Recap of Sunday night’s ‘Mad Men’

By Zack McGhee | Wednesday, September 30, 2009, 02:00 PM

Outside forces disrupt the usually insular lives of several “Mad Men” characters in this week’s episode, “Seven Twenty Three.” As the AMC website teases, “you now know who was lying on the floor, what Betty’s major was in college, and just how persuasive Duck Phillips can be.” A surprising series of events collide to create this week’s opening sequence — a brief montage of a bruised, unconscious man on a hotel floor; Peggy, the morning after, with an unknown man; and a sensual image of Betty, reclined on an antique fainting couch.

After making his identity known to Don in last week’s episode, Conrad Hilton is waiting for Don to arrive at Sterling Cooper. Seated at the head of Draper’s desk, Hilton tells Don that he wants Sterling Cooper to take on the ad business of his New York hotels. (This scene has a great exchange. Hilton chastises Don for not having a bible or family photo at his desk, and then tells him he ought to get to work earlier. How do you know, Don asks, “I wasn’t at home with my family, reading the bible?”)

Soon the details of Hilton’s agreement with the firm reveal that, for Sterling Cooper to get his business, Don must first be secured by three-year contract. For me, one of the most satisfying moments of the show remains Don’s assertion of his no-contract status in the wake of Duck Phillips’ attempted coup. Obviously, Don isn’t going to take this lying down. But Roger — his relationship with Don still on tentative ground — hounds Don, even going so far as to call Betty, asking her to urge Don to sign. (Betty holds her own, but later confronts Don, not having known anything about the contract proposal.)

In the midst of all this, Duck is still hounding Peggy, sending her a fancy new scarf in an effort to lure her to Grey. Pete catches wind of this, and confronts Peggy, making it clear that he’s not worried about her — that this is Duck’s attempt to settle the score with Don, and he will stop at nothing to win. This clearly gives Peggy pause, but when she proactively asks Don about the Hilton account, he dresses her down. Accusing her of always having her hand out, Don ends his stern lecture by telling her, “You’re good. Get better. And stop asking for things.” In spite of this, Peggy plans to return the scarf to Duck, who catches her off guard by insisting that she return it in person. This encounter leads us to discover that Duck is the man Peggy was in bed with at the start of the episode, and Spout’s Karina Longworth to tweet: “Watched Mad Men over 12 hours ago, and still recoiling at the idea of morning sex with Duck.”

Back at the Draper residence, when Betty confronts Don about Roger’s phone call, their heated discussion erupts into a massive fight. Don storms out and takes a long drive, with a glass of scotch in hand. He picks up a couple of hitchhikers who claim to be en route to Niagara Falls to get married so that the groom can avoid being drafted. They give Don a couple of Phenobarbital and the three of them end up in a hotel room. After some sexy time and an hallucination, the groom-to-be hits Don over the head, rendering him unconscious. Indeed, it was Don passed out at the start of the show. When he wakes up, battered and bruised, his wallet is nearly empty, and he finds a note that closes, “We left you your car. You’re welcome.”

What makes “Mad Men” easily the best dramatic series on television is how true it is to its characters and its period. Despite its ’60s setting, show creator Matthew Weiner, his writers and crew don’t use “Mad Men” for teachable moments. In spite of troubling attitudes toward gender relations, people of color, and homosexuality, they do not pepper the show with token illustrations. These moments, such as they are, deliberately and truthfully reflect the mores of the time with the proper consideration.

This thoughtful attitude ostensibly makes it difficult to show what’s going on in the world outside the lives of these characters without making it seem like a history lesson. Until this season, the Nixon/Kennedy race and the death of Marilyn Monroe were two of a very few iconic moments to be referenced within the show. However, with recent references to the death of Pope John XXIII, the murder of Medgar Evers and the fight for civil rights, it’s becoming clear that these characters and their personal dramas are on a collision course with the increasingly turbulent world around them.

Returning to work, Don finds Cooper in his office, and once again Don is put in the position of sitting at the wrong side of his own desk. Alluding to the fact he knows the truth about Don’s past, Cooper persuades Don to sign the contract, because, “When it comes down to it, who’s really signing this contract anyway?” Putting pen to paper — dating it July 23, 1963 — Don has one last condition: “I don’t want any more contact with Roger Sterling.”

P.S. I haven’t mentioned anything about Betty’s entanglement with Henry Francis, nor Don’s frank, borderline-flirtatious exchange with Sally’s teacher. But that happened, too.

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