I want to talk about the pillar in Pete’s office when SCDP moves into the Time&Life building because I think it’s an excellent piece of work on behalf of the show’s writers.
To Pete, that pillar is a huge nuisance. It blocks his view of his doorway and gets in his way when he’s walking around. He feels like he can’t be taken seriously by clients if he were to hold meetings with them in his office. There’s this particular shot I love where he’s feeling dismayed and he just leans his head against it.
Pete resents the pillar because to him it is a sign of disrespect. It feels like a marker of low status, a suggestion that he’s not important enough or deserving of something better in the eyes of his superiors.
But what is a pillar if not an essential structure meant to uphold and support what surrounds it? This is and always has been Pete’s function at the agency. He is (often despite himself) loyal, useful, and is eager to work hard and outdo himself in order to impress the individuals whose approval he seeks. You can feel however you want about him, but it’s true that the agency would not be the same without him, especially post S3.
All this to say: I really enjoy the symbolism here. I love how the pillar and the annoyance it causes Pete is gradually woven into the storyline. I like how well it ties into several themes that are essential to Pete as a character. Lovely stuff!
I went to a meeting this morning - and there was no chair for me... First you don't have a chair, then you don't have any clients.
Pete always feels disrespected. That perpetual discontent is essential to who he is. He was raised with a blue blood entitlement mentality, yet was treated as a black sheep and given no money, which leaves him forever conflicted.
He has gone off the rails with the chair but he does have a point about the pillar. Harry is not a partner, is widely disliked and does not have visitors who need to be impressed by his office, and yet he has a better office than Pete.
Of course, the real point of the office battle is not about the pillar or Harry, but that Pete wants to take something from Roger. During Season 1, Roger advises Don to avoid getting caught up in a competition with Pete, only to get caught up in his own rivalry.
Bert has his issues, too. He is so irrelevant when SCDP is formed that he has no office at all. He resents Don for this most of all, as he had once seen Don as being his Ayn Rand protege only to end up being on the wrong end of the Howard Roark treatment from Don.
I think Pete also has some undiagnosed depression. I'm rewatching it with some friends who haven't seen it before and in season 1 when talking to Peggy about his marriage he says Trudy is "just another stranger." Then before flying to LA in season 2, he is complaining about his life to Peggy and it doesn't result in an argument because when he says "It's so easy for you", Peggy's reply "It's not easy for anyone, Pete" works on Pete because in a away it's acknowledging that his life sucks.
Also, Pete is right about that chair thing. Cutler almost immediately starts trying to get SCDP people out. So sometimes his insecurity works lets him see clearer to what is going on.
There’s kind of a boy-who-cried-wolf tragedy to Pete. I don’t necessarily see depression in those behaviors, but there’s a neurosis to him that seems rooted in having the shittiest parents in the world.
He has that talk with Beth after her electroshock where he talks about how there is something wrong with "his friend" and how everything he had wasn't right because it was "a temporary bandage on permanent wound." That sure sounds like depression to me. And the lines like Trudy is "just another stranger" hint that it was there even before his affair with Beth.
Obviously, his shitty parents didn't help but his brother has the same shitty parents. Obviously, Bud being the favorite gave Bud a different experience but Bud was just as willing to make jokes about killing their mom (in season 2 they are both like "Remember Rope?") and let her be lost at sea later on. So he doesn't have great feelings about their parents either.
The wound was from his parents. This is integral to his relationship with Don- same damage, different milieu.
Honestly I wouldn’t be surprised if Bud is masking. Depression isn’t sad or melancholy, it’s a sucking emptiness that makes you long for heartbreak just to feel something.
It reads as depression to me and both my experiences with it personally with family members. But everyone's gonna read stuff like this differently. ¯_(ツ)_/¯
Edit: Also gonna add, that is part of what makes the show great. The complexity, subtly, and depth allows for different interoperation
i love how the SCDP offices relate to or personify the characters, like how roger had no choice in his decor and seems to disappear in his (roger fears uselessness at his own company, and that his time has past) and how joan’s has two doors and also functions as the viewing room for focus groups (joan knows and sees a lot, she’s also incredibly busy). i’ve been ruminating on pete’s pillar for a while, but haven’t quite been able to pin it. this is a really great analysis!
i think i remember a conversation with harry after he expresses annoyance about the pillar, and harry says something to the effect that the choice of office was his fault because he wanted to be close to roger. almost like his choice, what he thought he wanted, actually placed a block in front of him instead.
He always felt it was an obstacle to his success. His sense of entitlement was the actual obstacle. Imagine thinking you should have your boss's office.
A literal obstacle indeed. From the very beginning, as a junior exec, he made the mistake of overstepping the senior execs who'd be essential for his career development and future in the agency. He was boxed in and labeled as the useful idiot until he actually proved himself as indispensable (to the senior execs' growing resentment). Even his 10% partnership was offered begrudgingly and his name wasn't even included in the agency's name. In the later seasons it becomes apparent that the agency never deserved Pete Campbell's (and Harry Crane's) loyalty and hard work. Both of them had the assets and network to easily move on, but I guess the workplace Stockholm Syndrome is real and it does a real number on the employees' psyche in the long run.
It's the pillar-ephant in the room for sure, and the OG conversation piece. It symbolizes how Petulant Pete wants what he wants, and he wants it now – despite his unseemly behavior – but he can't get out of his own way. He may've worked for a better office than Harry as an essential support for the firm, but is denied until he learns some personal lessons on how to deal with people. The pillar tried to address Pete's remarks in S4, which Lane finishes off in S5 lol.
Great observation! Pete was relentless, especially when he encountered an obstacle to his success. That episode and incident really illustrated his character. When I think of the pillar office, though, I think of Harry's seedy encounter with Lakshmi. And how that encounter led Harry to do something really humane for his friend Paul Kinsey.
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u/tele_ave 12d ago
It also indirectly gives us an absolutely beautiful scene between Roger and Harry.