Mad Men Recap, ‘The Quality of Mercy’

Seeing as how this is the next to last episode of the season I was expecting some big revelations, or maybe another death. It's time to admit that even when you break down all the good parts, this season was quite underwhelming.

We did find out more about the mysterious Bob Benson as Pete went back to being the smarmy character I liked to loathe. Again the episode belonged to Sally, who is desperately trying to figure out how to get away from boys. It's a mad world, and it's run by mad men.

Sally: After catching Don with Sylvia, she no longer wants to visit him on the weekends. Betty calls while Don is home sick and tells her that Sally wants to go away to an all-girls boarding school. Don offers to pay for her tuition, and she'll have no problem getting in because Henry's daughter also attends Miss Porter's. So Betty takes her up for a day and she's immediately mean-girled by her potential roommate and another student. Sally just kind of went with it, even giving them money and promising to give them anything they want, which of course means boys. Well the only boy she knows besides her brother is Creepy Glen, who climbs through the window with his friend Rolo. They drink, they get high, you know regular teenage stuff and one of the girls, Mandy, invites Glen back to her room.

Sally goes off with Rolo who tries to feel her up, and then calls her a tease when she rebuffs his advances. Glen pounces on him and they scuffle until Rolo reminds him that he's his only way home. Even though Glen will probably never completely shake his creepiness, it's nice to know that he'll thrown down for Sally.

On their way back home Betty asks Sally how her stay at Miss Porter's was, knowing that the headmistress told her about what she and the other girls did. She offers a cigarette, because if she's going to smoke she might as well do it in front of her. Betty asks if Don has ever given her a beer and Sally responds that her dad has never given her anything, which I'm sure made Betty very happy.

Pete, Ken and Bob: My poor Ken, the weirdest things keep happening to him. After he told two Chevy execs that his wife was pregnant, they offered to take him hunting, even though they've probably never been hunting before. Startled by a noise, one of the guys shoots into the woods and accidentally hits Ken. He shows up to work with an eye patch over his right eye and tells Pete that he just can't handle that account anymore. Pete is more than ready to take his job and they tell Bert that Ken will stay in New York while Pete takes over in Detroit. He wants Bob off the account but the partners know that Chevy loves him. Face to face, Pete tells Bob that he doesn't want to work with him and that he should watch what he says to people. Guess he didn't like that little knee tap.

Pete calls up Duck Phillips for any leads he can give to Bob so that he'll want to quit because everyone else likes the guy, except him and Don. In his office, Bob speaks Spanish with someone on the phone telling him that Pete is conniving and trying to get him fire. When Dot stops by to ask Pete for her passport, she tells him that Manolo isn't happy about the way he's been treating Bob. Which begs the question, who is Manolo to Bob anyways? Is he really just a caretaker that he happened to know? When Duck calls Pete back he tells him that Bob has lied about pretty much everything, his background, where he went to school. Bob Benson isn't even his real name! Of course SC&P is the only company who didn't do any background checks on him.  Pete confronts him about what he knows, but Bob plays dumb, probably instinctively, but apologizes for treating him the way he did. Pete knows that he can't win against someone who is willing to lose it all to get ahead, so he might as well play nice. Bob, whoever he really is, can stick around as long as he keeps his distance. Smart move, Pete.

Don, Ted and Peggy: The weird love/hate triangle that's been going on between these three finally came to a head when Don decided that he wanted to spare Ted and Peggy the same embarrassment he's gone through with office romances. Or at least that's the lie he went with. Megan tells him to stay home for the day because he's sick, and looks it, but work never stops.

Harry calls from California to tell him that Sunkist wants their business, but Ted is already working with Ocean Spray which could cause a huge conflict. At the office, Ted and Peggy are doing a horrible job at hiding their flirting from the other creatives. While they sample juices, they giggle with each other as they act out a commercial. After a showing of 'Rosemary's Baby,' Megan and Don run into Peggy and Ted who quickly lie their way out of the awkward situation. Don instantly knows what's up, and as they act out their St. Joseph's aspirin ad, inspired the by the movie, he tells them that they'll be over budget.

Later Ted tells Don that St. Joseph's stopped production on their ad when Don sent the budget to them. Ted is more concerned about how Peggy will take the news than the fact that a huge ad won't make it to air. In a meeting with the St. Joseph's people, Ted tries to convince them to move forward even with the big budget. Don butts in saying that he knows what they want, but that the ad has become personal for Ted. Totally caught off guard, Ted lets Don tell them that the campaign was Frank Gleason's last idea and that's why they feel so strongly about it. It was an uncomfortable move, and a risky one, but they went for it. He then tells Ted that him and Peggy are way too public and that he's been there before, and boy has he. So maybe Don was trying to save the two from being the talk of the office, but I also think there were some slightly selfish reasons behind him trying to break up Ted and Peggy. As good as they both are, they aren't as sharp when they're too busy acting like 4th graders. Peggy chastises him in his office, saying that he ruined their commercial and calls him a monster. All Don can do is curl up into the fetal position on his couch.

Besides finding out that Bob isn't who he says he is (and we all saw that coming right?), there wasn't a lot to this episode. I don't expect the finale to be filled with anything big either, but something has to happen! It better not involve Glen and his eyebrows either.