‘Mad Men’ S7 Ep 4 recap: ‘Are you just going to kill yourself?’

Don’s return to SC&P was never going to be easy, despite the fact he agreed to the partners’ list of terms so easily last week. Don may have thought that he’d be okay with a reduced role in the business, but that certainly wasn’t the case in The Monolith.

As Don returned, the office is in complete chaos as the company moves forward into a new era of technology. The fact that the giant computer arrived at the expense of the creative lounge was symbolic, despite Harry Crane’s statement to the contrary. SC&P is moving forward, and Don is being left behind. Bert (who is really showing his nasty side this season) made it perfectly clear that Don had no real purpose at the firm anymore, refusing to allow him to be creative and lead a pitch to a potential new client. Don may have thought he would be happy to answer to Lou, but when he found out he would be answering to Peggy – his former protégée – it was just a little too much for him to handle.

The dynamic between Don and Peggy has always been one of the most fascinating parts of Mad Men, and something that has been missing for a while. Neither of them came out of this episode in a particularly positive light: Peggy took too much satisfaction in giving her orders to Don and reveled in his lowly status, while Don did nothing to help himself. He turned to the bottle in true Don Draper fashion.

Freddy Rumsen came to save the day, but not before Don had taken his anger and frustration out on tech guy Lloyd. “You talk like a friend but you’re not. You go by many names. I know who you are,” a worse for wear Don told Lloyd, a man he’d been getting on well with only a few hours earlier. Don had nothing against Lloyd personally, but his presence made the changes at the firm readily apparent. Lloyd’s questions about marketing also gave Don the idea that he should try and win him as a client, but these hopes were dashed by Bert. Lloyd just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Elsewhere, Roger took a trip to the country to try and persuade his daughter Margaret/Marigold to come back to her family after she fled with a group of hippies who offered her a simple and uncomplicated life. The episode highlighted the bad parenting of both generations. Margaret/Marigold may have abandoned her child, but she rightly pointed out that her father has behaved in similar ways in the past. It was hypocritical of Roger to criticise her, when he has abandoned his family (although he spent much of his time playing away in hotel rooms, rather than in a hippy commune). Roger leaves the commune without his daughter and with his tail well and truly between his legs.

The first half of season seven has focused on Don crawling out of the gutter and trying to get himself back from rock bottom. The results so far have been mixed, but Freddy’s advise to him at the end of the episode was poignant. “Are you just gonna kill yourself? Give them what they want? Or go in your bedroom, get in uniform, fix your bayonet and hit the parade. Do the work, Don.”

Don can either stay down or get back up and show the firm what they’ve been missing. He appeared to take the advice on board, as Peggy found him working on his tags for the Burger Chef pitch the following morning. Having The Hollies’ On a Carousel play out the episode was a nice touch and a reminder of Don’s amazing Kodak pitch all the way back in season one. Back then, Don was a force to be reckoned with and he can be again – if he wants to be.

Mad Men‘s seventh season continues next Wednesday (May 14) at 10pm on Sky Atlantic.

> ‘Mad Men’ S7 Ep 2 recap: ‘Just tell the truth’
> ‘Mad Men’ S7 Ep 1 recap: ‘This is the beginning of something’