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Who is Bob Benson?

There are a million different theories spreading around the Internet regarding the identity of the omnipresent accounts guy Bob Benson on AMC’s Mad Men. Bob Benson is played by the handsome James Wolk (I originally wrote gorgeous, but felt that may have been too much, but look at that face, that hair, those shorts…those thighs!). I ran to the Internet after this week’s episode where Bob was just chillin’ at Joan’s apartment like old girlfriends heading out for a beach day and then telling Pete that his well being is an interest (with a cute little smile) to discover what theories were out there regarding his identity.

1. Bob Benson is just a nice guy. He’s there to balance out the other ‘bad guys’ on the show to show that there are actually nice people that work in the advertising world.
2. Bob is the “Falling Man” in the show’s opening credits.
3. He is a spy or some kind of double agent working for another agency. This is one of the biggest theories out there.
4. He is working for the FBI or an FBI Agent. This is another one of the bigger theories. He is placed in the agency to get info on Don Draper/Dick Whitman which could tie in to the season 6 art work. Seems far-fetched since he’s been cavorting with Joan.
5. Bob Benson is a young Don Draper. They both have short alliterative names with the same amount of letters. He has the ability to lie. We know this because he has mentioned his father being dead earlier in the season and then just this past week he was nursed back to health.
6. He is supposed to remind us of a young Pete. Attached to this theory is the idea that he will eventually hook up with Trudy.
7. A long lost son of Bert, Roger, or Don. This theory is dumb.
8. Bob Benson is Bobby Draper as an adult.

I suppose I’m hoping that Bob Benson is just a nice guy trying to make it in a tough industry and proving that nice, ambitious guys can get ahead too. 

I didn’t realize until now how much I’ve missed the LOST-esque theorizing and speculation of a good TV show.

I don’t know if Matthew Weiner has the taste for something metaphysical, but I’d like to believe that Bob Benson is the devil, come to collect on Don Draper’s Faustian life of being handsome, successful, and having sex with anyone he wants.

But sometimes I think they are trying to redeem Draper, despite how often he looks irredeemable.  The show’s moral center seems to waver because often they are telling us that no matter what, Don Draper is the best, and if they don’t realize they’re doing it, I think there’s a serious problem with that TV show.  There is at least one shot per episode that tells the viewer to worship at the altar of Draper and it can’t be anything but deliberate.

Anyway, maybe Bob Benson is the devil, hell-bent (sorry) on destroying his “creation” Don Draper (inhabiting the body of Dick Whitman).

They could also go the Godfather-esque (I just used up my -esque quota for the year) route of Don Draper casting Bob Benson off the building, not realizing he has become a greater monster than even he can contain.  I find this unlikely because Don is already a pretty terrible person and doesn’t have any ethical dilemmas about it, so why stop at murder?

Regardless, I am very happy with the increasing occurrence of people around Don telling him the uncomfortable truths about him, things that are truer than any of the lives he’s led.