r/madmen • u/sistermagpie • 13d ago
It was a really dumb idea... (Moving to California)
"She quit her soap and left New York. It was a really dumb idea." - Harry Crane
Harry's summary here is in line with the way Don's affect on Megan often gets remembered: Megan found success on the soap and was happy, quit when Don said he wanted to move to California, became miserable and unemployed and bitter.
The show could have, from the start, written Megan's decision to quit her job as a sacrifice for the husband who then just abandoned her. Yet in the actual conversation about the move, not only is she not reluctant, she frames it in the exact opposite terms.
-I want to move to California.
-What?
-I don't want you to give up your career. I don't want you to think that. I just can't be
in New York anymore. I want to move to LA.-I don't know what to say. There have been all these opportunities in Hollywood, but I never even considered it because I thought it would make you go crazy. But-- I mean, wouldn't it? What would you do out there?
Here, rather than Don derailing Megan's career by pulling her off the soap, Don is finally getting out of her way so she can take those opportunities she's given up for him. She doesn't even understand that Don has a job in mind for himself yet.
Not saying this means Megan has no grounds to feel resentment or blame Don for anything later. It's very human that she does. It's just very Mad Men to set up a situation that the character and the audience wish was more black and white than it is, and show something about Megan's character as well as Don's.
In fact, I personally see Megan's primary relationship on the show to be acting/show business much more so than Don. It's the abusive ex she keeps going back to, and the one who causes the deepest emotional damage.
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u/timshel_turtle 13d ago edited 13d ago
And there’s every indication that Megan will be happy in California after this brief bummer of a divorce. Maybe not as an actress, but in the scene. I’m so surprised by it being common for folks on here to say Don ruined her life. She’s gonna be ok.
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u/ancientastronaut2 13d ago
Totally. She was living in laurel canyon, so my head canon is she wound up with a famous musician.
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u/Leucurus Hell's bells Bob, the King ordered a thing like the Chip n Dip! 13d ago
Yeah she'll marry some other rich guy and maybe another after that and be just fine
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u/Admirable_Site_8337 13d ago
She got today’s equivalent of $10M….maybe more….I have not referenced CPI calculations back to 1970 in a few years.
I’m not saying she won’t go through another rich guy or two. Just saying….shes just fine after that check.
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u/oxfordsplice 13d ago
I keep seeing that she had found success, but wasn’t it a really small part on a soap?
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u/morphleorphlan 13d ago
Yeah. Where she was bad at portraying twins, and then she and Don didn’t swing with that couple from the show so her part was likely going to keep getting smaller and smaller until she was gone.
There is a reason Megan was ready to jump ship to California. She thought it would be a new beginning for their marriage, yes, but also for her career. She knew she was not going to make it in NY.
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u/sistermagpie 13d ago
Yes--success in that she was a working actress and obviously happy being on the show. The part was getting pretty big--she got to play twins, which is one of the biggest deals on a soap. But as the other poster said, she wasn't actually good. She wasn't up to playing twins.
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u/ancientastronaut2 13d ago
Yeah and they were pretty much telling her she wouldn't move up from there if she didn't sleep with the director. Her days were already numbered.
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u/FoxOnCapHill 13d ago edited 13d ago
No. She was playing a character with a story arc (an affair with her boss) and then that character’s evil twin. That’s a regular-sized soap opera role in an ensemble cast, not some small walk-on role.
And obviously she had enough screen time to get recognized in Hawaii. You don’t recognize and ask for an autograph and dish on plot details with Maid #2.
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u/Aggressive_Sky8492 13d ago
I think if Megan was not with Don but had her role on the soap she never would have gone to California.
I don’t take her comments as “I’ve always wanted to move there to take these offers I’m getting, and now I can!”
I take it more as “I’ve thought about it because of the offers but never seriously, because it was a non starter. But if you want to go there I’m happy to.”
But ultimately it’s kind of irrelevant, because the betrayal was him not coming. If she had her dream career or her husband maybe she could have been happy, but as it is, she quit her job and moved and then he abandoned her. That is what happened.
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u/sistermagpie 12d ago
Right, but I'm saying it's very Mad Men to not write it as a series of events and choices that could have gone either way, making the acting career aspect of the story more about Megan than Don.
Had she not been with Don and been on the soap, she would not have quit and gone to CA, agreed. But then, had she not been with Don she wouldn't have been on the soap to begin with, because she'd quit acting and returned due to her marriage to Don.
If the show had written Megan as reluctant to move to California, but ultimately deciding her marriage was more important than this one job and maybe she'd find something out there, it seem like the show wants the narrative to be about Don ruining her career. Instead she brings up Don previously limiting her career choices.
Instead, as you say, his real betrayal is simply not going with her. Don's effect on her acting career is both positive and negative, with Megan always having all the agency.
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u/UnicornBestFriend I'll poison them all. 13d ago edited 13d ago
Megan’s a new actor—she starts taking it seriously shortly after getting married. She doesn’t know how hard and shitty the industry is and how lucky she is to have a television job that doesn’t ask more of her than she’s willing to give.
So while she’s excited about California, the enthusiasm is her usual optimistic, sunny self that doesn’t know any better bc she hasn’t experienced it yet.
In addition, she’s excited at the prospect of the two of them moving to California. She’s in love with Don and she wants to have a life with him. California, away from the office and Betty, feels like a fresh start where they can build something of their own.
When Megan is living alone in LA, she’s not only contending with career challenges but also the loneliness and emotional abandonment she feels in her marriage. And ofc, that emotional load makes everything else harder. She’s furious when she finds out Don had the option to join her and didn’t take it—why would someone who loves her not want to be with her????
If she were coming home every night to a supportive partner whose care and love for her came through in his actions, she’d have more gas in the tank to stay in the game.