Mad Men: Three Sundays

After last week’s naughtiness, Mad Men took us inside the good, bad, and ugly of families showing us three different Sundays.

Don and Betty spent theirs in bed, and then relaxing with the kids and some strong Bloody Mary’s. It was fun seeing Don and Betty acting young and careless, even forgetting to feed the kids.

But the marital strains return when Betty and Don clash over discipline tactics and Bobby’s behavior. While Don was busy at home, Pete and Ken Cosgrove were busy entertaining a client and his “special” lady friend at the same restaurant where Sterling barely tolerated family dinner. The lady catches Sterling’s eye and Cosgrove helpfully offers up her number. Sterling happily finds himself on a “date” with the friendly young woman.

Meanwhile, Peggy is back at mass and thoroughly miserable. When she tries to sneak out, she comes face to face with the new priest Father Gill, played by Colin Hanks. Initially, I thought his performance seemed a little wooden but I warmed to him by the end of the episode. Maybe it was just me but there was definitely some sexual tension between the priest and Peggy. Even Betty’s sister, Anita Olson (the brilliant by Audrey Wasilewski) caught it. I alternated between finding it creepy and loving the wrongness of it all.

The true family dynamic came into play when Audrey visits Father Gil and proceeds to spill Peggy’s dirty laundry. It will be interesting to see how Peggy reacts now that Father Gil knows about it and whether she‘ll continue to pretend it never happened or accept some responsibility.

At Sterling Cooper, the pitch for American Airlines is moved up and the staff finds themselves called into the office on Palm Sunday. It was fun them caught off guard. Pete in his teeny tennis whites, Cooper in his golfing attire. After Bobby has an accident, Don is forced to bring his daughter to work. Sally, adorably played by Kiernan Shipka scored the best lines of the episode. From innocently telling Joan “You’ve got big ones. My mommy’s got big ones and when I get older, I’m going to have big ones.” to asking Paul if his African American girlfriend was his maid and if he ever lies on top of her. It’s obvious Sally isn’t missing out on any of the grown up conversations

Despite the efforts of the team at Sterling Cooper, it’s meaningless when on the morning of their big pitch, the lead contact is fired. Don’s anger at the situation is fueled when Bobby breaks a glass. The conflict between Betty and Don escalates when he tells her, “You want what I got at the office today, because I’ll put you through the wall.” In anger, Betty pushes Don and he pushes her back and for a moment, we get a glimpse of who Dick Whitman was and what Don has fought to overcome. It was a stand- out episode in an already great second season and I can’t wait to see what they have in store for next week.