In an attempt to be accurate and insightful for this week’s recap, I took some notes while watching “The Suitcase." This is probably a manifestation of my inability to let go of my laptop (or my identity as a grad student). Or it might be a manifestation of my desire to be something I’m not (a person whose job it really is to watch these shows). Latent unfulfilled procrastinating desires aside, looking back over my notes, I realize that they look a lot like the sneak peeks AMC shows at the end of each episode: a bunch of one-liners that are often witty but make almost no sense out of context.

And this week's episode was all about context.

A very specific context (May 25, 1965): the day of Ali v. Liston II, the controversial rematch that ended even more controversially with a so-called “knockout” and a photograph of Ali for the ages. The fight set the tone for an episode full of “bloodsport” (“My father loves Bloodsport”—thanks, Trudi ) and shocking moments. Many of these shocking moments were supplied by Don and Peggy. These two have a lot of their own issues to work out, individually and collectively, and this week they (eventually) worked them out in their own personal ring. Although they begin the episode by bickering about Samsonite, the fight soon escalates into name-calling by Don and passive-aggressive withholding of vital information by Peggy (it’s her birthday, and she has a “romantic date” with her boyfriend, who is waiting for her at a restaurant). While Don and Peggy try to hammer out the ad, Don gets progressively drunker and Peggy get progressively “madder,” first at him, then at her boyfriend, then at her mother, then at her boyfriend for inviting her family to dinner to surprise her and for treating her like her mother (and agreeing with her mother—not such a good idea in this case).

What was supposed to be her birthday dinner ends with the worst and possibly most painful breakup scene since the infamous post-it note break-up on Sex and the City. To be dumped by your girlfriend, in front of her family who you invited to surprise her for a birthday dinner. Cold. I never really liked Mark, but even he deserves a break-up in person. Some might say it was mutual; after all, he tells her to have a nice life. But we know that Peggy was the instigator here: “I’m sorry, but no one asked you to do this,” she tells Mark. And so, as Mark predicted, Peggy chooses Don. Peggy concedes this round to Don: “You win. Again.”

But their match isn’t over, and there’s no clear winner, yet. After she confronts him about her resentment over his winning the Cleo, he tells her in so many words to suck it up—she’s still young, she’ll have her day in the sun, but until that time, her ideas are his, and she gets money in return. Peggy tries unsuccessfully not to let Don see her cry, escaping to the bathroom where earlier, a very pregnant Trudy told her, “You know, 26 is still very young.” You know, because every girl should want to be spending her days in a state of pregnant bliss, sleeping and peeing her life away until the little bundle of joy arrives. Ouch.

Luckily, in round two (or is it three?) of Peggy v. Don, Peggy acknowledges that Mark and the life with him that she could have had isn’t what she actually wants. Like Don, she feels like the people who should be closest to her know her the least: “He [Mark] doesn’t know me. And it’s not my fault.” It’s debatable whether or not this is or is not her fault—after all, she’s the one who lied to Mark about her virginity and tried to fit herself into the mold of who she thought he wanted her to be. But she’s finally realizing that it doesn’t have to be her problem anymore that he couldn’t understand her for who she is or wants to be. She just has to be that person for herself.

Speaking of knowing thyself, nothing’s more funny (to Don) than the humiliation that is Roger’s personal autobiography. I loved that this episode’s serious moments were interspersed with moments of high drama and sometimes comedy (the secretary, the autobiography, the mouse, the Duck), but the audience was always drawn back into the vortex that is Peggy and Don’s relationship. What begins as a conversation about how Peggy and Don never have personal conversations becomes a multi-staged personal conversation over the course of the rest of the episode. We have to pause here to acknowledge that we all “finally” know the identity of Dr. Lyle Evans. Now, we just have to figure out what Bert’s testicle-removing procedure was called (was it an “orchiectomy”?). I'm not going to look that up on the internet for fear of horrible google images. Anyway, Peggy doesn’t participate in Don’s obvious glee when he finds the tape, but she can appreciate the value of knowing (and keeping) someone else’s secrets. Knowing Don and Roger’s relationship, however, I wonder when Don will find the perfect opportunity to throw this in his drinking-buddy “sweetheart's," face.     

This has been a pretty Peggy-heavy series of episodes, but unlike previous episodes, this time Peggy and Don don’t just circle around each other--they actually work through their stuff, throwing punches, retreating, advancing, and throwing punches again. They do this while eating in a dingy Greek diner, where they talk about flying, witnessing their fathers’ deaths, and knowing what it’s like when you hit on the right idea. I should also mention, given last week’s post, that they reference Danny’s not-so-idiomatic-tendancies: “As Danny would say ‘There’s no use crying over fish in the sea.’ They then bond over drinks while “listening” to the big fight, where they talk about why Don never made a pass at her (and what everyone assumes about their relationship), how he was the only one to visit her in the hospital when she had her baby (and what her mom assumed because of that), and why Peggy doesn’t seem to want what everyone thinks she should want. In this scene, Peggy withholds the identity of the person who got her pregnant, just as Don will later withhold from Peggy exactly who it is that he’s mourning. But they’re making progress.

And, like the Ali-Liston audience, just when we think it’s all over, it’s not. We’re back in the bathroom again, listening to the HORRIBLE sounds of Don puking. Peggy’s obvious fascination with the urinals and the graffiti during this awful ordeal quickly turns to a new kind of horror when she hears someone outside and finds Duck attempting to shit on Draper, in what he thinks is Don’s office. Like Peggy and Don’s back-and-forth, Don and Duck’s ensuing fight is not exactly what it seems. Although we could say that Don threw the first punch to defend Peggy’s honor, we know that the fight is really about what Duck says it’s about, his own insecurities and his blatant jealousy of Don.

It turns out, Peggy’s not the kind of girl who turns heads on the street, but she is the kind of girl who can manage two drunks (a good alternate title for this episode would be "Two Drunks and a Lady"). When Don reveals that he’s getting sloshed to avoid making the phone call he can’t bring himself to make, she lets him put his head on her lap and pass out. Now, I am pretty sure that Anna and Don lay in the same posture on the couch earlier this season. This image, along with Peggy’s reassurance that he hasn’t lost “the only person in the world who really knew him,” makes me think that Peggy is taking the place of Anna in his life. Like Anna, she functions in a way that his “real” wife should function but never could. While Anna knew the most about Don’s past, Peggy now knows the most about Don’s present (who will take care of Don and know him in the future?). “How long are you gonna go on like this?” Peggy asks Don. He can’t answer that.

His vision of Anna carrying a suitcase rouses him long enough to know for sure that she’s really gone, and his call to Stephanie in the morning confirms it. Don looks up to see Peggy staring at him, wide awake from the couch. I was glad that she was actually able to comfort him in this moment; as we saw in her confrontation with Don’s crying secretary a few episodes ago, she can be pretty cold when she is faced with an uncomfortable personal situation where real feelings are involved. But this time, she knows where she stands with Don. She leaves him and decides that she doesn’t want to go home today. She’s at work where she belongs.

That is, until she is woken rudely by the old (young?) boys’ club. In his office, Don, of course, is bright and chipper, with a freshly laundered shirt. She, of course, is rumpled and looks like she slept in her clothes. Don and Peggy have finally come to an understanding. When he holds her hand at the end, he seems to be telling her that he realizes that they’ve reached a truce. They can respect each other and work with each other, because they are better together than they are apart.

I read a comment last week that remarked on the number of episodes this season that have ended with closed doors. This time, Don wants the door left open. But has he really turned a new leaf? And has his relationship with Peggy actually matured, or will he revert to the mean-spirited boss that we all love to love, I mean, hate? The fact that Peggy asked whether he wants the door open or shut shows that she still knows who’s boss. But she also knows more about who her boss really “is,” and who she “is.” Or maybe she just knows who she isn’t. Maybe both of them are in a better place now. Or maybe that’s just what “they” say to make us feel better? Either way, don’t bet against an ad man.