Mad Men Season Five Episode Six: Far Away Places Like Divorce Court & Recap
April 23, 2012 by Hollywoodite
This is a recap of Mad Men season five episode six, Far Away places. Kept in relative brief, in part, because there was a lot to skip in this episode. It was something of a non-starter, following a promising beginning to the season.
WARNING: This post will probably also contain spoilers. Random thoughts on the episode…
* In short, this was an examination of the flaws within two marriages; one of which will crumble over an LSD trip that inspires selective amnesia.
* Don Draper permitted Roger Sterling to cheat with a hooker in the last episode because Roger’s “miserable” in his marriage to child-bride Jane Sterling. Jane knows Roger has cheated. And Jane admits to kissing a random guy because she was lonely. The cracks show at Jane’s psychiatrist’s dinner party, where couple’s trip together to reveal their “truths.” The truth being that Roger’s trippin’ balls was belated and less-potent than his young wife’s. Out of her stupor, Jane’s reminded that she concede to divorce. Embittered, she tells Roger it’ll be “expensive” to leave her.
* Then there’s Megan and Don, who hijack a trip to the flagship Howard Johnson hotel in Plattsburg intended for Roger and Don. We learn that Megan cares about her job, while Don still sees her as the lesser who married the boss for perks. Megan’s pulled away from a Heinz presentation that tanks without help and Don doesn’t want to hear it until Megan’s full of sherbet; his favourite, she wanted pie. After a lowblow about Don’s mother and “embarrasing” Don by playing up, he tires and drives away leaving Megan stranded. He returns to find only her glasses and he phones everyone looking for her. Returning home the following morning, Megan’s locked the door after taking a six-hour bus trip on the advice of random dudes she met at the hotel (she’s also sour at being propositioned by men while waiting at the bus station alone). The couple row and Don chases Megan, following what looks like a lead-up to a beating. They fall and Don takes to his knees to apologise for abandoning her; low-blow or no. He was sweating and wide-eyed with panick the whole episode.
And that was it… except Michael finally admits what we suspected: he was born in a concentration camp during the Holocaust. Something people posited when he flipped looking at the mutilated women in the murder episode. Oh, and Sally Draper’s supposedly back in episode seven. So, no, despite the half-hearted rumour-mongering Sally’s not dead.
