The Phantom (Mad Men)

"The Phantom (Mad Men)"

"The Phantom" is the thirteenth episode and season finale of the fifth season of the American television drama series Mad Men and the 65th episode of the series overall. It is co-written by Jonathan Igla and Matthew Weiner and directed by Weiner. It originally aired on the AMC channel in the United States on June 10, 2012.

Much of the episode takes place in March and April 1967. Don has a tooth ache that brings up painful memories of his brother as the firm looks to expand after a profitable quarter with Joan running the books. Roger seeks to expand the affair with Megan's mother and asks her to join him on an LSD trip. Pete has a "last" encounter with Beth with lasting repercussions. Megan struggles to find acting work and asks for Don's help getting an audition for a commercial at the agency to jump start her career. Peggy is adjusting to her new agency and enjoying the challenge of an upcoming campaign bid for a "women's cigarette," but still seeks Don's approval. After Megan uses Don's connections to further her career, Don has to answer a question.

Plot

Don (Jon Hamm) soothes an aching tooth with a cotton ball soaked with whiskey at home. Megan (Jessica Paré) offers to schedule him a dentist appointment but he declines. Her visiting mother Marie (Julia Ormond) consoles her when she receives a rejected screen test reel.

Howard (Jeff Clarke) and Beth Dawes (Alexis Bledel) join Pete (Vincent Kartheiser) on the train. Howard explains that Beth will be staying with her sister for a while. Beth quickly excuses herself and Howard follows.

Harry Crane (Rich Sommer) joins Joan (Christina Hendricks) on the elevator and sees that she pressed the 38th-floor button. She calls it an accident, deflecting Harry's questions about the agency moving to another floor. As he heads in to work, Don passes an elevator whose doors are closing. Inside he sees a man who looks like his dead brother, Adam (Jay Paulson).

Beth calls Pete at his office, asking him to meet her at the Hotel Pennsylvania. He hangs up after telling her that he hopes she likes waiting, for that is what he has had to do. At a partners meeting, Joan announces revenue is up 34% from last year, making it their best-ever quarter. She has plans to meet with the building manager about new office space, but cautions against overextending and suggests postponing a final decision until June. The partners agree.

At CGC, Ted Chaough (Kevin Rahm) tosses Peggy (Elisabeth Moss) an unlabeled carton of Philip Morris' "top secret ladies' cigarette" and tells her to "Smoke it, name it, sell it."

Pete arrives at Beth's hotel room. She reveals she is starting electroshock therapy the next day. She has been depressed and it is the only thing that will help, but it might erase her memory of him. In bed, he urges her to forgo treatment and stay with him. She declines, explaining that electroshock does work.

At the Draper home, Megan and her friend Emily (Emily Foxler) discuss the difficulty of finding work as actresses. The phone rings and Megan answers, but no one responds. Emily asks if Don can get her an audition for Butler shoes' "Beauty and the Beast" commercial. Megan agrees, but later gives Don a copy of her own screen test instead, asking him to recommend her for the Butler commercial. He refuses, because she wants to be "somebody's discovery, not somebody's wife." She relents and later cries in the bathroom. Roger calls the Draper home pretending to be Emile and asks for Marie. Roger admits to her that he hung up on Megan several times that day and invites Marie to his room at the Stanhope Hotel for a rendezvous.

Entering the office the next day, Don passes an employee who looks like Adam. Joan informs Don that SCDP will receive a $175,000 insurance payout from Lane's death. He tells her to repay Lane's wife the $50,000 Lane gave the company after Lucky Strike left. As she leaves, Don ices his tooth. He later visits Rebecca Pryce and hands her a $50,000 check. After showing Don the photo of Dolores, she accuses the agency of corrupting Lane and tells him to not leave thinking that he has done anything for anyone but himself.

Marie wakes Megan at midday and tells her to stop feeling sorry for herself. She compares Megan's situation to a little girl wishing to be a ballerina, stating that the world could not support that many of them. When Megan asks if that is that Marie tells herself, Marie calls her ungrateful and walks out. Later, Marie and Roger enter his hotel room, kissing passionately. He asks her to take LSD with him. She declines, asking him to not have her take care of him.

Trudy (Alison Brie) shows Pete her plans for a backyard pool, but he calls it "permanent" and warns that daughter Tammy could drown. She chastises him, saying she is tired of the "doom and gloom". He later visits Beth at the hospital. When she does not recognize him, he tells her he is visiting a friend who became heartbroken after an affair, adding that the friend has realized that the affair was a "temporary bandage on a permanent wound".

Don arrives home to find Megan drunk and escorts her to bed. She throws herself at him, saying that is what he wants and is the reason he will not give her acting career a chance to succeed. Marie enters the apartment and he scolds her for leaving Megan alone, to which Marie advises him to help Megan through this crisis and he will have the life he desires. He grimaces, holding his cheek. He later visits the dentist for an extraction and, while anesthetized, sees Adam's ghost, who tells him that it is not his tooth that is rotten. Don goes to a movie theater (Casino Royale is playing) and sees Peggy. He joins her, telling her that he is proud of her success, but just did not know it would be without him.

Howard wakes Pete on the train. Pete argues that Howard could not wait to hospitalize Beth and "erase her brain". Realizing that Pete slept with Beth, Howard begins to fight with Pete, who is then kicked off the train. At home, Pete tells Trudy he fell asleep at the wheel and drove into a ditch. Concerned about his welfare, she agrees that he should have an apartment in the city.

Alone at the office, Don watches Megan's screen test and smiles. Joan later shows the partners around the prospective new office space and Pete remarks that he will have the same view as Don. They stand in front of the window and look out.

Dressed as "Beauty", Megan kisses Don on the set of Butler's commercial and tells him she loves him. He watches her a moment, then walks off. He sits down at a bar and orders an Old Fashioned.

In her dingy Richmond motel room, Peggy looks out her window and sees two dogs having sex. She is shocked, then gets into bed with a glass of wine and smiles. At home, Pete sits in the dark with headphones on and eyes closed. Roger stands naked on a chair facing the hotel window, arms outstretched. A woman approaches Don at the bar and asks if he is alone. He turns and looks at her.

Reception

Critical reception

Critical reviews of the season finale were mixed. Alan Sepinwall of HitFix commented that "Some of the most memorable scenes and moments of the series' run occurred over these last three months". However, he added "'The Phantom' was an episode that seemed to take some of the smaller earlier missteps [of the season] and magnify them. If not for a great final 10 minutes or so... I'd be going into [the] hiatus feeling much more sour about the season than I should." Newsday's Verne Gay called "The Phantom" "just another episode... What was lacking however has been much the same as the rest of the season — a certain passion, or emotional resonance. It all felt terribly chilly and remote — characters in service of Matt Weiner's grand overarching themes, as opposed to an episode in service of their hearts." More approvingly, Matt Zoller Seitz, writing in New York Magazine's Vulture blog, wrote that the finale was "a summation of core Mad Men themes: the displacement of an existing order by a new one; the gradual, mysterious, outwardly imperceptible changes experienced by individuals, businesses, cities, and nations over decades; and the possibility of reinventing oneself and starting over, again and again and again."

Ratings

"The Phantom" garnered the highest ratings for a Mad Men season finale to date, attracting 2.7 million viewers. 1.4 million adults in Mad Men's core demographic of the 25-54 age range watched the finale while 1.2 million viewers in the 18-49 demographic viewed the finale. In response, AMC President Charlie Collier said, "As in each season prior, season five is now Mad Men's most-watched season, an uncommon television growth record and a testament to the ongoing quality and uniqueness of this rare property. I'd be remiss if I didn't point out that the record live-same-day Nielsen ratings that gain so much attention are only a small part of the Mad Men success story. Congratulations to the entire Mad Men team on another terrific season."

External links

• "The Phantom" at AMC
• "The Phantom" at IMDb
• Template:Tv.com episode