January Jones as Betty Francis – Mad Men _ Season 7B, Episode 13 – Photo Credit: Michael Yarish/AMC
“The Milk and Honey Route,” tonight’s penultimate episode of “Mad Men,” concerned several regulars coming full circle and seeking fresh starts. As Don charted his route across the country, on the phone with daughter Sally, he set off on another journey of discovery. This time he had more to teach than to learn.
On the road to the tune of Merle Haggard’s “Proud to be an Okie from Muskogee,” Don’s anxiety dream revealed his ongoing fear that his lie about his identity, stolen in Korea, will catch up with him. He spends a night with fellow vets and has less in common with them than they imagine. Ultimately, he passes on his accumulated knowledge to the housekeeper/messenger kid, a petty thief and a lousy con man. Don sees himself in the kid, advises him against faking a new identity, an gives him a fresh start (and shiny Cadillac).
Betty’s dire diagnosis, pronounced in front of her like she’s a piece of furniture in ’50s fashion, brings out her take-charge persona. Betty knows “when to move on,” her true gift, she says. She leaves Sally instructions for after her death, because “Henry’s not going to be able to handle things.” Picking the proper blue dress to be buried in, Betty is off to class to stretch her mind. Might another Don-Betty scene, teased last week, be the emotional core of the finale?
Trudy is unsentimental, when Pete asks her first to dinner, then to start over, declaring his undying love. “Wichita is beautiful and wholesome.” Their dream is naive but wonderful, life in the heartland will be the antithesis of the Manhattan and Madison Avenue life they’ve known. It’s a time for new beginnings (also The Andromeda Strain, Hawaii, The Godfather and Redd Foxx.)
And about the finale: Buddy Holly reminds us, “Everyday it’s a-gettin’ closer…”
