Yesterdayland

Mad Men

Episode Report Card

Couch Baron: A- | 3 USERS: A

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Yesterdayland

By Couch Baron | Season 5 | Episode 6 | Aired on 04.22.2012

In a hurry? Read the recaplet for a nutshell description!

Peggy's preparing for a big Heinz presentation, which is putting stress on her relationship with Abe. Don and Megan bail frivolously (well, it's really his decision), increasing Peggy's anxiety, and when Raymond, the Heinz guy, hems and haws about Peggy's pitch, she gets in his face about how he doesn't know what he wants, leading to her getting fired from the account. Needing an escape, she goes to the movies and gets stoned with a random dude, eventually yanking him right there, and considering it's a wildlife movie, they're watching, you can only imagine what might have happened if the content had been a little racy. Ginzo's dad shows up to the office, and Peggy, upon her return, sees him; later, Ginzo uses a narrative conceit to tell Peggy that he was born in a Nazi camp, and the father she met found him in a Swedish orphanage when he was five. Peggy, much like the audience, is all "Whoa" about that revelation.

From here, the timeline of the episode goes non-linear. In flashback, Roger tries to get Don to take a business trip with him to the flagship Howard Johnson's in Plattsburgh, but Don decides to take Megan instead. Turns out Roger was trying to get out of a dinner party thrown by Jane's therapist (BESS ARMSTRONG, Patty Chase from My So-Called Life), and they all take LSD together. I wouldn't have guessed Roger would be the first regular on the show to drop acid, and I admit I can't imagine what I was thinking. Roger's individual trip doesn't have too much to do with tripping – Jane's is far more believable -- but it's still hilarious and John Slattery sells the crap out of it, and their later conversation is honest and allows them to break up with a minimum of animosity; even though Jane makes an attempt at disavowing the sentiment the morning after, the relationship is dunzo.

Seeing the earlier scene from a different angle, Megan's reluctant to leave before the Heinz presentation, and even though Don of course gets his way, Megan stays preoccupied with wondering how it went, and eventually expresses resentment toward Don for not allowing her to value her work. This leads to an ugly fight over orange sherbet which culminates in him leaving her at a Howard Johnson's, and given that he fell in love with her over a milkshake at a similar type of dining establishment, this seems like a pretty plausible and symmetrical end to this marriage. However, despite Megan pushing buttons of Don's he never knew he had, he returns, only to find Megan has disappeared without a word; this leads to a phone call to Peggy (which we saw earlier), which leaves him sweaty and frantic. Eventually, he returns to New York to find Megan already back at the apartment; he kicks in the door and chases her around the place, and it's as sad and unsexy as it is passionate; even though they give each other a fond smile at work later, you're not in the game if you haven't made a guess as to how many episodes are left for this marriage.

And the dissolution of same might be for the best, as when Don comes in, Bertram informs him he's been on "love leave," and as such hasn't been doing nearly enough at work. Roger then sticks his head in and opines that it's going to be a beautiful day, and surely this is going to drive Bertram's point home. Because surely even lovesick Don knows who's the one to trust between Roger and Bertram, wouldn't you think?

Want more? The full recap starts right below!

Peggy -- in her slip with her hair in clips -- is rummaging in drawers as she asks Abe, with some impatience, if he ate her "Violet Candy," which she says she needs; since she says Don gave it to her before a presentation, I'm guessing she sees it as a good-luck charm, otherwise I'm going to have to have a little chat with her about nutritional habits. Abe is not overly concerned with such matters and suggests seeing The Naked Prey that evening, which is, as he describes it, "that stupid movie about the guy being hunted in Africa." I guess one good thing about the show taking place several decades ago is that when it pokes fun at something, there's a good chance that anyone directly involved with it who might take offense is dead. Abe adds that Cornel Wilde, the lead, apparently wrestles a boa constrictor while naked, which sounds "pretty dirty." Well Abe, it's going to be far from the dirtiest thing we associate with this movie before the episode's over. Peggy is too preoccupied with the Heinz presentation to discuss social plans, which gets Abe into a snit and causes his Brooklyn accent to become even more pronounced than usual; Peggy amps up the hostility by asking if he doesn't want to see her anymore, to which he complains -- probably with more justification now -- that she's always looking to "push the button on this whole thing." Things do not improve from here as you can imagine, given that Abe's parting shot is "I'm your boyfriend, not a focus group! Have a shitty day." It's common wisdom that you shouldn't fight while under the influence of alcohol, but I think you should also take care to avoid altercations when the participants haven't yet had coffee. Also: Done!

Peggy enters the copywriters' room, in which Ginzo is wrapping up a call that, while less acrimonious, definitely bears some similarities to the one Peggy just had, prompting Peggy to offer once Ginzo's off that she just had the same conversation. Ginzo: "No, I think they were different, because yours was private." And while you can't blame Peggy for entering their shared space, I think the point is that he's trying to discourage her from such conversational topics. Of course, Ginzo trying to tone anyone else down is hilarious in a whole other way, but before Peggy can point that out, Stan bursts in complaining that he's late because "there's no place to pee in this city." Another way Starbucks has enriched our lives. Megan then enters saying how she saw the funniest thing outside their building -- a bunch of students were asking how to get to Broadway. Stan's like, "..." in response, but Megan explains that it's just like "the campaign" and they could have cast it right there. So there's no artwork in whatever campaign is using this idea, I guess. Glad I could bring my Holmes-ian powers of deduction to the situation. Don appears and asks Megan for a word, because God forbid he allow her to work for two minutes and when she disappears, Stan's like, "She goes to Casting now?" Well, she was almost an actress and also, Peggy defends her on this point, saying Megan's been her junior on this presentation. Stan then tells some story about a large-breasted date of his named Salome that, I trust, you will forgive me for skipping over and then Peggy finds the candy she accused Abe of eating and sighs in relief that she couldn't take one more omen of doom.

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