Episode Report Card Couch Baron: A+ | 441 USERS: B+ YOU GRADE IT Parting Really, Really Is Sweet Sorrow...
By Couch Baron | Season 1 | Episode 13 | Aired on 2007.10.18
He talks about his first job at that fur company (where he and Betty met, as you'll remember) where an old Greek copywriter named "Teddy" talked about how nostalgia can bring that deeper bond. He has the lights turned off and starts his slide presentation, saying that Teddy told him that in Greek, "nostalgia" literally means "the pain from an old wound." He displays slides of his family -- the kids playing, him and Betty eating from opposite sides of the same hot dog. He goes on, "It's a twinge in your heart, far more powerful than memory alone." It's actually my throat that's feeling the twinge, and damn, Don Draper, I didn't want to cry here but you are good. Don pushing his son on a swing, Don with his head in Betty's lap. "This device isn't a spaceship; it's a time machine. It goes backwards. Forwards." The kids playing with a red wagon. "It takes us to a place where we ache to go again." Sally on Don's shoulders. "It's not called the Wheel. It's called the Carousel. It lets us travel the way a child travels, around and around and back home again." Don kissing Betty in bed as she holds one of the kids. "To a place where we know we are loved." Don carrying Betty, who's in her wedding dress, on the steps of the church. Don's eyes glisten as he smiles mournfully; we get a card advertising the Carousel, and then a shot of Don and Betty kissing each other, blissfully happy. It's so interesting -- I see some strong similarities between Don and the title character of Dexter. They both are awfully good at faking how they think normal people behave. And they both seem privately to think that they're devoid of real human feelings. Yet underneath that self-perception, there are actual, genuine emotions of which they're unaware, but come out in many of their actions. I'm not saying Don is quite as extreme an example of this as Dexter Morgan, but I think the parallel exists. I will add that on the heels of Betty epitomizing the obligations and strife attendant to adulthood, we have Don pitching the appeal of the Carousel as a childlike escape from the present. God, this show is amazing. Harry, in tears undoubtedly related to his current situation, has to excuse himself, and everyone else is too overwhelmed at the awesomeness to speak. This isn't meant as a complaint by any means, but I know the feeling. Duck is right there, though: "Good luck at your next meeting." Heh. There's a reason he got the job.