Television Review: Tea Leaves (Mad Men, S5x03, 2012)
Tea Leaves (S5x03)
Airdate: 1 April 2012
Written by: Erin Levy & Matthew Weiner
Directed by: Jon Hamm
Running Time: 47 minutes
The highly anticipated Season 5 premiere of Mad Men was a behemoth of a television event, a feature-length episode that attempted to reset the board for a sprawling ensemble cast. While it successfully went to the turbulent professional waters of Don Draper and the SCDP agency, one significant narrative thread was conspicuously absent: the fate of Betty Draper. This gap was artfully filled in the subsequent episode, Tea Leaves, where Betty’s storyline emerges as one of the season’s most pivotal arcs, providing a stark contrast to the adrenalin-fueled world of Manhattan advertising.
We are reintroduced to Betty living with her new husband, Henry Francis, a life that was ostensibly supposed to be a fresh start filled with domestic bliss. However, the veneer of happiness is rapidly cracked by her visible weight gain, a physical transformation that serves as a devastating metaphor for her loss of confidence. This weight gain cuts her social life to the bone and all but eliminates her sex drive, leaving her feeling like a stranger in her own marriage. Her mother-in-law, Pauline Francis (Pamela Dunlap), suggests that she might try diet pills to reclaim her figure. Betty heeds this advice and visits a doctor, but the examination reveals a lump on her thyroid gland. This discovery suggests the tumour as the likely culprit for her lethargy and depression.
As she awaits further testing, Betty is consumed by a profound melancholy, haunted by visions of her children growing up without their mother. This fear is compounded when she encounters Joyce Darling (Adria Tennor), an old friend who is also diagnosed with cancer and appears resigned to her fate. Later, Betty confides in Don about her condition, and the revelation strikes Don just as hard as it does Betty. Fortunately, the subsequent tests reveal the tumour to be benign, a massive relief that allows Betty to let her guard down and resume having sex with Henry. Don is also deeply relieved when he learns the test results through Henry.
In the meantime, the agency struggles to secure a lucrative deal with Heinz. Raymond Geiger (John Sloman), one of the Heinz executives who had previously been sceptical of Peggy’s "ballet of beans" pitch, suddenly pivots. He suggests that the band The Rolling Stones be hired to rework one of their hits into a slogan. To gain access to the band and their powerful manager, Allen Klein, Harry Crane and Don attempt to gain backstage access during the Stones’ concert at Forrest Hills Stadium on 2 July 1966. They fail to secure the exclusive pass, but they do encounter a sea of young fans. Among them are two teenage girls, and after winning their trust by sharing marijuana, they engage in a conversation that highlights the widening ideological divide between the generations. Don and Harry, representatives of the old guard, are baffled by the girls' views on life, illustrating the generational friction that is a hallmark of the show.
Separately, Pete Campbell achieves a professional triumph by securing Mohawk Airlines, a former Sterling Cooper customer, as a new account. He is desperate to rub this victory in the face of Roger Sterling. However, the new clients demand fresh and young talent to work on their campaigns. Instead of working on the pitch herself, Peggy is tasked with finding the most unconventional copywriter. She interviews Michael Ginsberg (Ben Feldman), a young Jewish man who is disrespectful and difficult. Peggy is convinced she will reject him, but Roger intervenes, ordering her to let Don make the ultimate decision. During a second interview, Michael is significantly more professional, securing the job much to his and Peggy’s surprise. We later see Michael return to a small Brooklyn apartment he shares with his domineering, religious father, Morris (Stephen Mendel), establishing the emotional depth of his character.
It is worth noting that Betty’s appearance throughout this episode and much of Season 5 was heavily influenced by real-life issues. January Jones was pregnant during filming, and Matthew Weiner, instead of making the character pregnant, opted to have her gain weight. Jones worked with a fat suit and body doubles to create the illusion, demonstrating the show's commitment to visual storytelling even when logistical hurdles arise.
Tea Leaves is also notable for representing the directorial debut of Jon Hamm. By his own admission, he took the challenge without any desire to experiment, generally following the advice of his colleague and friend John Slattery, who had made a similar debut in the previous season’s episode The Rejected. Hamm’s direction is steady and observant, though it lacks the stylistic flourishes that might have been expected from a star stepping behind the camera.
Thematically, the episode is notable for its explicit handling of change and the way the protagonists face the fact that their best days might be behind them. Betty is horrified by the prospect of becoming a sad, overweight middle-aged wife. Don, meanwhile, grapples with his wife being significantly younger than him. The conversations with the teenage girls at the Rolling Stones backstage further illustrate this widening ideological divide between Boomers and previous generations, represented by Don and Harry’s inability to connect with the counterculture. At the same time, those older generations, which still hold power, attempt to somehow go with the new times. This is represented by Raymond Geiger trying to look "cool" to impress his daughter, and SCDP itself taking a step towards diversity by hiring Dawn Chambers, played by Teyonah Parris, as its first Black secretary.
However, the episode caused a bit of controversy, mainly due to Harry Crane’s lecherous comments about the teenage girls at concerts. Don supposes that one of them, named "Bonnie," is only 14, a detail that is factually incorrect given that Hayley McFarland, the actress playing Bonnie, was actually 20. Another point of contention was Henry Francis’ disparaging remarks about George Romney, the governor of Michigan in the 1960s. Many critics interpreted this as the producers’ attempt to express their preferences about the 2012 US Presidential election, in which George’s son, Mitt Romney, was favoured to win the GOP nomination and ultimately face Barack Obama.
In the end, Tea Leaves maintains a high quality, driven by superb acting and a meticulous care for period detail. However, the script by Erin Levy and Matthew Weiner turns relatively predictable. The potentially devastating storyline regarding Betty’s cancer scare is resolved with a convenient twist that feels a bit too easy, allowing the show to avoid a darker trajectory for the character. While the episode succeeds in moving the ensemble forward, it does so by prioritising narrative momentum over the kind of gritty ambiguity that makes Mad Men truly great.
RATING: 6/10 (++)
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