Mad Men Season 7, Episode 5 “The Runaways” Review

Nipples in boxes happen. How would Michael Scott (“The Office”) phrase that? It’s not decapitation. Denippletation? (Having googled “latin word for nipple” we can now tell you it would be something along the lines of, “deadhiebtation.” Sexy.)

Elisabeth Moss as Peggy Olson – Mad Men _ Season 7, Episode 5 – Photo Credit: Justina Mintz/AMC

Mad Men Season 7, Episode 5 “The Runaways” Recap

On taking it literal…

Jessica: First, I’d like to knock-off the obvious list of ways the episode title was literal. Ready for it?
Estella: Hit me.
Jessica: Sally and Bobby want to flee their family. Especially Betty. Every choice Sally makes takes her farther away from her Mother’s love and acceptance. And I don’t know if that’s even on purpose. It’s just a troubling dynamic. Then we have Don, spending so much time running back and forth to and from people and places that he can’t ever be where he wants to be, when he wants to be there. Or, maybe he does. Who can figure that out? Anyway. Then we have Ginsberg, who has conveniently left reality behind. And Peggy has run away from the idea that things can be okay, because when there is a nipple in a box on your desk, you don’t get to pretend anymore.
Estella: That’s literally what I always say. It’s like a wise, old, Chinese proverb.
Jessica: Beware boxes with nipples.
Estella: Even one nipple is enough cause for concern.
Jessica: Oh! Megan is running away from the status quo of her marriage. And there was the faux-niece, running around California…and I guess she’s kind of running away from her problem in not telling the Dad that she’s pregnant. Or in staying to see Don, when she could tell Megan didn’t wnat her there.
Estella: That was a well-played, nuanced scene, if there ever was one.
Jessica: RIGHT? I loved it. So much happened, but nothing was ever said.

On Don Draper’s threesome

Estella: So, Don’s first threesome.
Jessica: Was it his FIRST? That’s crazy.
Estella: First that I recall seeing. And I don’t think I would have forgotten…
Jessica: It seemed like it should have been…hotter?
Estella:

Henry and Betty

Estella: Surprise! Betty’s got a voice.
Jessica: This seemed like a cheap, blatant way to remind us that women were being opressed.
Estella: They just needed to give Betty something to do. Something to be. Beleaguered housewife is all she’s ever been.
Jessica: And still is. Well! And “bad Mom.”
Estella: Why the quotes?
Jessica: I haven’t thought about it enough to figure out if she’s as bad as we’re meant to believe she is, or if I am only seeing her through the lenses of Sally. But, yea, leave off the quotes. She’s pretty awful.

Why did Meghan hate Stephanie?

Jessica: This is the thing I couldn’t figure out. It was played out in the silence…and in the noises of Megan slamming pans around. She wouldn’t even admit it to herself, so it’s hard for US to figure out…
Estella: I’d say she was jealous about that part of Don’s life, but Megan is one of the only people who got to know the full truth about Anna and Stephanie. You’d think she would be grateful, somehow.
Jessica: Grateful to have a problem on her lap?
Estella: But she wasn’t annoyed by that in the way Betty would have been. She wasn’t even curious. She was just plain not having it.
Jessica: She was weirdly threatened by Stephanie…commenting on her being so pretty… I guess that’s telling. And I really don’t think Stephanie ONLY was there for money.
Estella: She seemed very invested in getting to speak or see Don. But she was very big about not demanding it, when she saw how Megan felt.
Jessica: I’m a terrible person, I would have wanted to stay just to spite Megan and her awful hair.
Estella: None of us are saints. Especially those of us who claim to be.

Italian!

Jessica: You know why else I’m awful? “I’m smart. I speak ITALIAN,” seems like something I might say to justify myself to someone.
Estella: Yes, you’re the worst.