Mad Men Recap: Three Very Bad Trips

Find out what happened on the latest episode of AMC's hit drama

By Christina Dowling Apr 23, 2012 4:23 AMTags
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This week's Mad Men delved into three very separate, but equally dramatic story lines. A marriage ends and one hits the skids and someone gets lucky in a matinee. With a narrative structure not unlike the movies Pulp Fiction and Go, Mad Men uses nonlinear storytelling to show the lives of three of our favorite (and most dysfunctional) crew members from Sterling Cooper Draper Price. 

What's weirder than Don's (Jon Hamm) homicidal fever dreams? Find out now: 

WHAT WE LEARNED

Peggy Olson's Day Off: Peggy (Elisabeth Moss), nervous about her Heinz presentation has no patience for her boyfriend and his suggestions for playing hooky. Of course the presentation goes to hell in a hand basket, so she heads to the movies to find a nice stranger to smoke pot with and feel up in the darkened theater. Oh Peggy, we don't think that is how Ferris Bueller would have done things. She receives a strange phone call from a crazed Don. But we'll learn more about that later. Peggy has other things to worry about, like being weirded out by Ginsberg's Martian slash concentration camp origin story. 

Ballad of Roger and Jane: Roger (John Slattery) and Jane (Peyton List) may have made sense at the beginning, but for a few seasons they have been drifting apart. We guess marriage can do that to people. In a seemingly desperate attempt to salvage whatever is left, they take LSD with Jane's doctor. That seems like a fantastic idea. Roger has a very weird trip. No green fairies but he does hear music from a vodka bottle, sees Don and takes in a baseball game from 1919. But the outcome is the end of their marriage. 

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Pie vs. Sherbet: Now we learn where Don was rushing Megan (Jessica Paré) off to. To try orange sherbet of course! Megan shoveled that sherbet down in a way that would even make Fat Betty (January Jones) proud. But her irritation at Don's controlling ways and the blurry line between wife and employee sends her over the edge. Oh Don, never leave a fiercely strong Canadian in parking lot.

Like Roger's bad LSD trip, Don spends the rest of the time at Howard Johnson's freaking out that Megan is kidnapped or dead. But she's actually just really pissed off in their apartment, so naturally he chases her around. Their marriage is definitely an enigma but it's obvious to everyone that it's distracting him from his work. 

ONE-LINERS

"You've been on love leave." —Burt Cooper (Robert Morse)

"Every time we fight is just diminishes us a little bit." —Megan

"I know, I'm terrible making you eat ice cream." —Don

"I'm your boyfriend not a focus group. Have a s--tty day." — Abe Drexler (Charlie Hofheimer)

"Alone I'm an escapee from some expensive mental institution. The two of us, we're a couple of rich handsome perverts." —Roger

"I told you we were going to take LSD with them. You were supposed to clear your schedule." —Jane

Was it finally time for Roger and Jane to part ways? What will this mean for Joan and Roger? Is Megan too forgiving of Don? Do you feel like watching Pulp Fiction now? Hit the comments!

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