Mad Men - S5E8 - Lady Lazarus

This week’s “Mad Men” was entitled “Lady Lazarus,” which also happens to be the name of a Sylvia Plath poem. The poem describes a woman that is continuously brought back to life even though she wishes for death. Her first death was an accident, but her second death was something that she brought on herself. After she is brought back, she is determined to take control of her life from then on. It’s not hard to see how this relates to Megan’s journey in this episode. Megan wanted to be an actress, but that life ended up dying. She was brought back to life through Don’s proposal but she was unhappy in what she was doing. So she commits career suicide and comes back determined to live her life the way that she wants, as an actress.

The more interesting journey in this episode belonged to Pete. Roger dumps off a sporting account on him at the beginning of the episode, I’m curious is Roger is trying to implement some sort of plan here, to bog Pete down with enough day to day work that he bungles it all and can’t handle it, much like he couldn’t handle taking the skis out of his office. On the way home that day he meets up with the wife of one the people that he regularly rides the train into the city with. Pete knows that the man is in the city cheating on his wife and gives her a ride home. They of course end up doing it. Pete sees this as an opening to have something that he doesn’t have yet, someone that he can meet up with on the side and be in control of. This of course isn’t what happened. She denied him in several situations. It was once again showing Pete that he wasn’t in control. She kissed him first and now she is ending it. Work is the only place that he has some semblance of control and even that is barely there after he was taken out by Pryce a few weeks ago. We know that Pete has a loaded gun in his office, and this episode took the chance to point out the suicide clause in his life insurance policy. Signs are pointing to a possible early exit for Pete coming soon.

The Megan situation from the episode was really about how it affected Don though. Don was happy at work. He enjoyed working with Megan and that was very evident by the banter the two of them demonstrated for the Cool Whip commercial. While that showed Don’s joy at working with his wife, it also demonstrated how happy Megan would be with acting. Eventually Megan does quit though and Don must deal with the ramifications. He tries to perform the Cool Whip bit with Peggy for the Head of Desserts, seriously that was his title, but it doesn’t go well. Why? Because both he and Peggy are upset for Megan leaving and without Megan, Don just doesn’t care about his work again. Don’s world is changing and he is starting to be out of touch with what is popular. The biggest evidence of this comes in the final scene. As Don comes home to his wife leaving, a major change for him, Megan has him listen to the Beatles song, “Tomorrow Never Knows” from Revolver, the album and song that signaled the evolution of the Beatles. Don can barely listen to the song, shuts it off and heads to bed, signaling that he, for one, is not ready to evolve.