Recap / Mad Men S 1 E 7 Red In The Face

When a man gets to the point where his name's on the building, he can get an unnatural sense of entitlement.

Roger joins Don for an evening of dinner and drinking, during which Roger's behavior leads to a rift in their friendship. Though Don accepts his apology, there are further consequences for Roger. Pete faces trouble at home as he continues to struggle with the demands of his new marriage. A trip to the supermarket quickly turns sour for Betty.

This episode contains examples of:

• Affectionate Nickname: Bert refers to Roger as "Peanut".
• Batman Gambit: Bert tells Roger a story about one of these in an effort to dissuade him from smoking. Specifically, he relates how Hitler got Chamberlain to acquiesce to his demands at Munich by having them meet up at a palace where smoking wasn't allowed, driving Chamberlain (who did smoke) to the point of insanity after a prolonged period of time.
• Call-Back: As they're exiting the office, Paul makes a reference to Ken's status as a published author, alluding back to "5G".
• Casanova Wannabe: When Pete is told that he can only exchange his chip-and-dip bowl for store credit rather than cash, he attempts to sweet-talk the clerk by offering to buy her a drink. He fails utterly. To make this all the more embarrassing, the clerk had just been shown getting flustered around someone who had stopped by to exchange pleasantries with Pete.
• Comically Missing the Point: A deliberate example by Roger, who listens to Bert's story and comes to the conclusion that smoking, rather than a sign of weakness, is something that makes him different from Hitler.
• Driven by Envy: Roger appears to grow jealous when he sees that the two girls he had been observing at the bar were more interested in Don than in him. This leads to his more unpleasant behavior at the Draper dinner that briefly frays his relationship with Don.
  • After failing to sweet-talk the bridal registry clerk, Pete pettily mentions that Matherton, the man that the clerk had been fawning over a few moments beforehand, has the clap.
• Hitler Ate Sugar: See Comically Missing the Point.
• It Will Never Catch On:
  • Several of the guys are amused at the sight of the chip-and-dip bowl that Pete has received as a wedding present.
    Pete: It's for entertaining.
  • Roger's and Bert's thoughts on John F. Kennedy count as this. They each write him off as an inexperienced pretty boy who will pale in comparison to the more politically experienced Richard Nixon ^note  although in actual fact, those two were both first elected to the House of Representatives in the same year (1947). When Pete points out that Kennedy's youth ^note  he was four years younger than Nixon is actually an asset, putting him in the same popular territory as Elvis Presley, Roger and Bert dismiss Pete's thoughts as naive and immature.
• Laser-Guided Karma: Roger embarrasses Don and Betty during a dinner that he was invited to. Later, Don sets it up so that Roger embarrasses himself shortly after a lunch that he invited Don to.
• Malicious Misnaming: When leaving the office with Don, Roger makes sure to refer to Pete as "Paul" as they're saying goodnight.
  Roger: I love doing that.
• Reckless Gun Usage: Pete aims his newly-bought rifle around the office, briefly making Ken jump.
• Shout-Out: Roger makes one to Jonathan Swift when he and Don are dining out on seafood.
  Roger: He was a bold man that once ate an oyster!
• Tempting Fate: Roger and Bert argue that Kennedy is too much of a "boy" to be taken seriously as an opponent to Richard Nixon ("He doesn't even wear a hat"). Pete argues that he's just the kind of person to appeal to younger voters, but they shoot this line of reasoning down.
• Vomit Indiscretion Shot: Roger gets a pretty glorious one after being forced to climb up 23 flights of stairs so soon after consuming a meal of oysters.
• War Is Hell: Roger shares a few experiences about his time in World War II, while also expressing his astonishment at the knowledge that his father had to fight in the World War I trenches with bayonets.
• What the Hell, Hero?:
  • Helen Bishop calls out Betty on letting Glen keep a lock of her hair.
  • Trudy isn't pleased to find out that Pete exchanged the chip-and-dip bowl (which was from her aunt) for a rifle.
• Womanchild: Betty is called out as carrying a very childlike attitude on at least two occasions. Don expresses distaste for the way she obsequiously revels in Roger's stories, and Helen Bishop asks what she could've been thinking to have given Glen a lock of her hair.