My Giant Pete-Spam
Apr. 29th, 2009 08:37 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
falafel_musingsSo I'm finally celebrating my Mad Men fandom with a list of favourite moments, pics, quotes and meta about my favourite character; Pete Campbell. I've been watching MM since Christmas and until recently Pete was the guy I loved to hate on the show. But since finishing S2 I've realised I adore him and possibly always have deep down. As most MM fans will tell you Pete is a weird insidious self-important little fucker. But I think he's the most entertaining character. If he isn't making you throw things at the TV, he is making you laugh, or making you pity him, or freaking you out. I guess Pete Campbell is my substitute Gaius Baltar. I miss having a loser freak hero to root for.
So here is my Pete Spam! Featuring lots of Pete/Peggy and Pete/Don.
So here is my Pete Spam! Featuring lots of Pete/Peggy and Pete/Don.
20) "Who put the Chinaman in my office?"
Pete gets back from his honeymoon and his frat-boy friends put a Chinese family and a bunch of chickens in his office. Which is apparently hilarious. But what I remember most about this moment is Pete's instant suspicion when his co-workers are being really friendly to him...until he realises it's just a big prank. Phew!
19) "Tony Curtis, Don! A thing like that."
I'm much more endeared to Pete when he is being quaint with his old timey phrases ("Hells Bells, Trudy!") . I especially love any moment when Pete uses his "A thing like that!" line which he does several times. This little phrase is just so suited to his character.
PETE: A thing like that!
~translation~
PETE: I really have nothing to say, I'm just trying very hard to be liked.
18) "I love watching you walk..."
Any moment between Pete and his long-suffering secretary Hildy is great. She has such naked contempt for Pete. I love this scene where Pete is trying to be the cool Draper-style boss who lets his secretry into his office for a drink, hitting her with this world beating chat-up-line "I love watching you walk." How could any girl resist?
17) "Touch the face of God."
At first I hated the scene where Pete has sex with the model. I don't like Pete cheating with anyone who isn't Peggy, okay? Then I realised what was really happening in the scene. That Pete is trying to recreate his first time with Peggy and then the girl's mother is in the next room and the TV is turned up with a program about jet planes like the one his father died in. So all Pete's family baggage is in the sex scene too. Then afterwards Pete is in the dark, staring at himself in the mirror, in a disturbed disturbing way. Scary.
16) "It's a Chip and Dip."
Wheeee! Pete's endless Chip-n-Dip commercials. I want a Chip-n-Dip now! Sadly after recieving many emasulating comments, Pete is forced to swap his rather vaginal Chip-n-Dip for a very phallic shotgun. *shakes head*
15) "I had to see you tonight."
I remember finding Pete/Peggy's initial hook up forced the first time I saw it. On reflection I'm glad they established this ship in the pilot episode with the one-night-stand. Now I know the characters I can see both their motivations. Pete wanted a last night of freedom and tracked down Peggy because she was Don's new secretary. He probably found her address when rooting through Don's trash! And Peggy had been told all through her first day that the key to success at Sterling Cooper was scoring with its men. Peggy has always been ambitious. Plus as Matt Weiner pointed out, Pete took two trains just to see her. That's hot.
14) "I need to lie down."
I love Pete's final moment in S1 as he stumbles home drunk after losing out on a promotion to Peggy. He is so drunk and angry he is openly scowling at Trudy and his inlaws. Awesome. Scenes between Pete and Trudy's family always remind me of Kafka's Metamorphosis - Pete is the son who is transforming into a giant insect and the Samsa family are in cheerful denial over what is happening. Pete staggers off to the bedroom throwing his coat on the floor. But at least he doesn't throw a roast chicken out of the window (that's S2).
13) "We should get a dog for the office."
This is only a little scene, but Pete likes dogs so that is one thing I can put on my very short list of reasons why Pete is likeable. Pete tells Duck that he thinks he is going to bring in a dog for the office. Duck asks him what dogs he has at home and Pete explains that he doesn't have a dog at home. He just wants to get one for the office. Which nicely reveals that Pete thinks of Sterling Cooper as home, more than the appartment he shares with his wife. Pete thinks a dog would make the agency look relaxed. It's not a bad idea, but because it is Pete's idea Duck is immediately saying... "No."
12) "I won't let you down, Don!"
Pete is such a drama queen. After Don fires him we get to see him storming into his office, yelling at his co-workers, throwing his records and then sitting down to drink, wheeze and cry. Then Cooper explains to Don and Roger that they can't fire Pete because he is their ticket into all sorts of rich social clubs. But Roger tricks Pete into believing that it was Don who saved his position, so Pete gets all melodramatic and yells out - "I won't let you down, Don!" while Roger gets embarrassed on his behalf.
11) "The bear is not talking..."
Just for starters, I love this scene because it is the first time we see Pete in his dweebtastic 10-year-old boy pyjamas which make me laugh whenever they appear. Pete and Trudy's married life always looks like two kids playing house (please God, don't let them adopt a child). In this scene Trudy is reading one of Pete's short stories while crinkling her nose. Trudy says she finds the story strange and odd, but she loves the idea of Pete sitting at his typewriter being creative. Which perfectly defines the Pete/Trudy ship - Trudy likes the idea of Pete as a husband but the reality of who Pete is totally freaks her out. But the best part of the scene is this:
TRUDY: I just don't understand why the bear is talking.
PETE: The bear is not talking. It's what the hunter imagines the bear to be thinking.
~ my meta on Pete's story ~
Pete wants to be the hunter but he is slipping into Bear POV because relates more to being prey.
10) "I hate my mother."
Peggy is having a nice time at Harry's baby shower until Pete strikes up a conversation with her. This is one of those precious scenes where Pete is wanting to emotionally bond with Peggy, but he's drunk and gets all weird on her. He tells her he is going on a plane for the first time since his dad died in the crash, morbidly saying it wouldn't be so bad if the same happened to him, before randomly telling Peggy that he hates his mother. In conclusion, Pete shouldn't be allowed to talk to other people...ever.
Side note; I really want to know what is up with Pete's parents. I'm buying into the popular theory that Pete himself was the product of an affair on his father's side, which would explain his mother's coldness towards him and why Pete looks nothing like his brother Bud. I also love this theory because it would mean that Pete is not really a Dykeman. I think that would be quite liberating for him.
9) "They call a girl like that a lobster..."
I have to guiltly admit that I love the little boys gang of Pete, Harry, Ken and Kinsey. They are like the 'Stand by Me' kids if they had grown up, moved to the city and turned into jerks. They are always disgustingly entertaining together. So in this scene Ken insults Peggy's weight gain with the foul but exquisitely written line "They call a girl like that a lobster. All the meat is in the tail." And Pete goes crazy and punches him in the face. There's debate over whether Pete was defending Peggy's honour or his own ego, but since he was smiling dreamily at Pegs just before Ken dissed her, I'll say the former. Or at least a bit of both.
8) "Close the door."
This is my second favourite still image of Mad Men S1 (the first being Betty shooting those damn pigeons). A janitor walks through the office in the early morning and sees the shadow puppets of Pete and Peggy screwing each others brains out on his couch. Then afterwards there is a lovely shippy scene where Pete babbles to Peggy about how he has "all these THINGs!" going on in his head, but fails to express them in a comprehensible fashion. And then this -
PETE: *whispering shyly* Sorry, I ripped your blouse.
PEGGY: *smiling sweetly* Oh, that's okay.
~ subtext ~
BOTH: We are animals in the sack, right? Go us!
7) "I don't like you like this."
The Twist sequence is one of the most nostalgic and uplifting scenes in Mad Men so of course Pete has to ruin it. Peggy is celebrating in a bar after her first bit of copy writing success. All the cool kids from Sterling Cooper are there. Someone puts The Twist on the jukebox, so Peggy boogies over to Pete (who is sulking in a corner) and asks him to dance. Pete ices Peggy's happiness with one line.
PETE: I don't like you like this.
PEGGY: *cries*
~subtext of scene~
PETE: I am now in love with you to bunny-boilerish levels where I cannot stand to see you happy with anyone who is not me.
PEGGY: But Pete...it's just a party. Can't you lighten up?
PETE: No! You promised we were loser freaks together. Now you're dancing with the cool kids. You betrayed me.
PEGGY: *cries* Why did I fall for this whack job?
ME: *feels Peggy's pain*
6) "I have good ideas."
Okay, Pete's rant in 1x4 is only about four sentences long but somehow its manages to capture the whole frustration of Pete's character. Pete protests to Don that his creative ideas are good and nobody listens to them. I've read some MM fans claiming that Pete's ideas are just rubbish, but the thing is...they're not. Pete's ideas are actually much more in tune with the future of advertising than Don's are. The writers always have him predicting the future. I've heard Pete described as a foresaken Cassandra in Mad Men verse. Then Pete says that Sterling Cooper put him in accounts because he is good with people - "Which is strange, because I'd never heard that before". The knowing bitterness of this line always cuts through me. The fact that Pete knows that people don't like him, he knows that is why his ideas are dismissed, he knows he's only there because of his family name, etc. He's such a sad figure. And just because I haven't said it yet, Vincent Kartheiser owns this role and this scene is one of the best examples of that ownage.
5) "Mr Campbell, who cares?"
I think I love the Pete/Don relationship almost as much Pete/Peggy now. I was a Betty fan before and that made me hate Don, but being a Pete fan I have to invest in his rampant Don obsession. The scene where Pete threatens to blackmail Don and Don tells him to bring it on is just so funny and kind of touching. Because Pete really doesn't want to betray Don. He wants Don to be his best friend. He wants them to be running the company together. But Don isn't giving into Pete's desperate mancrush so they both race to Cooper's office to potentially end their careers. It's almost romantic.
PETE: Is this like in the movies, where I've got a gun and you don't think I'm going to shoot you? I will shoot you.
~ translation ~
PETE: Don, my love, if we can't live together then I swear I will kill us both.
Then Cooper awesomely tells them he doesn't care and sends them away. Awesome.
4) "Choosing sides, I guess."
Then there is this scene, a season later. This is one of the two moments in the S2 finale that made me realise Pete is my new (super lame) hero. Pete is loyal to Don. He loves Don. And Pete may be a schemer, a snitch, a snoop and a shit-stirrer but if Pete is in your corner then he is gold. I love how Don's eyes light up as he finally realises how useful Pete can be if he keeps him on side. And all the symbolism with the Cuban Missile Crisis *happy sigh* I like the idea that Pete might be sacrificing the promotion he wanted so badly two years ago. Personally I think Pete wants for Don to promote him and no-one else.
3) "Am I going to cry?"
Pete's reaction to the news that his father has died in a plane crash is such a sweet piece of tragicomedy. I love that Pete turned to Don when he didn't know what to do (mind you considering that Don's reaction to his mother dying of stomach cancer was "Good" and that Don's little brother committed suicide after he told him to get out of his life, Don might not be the best person to ask). And of course Dom tells Pete to do "what people do" because this is Mad Men where your pain and confusion must always be masked by societies expectations of you. Pete even asks "Am I going to cry?" like it is something he has to schedule.
2) "Have you ever been hunting, Peggy?"
Classic Mad Men scene! Considering I'm a vegetarian and a feminist, it is shocking how much I relish Pete's strange fantasy about gutting a deer and then getting some mysterious cabin-woman to cook it for him. I guess I love it because it is so obviously sexual and Peggy is so turned on that she needs to eat an extra big cherry danish to surpress her own raging desires. Pete is weird and depraved and Peggy finds it hot! I love that Pete/Peggy are two little perverts. In a perfect world they would live as a fetishy S&M couple, like the characters in The Secretary.
1) "I think you're perfect."
One of the most moving scenes I've seen on TV in a long long time. Or at least since "Resteraunts shaped like food". I challenge anyone not to feel for Pete Campbell as he declares his epic woobie love for Peggy before she kills him softly with the secret baby bombshell. Oh man, Pete is not going to take this well. He may be more crazy, tantrumy and passive-aggressive than ever in S3 (I can only hope). As long as he doesn't shoot himself because I'm not ready to lose another of my fandom beloveds (nah, they'll never kill Pete. He is too much of a glorious bastard to die).
Pete gets back from his honeymoon and his frat-boy friends put a Chinese family and a bunch of chickens in his office. Which is apparently hilarious. But what I remember most about this moment is Pete's instant suspicion when his co-workers are being really friendly to him...until he realises it's just a big prank. Phew!
19) "Tony Curtis, Don! A thing like that."
I'm much more endeared to Pete when he is being quaint with his old timey phrases ("Hells Bells, Trudy!") . I especially love any moment when Pete uses his "A thing like that!" line which he does several times. This little phrase is just so suited to his character.
PETE: A thing like that!
~translation~
PETE: I really have nothing to say, I'm just trying very hard to be liked.
18) "I love watching you walk..."
Any moment between Pete and his long-suffering secretary Hildy is great. She has such naked contempt for Pete. I love this scene where Pete is trying to be the cool Draper-style boss who lets his secretry into his office for a drink, hitting her with this world beating chat-up-line "I love watching you walk." How could any girl resist?
17) "Touch the face of God."
At first I hated the scene where Pete has sex with the model. I don't like Pete cheating with anyone who isn't Peggy, okay? Then I realised what was really happening in the scene. That Pete is trying to recreate his first time with Peggy and then the girl's mother is in the next room and the TV is turned up with a program about jet planes like the one his father died in. So all Pete's family baggage is in the sex scene too. Then afterwards Pete is in the dark, staring at himself in the mirror, in a disturbed disturbing way. Scary.
16) "It's a Chip and Dip."
Wheeee! Pete's endless Chip-n-Dip commercials. I want a Chip-n-Dip now! Sadly after recieving many emasulating comments, Pete is forced to swap his rather vaginal Chip-n-Dip for a very phallic shotgun. *shakes head*
15) "I had to see you tonight."
I remember finding Pete/Peggy's initial hook up forced the first time I saw it. On reflection I'm glad they established this ship in the pilot episode with the one-night-stand. Now I know the characters I can see both their motivations. Pete wanted a last night of freedom and tracked down Peggy because she was Don's new secretary. He probably found her address when rooting through Don's trash! And Peggy had been told all through her first day that the key to success at Sterling Cooper was scoring with its men. Peggy has always been ambitious. Plus as Matt Weiner pointed out, Pete took two trains just to see her. That's hot.
14) "I need to lie down."
I love Pete's final moment in S1 as he stumbles home drunk after losing out on a promotion to Peggy. He is so drunk and angry he is openly scowling at Trudy and his inlaws. Awesome. Scenes between Pete and Trudy's family always remind me of Kafka's Metamorphosis - Pete is the son who is transforming into a giant insect and the Samsa family are in cheerful denial over what is happening. Pete staggers off to the bedroom throwing his coat on the floor. But at least he doesn't throw a roast chicken out of the window (that's S2).
13) "We should get a dog for the office."
This is only a little scene, but Pete likes dogs so that is one thing I can put on my very short list of reasons why Pete is likeable. Pete tells Duck that he thinks he is going to bring in a dog for the office. Duck asks him what dogs he has at home and Pete explains that he doesn't have a dog at home. He just wants to get one for the office. Which nicely reveals that Pete thinks of Sterling Cooper as home, more than the appartment he shares with his wife. Pete thinks a dog would make the agency look relaxed. It's not a bad idea, but because it is Pete's idea Duck is immediately saying... "No."
12) "I won't let you down, Don!"
Pete is such a drama queen. After Don fires him we get to see him storming into his office, yelling at his co-workers, throwing his records and then sitting down to drink, wheeze and cry. Then Cooper explains to Don and Roger that they can't fire Pete because he is their ticket into all sorts of rich social clubs. But Roger tricks Pete into believing that it was Don who saved his position, so Pete gets all melodramatic and yells out - "I won't let you down, Don!" while Roger gets embarrassed on his behalf.
11) "The bear is not talking..."
Just for starters, I love this scene because it is the first time we see Pete in his dweebtastic 10-year-old boy pyjamas which make me laugh whenever they appear. Pete and Trudy's married life always looks like two kids playing house (please God, don't let them adopt a child). In this scene Trudy is reading one of Pete's short stories while crinkling her nose. Trudy says she finds the story strange and odd, but she loves the idea of Pete sitting at his typewriter being creative. Which perfectly defines the Pete/Trudy ship - Trudy likes the idea of Pete as a husband but the reality of who Pete is totally freaks her out. But the best part of the scene is this:
TRUDY: I just don't understand why the bear is talking.
PETE: The bear is not talking. It's what the hunter imagines the bear to be thinking.
~ my meta on Pete's story ~
Pete wants to be the hunter but he is slipping into Bear POV because relates more to being prey.
10) "I hate my mother."
Peggy is having a nice time at Harry's baby shower until Pete strikes up a conversation with her. This is one of those precious scenes where Pete is wanting to emotionally bond with Peggy, but he's drunk and gets all weird on her. He tells her he is going on a plane for the first time since his dad died in the crash, morbidly saying it wouldn't be so bad if the same happened to him, before randomly telling Peggy that he hates his mother. In conclusion, Pete shouldn't be allowed to talk to other people...ever.
Side note; I really want to know what is up with Pete's parents. I'm buying into the popular theory that Pete himself was the product of an affair on his father's side, which would explain his mother's coldness towards him and why Pete looks nothing like his brother Bud. I also love this theory because it would mean that Pete is not really a Dykeman. I think that would be quite liberating for him.
9) "They call a girl like that a lobster..."
I have to guiltly admit that I love the little boys gang of Pete, Harry, Ken and Kinsey. They are like the 'Stand by Me' kids if they had grown up, moved to the city and turned into jerks. They are always disgustingly entertaining together. So in this scene Ken insults Peggy's weight gain with the foul but exquisitely written line "They call a girl like that a lobster. All the meat is in the tail." And Pete goes crazy and punches him in the face. There's debate over whether Pete was defending Peggy's honour or his own ego, but since he was smiling dreamily at Pegs just before Ken dissed her, I'll say the former. Or at least a bit of both.
8) "Close the door."
This is my second favourite still image of Mad Men S1 (the first being Betty shooting those damn pigeons). A janitor walks through the office in the early morning and sees the shadow puppets of Pete and Peggy screwing each others brains out on his couch. Then afterwards there is a lovely shippy scene where Pete babbles to Peggy about how he has "all these THINGs!" going on in his head, but fails to express them in a comprehensible fashion. And then this -
PETE: *whispering shyly* Sorry, I ripped your blouse.
PEGGY: *smiling sweetly* Oh, that's okay.
~ subtext ~
BOTH: We are animals in the sack, right? Go us!
7) "I don't like you like this."
The Twist sequence is one of the most nostalgic and uplifting scenes in Mad Men so of course Pete has to ruin it. Peggy is celebrating in a bar after her first bit of copy writing success. All the cool kids from Sterling Cooper are there. Someone puts The Twist on the jukebox, so Peggy boogies over to Pete (who is sulking in a corner) and asks him to dance. Pete ices Peggy's happiness with one line.
PETE: I don't like you like this.
PEGGY: *cries*
~subtext of scene~
PETE: I am now in love with you to bunny-boilerish levels where I cannot stand to see you happy with anyone who is not me.
PEGGY: But Pete...it's just a party. Can't you lighten up?
PETE: No! You promised we were loser freaks together. Now you're dancing with the cool kids. You betrayed me.
PEGGY: *cries* Why did I fall for this whack job?
ME: *feels Peggy's pain*
6) "I have good ideas."
Okay, Pete's rant in 1x4 is only about four sentences long but somehow its manages to capture the whole frustration of Pete's character. Pete protests to Don that his creative ideas are good and nobody listens to them. I've read some MM fans claiming that Pete's ideas are just rubbish, but the thing is...they're not. Pete's ideas are actually much more in tune with the future of advertising than Don's are. The writers always have him predicting the future. I've heard Pete described as a foresaken Cassandra in Mad Men verse. Then Pete says that Sterling Cooper put him in accounts because he is good with people - "Which is strange, because I'd never heard that before". The knowing bitterness of this line always cuts through me. The fact that Pete knows that people don't like him, he knows that is why his ideas are dismissed, he knows he's only there because of his family name, etc. He's such a sad figure. And just because I haven't said it yet, Vincent Kartheiser owns this role and this scene is one of the best examples of that ownage.
5) "Mr Campbell, who cares?"
I think I love the Pete/Don relationship almost as much Pete/Peggy now. I was a Betty fan before and that made me hate Don, but being a Pete fan I have to invest in his rampant Don obsession. The scene where Pete threatens to blackmail Don and Don tells him to bring it on is just so funny and kind of touching. Because Pete really doesn't want to betray Don. He wants Don to be his best friend. He wants them to be running the company together. But Don isn't giving into Pete's desperate mancrush so they both race to Cooper's office to potentially end their careers. It's almost romantic.
PETE: Is this like in the movies, where I've got a gun and you don't think I'm going to shoot you? I will shoot you.
~ translation ~
PETE: Don, my love, if we can't live together then I swear I will kill us both.
Then Cooper awesomely tells them he doesn't care and sends them away. Awesome.
4) "Choosing sides, I guess."
Then there is this scene, a season later. This is one of the two moments in the S2 finale that made me realise Pete is my new (super lame) hero. Pete is loyal to Don. He loves Don. And Pete may be a schemer, a snitch, a snoop and a shit-stirrer but if Pete is in your corner then he is gold. I love how Don's eyes light up as he finally realises how useful Pete can be if he keeps him on side. And all the symbolism with the Cuban Missile Crisis *happy sigh* I like the idea that Pete might be sacrificing the promotion he wanted so badly two years ago. Personally I think Pete wants for Don to promote him and no-one else.
3) "Am I going to cry?"
Pete's reaction to the news that his father has died in a plane crash is such a sweet piece of tragicomedy. I love that Pete turned to Don when he didn't know what to do (mind you considering that Don's reaction to his mother dying of stomach cancer was "Good" and that Don's little brother committed suicide after he told him to get out of his life, Don might not be the best person to ask). And of course Dom tells Pete to do "what people do" because this is Mad Men where your pain and confusion must always be masked by societies expectations of you. Pete even asks "Am I going to cry?" like it is something he has to schedule.
2) "Have you ever been hunting, Peggy?"
Classic Mad Men scene! Considering I'm a vegetarian and a feminist, it is shocking how much I relish Pete's strange fantasy about gutting a deer and then getting some mysterious cabin-woman to cook it for him. I guess I love it because it is so obviously sexual and Peggy is so turned on that she needs to eat an extra big cherry danish to surpress her own raging desires. Pete is weird and depraved and Peggy finds it hot! I love that Pete/Peggy are two little perverts. In a perfect world they would live as a fetishy S&M couple, like the characters in The Secretary.
1) "I think you're perfect."
One of the most moving scenes I've seen on TV in a long long time. Or at least since "Resteraunts shaped like food". I challenge anyone not to feel for Pete Campbell as he declares his epic woobie love for Peggy before she kills him softly with the secret baby bombshell. Oh man, Pete is not going to take this well. He may be more crazy, tantrumy and passive-aggressive than ever in S3 (I can only hope). As long as he doesn't shoot himself because I'm not ready to lose another of my fandom beloveds (nah, they'll never kill Pete. He is too much of a glorious bastard to die).
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Date: 2009-04-29 10:32 pm (UTC)