#spaceman thoughts

[doctorspaceman]

Obsessed with how Don seems to mimic Roger's grey suit + black tie combo on the day of his oyster-martini-feast revenge plot. So when Don leaves Roger after the stair-climbing and vomiting, Roger really sees Don walking away as a younger, stronger, and better-looking version of himself.

[doctorspaceman]

So Cena said he "went into business for himself" with the intro he wrote for AJ at Crown Jewel, because it's easier to ask for forgiveness than permission. And that's definitely believable.

But then he claims that his match with AJ was already booked when Creative "let him" pitch it on Twitter, because otherwise there was no TV time for a build? I really doubt this.

They let Dominick Mysterio rant in an empty ring to build his story when Cena wasn't there, which is pretty common practice. Meanwhile, they made a running joke out of AJ being unable to get a word in before his match with Cena, which is a pretty thinly veiled way for Creative to slight their match without openly punishing anyone involved. Between that, AJ's random concurrent storyline with Dragon Lee, and his random crash out on the Raw commercial break ("Someone doesn't want me here"), I seriously doubt that Crown Jewel was supposed to be AJ vs Cena.

It seems pretty clear that the Fed just wants to look like they were in control there, and is now holding a gun to Cena's head two inches out of shot.

[doctorspaceman]

The "Chekhov's gun" principle is so widely recognized that Pete's failure to fire his rifle in this episode feels uniquely resonant. The viewer is suspended, waiting to see when and why the gun will be fired ("because it HAS TO HAPPEN"). And then it never happens. It can't happen. And we come to see that it can't happen specifically because it is Pete's gun — Pete the inadequate ad-man and failed breadwinner, who is never original or determined enough to "fire his own guns" by making meaningful, impactful choices at work or at home. Pete who only "pulls the trigger" and catches his prey in his fantasies.

[doctorspaceman]

this scene made me realize how desperately i need a Mad Men bottle episode set in the Metropolitan Museum of Art or the MoMa. so many moments begging to happen:

Don Draper sexual exploit in the Met's sculpture garden

Peggy Olson contemplates Virgin Mary iconography in Early Modern Art

Betty Draper haunted by portrait of an unknown woman from hundreds of years ago

Kenny and Sal homoerotic art critique (obligatory stop at the "Gold" Violin)

Roger sexualizes nude and headless Greco-Roman statuary of women

ensemble Andy Warhol critique ft. motivational "ad man" Don monologue

Pete Campbell hunting fantasy in taxidermy exhibit. Caught by security.

[doctorspaceman]

Obsessed with how Peggy and Pete figuratively and literally "switch seats" in these conversations.

As Peggy requests Pete's assistance with her copywriting in their first conversation, she recognizes him as an authoritative speaker of "what is right." Her praise of his hunt-and-feast fantasy as "wonderful" at that time is a testament to her regard for his perspective as authoritative.

In their second discussion, Peggy's assumption of Pete's seat represents her shift into the position of storyteller. By now, she's not only demonstrated her abilities as a copywriter, but against Pete's earlier example, proves herself to be the better speaker in real time.

Peggy's anecdote of becoming "less" reverses every tactic deployed in Pete's hunt-and-feast fantasy. Whereas Pete's story constantly invents palpable detail to fabricate a sense of realness (e.g. wiping the knife on his knee), Peggy abstains from detail and clear referents altogether, never specifying what is "missing." While creating an illusion of realism, details such as "wiping his knife on his knee" are what reveal Pete's fantasy as unreal, indulgent, and singular. Meanwhile, Peggy's refusal to lock into detail translates her story into one that is universal.

Peggy speaks of her pregnancy in vague and distant terms, not only because it's difficult for her to speak of it, but because she recognizes this as the only way of making her story legible to Pete.

Once in agreement with Pete's hunt-and-feast feast fantasy, Peggy is simultaneously rejecting its manner of his storytelling and its premises of male dominance / female subservience. The rejection of this philosophy is incomprehensible to Pete. And it's this ignorance that rightfully displaces him into Peggy's former seat — the seat of the student.

Of course, the episode's final pivot to Pete with his gun (engulfed by the prison-bar-like shadows of his office window) suggests he will remain confined to his previous philosophy and outlook. But the contemplative shot also suggests that he's comprehending the narrowness of his perspective for the first time.

God I love these characters!!!!!!

[doctorspaceman]

we deserved to see Gus as the "Fun Run guy" in BCS. we deserved to see him host boring, local fundraisers. and we deserved a bottle episode in which one such fundraiser draws in :

the HHM partners as "high profile" donors

the Salamancas disguised as donors, but really just there to keep tabs on Fring's operation

Hank and Gomie as DEA reps

and everyone cracks open a cold beer and mingles, each with a completely different understanding of wtf is happening.

[doctorspaceman]

I noticed that, in the episode "Long Weekend," all the women who are "conquested" by male characters wear shades of blue. My first thought is that this might (?) allude to Roger's line that he's lived "like [he's] on shore leave for the last twenty years."

Definitely a stretch, but the blue costumes seem to liken the women characters to proxy "ocean bodies" for the men to conquer — satisfying otherwise irremediable desires for conquest developed during the war. The naval motif fits Roger most literally because he's a former marine, but I think this trope pretty legibly figures how most of the male characters envision their romances.

[doctorspaceman]

AJ went out fighting to defend Cena’s respect, when his own WWE career started with fighting tooth and nail AGAINST Cena to get his own respect in the company. and that is poetry.