'Mad Men' Season 5, Episode 8 Recap - 'Lady Lazarus'

There are episodes where you wish you could just shake Pete really hard. And then there are episodes like this one, where you want to hit him with something heavy.

Pete spends the episode philandering, Draper-style, with the wife of his train buddy Howard. Howard's a cheater too, you see, so Pete ends up driving his wife Beth (guest star Alexis Bledel) home when Howard doesn't get off the train and she finds herself locked out of her car.

The horrific beauty of the character of Pete Campbell is that he's always trying so damn hard. Vincent Kartheiser gives him this air that can be easily construed as a self-aware performance on Vincent's part, but is in fact just Pete's self-awareness. Even in seducing Beth, he feels the need to grab her dramatically and say that he isn't leaving until he's sure she isn't "hysterical" (she is clearly not hysterical).

Sad Pete comes out when he attempts to romance Beth further, but she turns him away. Then clingy, creepy Pete comes out when he calls Beth from a payphone (another fantastic Harry moment). Then dangerously desperate Pete comes out when he goes with Howard to his home, pretending to want insurance, so that he can kiss Beth and give her a rendezvous while Howard is out of the room.

Pete. Just stop it.

Thankfully, Pete's moment with the skis at the beginning of the episode endears us to him slightly ("Do they explode or something?") and his handling of them remind us that he's just awkward, lost, and trying to hold onto something that he thinks he needs.

But most of the focus this week is on the Drapers, as it should be... only it's mostly on Megan, not Don. It seems that her father's words to her last week about pursuing her passion got to her, as she has been auditioning again. With that going on, she decides she wants to quit SCDP, and she breaks the news to Don, who shows the caring, understanding Don and not the overbearing Don.

Peggy is less enthused about Megan leaving: she lectures her about the fact that there are others who would kill for this job that she doesn't even want, and while she doesn't say it outright, you can practically taste the resentment over the fact that Peggy worked her way up from nothing, scratching and clawing her way to where she is, while Megan just floated in.

Even worse is the fact that Peggy and Don don't have anywhere near the chemistry that Don and Megan had during that impromptu Heinz pitch, the very same chemistry that they were supposed to use during a pitch to Cool Whip. The resulting scene as Don and Peggy attempt the same pitch together is hard to watch, and ends with Peggy actually telling Don to shut up.

But while Don appears supportive of Megan pursuing acting again, and seems pleased about the domesticity of coming home to see her cooking dinner for him, there's a slight unrest to him through the process. Perhaps it's that he finally seemed to be enjoying his job again while Megan was there. Perhaps it was that he was even more attracted to her while she was an advertising phenom.

Or perhaps this is just another variation on this season's apparent theme of mortality. Certainly, Don's attempt at listening to The Beatles' "Tomorrow Never Knows" seems to support that: the lyrics of the song notwithstanding, Don clearly doesn't "get" The Beatles.

The elevator shaft is just another cue: while Megan's elevator takes her away from SCDP and toward her dreams, Don's elevator is just an abyss. He doesn't have a way out of here... unless he wants to jump out of a window, a la the opening credits.

Dark as that all is, this was one of the more giggle-worthy episodes of the season, what with the aforementioned exploding skis line. Honorable mentions:

- "Pizza House!"

- "Did he fire you? That son of a bitch!"