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?

Looks like the candidates are pretty slim pickings, which would certainly be enough to bum Don out even if he didn’t have all of this other stuff going on in his life, but, man, he really tried to drag Peggy down to his mood, despite her unabashedly optimistic attitude about how well things are going for her. You’d think he’d be in better spirits, what with his CLIO nomination and all. (By the way, is this the first time we’ve heard mention of the CLIO Awards? It seems like it might be.) Then again, you’d also think he would’ve noticed after all of this time that Peggy isn’t the same shy girl who used to cower every time he raised his voice…although, in fairness to Don, she does tend to fall back into that old pattern when she’s around him.

Huh. I wasn’t expecting a flashback to the first time Don and Roger met. Don was selling furs…? I don’t remember hearing that tidbit of information before, either. Funny how Roger’s first reaction to one of Don’s ad slogans was to disparage it. And, holy cow, look at Joan, would you? She’s a red-headed Marilyn Monroe, especially with her hair done up like that. Man, when she dropped that fur coat, I found myself wishing “Mad Men” was on HBO…and then I laughed out loud when they cut back to Roger reminiscing about what I’m pretty sure I was imagining myself.

I couldn’t begin to guess how many bowls of Life I ate as a child, so I had a smile on my face as soon as I saw the familiar multi-colored letters of the cereal’s name…which is the exact opposite of the expression on Pete Campbell’s face when we first see him. He’s so serious these days, not unlike a li’l Don Draper circa Season 1. (Probably not a coincidence.) I liked Lane’s dismissal of Harry’s attempt at namedropping as well as Joan’s reminder to New Boy that he can get up and get his own damned drink. Peggy’s not going to waste her time drinking, though. Instead, she has to do battle with Stan, the firm’s new art director. What a jerk. Clearly, she’s going to end up sleeping with him…or kill him. One or the other.

And speaking of jerks, here’s Ted Shaw, coming up to Don and Roger in order to be his usual dickish self. As a Marx Brothers fan, I had to laugh at Roger’s description of the purported general as “Rufus T. Bullshit,” which was almost as funny as the expression on Pete’s face when he realized that he might have to work with Ken again. Great guest spot from Mark Moses, getting a chance to play a drunken Duck Phillips. The menage a trois of handholding between Don, Joan, and Roger was too cute, but…wow, they’re really going to go for broke and head straight from the CLIO Awards back to the office to meet with the people from Life? Ballsy, Don, real ballsy…especially when it’s Harry who’s stuck having to entertain the troops until he gets there. Good thing most everyone was a “Peyton Place” fan back then, I guess. That, and it’s a good thing that the SCD&P bar is always well stocked.

Or is that a good thing?

Roger’s whistle is clearly pretty damned wet as he makes the victory lap around the conference room, and Don’s obviously snockered when he begins his presentation. Really, the big question here is, “Are the men from Life equally drunk?” Actually, they’re pretty well on par with him, but it doesn’t change the fact that they aren’t quite on the same page as Don when it comes to his slogan, and, wow, his alternative suggestions just ain’t cutting it. The cut to Lane’s expression after “life is just a bowl of Life Cereal” was classic. But, wow, going with Danny’s crap “cure for the common…” idea? Wow, he is plastered…but just because he’s heading toward a blackout doesn’t mean that Peggy’s going to forget how he acted to her anytime soon. Or how Pete and Lane blew her off, for that matter.

Pete’s pissed about Ken being brought back into the firm…really pissed…and he’s throwing Lane’s previous gameplaying between the two of them right back in his face. But that was a long time ago, and Lane’s very much seeing the value in Pete and his abilities as an ad man now, explaining that the only reason he’s hiring Ken is that “he’s hungry and he has accounts.”

Peggy totally and utterly called Stan’s bluff, God love her…and, once again, another case where I really wish this show was on HBO. I would’ve thought that Peggy’s victory would’ve been slightly tainted by Stan calling her “the biggest bitch in the world,” but, no, she seems pretty proud of that title.

Don and Roger are enjoying their after-party with Joan, and the alcohol is continuing to flow freely, as are the dodgy comments from Roger’s mouth. Don sees his favorite blonde doctor and starts with the flirting again, but it looks like the CLIO is the only award he’s taking home tonight, as she shuts him down. Like that’s going to stop him: if there’s anyone who enjoys a challenge, it’s our man Don. Meanwhile, Roger’s a little flirty with Joan. Nothing like a little alcohol to put him back into his old mindset. It was a little sad, though, when she told him that he’d crossed the barrier between “lubricated” and “morose.” Cue another flashback. Wow, I can’t believe how eager Jon Hamm is playing Don in these scenes, grinning like a fool, but it’s interesting – if, when you think about it, unsurprising – that it takes alcohol for Don and Roger to first find themselves on even footing.

Cut back to the present (relatively speaking, of course), with Don gettin’ busy with the woman who’d asked about his relationship status at the after-party. After that stirring rendition of the National Anthem, it’s no wonder that he ends up sleeping ’til noon, but Betty is pissed that he’s two hours late to pick up the kids…on Sunday. What the hell happened to Saturday? And who the hell is this new blonde? Clearly, Don’s not entirely sure himself, and that’s worrying. It must’ve been a hell of a bender, though, if he gave her his real name (Dick). After sleeping the rest of Sunday away in solitude, he’s awoken by Peggy, reminding him that he swiped the slogan from Danny. And just like that, it feels like even Peggy has a better future with the firm than Don.

Meanwhile, back at SCD&P, Pete’s decided to avoid lunch with Ken in favor of a meeting in the conference room, informing him that he’d be happy to have Ken on his team. Ken thinks he’s kidding. He’s not. Surpisingly, Ken swallows his pride…and Pete feels the power coursing through his veins. And Don – who has lost his CLIO – finds his “little friend” Danny sitting in his office. He offers him $50 for the slogan. Danny wants a job. Don ups it to $100. Danny still wants a job…and Don can hardly argue the point. He ain’t happy about it, though, and Peggy is downright incredulous. Roger, however, is pleased that Don’s come around (even though he really hasn’t) and presents him with his CLIO, which he rescued from the bar, and we close on the reminder that just about every major decision made within Sterling Cooper…and, now, Sterling Cooper Draper & Pryce…has been made under the influence.

In closing, I have one question that hadn’t occurred to me ’til just now: where the hell was Bert Cooper during the CLIO Awards? Maybe he’s just getting too old for this shit…