Mad Men 3.2 “Love Amongst the Ruins”

Peggy washes her underclothes in her kitchen, then brushes her hair in front of her mirror. She does her best Ann Margaret impersonation, which is not very good at all. Elizabeth Moss is great in this scene. Poor Peggy is just not that girl.

Don meets with Pete, Paul and Harry about Madison Square Garden. Pryce interrupts, and asks for a minute with Don. Don shoos everyone out, then Pryce drops the bomb that they’re not taking the Madison Square Garden account. Don is understandably pissed and confused. “Why the hell did you buy us in the first place?” he asks. “I don’t know,” is Pryce’s honest reply. Pryce leaves, Don tells his secretary to tell Pete MSG is dead, and Peggy asks Don for a minute. “Can it wait?” “No.” Peggy comes in to talk about Patio. Don snipes that everyone wants a drink that sounds like a floor. Peggy explains the Ann Margaret angle, and is surprised Don hasn’t seen Bye Bye Birdie. Back to the conference room! Ann Margaret “sings” again. Peggy complains about the idea for the campaign again, and Don says it’s not about making women feel fat. “I’m young and excited and desperate for a man. . . Men want her, and women want to be her.” Peggy feels excluded from another club because she doesn’t want marriage and kids.

Peggy’s heading home. Roger sneaks in the elevator at the last minute, and quizzes her on what her father would have to do to not be welcome at her wedding. Peggy answers her father is dead. “Well there you go,” Roger replies. “You’d do anything.”

Peggy walks by a neighborhood bar where young people are having fun. She plunges in and makes small talk with some guys at the bar. Peggy Olson flirts!

Don arrives home to Gene playing cards in the kitchen while William unclogs the sink. Judy is setting the table while the kids zone out in front of the TV. He goes off to find Betty, who is getting ready to get a bucket of chicken. She’s upset because William says the only options for their dad are the home or William and Judy moving in with him. Judy will be dad’s nurse. She feels like a horrible daughter. Don calls for William, looking angry, and tells Betty to wait.

Don and William meet in Don’s office. Don lays it out for William. Gene will live with Don and Betty, and William will support him financially, while dad’s house remains untouched. William is, to put it mildly, surprised, but Don will hear no argument. William and family need to leave tonight, and they can’t take Gene’s Lincoln. “How are we going to get home?” William cries. “New York Central, Broadway Limited from Penn Station. It leaves in two hours,” is Don’s cool reply. “You want him? You got him,” William replies.

Don grabs the paper and sits with Gene as we see William talk to Betty and Judy in the background. Betty looks over at Don with gratitude, since she knows this is his doing. They come in and explain the plan to Gene, who is not convinced. Judy tries very sweetly to smooth things over, as William calls to the girls to get their things together.

Peggy and the cute boy from the bar are eating and flirting. He’s getting ready to graduate from Brooklyn College. She tells him she works for an ad agency, and he assumes she’s a secretary. She doesn’t correct his assumption. His buddies come to check on him before they head out, and he brushes them off. Peggy smiles and steals a bite of his hamburger.

Peggy and the cute boy are making out on his couch. Things are getting intimate, but Peggy stops him. “Do you have a Trojan?” Nope, he doesn’t. She can’t continue. He’s disappointed, but then she says there are other thing they can do. Looks like Peggy is like Don in more ways than we knew.

Betty wakes up to a noise from downstairs. She wakes up Don, and they head down to discover Gene dumping the contents of their liquor bottles down the drain. He’s convinced the police are coming to bust them since it’s Prohibition. Don looks troubled.

A naked Peggy and cute boy are on his pull out couch. She sneaks out of his arms and gets dressed. He tries to get her to stay, tell him where she works, come back by the bar – anything – but she blows him off. “This was fun,” she says as she leaves.

The Draper family is at Sally’s field day. They’re making a maypole. Don looks ridiculously handsome in his aviators, while Betty channels Barbie in her white cat eye sunglasses. As the music plays and the kids dance around the maypole with their teacher, Don has eyes only for the free spirit teacher. A beautiful piece of music plays as he runs his fingers through the grass under his folding chair. It reminds me of the imagery he used last week when he was trying to help Betty fall asleep and talked about running your hands through the sand under your lounge chair at the beach. After the excitement is over, a neighbor calls the Draper’s together for a family portrait. They group together, the picture of the ideal American family.

Don arrives at the office later that day and sees Peggy hard at work. Peggy comes out and asks if he wants to talk about Pampers. “What’ve you got?” he replies. They head to his office to meet, and as the credits roll, the music that played during the maypole scene reprises.