Photo Credit: AMC
Who is Don Draper?
Don has been asked this question dozens of times over the course of the series, so he gives the reporter the same oblique answers he’s given everyone else. He looks him dead in the eye, takes a couple seductive drags on his cigarette and waits for the reporter to bask in the glow of mystery.
When the article comes out a few days later, he finds out that the reporter hasn’t fallen for his ruse. Instead of coming off like a suave man of mystery, he seems aloof and arrogant. His colleagues at Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce are appalled, chiding him for wasting an opportunity to promote their still fledgling firm. A client calls and cancels his account, upset that Draper didn’t mention his business. Don is baffled. Even when his personal life was in shambles, he was always in control of his professional destiny.
Mad Men’s fourth season opens in November of 1964. The ‘60s as we know them are finally coming into view. The colors are a bit brighter, the world is a bit faster and the young people are staking out their place in the world. Don Draper is desperately trying to hold onto his. He is feeling more like Dick Whitman than the master of the universe he created out of thin air.
In a lesser show, the viewer would be blasted with obvious symbolism and long expository speeches about Don’s adjustment to life without Betty and the kids. Instead, Draper looks at himself in the mirror while preparing for his date. He runs his fingers through his meticulously Brylcreemed hair, as if he is trying to summon the Draper of old. The date goes reasonably well, but it’s clear that the girl isn’t under Draper’s spell. This is an entirely new experience for him, as women have been dropping their panties from the moment the series began.
In the car, Draper turns on the charm and the woman turns him down. He gives his address to the cabbie in a state of disbelief. On Thanksgiving Day, he hires a prostitute for company. Unlike his other sexual encounters, this was desperate. He seemed totally out of control, meekly asking her if she could slap him. He is in the same place Roger Sterling was before he married Jane.
At the end of the episode, as Don was giving his punched-up biography to the reporter from The Wall Street Journal, he talks the talk, but the conviction isn’t quite there. He got to where he is by not saying anything, and now he must reveal everything. The era of mystique has come and gone. The strong silent type is fading into history, being replaced by brash young punks who pour Pepsi in their breakfast cereal. Draper is adapting for now, but he won’t be able to keep the charade for much longer.