Television Review: The Suitcase (Mad Men, S4x07, 2010)

The Suitcase (S4x07)

Airdate: 5 September 2010

Written by: Matthew Weiner
Directed by: Jennifer Getzinger

Running Time: 48 minutes

Few television series are conceived with a precise blueprint detailing the exact number of seasons and episodes from the outset, and Mad Men was no exception. When Matthew Weiner wrote The Suitcase – the 46th episode of the series in total – he could not have known that this instalment would become the exact midpoint of the entire run. Yet, for many viewers and critics alike, the episode feels purposefully engineered as a fulcrum, not merely in the literal sense of its placement within the series chronology. It fundamentally redefines two of the show's major characters and their relationship, recalibrates the power dynamics within Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce, and is routinely cited among the finest – if not the finest – episode of the entire series. Indeed, the episode has been described as "one of the greatest episodes of television ever" and the peak of television's Golden Age. Jon Hamm himself remarked that he had "never ever worked on something and felt the way I felt after we shot" this episode.

Like many Mad Men episodes, The Suitcase anchors its narrative with a significant real-life historical event in the background, skilfully juxtaposing it against the more seemingly banal concerns of the SCDP staff. The episode is set on 25 May 1965, a date of considerable importance for boxing enthusiasts – a demographic that includes virtually every male member of the office, and even Trudy Vogel, now heavily pregnant, expresses her enthusiasm for the sport. Cassius Clay (soon to be Muhammad Ali) is to defend his heavyweight title against the former champion Sonny Liston in what would become one of the most controversial and iconic matches in boxing history – a first-round knockout that remains debated to this day. The fight serves as a potent metaphor for the episode itself: just as Clay shocked the world by dispatching the heavily favoured Liston in swift and decisive fashion, so too does The Suitcase dismantle the expectations of what a television episode can achieve, delivering a knockout blow that leaves the viewer breathless.

The day also happens to be Peggy Olson's 26th birthday, and she is supposed to be celebrating with a romantic dinner with her boyfriend Mark. This seemingly simple plan becomes the catalyst for one of the most emotionally devastating evenings of her life. It is also the day when Anna Draper, Don's first wife and the only true friend and confidant he has ever possessed, dies – or so Don suspects after receiving word of an urgent telephone call from Stephanie in California, a call that can mean only one thing. Don deliberately delays returning the call, unable to face the confirmation of his loss, and instead buries himself in work.

As the day turns to evening, matters deteriorate for both Don and Peggy. Lacking the emotional fortitude to confront Anna's passing, Don attempts to lose himself in the creation of an advertising campaign for Samsonite suitcases. Peggy is instructed to remain at the office to assist him, despite her protestations about her date. When Mark telephones to reveal that the "romantic dinner" was, in fact, a surprise party involving Peggy's family, she finds herself manufacturing excuses to delay her arrival – excuses that ultimately ruin the party and precipitate her breakup with Mark. This sequence is masterfully handled: Peggy's reluctance to leave the office is not merely about work but about her deep-seated ambivalence towards a conventional life she has never truly wanted.

Peggy's emotional rollercoaster takes another turn when she receives a call from Duck Phillips, an old lover who has apparently fallen off the wagon and caused a scene at the Clio Awards ceremony a month earlier. Duck claims to be starting a new advertising agency and offers Peggy a partnership, but she knows full well that he was fired from his previous position for his drinking. Duck confirms her suspicions later that evening when he crashes into the SCDP offices, attempting a pathetic act of vengeance by defecating on Don's chair – only to be informed by Peggy that he is in the wrong office. He and Don, both thoroughly drunk, engage in a physical fight that is successfully halted by Peggy. It is a moment of absurdist comedy that somehow does not break the episode's emotional tension; rather, it underscores the sheer desperation and degradation that both characters are circling.

By this point, Don and Peggy have been slowly mending their fractured relationship. Just as Don cannot bring himself to fire Peggy for her insubordination, Peggy cannot bring herself to leave. Both exhausted, they end up sleeping in each other's laps. Don experiences a vision of Anna, carrying a suitcase – a vision that all but confirms her death. This image is loaded with symbolic weight: the suitcase, the very object of the campaign they have been working on, becomes a vessel for grief, memory, and the baggage we all carry through life.

Don finally receives confirmation early the following morning when he summons the courage to telephone Stephanie. He discovers that Peggy has overheard the conversation, and he breaks down. Peggy comforts him, telling him that Anna is not the only person who understood him – and that she is willing to take Anna's place. It is an enormously moving scene. The following morning, both Don and Peggy appear refreshed, ready to start a new day and turn a new page. The episode ends not with resolution but with the promise of continuation – a new understanding forged in the crucible of shared vulnerability.

Mad Men is a series famous for being almost entirely set in interiors, but The Suitcase takes this tendency to its logical extreme, functioning as a textbook definition of the "bottle episode." Directed by Jennifer Getzinger, the episode resembles a stage play – a two-hander that never leaves its central duo, moving from the office to a restaurant to a bar and back to the office. Yet it is a stage play that works magnificently, drawing the very best performances from Jon Hamm and Elisabeth Moss. The episode confronts both major characters with absolute personal disasters and subjects them to harrowing emotional rollercoasters, yet by the end they have overcome their trials and are prepared to move forward.

The Suitcase was not merely a pivotal episode; it was critically important for the future of the series. By this point in Season 4, much had left viewers wanting. With this episode, Weiner demonstrated that he still possessed his creative "mojo" and could deliver powerful, emotionally resonant drama in the seasons to come. The episode has been often described as "the decade's best episode of television". In the end, The Suitcase is not merely great Mad Men; it is great television, period – a great example of character writing, performance, and emotional storytelling that reminds us why the medium, at its best, can achieve a profundity that rivals any art form.

RATING: 8/10 (+++)

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