- Don runs into someone from his past. Joan makes a decision, and Roger gives Peggy extra work.
- Three news items affect the SCDP staff and their families. The first news item is the rape and murder of nurses in Chicago. Although Henry's mother Pauline, who is babysitting Sally while Henry and Betty are on a business trip, doesn't believe such news stories should be heard or read by someone of Sally's age, it ultimately becomes a meeting point for the two in what is otherwise an antagonistic relationship. The second news items is the general race riots taking place across the country. This news item initiates a meeting point between Peggy and Dawn, the two seeming outsiders at SCDP. And the third news item is an airlines mechanics strike which has a different affect on Mohawk than it does on its larger competitors. As Mohawk is still operating through the strike, they continue on with their other business such as their advertising. This news catches Roger off guard, he who has to think fast or get someone else to think fast to get a pitch ready from scratch over the weekend. Meanwhile, Michael pulls a stunt at a client pitch meeting which threatens his job. Joan is eagerly awaiting the arrival home of Greg, who has completed his tour of duty. Greg comes home with some unexpected news which results in Joan making a decision of her own on the matter. And Don is chastised by Megan for once again being approached by one of his former or perhaps not so former paramours, this time a woman named Andrea. Don, who has a nasty summer cold, believes he has dealt with the issue of Andrea, especially if he can't hold off his adulterous urges.—Huggo
- Struggling with the flu, Don is taken aback when someone he used to see flirts with him in the elevator with Megan standing beside him. Megan doesn't take it well and he assures her that all of that is in the past. At work, Roger Sterling pays Peggy Olson to work late on a Friday night to come with a campaign for Mohawk Airlines who they are seeing on Monday morning. She finds someone sleeping on the couch in Don's office. New employee Michael Ginsberg comes up with a good campaign for a shoe company but almost blows it at the presentation. Joan meanwhile is thrilled that her husband Greg is finally coming home on leave. He has news for her that forces her to make a difficult decision.—garykmcd
- "Mad Men" - "Mystery Date" - April 8, 2012
Each of tonight's storylines was either directly or thematically linked to a real, and truly horrific, crime. In July 1966 Richard Speck systematically murdered eight student nurses in Chicago. A ninth woman hid under a bed and escaped the fate of her friends.
So with that piece of information ...
We open on Don and Megan boarding the elevator at work. He is coughing intensely and is clearly sick. A woman boards the elevator and recognizes Don and moves in on him. (Megan had been standing far away from him because he was sick.) She gets flirty with Don and calls him her "bad penny" which keeps turning up. Her name is Andrea and she's a freelancer writer he used to work with. (And she is played by Madchen Amick.) He introduces her to Megan and she backs off. Megan then pouts about this. Don says it was six years ago and Megan has nothing to be upset about.
Later in his office Sally calls to complain about grandma Pauline who she hates, in part, because she's keeping her from watching TV on her summer vacation. Don tells her to go get some sun so she doesn't get rickets in that haunted mansion. He coughs and she asks how he is. He says he's fine.
Stan and Ginsberg come in and show him their work-up for Butler shoes. It seems pretty solid. He waves them off and says it's fine.
Later in the breakroom Megan encounters Don while he is looking for aspirin. He apologizes for the awkwardness and says it was a long time ago and he was unhappy. She says he can't blame it all on Betty and that it makes her nervous and embarrassed. He says he married her and will be with her until he dies, which might be this afternoon since he's so sick and is this how she really wants to spend his last hours? She smiles and tells him to go home and lie down.
First, he has to go to the Butler presentation. It goes swimmingly, the suits like the concept and the tag line: "You'll never tell, they'll never be able to." They think Ginsberg is a genius. Don lets out a hearty cough at this. The Butler guys think the girl should be European looking, maybe French. They're sold. That is until Ginsberg tells them about a previous pitch they had in mind that involved Cinderella. He explains, vividly about her running down a dark street with just one shoe, a hand reaching out to grab her in the dark, a handome man proffering her other shoe. She knows it might not be safe but she wants to be caught. Ginsberg says they thought it was too dark. The Butler guys, however, love it and ask "why don't we do that?" Later, at a bar, Don is livid saying he wants to throw Ginsberg in front of a cab and to never do that again "or else." Don leaves. Ginsberg decides that Don is "such a decent guy". Ken is aghast that Ginsberg doesn't realize that he almost just got fired.
Don finally heads home, feverish and ill. He lies down and the doorbell rings. It's Andrea. She wants a quickie. Instead he ushers her out through the service elevator. But like a bad penny she turns up again later that night saying she knows he wants her. He succumbs to temptation. When they're done she tries to make a date for another tryst but he says this was a one shot deal. She says she knows it isn't because he's a sick, sick man. He takes umbrage at this and chokes her to death. He then pushes her body under the bed. Of course, this was all a fever dream. The next morning Megan arrives in a halo of light with breakfast for him. She says she was with him all night and was worried about him. He looks at her and tells her she never has to worry about him.
In the storyline that introduces the murder theme, Peggy's old friend Joyce arrives. She comes bearing Life magazine photos of the crime scene. Peggy, Stan, Megan, and Ginsburg all look at the grisly contact sheet, transfixed. Only Ginsberg is disgusted at their reactions, calling them all sickos. (This is, at least implicitly, where he got some of the inspiration for the Cinderella pitch.)
Later, Roger comes to Peggy in a panic. Pete has informed him that Mohawk will be looking forward to a campaign presentation on Monday. It's Friday. Because they have worked out a side-deal with the mechanics Mohawk hasn't been affected by the airline strike and want to capitalize on the fact that they are in fact flying.
Roger, of course, has done nothing to prepare. He comes looking for Ginsberg, who is already gone. He then bribes Peggy to put the campaign together over the weekend. He initially offers her ten bucks but she knows he's desperate and exploits it to get another $400 out of him to keep his secret.
She works late into the night and then hears a noise and gets nervous. She goes to investigate and finds Dawn, Don's secretary, sleeping on his couch. Her brother has instructed her not to take the subway since there have been riots all summer and a taxi won't take her above 96th St. and she lives in Harlem. Peggy insists that Dawn stay at her place. They proceed to have a few beers and share a few secrets. (Dawn notes that everyone in the office drinks a lot when Peggy admits she's drunk.) Dawn asks Peggy not to tell Don about her sleeping there. Peggy says she won't saying they have to stick together. Peggy says she knows it's not really the same situation but she says she was the only one like her at SCDP for a long time so she knows it's hard for Dawn. She asks Dawn if she wants to be a copywriter. Nope, Dawn likes her job. Peggy asks if Dawn thinks Peggy acts like a man. Dawn says she figures that Peggy has to a little. Peggy says she tried but doesn't know if she has it in her or if she wants to. It's time for bed and Peggy sets Dawn up on the couch.She then shoots a look at her purse which is full of Roger's bribe money. Dawn sees Peggy eyeing her purse. Peggy is embarrassed and clears the beer bottles on the table near her purse as a cover. The next morning there is a note from Dawn thanking Peggy for her hospitality.
At the old haunted mansion, Sally is still stuck with Henry's awful mother Pauline because Henry and Betty can't get a flight back from Buffalo because of the airline strike. We learn a lot about Pauline from this visit. As she reads about the Chicago nurse murders in the New York Post, Sally sees the headlines but Pauline won't let her read the paper. Later, she gossips about them on the phone within earshot of Sally. (She is almost always eating when we see her, too.) She is so strict with Sally and Sally tries to explain that she's a good person. Pauline doesn't dispute that Sally is nice but she says she just needs discipline -- which Betty clearly isn't providing -- so that Sally can act like an adult. Sally asks if Pauline's mother was strict. She says it was her father and then tells an awful story about how her father once kicked her so hard when she was a child that he knocked her across the room into some furniture, saying "that's for nothing, so look out." Sally points out that this was not very nice. Pauline agrees but says it was, in fact, valuable advice. Later, in bed, Sally reads about the nurse murders in the newspaper under the covers with a flashlight. She freaks herself out and goes to Pauline in the living room and says she can't sleep. She admits she read the paper and asks why that man did that. Pauline tells her a lurid narrative of how it probably happened and how their short uniforms probably stirred the killer's desire. Now Sally's really scared. Pauine says not to worry since that can't happen while she's got her burglar alarm and she holds up a butcher knife. She gives Sally half a Seconal and takes the other half herself. The next morning Henry and Betty come home and can barely rouse Pauline on the couch. Betty calls out for Sally who is sleeping under the couch.
In the night's final storyline, Joan is preparing to welcome Greg home. She is anxious and her mother, Gail, is simultaneously helping and not helping, taking care of the baby but filling Joan's head with visions of his sleeping with other women in Vietnam.
He finally arrives home. Gail takes the baby so Joan and Greg can "visit a spell." They visit the bedroom.
Later, Greg sits her down in the kitchen and drops a bombshell. He's going back to Vietnam, not for 40 days as originally scheduled but for a whole year. Joan is understandably upset. He says they have ten days together and shouldn't waste them because he needs to store up as much of her as possible. Later, at a tense dinner with his folks and Gail, he finally tells Joan the truth after his mother Ruth lashes out at Joan for not talking him out of it. It turns out that he doesn't have to go back, he's actually volunteering. This changes everything. They return to the apartment and fight and she points out that he shouldn't have made a decision like that without her. He leaves in a huff to have a drink with the boys. Gail says it's a year, Joan can do it and she will help. Joan simply says no. The next day she tells Greg that she wants him to go after all. In fact, she wants him to go and never come back. He argues that the work he's doing in Vietnam is important, that he oversees a staff of 20 doctors who respect him. She says she's glad that the army makes him feel like a good man because she's sick of doing it because he's not a good man, never was, and he knows what she's talking about. He says if he walks out the door that's it. She says "That's it." He leaves and slams the door... Gail enters. Joan simply says to her mother "It's over." Later, we watch Joan watch Kevin as her mom naps on the bed beside them.
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