'Mad Men': Going the Distance

It's sobering to show the end result of three-martini lunches followed by afternoon belts of Scotch from the bottle in the office drawer. But this mad fan of "Mad Men" was still a bit shocked to see (and hear) the increasingly dissolute Don Draper on his knees head down in a toilet bowl.
After pulling off last week the clever trick of awarding Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce -- the fictional agency of "Mad Men" -- a CLIO award while on another channel the series itself won another Emmy, the show returned this week to the dark side. Then it pulled off the even better trick of moving the two characters you worry about most through that darkness to a new place in their relationship.

The framing device is the title bout between Sonny Liston and a young, cocky Cassius Clay, soon to be Muhammad Ali. Don Draper favors Liston, the no-nonsense fighter who does his job without fuss, instead of the outspoken Clay. That choice shows Don's progression from young to jaded that was hinted at last week. "Get up," he yells to Liston as he listens to the play-by-play. He could be talking to himself.
Last week's episode showed the bright, ambitious young ad man selling himself and a fur jacket to Roger Sterling. In the latest episode, the light has gone out of his eyes, especially as he takes in the loss of the one person who knew and accepted him and his secrets. He won't take the West Coast call to hear the bad news about Anna, but Don Draper will turn to Peggy Olson, as he always seems to, before they start their own heavyweight clash. In performance, Jon Hamm and Elisabeth Moss are evenly matched.
The later the evening, the more honest the conversation -- that's how it often happens in life -- and in this "Mad Men" installment, which careens from office to restaurant to bar and back again.
He's the only one who doesn't know it's her birthday. He tosses off her efforts on the Samsonite account with the booze-filled casual cruelty that's becoming a specialty. But he understands her without judging, and he's on her side.
She is bruised by contact with Pete's very pregnant wife, Trudy, who's slightly condescending in a ladies' room conversation. (And might she have figured out hubby's past with Peggy?) She is ambivalent about a "romantic" dinner with her boyfriend and -- as she later finds out -- her critical family. But she keeps putting on and taking off that coat and hat and returning for another round with the boss because what goes on outside "never feels right" or "as important as anything in that office."
I have been looking in vain for some brightness in this season, only to find so much regret and recrimination -- and nonstop drinking. Through the haze, then, how surprising it was to find possible redemption for the arrogant, self-absorbed Don Draper, still willing to throw a wild punch in defense of his prot�g�'s honor, and the vulnerable, struggling, career-focused Peggy Olson, who never looked more beautiful than when she cradled a sleeping Draper on the couch after a night of truth-telling. "How long are you going to go on like this?" she has asked him early in the evening.
When Don told Peggy, "You know you're cute as hell," it revealed the charm that had gone missing these last few weeks. They've always been there for each other, and when he squeezes her hand at the start of the next day, it doesn't mean romance (that would be too obvious for a show that still surprises), but it could be something deeper.
Both find satisfaction in their work and, perhaps, a relationship with a kindred spirit. Who knew viewers could find the same from an hour of prime time?
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