Mad Men - Recap: Living in the Not Knowing

Of course, it isn't an episode that's solely about family, as there's an underlying theme about the illusion of choice. Peggy (Elisabeth Moss) spends nearly the entire episode being told that certain decisions are entirely up to her, yet it's hard for her to actually feel as though she has any agency whatsoever, since many of these choices are completely illusory. After Peggy delivers one of the best test pitches of her life, Pete (Vincent Kartheiser) recommends putting Don (Jon Hamm) on the final pitch instead, feeling that he conveys the authority the Burger Chef clients want from their ad. However, he tells Peggy that the final decision is up to her, which completely undermines her authority: she can say no and risk being seen as someone who isn't a team player, or she can say yes and end up sacrificing ownership of a strategy she worked hard to hone and perfect. Because, make no mistake about it, once Don pitches this strategy, it will be seen entirely as his work, since he is incapable of delivering any pitch without it coming across as unmistakably Don Draper in origin. But it's more than that with Peggy: after he practice pitch goes over so swimmingly, Pete asked Don his thoughts, and he backed up Peggy by saying it's exactly what the Burger Chef clients would want, since the family-oriented ad features a mother deciding on what to get for dinner before deferring authority to the fictional father. While Don didn't intend to undermine Peggy's strategy, he indirectly gave Pete the idea to have Don deliver the pitch as the authoritative father voice, with Peggy "bringing it home" as the mother. And so Peggy agrees to let Don do the pitch -- but it doesn't take long before she becomes convinced that there's a better idea out there for the Burger Chef strategy, even though everyone from Stan (Jay R. Ferguson) to Don himself assures her that the work is good.

Credit: AMC

The concept of a makeshift family is well-illustrated here in the frayed relationship between Peggy and Don. When Peggy calls Don at home to tell him his alternate pitch idea was "a loser," and to rail against him for constantly "undermining" her, she comes across a bit like a wounded child who is lashing out at her father for not really "getting" her. And it's a sentiment that's exacerbated when Don basically shrugs off the phone call. It isn't until Don comes in to work on a Sunday and finds Peggy still mulling over a new strategy that they decide to work through their countless issues, and it's during this meeting that several problems become apparent. For one, Peggy simply doesn't trust Don. She suspects he's going to "pitch the hell" out of her idea and cause her to fail in the process, and although Don tries to assure her that he's just here to do whatever she thinks is best, Peggy refuses to believe him. She wants reassurance from Don that he won't undermine her, but he can't offer her that reassurance. As Don notes, he could offer Peggy that reassurance all she wants, but she'll never truly know. But that's the job, "living in the not-knowing." It's one of those eye-opening turns of phrase that immediately provide a window into Don's process in advertising, as he goes on to explain that one of his chief rules is to give a client what you want, not what they want. Because, realistically, the client doesn't always know what they want. And you don't know either, really. The best you can do is try to navigate through the "not-knowing" to find something both sides can agree upon. And so they sit in Peggy's office and think through a variety of different approaches to the Burger Chef ad, from the mother being a working parent as well, to the mother having burned the roast. In a hilarious aside, Peggy posits that the mother could be dealing with all sorts of anxieties such as having run over the family dog, or having discovered her daughter is pregnant.

It's one of the more amusing asides of the episode, yet I don't think it's a coincidence that nearly every scenario proposed has the mother being the one responsible for the family having to eat out. The implication is that a mother's job is to keep the family together through the unifying influence of a homecooked meal, and that having to eat out at Burger Chef is a failure on her part to keep the family unit together. Yet, as Peggy notes, families like this don't even exist anymore. Who really sits down to eat dinner, to look at each other and smile and talk about their day in the glow of togetherness, away from the TV and other distractions? Peggy never had a childhood like this, and Don skirts the issue by saying he simply doesn't remember if he ever had such a family life. And that's when it hits them: Burger Chef can be the environment that the home no longer is due to the presence of the television. By presenting a clean, well-lit area at which the entire family can consume a relatively enjoyable meal, Burger Chef will be creating a facsimile of home. In theory, households won't need the uniting influence of a homecooked meal to bring the family unit back together: all they'll need is their nearest Burger Chef establishment. It's a genius strategy that serves as a mirror of sorts to Don and Peggy's relationship.

Credit: AMC

In much the same way it's implied that families need an external influence to force togetherness, Don and Peggy need the task of coming up with "the strategy" to force themselves together to where their relationship can begin mending. It's like a mini version of "The Suitcase," which forced Peggy and Don together under similar circumstances (and wound up being one of the best episodes of the series in the process). When they slow dance to Frank Sinatra's "My Way," which continues to play over the radio in the office, it seems like the mentor/student relationship has been restored. But it's not until later, when Peggy and Don take Pete to Burger Chef and sell him on their idea, that it becomes apparent just how the Don/Peggy partnership has been mended. When Pete questions the soundness of Peggy's new strategy, Don stands by her idea, proclaiming, "She's doing it the way she wants to do it. You want it right, or not?" And with that, Peggy lets out a brief smile, as she, Don, and Pete share a meal amid the panoramic view of Burger Chef, with families and singles alike just outside the window. Such a charming sequence, and exceptionally shot by director Phil Abraham as well. There are some who would argue that Don and Peggy's relationship is central to the show, more so than just about any other pairing in the series, and I would agree. So much of this show centers on the ways in which Don and Peggy, specifically, have or haven't changed. Sure, other characters have gone through certain changes, but not in such a way that you could chart the show around those evolutions. Don and Peggy represent the crux of a period that is always in transit, always inspiring change in people, even those most obstinate to change itself. How the drag of years work their way on Don and Peggy seems central to the overarching narrative of Mad Men, if there can be said to be one. Peggy lamenting that she's now 30 seems especially relevant, every bit as much as Don's recent struggles with feeling increasingly obsolete, and fighting to be seen as useful again. Freddie Rumsen told Don a few weeks ago to "Do the work," and it's a lesson he seemed to take to heart. Yet Peggy has always had that initiative, so it should be interesting to see what the two can accomplish when they're on the same page.

The rest of the episode is similarly exceptional. Bob Benson (James Wolk) is back from Detroit, and has brought several Chevy execs back with him. However, when one of them gets arrested for soliciting an officer, and is beaten to within an inch of his life for his trouble, Bob is suddenly forced to take stock of his lifestyle choices, given the danger inherent in being a gay man in a less tolerant age. This prompts him to try and cover up his lifestyle by making Joan (Christina Hendricks) his beard. He's as charming with her as ever, and proves to be a remarkable "uncle" to her son. But when he proposes marriage and presses the offer with a kiss, Joan knows all too well that it's just artifice. She tells Bob he shouldn't be with a woman, since they both know that's not what he wants, but Bob says he doesn't have a choice, since he's moving on to Buick, and they expect "a certain kind of executive." In Bob's mind, they'd be doing each other a favor: she would lend him an air of "family man" respectability, and he would offer her freedom, as well as a father for her son. Of course, in making this pitch, he goes about it all wrong, arguing that Joan is nearly 40 and this is the best offer she's likely to get. Yet Joan wants love, which is more than what Bob is offering, and so she sends him on his way, but not before discovering that Chevy is dropping Sterling Cooper & Partners for their own in-house team. Naturally, this storyline has the side effect of causing a freefall from within the agency, as they're scrambling to make up new business, and are faced with no alternative but to promote Harry Crane to partner, and to use his new position to draw in tech-related business.

Credit: AMC

Yet it's still not quite as weird as the business with Pete Campbell this week: while he seems like an entirely new, tirelessly optimistic man thanks to the California sunshine and the love of the vivacious Bonnie (Jessy Schram), things quickly come apart for him once he returns to New York on business (bringing Bonnie along to provide her with a mini-vacation -- which starts off with the happy couple joining the Mile-High Club, because of course). Pete returns home to discover that his daughter, Tammy, doesn't recognize him at all. And worse? Trudy (Alison Brie) has left her at home all day to be raised by the help. Pete becomes so vindictive about Trudy's neglectfulness -- particularly because he believes her time is being occupied by another man -- that he gets drunk and then ruins a cake she made by stuffing a beer bottle into it. It's a perversion of the family life Peggy and Don are trying to replicate with their Burger Chef ad, but it also reflects a certain inversion of fortunes for Pete, as Bonnie decides she's sick of feeling like second fiddle to Pete's work and his family, so she takes the next plane back to California -- a plan on which Megan (Jessica Pare) happens to be riding, herself having had a less than pleasurable experience back home, finding that Don misses the idea of her presence more than he actually misses her. Of course, at the very least, she's still doing better than poor Ginsberg, who lost his mind last week, and whom we learn is doing a little better in the hospital this week. Get well soon, buddy (of course, I don't actually expect we'll see him again unless A to Z gets canceled right out the gate).

"The Strategy" is a terrific episode that luxuriates in a hidden complexity, as the best Mad Men episodes do. It's not my favorite episode of the season so far, but it's damn close, owing to the compelling Don/Peggy storyline, and an ensemble that continues to be one of television's deepest benches. I seriously can't believe the finale is next week already. All the more reason to savor what's left.