‘Mad Men’ S7 Ep 2 recap: ‘Just tell the truth’

Last week’s Mad Men season premiere wasn’t a particularly enjoyable hour of television, not because the show has lost its charm, but because it left us feeling that there wasn’t much hope for anybody as we enter the final run of episodes. However, Matthew Weiner likes things to be unpredictable, and A Day’s Work couldn’t have been any more different to its predecessor.

The AMC period drama has always done a great job of using trivial things to pass comment on its characters, and the era of the show in general. Valentine’s Day 1969 and Peggy arrived at the SC&P office to find a bouquet flowers lying in wait for her (or so she thought). Unfortunately, she didn’t realise that the flowers were actually for her ‘girl’ Shirley, and so began the main conflict of the episode.

The conflict of A Day’s Work was between honesty and dishonesty, and when one is more appropriate than the other. “Keep pretending. That’s your job,” Dawn told Shirley, as the pair debated the pros and cons of taking back the flowers. The flowers not only showed how crazy Peggy is at the moment (how cringe worthy were her messages to Ted?), but they also illustrated the difficult race relations of the late ‘60s, which some have accused Mad Men of ignoring in the past.

Valentine’s Day threw up lots of difficulties for Dawn and Shirley, who both felt the wrath of their egotistical bosses. Shirley was dressed down for having the audacity to be engaged and happy, when Peggy is so miserable. Meanwhile, Lou (who is fast becoming the most unpleasant character ever to feature on the show) had to answer uncomfortable questions from Sally when she turned up looking for Don. Dawn happened to be out buying him perfume to give to his wife, but still managed to find herself in the firing line. Peggy failed to appreciate that her ‘girl’ might have a life away from serving her; while Lou made an underhand reference to Dawn’s race by suggesting she is only in the job as a ‘token’ employee.

As both Peggy and Lou demanded that Joan give them new receptionists, we encountered outright racism from Bert. He wasn’t happy to discover that Joan had put a black girl on the front desk. It’s true that race rarely takes centre stage in Mad Men, but A Day’s Work did a great job of showing us the difficult race relations of the era in an everyday context, without relying on a historical assassination as in season six. The whole debacle gave way to a satisfying conclusion as Joan and Dawn were promoted to new positions, and given their own offices, after Jim realised that Joan was being pulled in too many different directions.

It was nice to see the return of Don’s daughter Sally this week. Honesty played an important part in their story, as Don came clean about his suspension from work, and Sally finally had her say after catching her father in bed with Sylvia. Last week, I wondered where Don would turn if he no longer regarded sex as the answer to his problems, but this episode saw Don finally put a bit of effort into his relationship with Sally, forcing her to have an honest conversation with him even when she resisted.

The most telling line of the episode, delivered by Sally, was her reply when Don asked her what he should write in his letter excusing her from school. “Just tell the truth,” she said. That’s what she has wanted from her father all along, and by revealing the truth (of both his past and present) to Sally; things might be looking up for Don. His reaction when Sally told him she loved him before hurrying away from the car was really heartwarming. “I’m just looking for love,” he joked earlier in the episode. There’s more truth in that statement than Don would probably care to admit.

If you want to catch the episode in full, Sky Atlantic is repeating it on Saturday (April 26) at 9pm. The series continues next Wednesday (April 30) at 10pm.

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