Red in the Face
| "Red in the Face" | |
|---|---|
| Mad Men episode | |
| Episode no. | Season 1 Episode 7 |
| Directed by | Tim Hunter |
| Written by | Bridget Bedard |
| Original air date | August 30, 2007 |
"Red in the Face" is the seventh episode of the first season of the American television drama series Mad Men. It was written by Bridget Bedard and directed by Tim Hunter. The episode originally aired on the AMC channel in the United States on August 30, 2007.
It's Friday, and the members of Sterling Cooper have weekend plans. Roger's wife and daughter are going out of town so he tries to go away with Joan, but she already has plans. Peggy, who has been gaining weight, is going to work on copy for Belle Jolie. Pete (who Roger calls "Paul" to annoy him) is taken aback to learn that Peggy is working on copy, and assumes it must be a woman-related account, such as sanitary napkins. He offers to take a look at her copy, untruthfully claiming copywriters have him do it all the time. Flattered, she agrees.
Roger, lonely, insists Don go out drinking with him, and Roger flirts with some women who are ogling him, musing that girls lose their glow when they turn 30. Then he discovers the young women aren't looking at him, they're trying to flirt with Don. Roger invites himself to dinner with Don and Betty, with Betty skipping her entrée so that Roger can eat it. After dinner, Roger drunkenly makes a move on Betty when Don leaves the room. After Don returns, Roger drives back home. Once he's gone, Don furiously turns on Betty and says she was leading Roger on. Don lashes out at her, calling her "a little girl", echoing Betty's psychiatrist earlier in the episode, who has paternalistically been filling Don in on everything said in Betty's sessions. He commented of Betty that "basically, we're dealing with the emotions of a child". The next day, Roger attempts to apologize to Don, but Don pretends to not know what Roger is talking about.
Meanwhile, Pete attempts to return a "chip-and-dip" that he and Trudy received as a wedding present, claiming that they were given two by mistake. At the department store, Pete feels emasculated when he is unable to charm the store employees into giving him a cash refund. He uses his store credit to purchase a rifle instead. Later, it is revealed that Trudy did not want him to return the chip-and-dip, and is furious with Pete for purchasing the rifle. The next day, Pete brings the rifle to work and shows it to Peggy. He tells her about a fantasy he has in which he uses the rifle to kill a deer, then drag it to a tree where he skins, dresses and carves the animal and then returns to a cabin in the woods where a woman cooks the meat for his dinner and watches him eat it.
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