Mad Men, “The Suitcase”

Mad Men continues to amaze. Sunday's episode was a tour de force for Jon Ham (Don Draper) and Elizabeth Moss (Peggy Olson), as well as the writers. It was also a huge risk, a show concentrating almost entirely on Don and Peggy. Throughout they argue, accuse, push each other's buttons, and finally, come through on the other side, at reconciliation, understanding, perhaps even love. (I'm not necessarily talking about romantic love, but I wouldn't rule that out in the future.) Don receives an urgent message from California early in the show and he knows what it's about: Anna is dead, or dying. He doesn't have the strength to return the call. Instead, he manipulates Peggy, who's birthday it is, into staying that evening and helping him with the Samsonite luggage campaign. Peggy winds up cancelling her plans with her boyfriend, who, rather than planning the romantic dinner she was expecting, has invited her entire family as a surprise. "We're supposed to be staring at each other over candlelight, and he invites my mother? He doesn't know me," she says. Later, when Don has called California and gets the confirmation that Anna has died, he describes her to Peggy as ""the only person in the world who really knew me." Peggy replies, "that's not true." Don and Peggy know and understand each other better than anyone else. They both live for the work, not only because they love it but because it's the only place they truly feel comfortable. "I know what I'm supposed to want," she says, "but it just never feels right, or as important as anything in that office." That's true for both of them, and the quote immediately brings to mind the child Peggy has given up for adoption and Don's visit to her when she was in the hospital. The two characters had been linked from the start but Don's visit, when he tells her to get out, that "this never happened," is one of the pivotal moments in the show's history for it defined and deepened the relationship between the two and set Peggy off on the path she is now on: a young, liberated woman more interested in her career than in marriage and family. That was not an attitude that was likely to gain widespread favor in 1965 but she has accepted its truth. For his part, Don, who is in a alcoholic spiral downwards, opens up to Peggy as he never has to anyone else. It's almost a shock when he begins to cry at the news of Anna's death. He's crying not just for her but for himself too. He knows that his life is a waste. Later in the morning, after Don shows Peggy the idea he's come up with for the suitcase, he holds her hand and gives her an almost pleading look of thanks, one that says, "I need you." Don sees in Peggy a path back to normalcy, to salvation perhaps. Will Peggy Olson save Don as he once saved her?