Scene Discussionis a bi-weekly feature that breaks down specific scenes from movies or television shows. Sometimes in depth, sometimes not so much. Today? The television show Mad Men.

Mad Men has many scenes that could be discussed at length. Most famously, Don Draper’s pitch about Kodak’s Carousel scene is probably the most discussed due to its fantastic writing, editing, acting, etc. etc. Jon Hamm.
I picked this scene because of the way Don Draper, played by Jon Hamm, is presented. For the first time we see our main character show a keen interest in another woman that doesn’t seem like lust. It seems like infatuation.

The woman’s name, Ms. Farrell, is his daughter’s school teacher. She’s dancing around looking like a manic pixie dream girl while Don is obviously showing interest in this fun way to live life. The music cue begins, Don starts touching the green grass with his fingers and the camera focuses on his face that is barely visible. Don digs this babe. He digs her so much that he’s trying to feel her presence by touching the ground she’s barefoot on. One could also interpret this as Don trying to reconnect with nature and therefore love and stuff, but we won’t get that crazy because we’re all busy people not willing to read about Don Draper and the Search for Love.

That green grass and the look on Don’s face (We can’t see his eyes!) signify that Mr. Draper himself is capable of feeling happy or at least on the search for that. He has his beautiful but fucked in the head wife. His great kids. A great job. But he’s fucked in the head as well, so maybe he’s searching for a fix. Maybe Ms. Farrell is that answer.

For those who have seen the rest of the series, we all know that answer is a big fucking NO.

But! Ms. Farrell showed us that Don Draper is capable of being happy, but also capable of walking away from that. Don’s a strong man, and if he’s gonna play with grass in front of everyone while he’s wearing a suit, he knows something special is happening.