Mad Cap: "Seven Twenty Three"

Jon Hamm

Welcome to Mad Cap: a daily rundown of every episode of the acclaimed AMC series Mad Men. During this time, I will be compiling my thoughts and highlights as we travel through every moment and season of the Emmy-award winning drama that has come to define modern TV. The goal is to be a refresher on every moment for Don Draper and his band of advertisement executives leading up to the final season. Stay for all of the shocking moments and the brilliant acting performances, and make sure to chime in with your thoughts and criticisms on why the show means something to you.

Season 3, Episode 7

"Seven Twenty Three"

"You're good. Get better. Stop asking for things."

- Don Draper (Jon Hamm)

Plot:

The episode begins with three people waking up in a cryptic, strange place. First up is Don Draper (Jon Hamm), who is getting ready for another day at Sterling Cooper. This time he is dealing with the contract for Conrad Hilton, which has everyone trying to steal it from him. It is a religious client. Also, Roger Sterling (John Slattery) is trying to get him to sign a contract that he doesn't agree with. After taking Sally Draper (Kiernan Shipka) to a school trip that involves a solar eclipse, he ends up talking to her teacher who thinks that he's flirting with her. Meanwhile, Betty Draper (January Jones) goes out shopping with a new acquaintance named Henry Francis (Christopher Stanley) and decides to buy a ugly chair after doing some interior decorating. Sterling calls Betty about Don's contract to try and have her persuade him to sign. However, Betty is more upset that Don wouldn't share the news. Don snaps and decides to disappear by picking up some hitchhikers and getting high while contemplating his life while imagining Archie Whitman (Joseph Culp) giving him advice. Before Don leaves Sterling Cooper, he snaps at Peggy Olsen (Elisabeth Moss), who in return turns to Herman "Duck" Philips (Mark Moses), whom she decides to have sex with. Betty has an ugly chair. Don signs the contract.

Rating: 4 out of 5

MVP:

Don Draper (Jon Hamm)

It is a rough time for Don. Little does he know that Betty is seeing Henry and everything else is spiraling. He is being asked to change his identity to serve the company's needs. Nobody wants him for the reliable service he has given. All he has to do is sign a contract that guarantees something for the next three years. Along with yelling at Betty and Peggy, he goes on one of his penchant drug trips that reveal a deeper meaning behind them. He hallucinates to remember his past and the world that he came from. He cannot handle being the business man that everyone wants and instead chooses to beat himself up. Meanwhile, the world around him is literally changing from furniture to legalities to the planets orbiting around the Earth. Don is forced to succumb, but not without a stubborn performance that brilliantly captures the magic of what Jon Hamm can do when left to brood and stare into mirrors and empty chairs.

Left to right: Hamm and Trever O'Brien

Best Scene

If there's any clarity to an episode that is about unraveling confusing sequences, it is the moment in which Don decides to take drugs and hallucinate with the hitchhikers. We have seen him get high before, but never in a way that felt beneficial to the story. As he sees Archie talk to him about Don's failure as a man, there's a deeper understanding that Don isn't the happy man that his success claims that he is. He wants so much more to be someone that his father could be proud of or even his family and coworkers. What he's left with is being high and knocked out by strangers. Life is rough and sometimes all that can be done is to push aside emotional context and give into temptation. Is this the decline of Don's Sterling Cooper days? Sometimes it seems like it, though there's potential for him to get way more depressing.

UP NEXT: "Souvenir"