Mad Men - S5E4 - Mystery Date

The game Mystery Date is an old game from the 1960’s that involved girls playing through a game to find out who was behind the door for their mystery date. It is also the title for this week’s episode of “Mad Men.” In which several of the main characters open their doors to find something they weren’t expecting.

Let’s start with our lead, Mr. Don Draper. Here again we get hints about how little he cares about work. He doesn’t even bother to listen to the entire pitch from the new copywriter Mr. Ginsberg. In fact we learn that there was another idea based on Cinderella that Don turned down because he didn’t want to fight for it. If it’s a good idea than Don used to convince the customer that it’s what they want. He doesn’t do that anymore. He spends the rest of the episode sick and is told to go home by his wife, who we learn is aware of his infidelity with Betty, and for the most part is okay with his past because she was the same way.

While at home Don gets a “visit” from his Mystery Date who turns out to be an old flame, Andrea, from his previous life or as I like to call her “metaphor for his previous life.” After a quick fling, Andrea tells Don this will happen again and he has no choice in the matter. This angers him and he strangles her and then kicks her body under the bed. At this point it would be best for me to bring up the historical subplot happening during the episode about the Speck murders in Chicago. Speck murdered several young nurses and left one living because she was hiding under the bed. Here even though Don has “killed” Andrea and thereby killing that part of him that would cheat on his wife, he also hid her under the bed, meaning that some small piece of that part of him is still there. Don eventually wakes up to Megan serving him breakfast and realizes that the entire night was just a dream.

We also get to spend some time with Sally Draper in this episode. She is being watched by her evil step mother (Cinderella reference?) and we learn about the small amount of rules that Betty puts on Sally, which is quite a difference from last season were she placed many rules on her. Sally soon learns about the Speck murders and is scared. Pauline gives Sally a Seconal, a barbiturate sleeping pill that contributed to the deaths of Judy Garland and Jimi Hendrix. Sally does end up sleeping, under the couch, the one area that she thinks is safe.

Joan got her Mystery Date from her husband. He came back as not what she was hoping. He seemed fit and like he was going to be a good father, but then he dropped the bombshell, he was going back to Vietnam for another year, and he had volunteered to. This of course pissed off Joan and after a night of fighting, she kicked him out. But not before bringing up the lingering subplot from Season 2 when Greg essentially raped her on the floor of the office. It was nice to see this finally closed and I feel like we may finally get back the Joan from Season 1 and 2 that I loved and has been missing since then.

Back at SCDP, Peggy mans up and coerces an extra 410 dollars out of Roger since he forgot about a Mohawk campaign that was due Monday. We are seeing that instead of trying to fight, Roger is just falling deeper into failure. Peggy works late at night and we get a scary sequence of her alone in the building and moving slowly through the hallways. She opens the door to Don’s office and finds out that her Mystery Date is Dawn, Don’s African American secretary. She convinces her to come over and the night goes great until Peggy goes to bed and a tiny hint of racism comes out when Peggy pauses and looks at her purse full of cash. She leaves the purse there, but Dawn has noticed and makes sure to leave early before Peggy wakes up and all Peggy is left with is the guilt.