Hasta La Creative!

Last season, the persistent ad-agency-as-brothel metaphor on “Mad Men” ditched its figurative quality and became literal when a central and beloved character was pimped out in exchange for a big new account. But the selling of Joan Harris to a beastly Jaguar client wasn’t the end of that nasty meme.

Last night’s script threaded scenes from the rather rough Depression-era childhood of Dick Whitman into the late 1960s goings-on at Don Draper’s ad agency. The parallels are not subtly drawn. We see Dick and his pregnant mother arrive at a brothel run by her brother-in-law, who declares himself the “rooster” of the house. Sad, young Dick, with his electrified Lloyd Christmas haircut, is told by mom to “Keep your eyes down and mind your own business here.” It hits bottom when we receive the news that Don, as a boy, peeped his pregnant mother getting defiled by his brothel-tending uncle.

We flash forward in time to see the return of Herb Rennet, the Jaguar dealer client, whose cringe-worthy banter sends Joan to the bottle. Rennet keeps his eyes up, asking to be “shown the sights” at Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce — a “kid in a candy store.” Corpulent, lascivious, none-too-bright ole Herb isn’t the only john around. After another adulterous romp with downstairs neighbor Sylvia Rosen, Don slips her a few bucks. The payment isn’t for services rendered, but it’s still skeevy, especially given Don’s background.

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