The Suitcase

Lore & Background

The episode marks the halfway point of the series, 46 of 92 episodes. Jon Hamm and Elisabeth Moss both submitted it for Emmy consideration for their lead roles at the 63rd Primetime Emmy Awards, where Matthew Weiner was nominated for Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series. Weiner, who wrote the script, compared Peggy's position at Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce to his own when he worked under David Chase on The Sopranos.

Reader's Guide

With a deadline looming on a campaign for the luggage maker Samsonite, Don rejects every idea the creative team brings him. Most of the staff plan to watch the May 25, 1965 Ali vs. Liston fight, while Peggy has a birthday dinner planned with her boyfriend Mark. Duck Phillips offers Peggy the creative director job at the agency he plans to start, and she turns him down. Don also gets a message asking him to call Stephanie, Anna Draper's niece, and keeps putting it off.

Don keeps Peggy late to work on the campaign. When she tries to cancel dinner, Mark reveals he has invited her family as a surprise, and after she cancels again he breaks up with her over the phone. Peggy and Don argue over the credit he never gave her for the award-winning Glo-Coat campaign, then end up laughing over a tape of Roger Sterling's memoirs and going out to eat and drink, where they talk openly about their fathers, the office gossip about them and the child Peggy gave up.

Back at the office a drunken Duck turns up, insults Peggy and overpowers Don when Don swings at him. Don falls asleep in Peggy's lap, wakes to a vision of Anna holding a suitcase, and in the morning calls Stephanie and learns that Anna has died. He breaks down in front of Peggy. Later that morning he shows her a Samsonite idea built on the Ali vs. Liston knockout photo.