Six Month Leave (S2x09)
Airdate: 28 September 2008
Written by: Matthew Weiner, Andre Jacquemott and Maria Jacquemott Directed by: Michael Uppendahl
Running Time: 48 minutes
The world of Mad Men differs from our own in many details, but one of the most conspicuous is in the different standards and social mores towards drinking, especially drinking on the job. To say that people in the early 1960s were more tolerant towards mixing work and booze would be an understatement; in practice, many offices were manned by what would, in the best-case scenario, be termed functioning alcoholics. What happens when one such alcoholic stops being functional serves as the major storyline in Season 2’s ninth episode, Six Month Leave. It is another “wham” episode in the series, although not in the way the audience might have expected, delivering its blows not through external catastrophe but through the quiet, humiliating unravelling of a man and the seismic ripples it sends through the fragile ecosystem of Sterling Cooper.
The episode begins in the Roosevelt Hotel in New York City, where Don Draper has been residing since being chased from his home by Betty. There, he picks up a newspaper and reads the headline about Marilyn Monroe’s suicide, anchoring the plot firmly in 7 August 1962 and the few days that follow. The news proves devastating for the female staff of Sterling Cooper, many of whom are visibly emotional. Even the usually unflappable Joan Holloway shows a rare vulnerability during a chance encounter with Roger Sterling. This historical anchor does more than just provide a date; it casts a pall of melancholy and lost innocence over the entire episode, framing the personal crises to come within a broader cultural moment of disillusionment.
The central crisis, however, is decidedly less glamorous. In his office, Freddy Rumsen has gathered Pete Campbell, Salvatore Romano, and Peggy Olson to discuss a presentation for their Samsonite clients. In that moment, years of excessive drinking take their final, humiliating toll: Freddy loses control of his bladder and, unaware he has wet his trousers, simply passes out. The reactions are telling: Salvatore is amused, Pete seems aghast, but Peggy is temporarily tasked with the presentation whilst Freddy’s condition is hidden. Peggy handles the pitch with her now-characteristic competence, but the news spreads, partly due to Pete, who sees a chance to advance at Freddy’s expense. In a meeting called by Roger, and despite Don’s initial opposition, it is decided that Freddy in such a condition is too great a liability. The episode’s title is thus revealed as a corporate euphemism: a “six months’ leave of absence” with full pay, which everyone present understands is merely a sweetened firing.
The subsequent evening out, where Freddy is told his fate by Don and Roger, is a brilliant example of period detail and masculine stoicism. Freddy accepts his superiors’ decision with a weary dignity, knowing he cannot argue. The trio then proceeds to an underground gambling club, where Freddy’s luck turns and he keeps winning at the table. It is here that Don, spotting the comedian Jimmy Barrett, punches him in the face, blaming him for the collapse of his marriage. The scene is a burst of raw violence in an otherwise tightly controlled episode, a reminder of Don’s simmering rage. Afterwards, Roger and Don discuss their lives, with Roger realising Don’s marriage is on the rocks—a situation he admits to having experienced himself. Don’s advice to “move forward” becomes the episode’s most consequential, and most carelessly delivered, piece of philosophy.
The next day, Don promotes Peggy, giving her all of Freddy’s accounts. In a fine moment of moral clarity, Peggy chastises Pete for engineering Freddy’s downfall, noting she liked the affable alcoholic and owed him her copywriting career. This subplot works well, showcasing Peggy’s ascent and her retention of a moral compass in an amoral environment.
However, the episode’s greatest shock arrives from the reception desk. Mona Sterling storms into the office and confronts Don over his “move forward” advice, which has apparently led Roger to end their twenty-five-year marriage for Don’s young secretary, Jane Siegel. Don, disgusted by the consequence of his own glib counsel, demands Roger move Jane out of her position. This revelation is the episode’s second “wham” moment, and it is here that the script, co-written by Matthew Weiner and André and Maria Jacquemetton, begins to show signs of strain.
Whilst the main storyline involving Freddy’s departure is handled with a superb mix of horror and black humour—his “mishap” is both cringe-inducing and darkly funny—the subplot dealing with Betty Draper feels like an uninspired filler. Depressed and adrift in her empty house, she is observed by her concerned housekeeper, Carla, but even in this state, she manipulatively orchestrates a lunch date between her friend Sarah Beth Carson and the man Sarah Beth secretly desires. It adds little to the episode’s thematic weight and seems a perfunctory check-in on a character whose own narrative is treading water.
The use of Marilyn Monroe as a narrative frame is, however, deftly handled. Her rendition of “Down with Love” over the closing credits provides a poignant, ironic commentary on the episode’s events. Furthermore, the continuity detail—where Peggy notes that Sterling Cooper must scrap their “Jackie vs. Marilyn” conceptual art for Playtex bras in light of Monroe’s death—is a clever, meta-textual nod to the series’ own earlier episode, Maidenform, and the fragile nature of the icons it sells.
The episode’s most significant problem lies in its final twist. The revelation that Roger has begun a full-blown affair with Jane and is willing to blow up his marriage for it comes almost completely out of left field. Whilst something was hinted at in the previous episode (The Gold Violin), the development feels dramatically unjustified. It lacks the meticulous build-up that Mad Men usually affords such seismic shifts in relationships. Instead, it plays as a “shock for the shock’s sake”, a contrivance designed to inject melodrama into an episode otherwise concerned with slow, pathetic decline. It undermines the more nuanced tragedy of Freddy’s exit by pairing it with a sudsy, impulsive betrayal that the series hasn’t earned at this juncture.
This episode represented the directorial debut of Michael Uppendahl, who would go on to direct seven more episodes of the series. His work here is assured, balancing the claustrophobic office scenes with the more expansive, shadowy atmosphere of the gambling club. He handles the delicate tone of Freddy’s storyline with particular skill, ensuring it never tips into outright farce or maudlin sentiment.
Six Month Leave is a powerfully acted and often brilliantly observed episode that stumbles in its final act. It excels in its unflinching portrayal of professional oblivion and the cruel euphemisms of corporate culture, using Freddy Rumsen’s downfall to expose the rot beneath the polished surface of Sterling Cooper. The anchoring of Monroe’s death provides a resonant backdrop. Yet, by grafting on a hastily conceived marital implosion for Roger Sterling, it seeks to deliver a second shock that feels unearned and disruptive to the episode’s otherwise finely calibrated study of failure. It remains a strong, memorable instalment, but one that ultimately lacks the narrative discipline of the series’ very best, falling prey to the very kind of impulsive, messy decision-making its characters would condemn.
RATING: 7/10 (+++)
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