Mad Men Season Four, Episode 5: “The Chrysanthemum and the Sword”

Betty & Edna.

By Jennifer Baldwin. After two blessed Betty-free weeks, the former Mrs. Draper returns in this week’s episode. And wouldn’t you know it, this episode gave us Betty at her worst (the vindictive, Sally-smacking, “I’ll cut your fingers off!” mother from hell) and at her most sympathetic (Betty in the therapist’s office).

I’ve always been sympathetic to Betty when she’s in these therapy scenes. In the first season, her vulnerability with the (duplicitous) psychiatrist was heartbreaking; it was Betty at her most likable and human. Whenever she gets talking on the therapist’s couch, Betty often reveals more about herself than she knows — there’s a very wounded and messed up human being in there beneath the cold, aloof, shrewish surface. This is Betty at her most honest (even if she’s unaware of the honesty bleeding through her pretense) and as a result, it’s hard to hate her in these scenes. Perhaps that’s why I was so anti-Betty last season — we were only given the surface pretense and the outward coldness and very little of the inner, human Betty.

Well, we get human Betty again this week — after a long absence. In a meeting with a child psychiatrist (for Sally), Betty unknowingly starts having a therapy session with the shrink herself. This makes sense, of course, since Betty has been much more of a “child” than the other adult characters on the show (recall her twisted, sometimes tender, but ultimately creepy relationship with young Glenn Bishop). Betty doesn’t really reveal much outwardly, but the little pauses, the half sentences, the tone of her voice and her demeanor all show just how much pain Betty is in — and how much she’s trying to suppress and disguise it. Eeesh. Betty is so screwed up.

However, Betty does make a good point, re: Don. Why did Don plan a date when he knew he’d have the kids? Of course, Don reveals later to Faye in the break room that he doesn’t see his kids enough and he doesn’t know what to do with them when he does. He feels relief when he brings them back to Betty – but then afterward, he misses them. Eeesh. Don is so screwed up.

This episode had weird shifts in tone, from strange and disturbing (the Betty/Sally storyline) to comical and bouncy (all the stuff with Don and Miss Blankenship and the caper involving a rival agency and the Honda account). An uneven episode, and probably the season’s weakest overall (also: the first episode this season to not be written or co-written by Matthew Weiner).

Miss Blankenship.

Which is not to say it doesn’t have some spectacular moments. The trick Don and Co. pull on rival agency CGC is pure delight — accompanied by the kind of swinging mid-60s music that makes it all seem like a Tony Curtis comedy. And everything involving Roger’s WWII service and his continued animosity toward the Japanese is precisely the thing that makes historical drama fascinating. It’s a peek inside the mind of a WWII vet, twenty years after the war. It’s hard for us to imagine now — that lingering hostility towards our WWII enemies — but Roger’s words and actions show how hard it was for some men to forget. Plus it gives us another perfect scene between Roger and Joan. Forget Peggy and Pete, and Don and Betty — Roger and Joan are my all-time favorite pairing.

Other points and observations:

On the weekly Pete front, I must say, Pete’s vocabulary always amuses. Vincent Kartheiser rolls out lines like “A Deerfield chum of mine” as if he’s been saying it his whole life. Also: “Christ on a cracker!” Seriously, where does he get this stuff?! And Pete speaks for many of us when he asks: “Who the hell is Dr. Lyle Evans?” (Is the line a red herring?).

I might be in the minority opinion, but I find the never-ending vaudeville comedy routine between Don and his new secretary, Miss Blankenship, to be a hoot. Yes, it’s rather low comedy, but it’s added a bit of levity to a show that sometimes takes itself too seriously.

Also good for some comedy gold: The Japanese, their translator, and one Joan Holloway Harris.

Honda Honcho (in Japanese, while staring at Joan’s breasts): “How does she not fall over?”
Joan (to the translator, noticing the Japanese staring eyes): “They’re not very subtle are they?”
Translator: “No.”

Bethany — who looks like Virginia Mayo — makes a reappearance this week. Also, who knew Benihana was around in the 60s? Apparently I need to bone up on my cultural knowledge!

Pete & Ichiro.

Continuing Cultural Reference Watch: “A Margaret Dumont-sized disaster” (note that she died just about the time this episode took place); Man from U.N.C.L.E.; and of course, the title of the episode: The Chrysanthemum and the Sword.

It’s interesting how the Japanese this season are playing the role the British played last season. Culture clash and the growing influence of Asian culture on American culture: business and entertainment, Honda and Godzilla.

Also of note: I was indeed right — Dr. Faye was wearing a wedding ring. But … she’s not married! It’s basically a “keep away” sign for all the wolves. Of course, now that Don knows the ring is a fake, how long before he and Faye are “doing it,” as Sally would say? I predict it happens in two weeks.

Finally, the closing credits song was “I Enjoy Being a Girl,” as sung by Doris Day. “I Enjoy Being a Girl,” of course, is from the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical, Flower Drum Song, made into a film in 1961, and starring James Shigeta and Miyoshi Umeki. Both Japanese.

Posted on August 26th, 2010 at 10:05am.

7 thoughts on “Mad Men Season Four, Episode 5: “The Chrysanthemum and the Sword””

  1. I saw “Flower Drum Song” on TCM a few months ago and enjoyed it, but it did surprise me that the leads, who are supposed to be Chinese, were played by Japanese actors. There are so many good Chinese actors in America, including in the ’60s, that I was surprised by that. I suppose it was a reverse revenge then some thirty-odd years later when the leads in “Memoirs of a Geisha” – Zhang Ziyi, Gong Li, and Michelle Yeoh – were all played by Chinese actresses even though they were supposed to be Japanese geishas!

  2. I agree – that was pretty ironic in “Memoirs of a Geisha.” I thought all three actresses did a great job of playing the geisha though. Jason and I had the opportunity on a trip to Japan some years ago to meet some real geisha at a dinner party hosted by friends at a famous old Japanese teahouse in Kyoto, and these actresses were not far off the mark in approximating what they are really like – very elegant, coy, and flirtatious. However, I wonder what the Japanese thought of that casting in the film!

    And speaking of “Flower Drum Song,” my favorite part by far was Nancy Kwan’s singing and dancing. I thought she was terrific – sassy, glamorous, and poignant. It was also fun to see her in the opening episode of “Hawaii 5-O,” which Jason and I were just recently watching on DVD. She is great. They should have brought her back for more episodes. Nancy Kwan makes a good pair with Jack Lord. They’re very different as characters (she’s a flirty hippie, he’s a tough cop), but somehow it works.

    1. Nancy Kwan is a goddess! She’s also one of my favorite things in Flower Drum Song (though, if I’m perfectly honest, the hotness of James Shigeta wins top prize). Her debut film performance in The World of Suzie Wong is simply wonderful.

      Apparently, a new documentary has just been made about Ms. Kwan’s life: To Whom It May Concern: Ka Shen’s Journey. I don’t know anything about it other than what it says on IMDB, but it would be interesting to see.

      1. Jennifer – if you like James Shigeta, then you have got to check out Chi Cao, the handsome as hell star of “Mao’s Last Dancer.” My two favorite scenes in the film are of him dancing in “Don Quixote” (he looks fabulous in Spanish toreador garb) and in “The Rite of Spring” (painted with gold leaf, next to no clothes on). Talk about eye candy for women!

  3. Jennifer…I think Don and Faye will be sweating between the sheets (sweating…because their affair will be hot, fiery and PASSIONATE) in the next episode. OK…maybe the next episode will just be the foreplay (though that kitchen talk sure seemed like it) and maybe they close the deal one or two episodes later…but we know where this is headed: nasty breakup

    As for Betty, she needs a good “rogering,” but not by our Japanese hating WWII vet with the silver hair. He is going to AA and then drop out of the advertising business. Betty needs a real man and not the Mr. Bland she is now married to. I think she will become a hippie chick and go out with long haired guys whom she meets at protests. I can’t see her remaining Grace Kelly forever. She might even..hook up with a Jewish guy!! I am seeing this show branch out from the Town and Country squares that currently hold center stage.

    OK…Don and his daughter: Sally is definitely going to join the Manson family. Don will experiment with LSD and become an even better at his craft.

    1. It’s charming that people still use the term ‘rogering.’ I thought that was out of style.

    2. Anton, I almost wrote that Don and Faye would hook up in the next episode too, but I think Faye is gonna be a tough gal to crack and that she’ll hold out for at least another episode. The old Don Draper would have seduced her by now, but he’s lost his mojo so it’s going to take longer, even though, yes, the foreplay in this ep was pretty good. 😀

      As far as Betty, I’ve sensed that Weiner has been setting her up for a total hippie transformation all the way back in season one. Girl is just wound too tight!

      I’d like to see him avoid it, though. Too many shades of that Diane Lane movie with Viggo Mortensen where she’s a middle class mom who goes and hangs out with the hippies at Woodstock and discovers herself. Bleh. Somehow I see Betty going the Jackie O route and finding a rich, jet-setting European type to help her shake loose.

      And yeah, Don is DEFINITELY going to trip out on LSD!

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