The Suitcase

The Suitcase
File:Duck-poop.jpg
Production
Season Four Episode 07
Air date	5 September 2010
Written by	Matthew Weiner
Directed by	Jennifer Getzinger
Previous Waldorf Stories	Next The Summer Man

"The Suitcase" is the seventh episode of Mad Men, Season 4 and the forty-fourth episode overall.

Synopsis

In the interim of the second Muhammad Ali vs. Sonny Liston fight, the company finds itself in a bind with an upcoming deadline for Samsonite, Peggy and Don find themselves staying late at the office. This is the beginning of an emotional voyage for the both of them as they both reflect on their lives and look to each other for support. Don's biggest fear is realized as secrets about Peggy are confirmed.

Don makes a $300, wager on Liston. The Suitcase.

Detail

At the beginning of the episode Ken, Danny, Stan and Pete are wagering the odds of who will win the up and coming Muhammad Ali vs. Sonny Liston fight, while Harry dishes out movie theater tickets to watch the fight and collecting wagers, all in everyone counting on Liston to win due to his weight and experience. They invite Don along with them to The Palm for drinks as Don weighs in $300 before calling in the Samsonite team into his office.

Duck makes Peggy an offer. The Suitcase.

Back in his office he confirms with Miss Blankenship that he and Roger have a table anywhere for the nights fight at anywhere but The Palm before convening for his meeting with creative. Creative exhibit their pitch to Don, which Don calls the endorsement "lazy" as he picks on Peggy for "failing" the execution of the pitch, telling her it should be "funnier."

Duck sends Peggy a birthday present, a business card reading Phillips-Olson Advertising. Slightly stunned, she wonders why he was calling. Duck admits that the decision was mutual, though it was obvious he was fired.

Don thinks about Anna, The Suitcase.

He tried to persuade her with the Tampax account, which he had quiet discussions with. Peggy was not sure if he was serious about the offer after hearing about the CLIO's and realizing that Duck is intoxicated while on the phone with Peggy. Duck wants to meet her tonight, though she hangs up on him even though he appears to be having a drunken meltdown. After the phone call the creative team invite her out to lunch, for her birthday.

Stephanie leaves a message with Don's secretary Miss Blankenship, noting that it is urgent. Don dreads the news he will hear and does everything he can to put off returning the call. On that cue Roger arrives into Don's office revealing that their night together has been "ruined" due to the fact Freddy Rumsen and Cal Rutledge from Pond's will be joining them before and after the fight, putting a damper on their plans on drinking seeming as both Freddy and Cal are sober. Don notifies Roger that he wont be able to make the fight anyway due to the Samsonite deadline, which Roger leaves sulking.

Joan is agitated by the creative team, The Suitcase.

While Joey Baird, Danny Siegel and Stan Rizzo work on the Samsonite account,Joanremarks about the mess they've created. Joey jokingly remarks that "although I am paid less, I am still not a janitor" before shrugging and walking off, leaving Danny and Stan to clean up the mess.

While in the bathroom Peggy has a run-in with Trudy Campbell where they talk about Peggy's birthday plans of Mark taking her to dinner and Trudy's pregnancy,

Peggy runs into a pregnant Trudy. The Suitcase.

provoking an unsettling feeling in Peggy, which she chooses to ignore, Megan interrupts them announcing Don wants to see Peggy before she leaves. Seeing Peggy and Trudy come out the ladies room together, Pete quickly glances at Peggy curiously before heading out with Trudy and the boys.

At the end of the day both Stan and Danny take off before Don can keep them late in the office and miss the Ali vs. Liston boxing match. Despite Peggy telling Don she was "on her way out" Don insists that he see where the creative team are on the pitch. Unveiling several ideas to Don, he shoots them down one-by-one proclaiming he gave Peggy "more responsibility and [she] came back with nothing." Peggy passive-aggressively retaliates under her breath saying it didn't matter what she comes up, Don will only "change it anyway".

Mark calling Peggy, The Suitcase.

In her office Peggy makes a phone call to Mark who is waiting at the restaurant with Peggy's family and roommate, hoping to surprise her when she arrives. Peggy explains that she will be only 15 minutes tops.

Back in Don's office Peggy and Don roll out several more idea's which Don goes off on a tangent about boxing and relates it to the Samsonite account, trying to get away Peggy agrees with the idea until Don's phone rings. Its Roger on the other line pleading Don to join him, which Don declines - Peggy's phone then rings. On the other line is Mark, who is increasingly growing impatient, reveals that he has her entire family there for the surprise. Peggy apologies and once again asks Don for her dismissal, where Don ponders over whether they should come up with more ideas. Frustrated Peggy erupts and announces she had plans over an hour ago for her birthday,

Peggy on the phone with Roger after Don refused to come to the phone. Episode: The Suitcase.

sarcastically ridden Don explains she should get over birthdays and dismisses her. At the elevator Peggy uses the payphone to call Mark once again to say shes not coming at all, irritated that he made an effort Mark threatens to break up with Peggy, to which she calls his bluff.
Returning back to work Peggy tells Don her and Mark are done, telling Don that he won "again." Peggy and Don argue about his asking her to work late, Don encourages her to go, and run to Mark; "like in the movies". She accuses him of taking her idea for Glo-coat and winning the CLIO award for his Billy the Kid ad.

Peggy breaks down, The Suitcase.

Here Don states that he took her idea and evolved it into the commercial it ended up to be and that it was ludicrous that she felt she needed the recognition only being two years into her career as a copywriter. As for "stealing her idea" Don resumes to specify her pay check is compensation for her ideas, not feeling the need to "Thank her" for every idea she comes up with. And she in turn should "Thank [Don], along with Jesus for giving [her] another day." This pushes Peggy to the precipice of breaking down, where she leaves Don's office and glances in the bathroom mirror, eventually leaving her to succumb to her emotions.

Peggy gets her birthday dinner, The Suitcase.

Finding Rogers recorded tapes for his memoir, Don calls Peggy back into his office where they both listen to the content of the recordings together. Don encourages Peggy to laugh with him at the expense of a younger Roger having an affair with Ida Blankenship, to whom he nicknamed "The Queen of Perversions of the highest order" and Bertram Cooperlosinghis"manhood" due to an emergency orchiectomy. They reconcile and go out to dinner.

Peggy and Don at a bar, The Suitcase.

Over dinner they share intimate details about both their early lives including Peggy's frustration over her relationship with Mark, Don's early life of growing up and his time spent in Korea, laughing at SCDP newest employee Danny's idiotic pitches, sharing Peggy's dreams of one day flying on a plane and her hatred of sports, and the fact they both witnessed the deaths of their fathers and that Don never knew his mother.

Peggy helps a drunk Don. The Suitcase.

Then at a bar in lieu of Peggy revealing she hates dating, Don comforts her saying "[she] knows [she] is cute as hell", which makes Peggy confess that the whole office thinks that in order to get a promotion they think she slept with Don and they laugh about the remote possibility. And for the first time she and Don talk about her time spent in the hospital in the interim of Season 1 and 2. Peggy's mother, Katherine believes Don was responsible for Peggy's unplanned pregnancy therefore hates him. Don asks Peggy if she knows who the father is, to which she replies "of course" [she does] and avows that out of nowhere she is reminded of it, although she tries not to think about it. They hear the fight on a radio.The fight is over in the first round in 30 seconds. Liston infamously falls to the mat from a punch that later on film will be shown to have only been mimed by Ali but never connected, the infamous "phantom punch".

Don and Duck get into a drunken scuffle, The Suitcase.

At the end of the night, Peggy and Don arrive back at the office, Don feels ill and is taken to the bathroom to throw up. While Peggy goes to her office to get a toothbrush and toothpaste for Don, she sees Duck drunkenly staggering the halls of SCDP. She confronts him in Rogers office, about to defecate on one of his couches, mistakenly believing it to be Don's office. Peggy escorted him towards the exit, but upon Don seeing and confronting him, Duck blurts out he and Peggy are in love with each other, proclaiming their affair to a stunned Don. Duck calls Peggy a whore, under the impression that she is sleeping with Don as well. Defending Peggy's honor Don lashes out at Duck, but falls in a drunken haze on the floor, as Duck straddles him, threatening his killing of 17 men in the Battle of Okinawa. Peggy intervenes escorting Duck out.

Anna's ghost visits Don. The Suitcase.

Returning to Dons office Peggy admits being with Duck was a confusing time and that she is sorry, Don tells her she doesn't owe him an explanation. Asking Peggy to make him a drink, concerned for him Peggy asks "how long [is he] going to go on like this?". Eventually he falls asleep exhausted with his head on her lap. After she too falls asleep, Don suddenly awakes and sees Anna's phantom in the night.

In early dawn in New York the next morning Don calls; which is still night in California. In darkness on the west coast Stephanie answers, telling him that Anna has passed away. She tells Don that arrangements are unnecessary as she has donated her body to UCLA, and asks if she may stay in Anna's home, which he agrees to. Peggy awakens and overhears the conversation, and Don, realizing this, breaks down, noting that Anna was the only person in the world who really knew him. Peggy says that's not true as she comforts him.

Peggy and Don fall asleep together, Don taking Peggy's hand. Episode: The Suitcase.

In the morning, Peggy visits Draper's office and they go with an idea for Samsonite saying that it'll knock out another suitcase brand, just as what happened in the fight between Liston and Clay. Don squeezes Peggy's hand referencing the first episode, Smoke Gets In Your Eyes when Peggy first took Dons hand, coming on to him. However this time they warmly smile at each other, solidifying the bond between them; mentor to protégé. Leaving Don's office Peggy asks if Don wants the door "open or closed?" - opting for open signaling a new beginning for himself.

Cast

Main

• Jon Hamm - Don Draper
• Elisabeth Moss - Peggy Olson
• Vincent Kartheiser - Pete Campbell
• January Jones - Betty Draper (credit only)
• Christina Hendricks - Joan Harris
• Rich Sommer - Harry Crane
• Aaron Staton - Ken Cosgrove
• Jared Harris - Lane Pryce (credit only)
• Kiernan Shipka - Sally Draper (credit only)
• Robert Morse - Bertram Cooper (credit only)
• John Slattery - Roger Sterling

Supporting

• Matt Long - Joey Baird
• Blake Bashoff - Mark Kerney
• Alison Brie - Trudy Campbell
• Cara Buono - Faye Miller
• Jessica Paré - Megan
• Jay R. Ferguson - Stan Rizzo
• Danny Strong - Danny Siegel
• Melinda Page Hamilton - Anna Draper
• Caity Lotz - Stephanie
• Randee Heller - Miss Blankenship
• Audrey Wasilewski - Anita Olson Respola
• Jerry O'Donnell - Gerry Respola
• Myra Turley - Katherine Olson
• Mark Moses - Duck Phillips

Guest Stars

• Rachel Style - Veronika
• Lonnie Hughes - Delivery Man
• Steven M. Gagnon - Middle-Aged Man

Quotes

Peggy: "You know what? Here's a blank piece of paper. Why don't you turn that into Glo-Coat?"
Don: "Are you out of your mind? You gave me twenty ideas and I picked out one of them, that was a colonel that became that commercial."
Peggy: "So you remember?"
Don: "I do, it was something about a cowboy. Congratulations."
Peggy: "No, it was something about a kid, locked him in the closet because his mother was making wait for the floor to dry; which is basically the whole commercial."
Don: "Its a colonel."
Peggy: "But you changed just enough, so that it was yours."
Don: "I changed it into a commercial. What were we gonna shoot him in the dark, in the closet? That's the way it work, there are no credits on commercials."
Peggy: "But you got the Clio!"
Don: "Its your job! I give you money. You give me ideas."
Peggy: "And you never say thank you!"
Don: "Thats what the money is for! You're young, you'll get your recognition. And honestly, its absolutely ridiculous to be two years into your career and counting your ideas! Everything to you is an opportunity! And you should be thanking me every morning when you wake up, along with Jesus for giving you another day!"
- Things get heated between Don and Peggy, in The Suitcase.