A Visual Episode Guide To Mad Men Season 5

The symbolism in a show like Mad Men is as pervasive as the clinking of ice or sparking of lighters. We watched with mouths wide open as Betty Draper gunned down happily chirping birds in her nightgown, as Joan sadly played the accordion in front of Greg and his friends (and we hear that same accordion when she later exploded on him at a restaurant) and most recently as Don stared down an empty elevator shaft as he tries to follow Megan.

With the premiere of Season 6 close at hand, we selected several symbols from each episode in Season 5 as visual reminders—and to catch up for this Sunday. You can also see a full gallery of the illustrations at the bottom of the post.

Episode 1-2

A – Can of Heinz Beans: Peggy pitches the “ballad of the beans” to the Heinz executives, but she’s quickly turned down. When Don doesn’t fight for the pitch, Peggy sees a change in him.
B – Megan’s microphone: At Don’s surprise party that Megan throws, she does a sexy rendition of the French song “Zou Bisou Bisou.” Don is unappreciative of the party, which causes the two to brawl and then angrily have sex on the floor.
C – The photo of the woman Lane finds in the lost wallet: Lane finds a wallet in a cab and discovers a photo of a young woman inside. He calls the home of the owner, only to get the man’s girlfriend Dolores on the phone. After flirting with her, Lane becomes obsessed with meeting her.

Other important plot points -
- Joan worries for her job while on maternity leave. She goes back for a visit where Lane reassures her that they won’t replace her.
- After filing a joke newspaper ad for a new receptionist, the reception area is filled with African American men and women looking to interview for jobs. Lane handles the incident gracefully, asking the women to leave their resumes for consideration.

Episode 3

A – Doughnut: Betty’s weight gain is starting to affect her marriage, and she starts rejecting Henry’s advances. Desperate to make a change, she accepts Henry’s mother’s advice and visits the doctor to get diet pills.
B – Stethoscope: After the doctor’s refusal to give Betty the diet pills, he reveals that she has a dangerous lump in her throat. She calls Don in hysterics, but soon learns that the tumor is benign.
C – The Rolling Stones: The Heinz executives are determined to get The Rolling Stones to do a commercial. Don and Harry go to a concert to try to get a meeting with their manager, but end up talking with two younger girls who insult the older generations.

Other important plot points -
- Pete wins back the business with Mohawk airlines and causes Roger to question his value in the company.
- The company hires a young copywriter named Michael Ginsberg.

Episode 4

A – Knife: After eight nurses are brutally murdered in Chicago and graphic photos are released, people are abuzz with talk. One nurse managed to survive by hiding under the bed. Sally’s step-grandmother Pauline watches the children while Betty and Henry are away. Sally gets scared and Pauline gets a butcher knife from the kitchen for protection. The couple arrives home to find Pauline asleep with the knife and Sally asleep underneath the couch.
B – Thermometer: Don is extremely sick. After seeing an old flame in the elevator with Megan, he has a fever dream that the woman enters his home and they have sex.
C – Don and Megan’s bed: Still in his fever dream, Don chokes the woman he has just slept with to death and pushes her body under the bed, leaving her feet barely visible—an image reminiscent of the recent murders.

Other important plot points -
- Roger gives Peggy a large amount of cash to work on the Mohawk campaign over the weekend to cover up his lack of work.
- After a year of service in Vietnam, Joan’s husband Greg returns only to tell her he’s going back for another year. When she finds out he volunteered to go back, Joan is hysterical. She tells Greg to leave the apartment, and he storms out declaring that “it’s over.”

Episode 5

A – Fist: After Pete takes the Jaguar account from Lane, they all visit a brothel where Edwin (the Jaguar exec), Roger and Pete all cheat on their wives. Edwin withdraws his business after his wife learns of his infidelity. In his anger, Lane challenges Pete to a fist fight and knocks him, bloodied to the ground.
B – Leaky Sink: Pete and Trudy throw a party and invite the Cosgroves and the Drapers. The sink that Pete previously fixed bursts, and Don fixes it, explaining that Pete’s fix was just temporary.

Other important plot points -
- The news about Ken Cosgrove’s side project of writing sci-fi becomes a topic of conversation. Roger tells Ken to stop writing immediately in order to not divert attention from his job.

Episode 6

A – LSD-laced sugar cubes: Roger and his wife Jane take LSD with a group of people at her therapist’s house. The couple return home to take a bubble bath and talk candidly about their relationship for the first time. The both agree that it is over, and while Roger wakes up freed, Jane wakes up confused and upset.
B – Roger’s two-tone hair: While on LSD, Roger sees an ad of a man with two colors of hair. He then looks in the mirror and sees that his own hair has turned black and white.

Other important plot points -
- Don and Megan argue after going to a Howard Johnson to stay for one of Don’s deals. He drives away, and when he returns to find her she is gone. He finally drives home only to find the latch to the door shut and her sleeping in bed.

Episode 7

A – Phone cord coming out of a closet: Sally is upset that her grandma Pauline is watching them again, and she takes the phone in to the closet to talk to Glen. Pauline then trips on the cord and has to be rushed to the hospital, leaving Sally to stay with Megan and Don while Megan’s parents are also in town.
B – Champagne and a bow tie: Sally joins Megan, Don, Roger and Megan’s parents at an award ceremony. Sally walks by an open door and witnesses Megan’s mother performing a sex act on Roger.

Other important plot points -
- Don is thrilled when Megan saves the Heinz campaign with a pitch at the dinner table.
- Peggy thinks Abe is going to propose, but instead he asks that they move in together. Peggy accepts, but her mother isn’t supportive.

Episode 8

A – Car keys: Pete helps his friend Howard’s wife after she locks her keys out of the car. After he drives her to the house they have sex on the floor. He becomes obsessed with her, and checks into a hotel and asks her to come, but Beth doesn’t arrive.
B – Empty elevator shaft: Megan decides to quit her job and Don walks to the elevator with her. After she leaves, he presses the elevator button. When the doors open there isn’t an elevator, just the empty shaft.

Episode 9

A – Love Letter: After Betty accidentally sees the younger and thinner Megan undressing and finds a love letter from Don to Megan on the back of Sally’s homework, she tells Sally about Don’s first wife, Anna. Sally angrily confronts Megan, and later overhears Megan telling Don that Betty is trying to poison their relationships.
B – Taxi: Don becomes competitive with Ginsberg over the Snowball campaign and purposefully leaves Ginsberg’s pitch in the cab.

Other important plot points -
- Jane agrees to accompany Roger to a work dinner if he will purchase her an apartment. After the dinner she and Roger have sex in her new apartment, and Jane is upset that Roger’s memories will linger in her new place.

Episode 10

A – Forged check: Struggling for money because of tax issues in England, Lane forges a check from the agency.
B – Flowers delivered to Joan: After Joan is served divorce papers, Don takes her out to test-drive a Jaguar. The two flirt and speak candidly. Don later leaves her to talk to a handsome man at the bar and delivers her flowers the next day.

Other important plot points -
- Harry visits Paul at a Hare Krishna gathering. It is revealed that the woman Paul is seeing wants him to stay because he is their best recruiter. She blackmails Harry by sleeping with him in his office in order to get him to stay away from Paul.
- Joan tells Roger she doesn’t want him in the life of their child.

Episode 11

A – Lobster Dinner: Don leaves Peggy out of the Jaguar campaign and tells her that she is in charge of the Chevalier Blanc campaign until it is finished. She watches as lobster lunches are delivered to the Jaguar team. Don later lashes out at her and puts Ginsberg in charge of Chevalier Blanc.
B – Jewel Necklace: The Jaguar executive mentions his interest in Joan as part of their advertising deal and Joan accepts with a 5 percent partnership stake.

Other important plot points -
- Peggy takes a meeting with Cutler Gleason and Chaough to discuss a job opportunity. She later leaves Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce, with Don kissing her hand as she holds back tears.

Episode 12

A – Noose and overturned table: After Don finds out about Lane’s forged check, he asks him to resign. Pete, Harry and Ken and Joan later find Lane hanging in his office. Don lays Lane’s body on his couch, and Roger finds a letter of resignation on the floor of the office.

Other important plot points -
- Sally invites Glen to Megan and Don’s apartment when they are gone. After going to the natural history museum Sally gets her period and takes a cab home to her mother. Betty hugs Sally and reassures her.

Episode 13

A – Don’s bad tooth: Don’s bad tooth causes him immense pain. He starts seeing visions of his dead brother.
B- The Butler Shoe campaign: After begging Don to help her get a spot in an ad to help boost her advertising career, he lets her screen test for Butler shoes. After he watches her acting, he goes to a bar and is approached by a woman asking if he’s alone. Don gives her a sly look, and the season ends.

1 of 13

2 of 13

3 of 13

4 of 13

5 of 13

6 of 13

7 of 13

8 of 13

9 of 13

10 of 13