Good God, y’all. OK, first: I meant to write up last week’s episode, I really and truly did, but then I didn’t, and you know, it’s just as well because I like the way last night’s episode, “The Suitcase,” provided some sort of continuity and maybe even closure to last week’s “Waldorf Stories.” But before I get into “The Suitcase,” I do want to say a few things about “Waldorf Stories”:
1. I absolutely, totally LOVED the whole “When Sterling Met Draper” story, whether it’s mostly fact or mostly fiction (Doesn’t really matter, does it?). LOVED that Don got his job in advertising by pretending that Roger had offered him the job (at least, that’s my take on what happened. I think it’s open for debate, but I figured the look on both their faces in the elevator at the end was indicative that Don had pulled something over on Roger).
2. Don’s lost weekend was absolutely, totally cringeworthy, but I admire the way it was done. At the time I wondered whether this would be Don’s rock bottom, but I wasn’t counting on it.
3. Peggy is awesome. I got a huge kick out of watching her call Stan’s bluff, stripping down to nothing. My sense of her is that she’s spent the first 23 or so years of her life being rather prudish and doesn’t WANT to be that way, but isn’t sure of how to be any different until she’s confronted with other options.
4. Welcome back, Ken! I loved this story, the great scene between Pete and Lane, the equally compelling scene between Pete and Ken in which Pete basically says, “Can you work FOR me?” and Ken says fine, except that smile on his face could be interpreted as “I’m just going to smile and nod, bide my time, and then GUT YOU LIKE A FISH.”
Now. “The Suitcase.” Or as I started to call it halfway through, “Six Rounds of Don vs. Peggy.” I love watching these two so very much and I was thrilled that most of the episode it was just Elizabeth Moss and Jon Hamm together, but I have to say that at the start of the episode I was wondering whether the writers had a bet going to see how hateful they could make these characters and still keep us watching. Harry Crane is such a . . . such a . . . such a DICK right now. And Mrs. Blankenship’s racist remark about throwing a dollar bill out of her window is probably in keeping with her character, but ugh! I was afraid the whole episode would be uncomfortable pants.
I was also not happy to see Duck’s return, because it did set up Peggy’s choice as between the drunk she was sleeping with and the drunk she’s working for, and when has Peggy ever NOT chosen Don? It seemed a little contrived to me, but then there were a couple other things that this story line did: first, is it me or did the first conversation between Duck and Peggy imply that they were still occasionally sleeping together? That maybe it had been a while but Peggy wasn’t being exclusive with Mark? Second, it would seem as though Duck’s drunken shenanigans at the Clio award ceremony led to his dismissal from Gray — I don’t believe for a second that he willingly left. Third, his present of business cards to Peggy — dubbing her the creative director of the new agency he just made up — proves that he, like Mark, doesn’t know Peggy at all. And she sees through his ploy, tells him she can’t take the offer seriously because he’s been drinking, which of course he denies, while he’s holding a scotch. I could have done without the final confrontation between them, the fight between two drunks clearly meant to parallel the Liston-Clay bout, but it is the only time that Duck’s had the upper hand with Don, so fine.
Besides, the verbal sparring between Don and Peggy was far more captivating, even surprising at times. I was riveted by these scenes — the arguing, the yelling, the retreat to their separate corners, the sharing, the understanding. I also liked the smaller moments — Peggy starting to take her coat off in her office and then thinking twice, not willing to let Don think she’s ready to stay for as long as it takes to get the work done, all the back and forth about whether it mattered that it’s Peggy’s birthday — first it does, then it doesn’t, then Don’s buying her dinner . . . none of it is logical taken together, but it’s an accurate portrayal of how two people who’ve been working together as long as they have, who are so alike in so many ways yet not entirely equals, relate to each other.
And the tape! Oh, the TAPE! So THAT’S who Dr. Lyle Evans is! How hysterical has Matthew Weiner been for the last couple weeks after everyone had an Internet freakout because Lyle Evans isn’t a real person from the 60s and it seemed as though the Mad Men writers were having a joke at our expense? Huge payoff, there. Brilliant. As is the idea that Roger and Mrs. Ida “Queen of Perversions” Blankenship had a thing. And this shared moment between Don and Peggy, his olive branch to her, heralds in a new age for them — a more open and trusting relationship on both personal and professional grounds. There were a few surprising moments in that — I didn’t expect Peggy to tell Don that everyone in the office thinks they’ve slept together, or that her mother thinks Don fathered Peggy’s child (which never occurred to me, but of course she would think that); neither did I expect her to hint that she knows what happened with Allison. And I would not have expected Don to break down in front of Peggy AND allow her to comfort him. These are people who don’t know everything about each other but now know ENOUGH to really get each other. I am 98% sure that I am not the only person who cried a little bit at Don’s vulnerability, and at the final scene between them, where Don takes Peggy’s hand and then Simon and Garfunkel’s “Bleeker Street” starts up. Good GOD, y’all. Great episode, or GREATEST episode?
(James Poniewozik writes about Don and Peggy’s relationship far more elegantly done than this. Go read it.)
Random observations:
* Not really random, but what do you think the odds are that Don’s going to sober up a bit now? Or maybe Anna’s death (RIP, Anna) will send Don even further into the bottle? The impression I got by the end of this episode was that maybe this would be his turning point, that maybe things would get better for him now, but I think it could go either way. I want him to be better, so I could be projecting.
* Another small moment, but Peggy’s “Hello, Ma” slayed me. And her “How long are you going to go on like this” to Don slayed me in a different way.
* I like that outside of her scenes with Don, Peggy’s almost one of the guys now. So that when she helps Don to the bathroom there’s a second layer of funny to her hesitation over which bathroom to bring him to, and her sort of awed/disgusted look at the urinals. She may not have been on a plane ever, but that Peggy Olson is going places!
* “Yes, I’m that important.” Oh, Mark. That was funny, but you’re really not.
* When Peggy says “I know what I’m supposed to want but it just never feels right,” I thought that was a nice little callback to Dr. Faye’s remark that her job is all about figuring out the balance between what people want and what’s expected of them.
* “Why is there a dog in the Parthenon?” “That is a roach. Let’s go someplace darker.” — First mice, then roaches. Next week: bed bugs!
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