Getting To The Bottom Of The Bottle: 25 Best Bottle Episodes

Photo: AMC

Mad Men – “The Suitcase”

I appreciate Mad Men for never giving into a relationship between Peggy and Don. They cultivated a friendship based on mutual respect and integrity, and the notion of a romantic or sexual relationship would only diminish what they had. I acknowledge there are a lot of Peggy/Don ‘shippers out there, but I was never among them. I’m glad they kept their relationship as pristine as they did.

Audiences mostly had to imply this about their professional dynamic because the show never really spent a lot of time showing or telling us about it. “The Suitcase” offered a sustained look at the two, possibly the longest in the show’s history. But this wasn’t its only break from convention.

It feels more like a two-person play, with Don and Peggy gliding through sequences that, in another show, might illicit a groan or an eyeroll. Mad Men often relied on their chemistry to carry a scene, so it was packed with a lot of subtext.  Moments that are too on-the-nose or overtly servicing character development are completely forgivable for these two.

This episode also illustrates the pervasive themes of melancholy and regret that became Mad Men’s signature. Invoking Simon and Garfunkel at the end of the episode is solid textual evidence of this and also the progression of the show into the turbulent ’60s.