Mad Men 7.12: Racine to St. Paul

Mad Men checked in with its next-to-penultimate episode tonight - 7.12 - with a story that amplified what it always did best - people in free floating existential Kierkegaardian ennui - struggling not to find but maintain their identities, and largely flailing and failing.

In fact, of all the major characters we saw tonight, only Peggy ends up with something of a positive ending, carrying the 19th-century painting of an octopus pleasuring a lady (Roger's description) to her office in McCann Erickson.  But it took days longer than she expected for that office to be available to her - days after everyone else's offices from our original gang were open for business in the new digs.

As for Roger, his biggest moment, when he wasn't bemoaning the lost past, was counseling Joan to take the 50-cents-on-the-dollar offer that Jim Hobart made to her.   The offer was what he was willing to pay Joan to never have to see her face again - which he was now irritated at the prospect of seeing, because she didn't want to play ball with what we would today call the abusive behavior of the account exec who wanted to take her under more than his wing.

But Don is in some ways, and as expected, in the worst shape of all.  He quickly sees that he's unnecessary in McCann.  He goes to see Betty, who, cold fish that she is, doesn't want him making nice to her shoulder for more than a second.  He goes to find his waitress in Racine, only to find her irate former husband, who's less than no help at all.   In his last scene in the episode, we see him pick up a hitchhiker with a guitar.  He's taking him to St. Paul, further west, further away from New York City and McCann.  Had this been a decade earlier, the guitarist might well have been Bob Dylan. The way the series is going, skating the surreal with every tick of the clock, it very well could have been Dylan, anyway.  (Wait - maybe it was Bob Seger, doing some preliminary work on those "Night Moves" - no, he's from Detroit.)

The journey continues for just two more episodes, in a story that's approaching zero and an infinity of meaning.  (And now we see why Don's in a car in this season's promo poster, above left.)

-> 20-minute interview with Rich Sommer (Harry Crane) in 2007 at Light On Light Through

See also Mad Men 7.1: Vignettes and Playboy ... Mad Men 7.2:  Flowers and the Hung-Up Phone ... Mad Men 7.3: "Lunch with Rod Serling" ... Mad Men 7.4: Computer! ... Mad Men 7.5: Retrofit Paranoia ... Mad Men 7.6: The Dance ...  Mad Men Mid-Season 7 Finale: Telescope vs. Television ... Mad Men 7.8: Don, Rachel, and the Waitress ... Mad Men 7.9: Fast Ride ... Mad Men 7.10: "Fast Girl" ... Mad Men 7.11: The End of Sterling, Cooper, Draper.

And see also Mad Men 6.1-2: The Lighter and the Twist ... Mad Men 6.3: Good Company ... Mad Men 6.4: McLuhan, Heinz, and Don's Imagination ... Mad Men 6.5: MLK ... Mad Men 6.6: Good News Comes in a Chevy ...  Mad Men 6.7: Merger and Margarine ... Mad Men 6.8: Dr. Feelgood and Grandma Ida ... Mad Men 6.9: Don and Betty ... Mad Men 6.10: Medium Cool ... Mad Men 6.11: Hand in the Cookie Jar and Guy de Maupassant ... Mad Men 6.12: Rosemary's Baby, Dick Cheney, and Sunkist ... Mad Men Season 6 Finale: Beyond California

And see also Why "You Only Live Twice" for Mad Men Season 5 Finale ... Mad Men Season Five Finale

And see also Mad Men Season 5 Debut: It's Don's Party  ... Mad Men 5.3: Heinz Is On My Side ... Mad Men 5.4: Volunteer, Dream, Trust ... Mad Men 5.5: Ben Hargrove ... Mad Men 5.6: LSD Orange ... Mad Men 5.7: People of High Degree ... Mad Men 5.8: Mad Man and Gilmore Girl ...Mad Men 5.9: Don's Creativity  ... Mad Men 5.10: "The Negron Complex" ... Mad Men 5.11: Prostitution and Power ... Mad Men 5.12: Exit Lane

And from Season 4: Mad Men 4.1: Chicken Kiev, Lethal Interview, Ham Fight ... 4.2: "Good Time, Bad Time?" "Yes." ... 4.3: Both Coasts ... 4.4: "The following program contains brief nudity ..." 4.5: Fake Out and Neurosis ... 4.6: Emmys, Clio, Blackout, Flashback  ... 4.7: 'No Credits on Commercials' ... 4.8: A Tale of Two Women ... 4.9: "Business of Sadists and Masochists" ...4.10: Grim Tidings ... 4.11: "Look at that Punim" ... 4.12: No Smoking!  ... Mad Men Season 4 Finale: Don and -

And from Season 3: Mad Men Back for 3 and 3.2: Carvel, Penn Station, and Diet Soda and 3.3: Gibbon, Blackface, and Eliot and 3.4: Caned Seats and a Multiple Choice about Sal's Patio Furniture and 3.5: Admiral TV, MLK, and a Baby Boy and 3.6: A Saving John Deere and 3.7: Brutal Edges ... August Flights in 3.8 ... Unlucky Strikes and To the Moon Don in 3.9 ... 3.10: The Faintest Ink, The Strongest Television ... Don's Day of Reckoning in Mad Men 3.11 ... Mad Men 3.12: The End of the World in Mad Men ... Mad Men Season 3 Finale: The End of the World

And from Season Two: Mad Men Returns with a Xerox and a Call Girl ... 2.2: The Advertising Devil and the Deep Blue Sea ... 2.3 Double-Barreled Power ... 2.4: Betty and Don's Son ... 2.5: Best Montage Since Hitchcock ... 2.6: Jackie, Marilyn, and Liberty Valance ... 2.7: Double Dons... 2.8: Did Don Get What He Deserved? ... 2.9: Don and Roger ... 2.10: Between Ray Bradbury and Telstar ... 2.11: Welcome to the Hotel California ... 2.12 The Day the Earth Stood Still on Mad Men ... 2.13 Saving the Best for Last on Mad Men

And from Season One: Mad Men Debuts on AMC: Cigarette Companies and Nixon ... Mad Men 2: Smoke and Television ... Mad Men 3: Hot 1960 Kiss ... Mad Men 4 and 5: Double Mad Men ...Mad Men 6: The Medium is the Message! ... Mad Men 7: Revenge of the Mollusk ... Mad Men 8: Weed, Twist, Hobo ... Mad Man 9: Betty Grace Kelly ... Mad men 10: Life, Death, and Politics ...Mad Men 11: Heat! ... Mad Men 12: Admirable Don ... Mad 13: Double-Endings, Lascaux, and Holes

Bones 10.16: Hodgins' Money

It was gratifying to see Hodgins' little invention paying off so handsomely in Bones 10.16.   And it made me realize something which I've been half-aware of for a long time: Hodgins is clearly the third most interesting character in the series, second only to Bones and Booth.   Indeed, were this series ever to end - were Bones and Booth and family to go off to some inaccessible paradise island somewhere - Hodgins would be the one I'd most want to see in a spinoff series.

He's gone from riches to rags to riches again, and has taken that bumpy ride in the greatest of stride. He smiled as much when he was poor as when he was rich, and he's still smiling as the pendulum of his life is swinging back to oodles of cash.   He married the woman of his dreams - they have a nice little boy Michael, whom we don't see enough of - and a member of Z Z Top is his father-in-law.

Hodgins' science is also one of the two bedrocks of the series, second only in brilliance to Bones' work, and sometimes just as good.   Angela's digital skills used to be right up there too in terms of ingenuity and solving cases, but not as much as they used to be.  But Hodgins puts in a crucial contribution in just about every show.

And that's why the scene with Cam was so important, not only because she showed a rarely un-officious side and real joy for Hodgins' good fortune: when Hodgins says that he and Angela won't even take the day off to celebrate his score on the invention, that says it all.  The money will be sweet, to say the least, but it won't affect his devotion to science, justice, and catching the bad guys.

So here's a toast to Hodgins - and, hey, I'd definitely be willing to shell out a couple of bucks for that little floor mat if it ever goes on the market.

See also Bones 10.1: The Fulcrum Changes ... Bones 10.2: J. Edgar and the DNA Confession ... Bones 10.3: Meets Rush and a Dominatrix ... Bones 10.4: Brennan and Angela on a Bench in the Playground ... Bones 10.5: Two Jokes and Three Times ... Bones 10.6: A Thousand Cuts ... Bones 10.7: The A-Word and Quarks ... Bones 10.8: Daisy's Doula ... Bones 10.9: The Milgram Experiment and the Birds ... Bones 200: 10.10: Just like Bogey and Bacall ... Bones 10.11: Life after Death, and Sweets in Wonderland ...Bones 10.12: The Digital Revolution ... Bones 10.13: The Almost-Serial Killer ...Bones 10.14: meets La Parure ... Bones 10.15: Cards in Hand

And see also Bones 9.1: The Sweet Misery of Love ... Bones 9.2: Bobcat, Identity Theft, and Sweets ... Bones 9.3 and NCIS 11.2: Sweets and Ziva ... Bones 9.4: Metaphysics of Death in a Television Series ... Bones 9.5: Val and Deep Blue ... Bones 9.6: The Wedding ... Bones 9.7: Watch Out, Buenos Aires ...Bones 9.8: The Bug in the Neck ... Bones 9.9: Friday Night Bones in the Courtroom ... Bones 9.10: Horse Pucky ... Bones 9.11: Angels in Equations ... Bones 9.12: Fingernails ... Bones 9.13: Meets Nashville, and Wendell ... Bones 9.14: "You Cannot Drink Your Glass Away" ... Bones 9.15: Hodgins' Brother and the Ripped Off Toe ... Bones 9.16: Lampreys, Professors, and Insurance Companies ... Bones 9.17: Spartacus in the Kitchen ... Bones 9.18: Meets Day of the Triffids ... Bones 9.19: The Cornucopic Urn ... Bones 9.20: Above the Law ... Bones 9.21: Freezing and Thawing ... Bones 9.22: Promotion ... Bones 9.23: The New Intern ... Bones Season 9 Finale: Upping the Ante

And see also Bones 8.1: Walk Like an Egyptian ... Bones 8.2 of Contention ... Bones 8.3: Not Rotting Behind a Desk  ... Bones 8.4: Slashing Tiger and Donald Trump ... Bones 8.5: Applesauce on Election Eve ... Bones 8.6: Election Day ... Bones 8.7: Dollops in the Sky with Diamonds ...Bones 8.8: The Talking Remains ... Bones 8.9: I Am A Camera ... Bones 8.10-11: Double Bones ...Bones 8.12: Face of Enigmatic Evil ... Bones 8.13: Two for the Price of One ... Bones 8.14: Real Life ... Bones 8.15: The Magic Bullet and the Be-Spontaneous Paradox ... Bones 8.16: Bitter-Sweet Sweets and Honest Finn ... Bones 8.17: "Not Time Share, Time Travel" ... Bones 8.18: Couples ... Bones 8.19: The Head in the Toilet ... Bones 8.20: On Camera ... Bones 8.21: Christine, Hot Sauce, and the Judge ... Bones 8.22: Musical-Chair Parents ... Bones 8.23: The Bluff ... Bones Season 8 Finale: Can't Buy the Last Few Minutes

And see also Bones 7.1: Almost Home Sweet Home ... Bones 7.2: The New Kid and the Fluke ...Bones 7.3: Lance Bond and Prince Charmington ... Bones 7.4: The Tush on the Xerox ... Bones 7.5: Sexy Vehicle ... Bones 7.6: The Reassembler ... Bones 7.7: Baby! ... Bones 7.8: Parents ...Bones 7.9: Tabitha's Salon ... Bones 7.10: Mobile ... Bones 7.11: Truffles and Max ... Bones 7.12: The Corpse is Hanson ... Bones Season 7 Finale: Suspect Bones

And see also Bones 6.1: The Linchpin ... Bones 6.2: Hannah and her Prospects ... Bones 6.3 at the Jersey Shore, Yo, and Plymouth Rock ... Bones 6.4 Sans Hannah ... Bones 6.5: Shot and Pretty ... Bones 6.6: Accidental Relations ... Bones 6.7:  Newman and "Death by Chocolate" ...Bones 6.8: Melted Bones ... Bones 6.9: Adelbert Ames, Jr. ... Bones 6.10: Reflections ... Bones 6.11: The End and the Beginning of a Mystery ... Bones 6.12 Meets Big Love ... Bones 6.13: The Marrying Kind ... Bones 6.14: Bones' Acting Ability ... Bones 6.15: "Lunch for the Palin Family" ...Bones 6.16: Stuck in an Elevator, Stuck in Times ... Bones 6.17: The 8th Pair of Feet ... Bones 6.18: The Wile E. Chupacabra ... Bones 6.19 Test Runs The Finder ... Bones 6.20: This Very Statement is a Lie ... Bones 6.21: Sensitive Bones ... Bones 6.22: Phoenix Love ... Bones Season 6 Finale: Beautiful

And see also Bones: Hilarity and Crime and Bones is Back For Season 5: What Is Love? and 5.2: Anonymous Donors and Pipes and 5.3: Bones in Amish Country and 5.4: Bones Meets Peyton Place and Desperate Housewives and Ancient Bones 5.5 and Bones 5.6: A Chicken in Every Viewer's Pot and Psychological Bones 5.7 and Bones 5.8: Booth's "Pops" and Bones 5.9 Meets Avatar and Videogamers ... Bad Santa, Heart-Warming Bones 5.10 ... Bones 5.11: Of UFOs, Bloggers, and Triangles ... Bones 5.12: A Famous Skeleton and Angela's Baby ... Love with Teeth on Bones 5.13 ... Faith vs. Science vs. Psychology in Bones 5.14 ... Page 187 in Bones 5.15 ...Bones 100: Two Deep Kisses and One Wild Relationship ... Bones 5.17: The Deadly Stars ...Bones Under Water in 5.18 ... Bones 5.19: Ergo Together ...  Bones 5.20: Ergo Together ... Bones 5.21: The Rarity of Happy Endings ... Bones Season 5 Finale: Eye and Evolution

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Neanderthal bones

    

Outlander 1.13 Mother's Day

A week before Mother's Day in 2015, Jenny had her baby in Outlander 1.13 tonight - a lass not a laddie, as she had thought, based on the folk wisdom of the time - but that may not have been the most noteworthy development in this child-bearing thread, which was: Claire's revelation that she may be able to be a mother herself.

First, why does she think this?  She tells Jamie it's because she tried without result with Frank - but why does she think this is due to her biology and not Frank's?  By the late 1940s, we in the advanced part of the world knew that infertility could be due to the male as well as the female.  Did Claire go to a doctor in the future, who told her she might have difficulty conceiving?  If so, why didn't she say this to Jamie, rather than the vaguer concern that she might not be able to give him children?  (Again, I haven't read the novels, yet.)

Jamie's reaction is also of interest.  To Claire, he's his loving and understanding self, as expected, even saying that's maybe it's for the best, since childbirth was a dangerous event for the mother in those days.  But when the camera show us his face, and Claire can't see it, he is indeed at least a little disconcerted by this news.

All of which means we can expect some more important developments regarding Claire and Jamie having children at some point in the future of this narrative.  Eternal optimist that I am, I'm expecting that Claire can indeed have children with Jamie, but that's based on no evidence at all.

Otherwise, the plot developed with some nice twists tonight, notably Jamie back in the hands of Black Jack and the British.   Black Jack has been largely missing since the very beginning of this second half of the first season, and it's time for him to rear his head again.  Whatever he may want to do with Jamie, he won't be able to resist using him to get another shot at Claire, which means there'll be some good Outlander television ahead this season.

See also Outlander 1.1-3: The Hope of Time Travel ... Outlander 1.6:  Outstanding ... Outlander 1.7: Tender Intertemporal Polygamy ...Outlander 1.8: The Other Side ... Outlander 1.9: Spanking Good ... Outlander 1.10: A Glimmer of Paradox ... Outlander 1.11: Vaccination and Time Travel ... Outlander 1.12: Black Jack's Progeny

 
Sierra Waters series, #1, time travel

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