In Mad Men’s season 3, episode 4, (”The Arrangements”), there is a cleaver reference to the film “Persona“.

After Betty’s Father has a stroke, Don convinces Betty’s brother that he will move in with them and that Betty will take care of him. His presence confronts Betty with some harsh realizations (mainly his impending death). Her strict, quiet manner leads her to repress her anger towards her father and the state she is forced into. Her true emotions are manifested in her daughter, Sally, as shown in this Persona reference.

During the previous and current episode, Sally and Gene (Betty’s father) are growing closer. they read a book before bedtime, sneak a little

ice-cream before dinner, and at one point he even lets her drive around in his Lincoln (which can be attributed to his growing dementia). At the end of the episode, a police officer informs Betty and Sally at the front of the house did he passed away while standing in line at the AMP. While Sally automatically screams and begin to cry at the sound of the news, Betty has only a second of an expected reaction (closing her eyes and about to fall) before she returns to her elegant self.

While sitting around the kitchen table, Betty, Don, her brother and his wife discuss the situation with not too subtle sarcasm. At the sound of their laughter, Sally bursts  into the kitchen screaming at the four for belittling the significant moment (obviously not in those words…).  Before getting the chance to console his upset daughter, Don is surprised to hear Betty yelling at her to quite down (”you’re hysterical!”) and to go watch TV in the other room. As she lays in front of the television set, she sees a news report from Vietnam, showing a Tibetan monk setting him-self on fire as an act of protest.

The concept of the scene is very likely derived from Ingmar Bergman’s masterpiece from 1966 – Persona. in the film, an actress, suffering from some sort of a mental break down, is unable or unwilling to talk anymore. She leaves to a summer house by the beach, accompanied by a nurse hoping to get better. As time passes the two develops a complex and dramatic relations, where each of their persona is being reflected by the other, reveling them to disturbing truths about themselves.

In Mad Men’s case, Sally represents Betty’s true voice, which she was taught never to express. more then that, she was never prepared to the realty of life (or death in this case), mostly, due to her parents and husband’s tendency to treat her as a child. like the characters in Persona, Betty is unable do deal with her own thoughts and emotions. they are expressed through someone else and silenced. To emphasize the connection to the film, the writers chose to let Sally watch the famous and shocking scene of the self torching of a Tibetan Monk. Which is similar to What Elisabeth (Liv Ulman) is watching shortly after her break down. In Persona, same as in Mad Men, this shot is a symbol for a disturbing moment of harsh Realization.

(© American Movie Classics Company LLC, Svensk Filmindustri)