We break down the three most important "Mad Men" episodes from each season.
Season 1: ‘The Wheel’ (Ep 13)
The Season 1 finale remains one of the top two or three episodes of the entire series and its script was enshrined at the Smithsonian. It’s here that Pete brings in his father-in-law’s account, sparking a juicy ongoing subplot. Peggy not only gives birth to Pete’s kid; she gets promoted from secretary to junior copy editor, beginning her long rise through the ranks of a male-dominated corporate world. Don is haunted by his brother’s suicide and uses old family photos to deliver a beautiful ad pitch for the Kodak carousel: “There’s the rare occasion when the public can be engaged beyond flash. In Greek, nostalgia literally means the pain from an old wound. It takes us to a place where we ache to go again.” Having seen the light, he returns home to spend Thanksgiving with his family, but after seeing a flash of his expectations, we realize his family is already gone, as Don sits alone on the staircase and the camera pulls away. Perfection.
Hailed by The Washington Post for “his savantlike ability to name every Best Picture winner in history," Jason Fraley began at WTOP as Morning Drive Writer in 2008, film critic in 2011 and Entertainment Editor in 2014, providing daily arts coverage on-air and online.
