Tonight’s episode of “Mad Men” was one of the strongest offerings of the season, once again focusing on the unique relationship between Don and Peggy that’s been a hallmark of the series since the very beginning. He used to be the lord of the manor and she used to be as meek as a mouse, but Peggy’s come a long way, baby, and Don…well, he’s still got his title, but his power would seem to be somewhat on the wane. This week, the two went head to head, and while neither necessarily came out a victor in the end, they both learned a great deal about each other in the long run.
First, a look around the office. The gang’s all geared up to watch Sonny Liston battle Cassius Clay for the second time in their respective boxing careers, which places the precise date of the episode as May 25, 1965. As it happens, it’s also Peggy’s birthday, and since she’s 26, that means she was born in 1939…and, as it happens, on the same day as Sir Ian McKellen and the late Dixie Carter of “Designing Women” fame. Just an FYI. Before they can embark on their fun-filled fight extravaganza, however, they’ve got to present Don with their pitch for Tourister, which involves the then-mostly-unknown Joe Namath. It’s pretty funny, but Don all but sneers at it, saying, “Endorsements are lazy,” once again confirming that, for all of his gifts as an ad man, he’s destined to become a dinosaur sooner than later if he doesn’t change his attitude. And make no mistake: Don does have an attitude, snapping at Peggy, “I’m glad this is an environment where you feel free to fail.”
Ouch.
Peggy retreats to her office, where we find that good ol’ Duck has remembered Peggy’s birthday, which is more than Don’s don. Duck’s present to her: business cards with her name on them as well as a possible new title, provided that she’s willing to join forces with him. It sounds like a great idea at first, with his pitch about how it’s going to specialize in women’s products and his excitement over the likelihood that Tampax will be one of their first clients, but then things start to go south as it becomes evident that Duck’s been let go from his firm, probably because of his severely increased drinking habits. Peggy shifts from excitement to concern, Duck moves from business into personal, and when he begins to drunkenly plead with her to see him, she takes the opportunity presented by her co-workers entering her office and hangs up. I’m sure I’m not the only one who knew we’d see Duck again before episode’s end, but I can’t say as I quite expected to see him doing what he tried to do.
But we’ll get to that.
Although it didn’t have anything to do with his earlier annoyance, Don soon has a decidedly legitimate reason to be in a bad mood: he receives an urgent message to call Stephanie in California. Stephanie, of course, is Anna’s niece, and Don knows full well that the only reason she’d be calling him is to tell him that Anna has succumbed to her cancer, which is why he can’t bring himself to call her. Instead, he decides to blow off the Liston / Clay fight – much to Roger’s annoyance – and drown his sorrows in the Tourister campaign…oh, and also in lots and lots of liquor.
Peggy, meanwhile, is preparing to leave for her romantic birthday dinner with her boyfriend when she has a close encounter with Trudy Campbell in the ladies room. I thought sure Peggy would tense up, but, no, she keeps pretty cool through the conversation…right up until Trudy offered the pitying closing comment, “26 is still very young.” Another “ouch” line, to be sure. Before Peggy departs, she makes the foolish mistake of swinging by Don’s office, something the others on the team know is a bad idea and pointedly avoid going anywhere near. Sure enough, Don drafts her to stick around and come up with some better ideas for the Tourister campaign, forcing her to call her boy and tell him that she’s going to be late for dinner, at which point we discover (even if she doesn’t yet) that he’s tried to surprise her by inviting her entire family out for the dinner as well. Whoops.
Peggy presents her new ideas. None of them meet Don’s approval. She’s pissed. He’s pissed. Things only get worse between them, and it descends into a yelling match, in no small part because Don’s continuing to toss back drinks. Peggy’s boyfriend calls to find out where the hell she is, and she tells him she’s finally going to be heading to dinner…but, then, she changes her mind and decides that she isn’t. Soon, there’s an explosion of emotion in the offices of Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce, with Peggy’s boy breaking up with her over the phone (and in front of her family, no less!), an angry bitchfest between Peggy and Don over who deserves credit for what, and Don screaming at the top of his lungs, “You should be thanking me every morning when you wake up, along with Jesus, for giving you another day!” It’s brutal, but it’s been building for several episodes now, and it’s good to finally see these two get it out of their systems.
What brings Don and Peggy back together into civil conversation is, of all things, a tape recorder. In the process of trying to record his ideas, Don stumbles upon one of Roger’s memoir sessions, and he finds them so funny that he calls Peggy back into his office to listen. We really only learn two things of note – Mrs. Blankenship used to be quite the hellcat, and Bert Cooper may be working with limited means below the belt – but it breaks the ice between Don and Peggy once more and results in the two of them going out for dinner and, later, drinks. The subsequent conversations between Peggy and Don were sweet and enlightening, with a lot of lovely little moments, including Peggy’s awkward laugh when Don tells her how his father died and Don’s warning comment, “You don’t want to start giving me morality lessons.” I knew that Don had visited Peggy in the hospital, but was it ever actually clarified outright that he knew that she’d had a baby? He obviously does, but I just didn’t remember that he’d been definitively aware of it.
You know, you just don’t get enough full-fledged vomiting sequences on television these days, but Don’s was a doozy, though what I think I loved most about it was Peggy’s look of legitimate fascination when she looked over at the urinals. Lord knows how long we would’ve had to endure the sounds of Don’s retching, however, if Duck hadn’t turned up to try and take a dump in Don’s office, an event made all the funnier by the fact that he was actually in Roger’s office when he was trying to accomplish the act. Duck definitively confirms himself to be a dick by besmirching Peggy’s reputation, while Don, God bless him, steps in and defends Peggy’s honor. Not very well, admittedly, but you have to give him credit for trying. I was shocked when Peggy left with Duck, but I breathed a sigh of relief when she soon returned, explaining that she’d gotten rid of him.
“How long are you going to go on like this?” Peggy asks Don. At least until he makes that phone call to California. After a long night spent with his head in Peggy’s sympathetic lap, dreaming of Anna’s ghost, Don wakes up and finally makes his call to confirm that which he’d already known…and when he gets off the line, he immediately breaks down in tears. Peggy is stunned at first, then quickly sobers and becomes sympathetic. Through his tears, Don claims that the person who has died was “the only person in the world who really knew me,” to which Peggy replies, “That isn’t true.” I think it’s notable that, true or not, Don does not argue this point.
Although Don tells Peggy to go home and get some rest, she instead goes to her office and crashes on the couch. Bad move: her boorish co-workers wake her far sooner than she’d have preferred. She finds her way back to Don’s office and is taken aback at how fresh he looks, but we’re not: he’s vented his emotions, he’s sobered up, and he’s got a great new idea for Tourister. She’s not quite as enthusiastic about it as he is, but she quickly concedes its worth, leading to the sweetest handhold between two TV characters that I’ve seen in a long time.
You know, in Season 1, it would’ve been too easy for Don to sleep with Peggy, but in Season 4, given how much she’s matured as a person and how far down the ladder he’s fallen, call me crazy, but I actually think these two characters would be a potentially perfect fit for each other.
What say you?
