew a month ago. While Season 5 has afforded the writers the opportunity to move peripheral characters more to the center (I'm looking at you, Pete Campbell), the show's core is Don Draper and this guy is someone who, as Peggy noted in the season premiere, is not someone we recognize.  This guy is just a square (http://scarylawyerguy.blogspot.com/2012/04/don-draper-is-square.html) who, at worst, might experience some mild mid-life crisis (likely health related, as he's bedded more women than Wilt Chamberlain) but otherwise, appears eager to downshift into middle age with a wife he loves and children he adores.  How BORING.  

This is why Megan Draper must die.  I have nothing against Jessica Pare, or the Megan character generally (though her craptacular Zou Bisou Bisou serenade in the Season 5 premiere might have been the most painful 2 minutes in the show's history); however, stable, settled Don Draper who is open to client suggestions, meets his wife (instead of his lover) for lunch and isn't a raging alcoholic is simply no fun.  Admittedly, manufacturing some crisis to take Don down a dark path may be contrived, but Don Draper without existential angst and a tortured psyche is just another 40 year old white collar professional quickly falling on the "Perry Como" fault line of the 1960s.  

There are three ways to play the 2d Draper marriage and killing off Megan is the most plausible of the three.  Consider:

Don & Megan Start A Second Family:  This is the most obvious direction to go in.  The cliche of the middle aged man starting a second family with the "trophy wife" would not be breaking particularly new ground and anyway, Megan made an off handed comment about not being able to have children while Don was getting handsy on the way back from the Campbell's dinner party in Signal 30.  Even if they went with the baby angle, what could it really be mined for?  Either moving Don and Megan back to the suburbs (which Don equated to blowing one's brains out) or keep them in the city with her at home and he conveniently going back to his adulterous ways?  Implausible, I say.

Megan Turns Out To Not Be Who We Think She Is:  Possible, right?  She's an actress after all and what do we really know about her, other than she's French-Canadian and has an overbite (sorry, mean).  Is it possible that Megan is really a grifter or some sort of soulless temptress who is going to … what, exactly?  Take Don's money? Have an office affair? Other?  No realistic way to expound on this theory considering there's been no suggestion she's into hanky-panky with anyone in the office and has not been sending secret coded messages to persons unknown.  Sure, she might have some friends Don finds a bit unusual, and he might get dragged to Fire Island to see them, but if anything, that would confirm his security in his marriage, not undermine it. 

Megan Is The Victim Of City Violence:  This scenario makes the most sense and is the most consistent with the vibe and theme of this season, which has been littered with references to death and mayhem - riots, mass murder, random shootings, allusions to suicide, the Vietnam War and Don scribbling a hangman's noose on a pad of paper.  1966 may mark the cusp of the dawning of the Age of Aquarius, but it's also the harbinger of a lot of societal turmoil in our cities - major riots in places like Detroit and Newark, the assassinations of MLK and RFK, massive protests against the Vietnam War and of course, the Manson Family. Mad Men has already been touched by random violence (the mugging of Roger and Joan) and with the increasing lawlessness our country was facing in the mid-late 1960s (consider the exterior at the end of Signal 30 - a dark, foreboding and menacing building), would something like a pretty young woman getting killed in Manhattan seem that far-fetched?  I say not.  

The benefits of killing off Megan are three-fold - (1) total game changer in terms of story telling; (2) a buzz worthy (and plausible) story line and (3) it would completely devastate Don Draper.  Yes, I am rooting for Don to return to his dark and broken past because I cannot tolerate this man's happiness.  I'm sorry, Megan, you're collateral damage in the war to make Don a miserable (but eminently watchable) bastard.

19 comments:

  1. Amazing, I never thought about it like that.

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  2. Very interesting and thoughtful.

    Well, that would certainly be a game changer and this is interesting to think about, but there are some other variations on the same theme that might be interesting to mull over:

    a) Megan dies not due to random city violence but because of something careless that Don does (e.g., drunk driving). For Don to be responsible for killing someone he clearly loves would be the ultimate comeuppance for him and bring him a river of guilt that would almost be unbearable.

    b) What if Megan dies as part of the fall-out due to political unrest (e.g., a bombing to protest the war)?

    c) What if Megan dies due to a drug-overdose as she parties with her friends after a fight she has with Don so that he is partially responsible?

    The more I think about this, the more I'm not so sure. I do agree that something devastating will likely happen to Don that will make him revert to his genuine true-self, tortured-self ways. I don't find Season 5's Don Draper as boring as much as more temporary because it is like Dick Whitman inhabiting Don Draper's clothes, job, marriage, and apartment (and BTW, I think Jon Hamm is not getting enough credit for his acting ability to make this "new" Don Draper - Dick Whitman transformation so believable that even you find him boring!). :-)

    I'm more inclined to think that there is something from Dick Whitman's past (maybe as Don Draper) that has yet to be revealed that is even worse than stealing an identity and being a deserter. It has to be something that is the lowest form of cowardice imaginable. Megan is too perfect and there has to be something about Don that even she can't accept, and so she leaves him. Wow, would that bring back the self-loathing that we love in Don Draper or what?

    Because Matt Weiner has repeatedly claimed (and demonstrated over 5 seasons) that people don't change, the return to Don's unhappy, tortured self will be a tricky affair because I don't think they will redo Don's drunken downfall from Season 4. I think that Don has to be "burned" badly by someone else -- almost like he has to be on the receiving end of what he has dished out to Betty (but this time Megan is dishing it out). Then we might see a Don Draper who might turn that bitterness back into creative advertising mojo as he travels on a one-way journey of personal redemption that is always just a bit out of his grasp.

    Do I have any confidence in any of these theories? Absolutely not. Why? I have yet to read a theory or prediction that anyone has suggested or to make one up myself about Mad Men that has actually happened. And that lack of predictability and constant surprise, kind sir, is one of the things that makes Mad Men the special creative gem that it is.

    I do, however, love the passion and thoughtfulness that you put into your blog posts, so please take my comments as praise and not criticism.

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    1. That is an awesome comment, no offense taken! I liked the "spins" you put on Megan's potential demise because they would also be plausible viz a viz "the times." I also subscribe not only to the "people don't change" mantra but the "people tell us who they are, but we ignore it, because we want them to be who WE want them to be." (the latter line coming from Season 4's "The Summer Man.") The only thing is, Megan never told us who she is, we don't really know her other than taking at face value that she is actually a good person working in an environment with a bunch of cynical people. We know who Don is, or we thought we did, and I do root for this "new" version of Don if only b/c *I* want to believe people do get second chances, but as Jules Winfield said in another context, "I want to believe that, but that shit ain't the truth."

      Regardless, I think something pretty catastrophic is going to go down. Initially, I thought they might bump off Cooper (whose role seems really wasted - he gets like ONE good line per season) since he's the oldest, or maybe Roger, who is now just there for zippy one liners, but then I realized, Megan, it actually makes sense and would either allow for some future Betty/Don reconciliation or Don dying alone (the MY Mag's Vulture photo of Don in 1984 still haunts me).

      Thanks for reading my blog, I am happy you enjoy it.

      SLG

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    2. Could you please provide a link to the 1984 Don picture. I missed that one, and let's just say I'm a glutton for punishment..

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    3. Happy to; though I did err, he is predicted to die in 1985, not 1984. Here is the link:

      http://www.vulture.com/2012/03/when-will-don-draper-die.html

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  3. I agree with you that something very dark and catastrophic is going to happen and it will not only affect us but the characters that we most care about. I can't see bumping off Cooper because he has been so marginalized and it won't be Roger either because no one else can deliver those lines. For a while I was thinking that they could bump off Bobby Draper, which would really gnaw a hole in Don's soul, especially if somehow Megan was involved (she is driving?), but that seems way too soapy.

    Do you have a link to the Vulture photo of Don Draper in 1984? I can't believe I missed that one.

    I'm not a stalker, but I do enjoy your thoughtful comments here and on that other Mad Men blog.

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  4. Driving would be an interesting nod to the Signal 30 episode. Here's the link to the Draper photo (and actuarial breakdown). I did misspeak, he is predicted to die in 1985, not 1984, age 59. RIP.

    http://www.vulture.com/2012/03/when-will-don-draper-die.html

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  5. I am in agreement on the Zou Bisou Bisou serenade. It was uncomfortable to watch. I vote for killing off Megan.

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  6. I too think something dark is going to happen to burst the Don Megan happy bubble. After seeing Pete with the prostitute -acting out the different scenarios - til she found one that would please him, it occurred to me that the play acting seemed very similiar to the one Megan was performing for Don earlier. Perhaps Megan was trained by the same madam. The girls at the place seemed well groomed and in very fashionable clothes. How would it be if Don found out he was married to a former call girl? After all, she was very adept at seducing him initally.

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    1. *LOVE* the idea that Megan may have been a high class call girl - I didn't even think to put that together. After this week's episode (Far Away Places), it's clear that Don is *really* trying to make this work and be a better person but is falling short.

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    2. another thing that has me thinking - maybe you can shed some light on this. When Don broke his engagement news to Dr. Faye over the phone - she said to him something like - "I hope this new person knows that you only like the beginning of things?" What did she mean by that? - and how is that playing out? After all Dr. Faye knows Don/Dick pretty well and she did predict that he would marry within a year.

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    3. You nailed her line and is of a piece with things Don has said ("people don't change" and "people tell us who they are, but we ignore it, because we want them to be who we want them to be") and the line by the psychiatrist at the acid party: "I have patients who spend years reasoning out their motivation for a mistake, and when they find it out, they think they’ve found the truth, and they probably have. But then they go out and make the same mistake.” It’s a myth that tracing logic all the way down to the truth is a cure for neurosis or anything else.” Just a fancier way of making the same point.

      What I think Dr. Faye was pointing was that Don likes the chase and bores easily (which does not make him particularly unique among men). Another blog I read pointed out that the flashback to the car trip with Sally and Bobby was fitting b/c they were returning from an "unreality" - Disneyland - where Don was swept up in that facade and made a rash decision. I don't buy what others have said that Don is realizing the marriage is a mistake, to the contrary, he is moving heaven and earth to try and get it right.

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    4. "he is moving heaven and earth to try and get it right."

      Yes, I think he is too - One thing I noticed is that he was not drinking - while Megan was lost.
      Like your blog - thanks for the insight

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  7. Why not make Megan Draper more complex and less perfect? This complexity of hers might bring out more angst and darkness from Don.

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    1. I think "Far Away Places" showed that Don cannot handle a complex woman (a point also proven when he rebuffed Dr. Faye last season). Megan IS a complex, more "modern" woman who did not give in when Don had a temper tantrum and stormed out of the Howard Johnson's parking lot. Consider how Don treated Betty and how she took his bullshit for the better part of 3 seasons versus Megan, who is putting him on notice that she won't tolerate it.

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  8. I totally agree that Megan Draper's character must die in order for the show to get back on track. I predict she finds out she's pregnant but doesn't want Don to know, and then dies from complications of an illegal abortion. Just sayin!

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    1. Thanks, Christine. Your idea for Megan's demise would fit the dark themes of this season!

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  9. You people have way too much time on your hands

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  10. THANK YOU! Megan is so boring, Zou Bisou was brutal. I think Megan dying/dead would be more interesting than her whole time on the show combined. She makes me cringe whenever she's on screen

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