ON TELEVISION: "The Strategy" was Every Bit as Special as "The Suitcase"

How wonderful was Sunday's episode of Mad Men?  This final season of the Emmy-winner will undoubtedly be dissected for years to come and its quality compared to earlier seasons of Mad Men.  For better or worse, these comparisons happen to a landmark show during its victory lap. For my money, "The Strategy," which aired Sunday night (05/18/14),  harkened back to the truly stellar quality of the 2010 season four episode "The Suitcase."  I know fans of the show remember that one well.  "The Suitcase" was so good that both Elizabeth Moss (Peggy) and Jon Hamm (Don) submitted material from the episode for their 63rd Primetime Emmy reels.  Well, Sunday night's scenes with those two were just as good as the ones from 2010.  I really have enjoyed going on-line to see what other reviewers and bloggers have written about the magical scene where Don and Peggy--who are working late at night over the course of a weekend to come up with a campaign for fast food chain Burger Chef-- slow dance to Sinatra's "My Way."  Show runner Matthew Weiner no doubt picked this song less for its relevance to pop tunes of 1969 and much more for its iconic lyrics which so perfectly summarize the journey of these two beloved characters.  Here are some of the "My Way" lyrics I find most apropos to this memorable moment:

I did what I had to do and saw it through without exemption
I planned each charted course, each careful step along the byway

Yes, there were times, I'm sure you knew
When I bit off more than I could chew
But through it all, when there was doubt
I ate it up and spit it out

I've loved, I've laughed and cried
I've had my fill, my share of losing

For what is a man, what has he got?
If not himself, then he has naught
To say the things he truly feels and not the words of one who kneels
The record shows I took the blows and did it my way!

I especially appreciated the take on Peggy's relationship to Don as written by Tim Goodman of The Hollywood Reporter in his website recap of "The Strategy:" "[Peggy needed]...validation not from a man but from her mentor, a person she jealously hated and tried to pin under her thumb to prove her worth and power when the whole charade only made her miserable. Having Don on her side, as a friend, is what Peggy was blind to needing."  I would further add that Don has needed an ally in Peggy as this season, he is no longer the power player he once was at the ad agency.  And, personally, I have always contended that Don's mentorship of Peggy is the longest and most functional relationship he has ever maintained with a woman.  It was an over-the-moon moment for me when he leaned down and kissed the top of Peggy's head.  So much tenderness and vulnerability and the acknowledgement of all their shared ups and downs conveyed in  a moment without dialogue.  Trademark Mad Men magic.

Peggy ultimately forges a new strategy for Burger Chef that focuses on the new American family that was emerging in 1969.  It is a strategy born of her own pain at being single and thirty while also frustrated with her failed attempts at in-person market research with a myriad of Burger Chef's female patrons, mothers at the wheels of station wagons.  Most importantly, it is a new strategy enabled by Peggy's renewed connection and support from Don--who has been more family to Peggy than anyone else at the firm.  I really enjoyed what  Marlow Stern wrote in his review on the The Daily Beast website: "Peggy and Don, two trusted confidantes who’ve been both been dealt rotten hands—Don’s whorehouse roots, Peggy’s struggle to succeed in a man’s world—but have endured. Ultimately, the trio of Peggy, Don, and Pete gather at Burger Chef, where Peggy says they’re rejiggering the plan. The presentation won’t be about moms, but about family—the one thing that’s eluded Don, Pete, and Peggy." I couldn't have expressed that better myself.  I'm just glad that Mad Men is an integral part of my viewing schedule.  I hope you are watching it as well; it's worth the time investment.