Mad Men (TV Series) Mystery Date (2012) User Reviews

Unsettling ...

[tforbes-2 · 10/10 · 9 April 2012]

No doubt this was one tremendously powerful episode, and one that reflects what was becoming an increasingly darker time. It's 15 July 1966, the day after Richard Speck raped and killed eight nurses in Chicago.

Don Draper is sick with a bad cough, aggravated by smoking, and he meets an old flame from six years before. We end up seeing him have a dream where he gets "punished" for his infidelity, and where he "kills" the old flame, and it ends with her body underneath the bed, her leg sticking out like the Wicked Witch of the West. References to Cinderella also abound.

Likewise, the Speck killings have an effect on little Sally Draper, who manages to read about them in the newspaper. And we see her creepy step-grandmother give her a pill to deal with her anxiety, which makes one wonder what might happen with drugs.

In the midst of this, we see Joan finally break up with her husband, making reference to the rape she sustained before their marriage. One reviewer thought this might end the direct contact with the Vietnam War, but given the tone this series is showing this season, don't be too surprised if we hear of his passing.

A powerful and unsettling episode.

Actually Brilliant

[marqpdx · 10/10 · 21 December 2017]

This is actually a brilliant episode. Everyone's true self gets a moment, Don and the lady on the bedroom floor, Ginsberg and the tribe, Peggy and Dawn, Sally and Henry's mom!!

Amazing writing, and a glimpse into so many lives...

Brilliant

[pachys · 10/10 · 14 January 2020]

Christina Hendrick's performance in this episode is one of the most convincing performances in all of Mad Men.

This episode was the best ever

[Ilovehandbagsandshoes · 10/10 · 14 April 2012]

I've just returned from a big discussion over dinner about this episode. I had said that I thought it was the best yet, others at our table thought it was the worst. I was told to "view Don, essentially, as a coward". I'm sorry, but he didn't want to die in a jungle in the middle of nowhere after having had such a miserable early life and feeling he had so much yet to contribute to society. That is not a coward, that was survival. Leaving that facet aside. This is a man tortured by his appetites. Being faithful, being of one purpose, being single-minded, is not something he can do for a long time. He is split in two, like his two identities, he cannot reconcile the conflict in his personality. And his personality represents a much wider voracious consumerism that is now, 40 years later, totally rampant. Thank you!

Foreshadowed and foreshadowing

[Ry_Asty · 9/10 · 30 September 2023]

In a series with almost countless subtle foreshadows it's difficult to discern each in any given episode. Some foreshadows or hints are given seasons in advance making multiple viewings a necessity.

Mystery Date offers some foreshadowed events like the prior episode's "gypsy" tea leaf reader telling us Betty would be alright. Stan is seen wearing a stocking mask, a common criminal device, just prior to Joyce appearing with leaked photos of Richard Speck's murders. Speck, btw, didn't wear any mask and wasn't apprehended until 4 days later, despite a call to Chicago P. D. on the 15th. Minutes later Stan's mask becomes a "gypsy-type" headband which foretells another event in a dream hallucination recreation of a nurses apartment on E. 100th St in Chicago. The survivor in Chicago hid under a bed, the hallucination victim was shoved under a bed, not to mention being murdered in another brilliant series.

I'm never sure if Mad Men writers make deliberate errors like poetry misspellings or e.e. Cummings, a living contradiction. Noted by another commenter here, Capt. Greg Harris wears an outdated uniform at dinner and doesn't correct a Private for saluting indoors. He wears a RVN Gallantry Cross Unit Citation not authorized for U. S. personnel until 1968 (retroactive to 1961). He also wears a Bronze Star ribbon something I find unlikely particularly since no mention is made of it or the action by either him or Joan. His other Unit Citation ribbons (gold framed) are Army Meritorious (service) and RVN Civic Action Honor With Palm. On his left below the Bronze Star are National Defense Service ribbon, Vietnam Service ribbon and RVN Vietnam Campaign ribbon. Above, is Army Combat Medical Badge 1st Award, now worn by Army Medics, just some FYI. Anybody open to correcting my stones vs glass house grammar and sentence structure here?

The episode concludes with Joan exorcising Greg from the baby's life and hers. Playing as the credits roll is the contrary logic He Hit Me It Felt Like A Kiss by The Crystals, a metaphor of Leo Durocher's "Nice guys finish last'.

The episode would have won a 10th star from me but for so much attention to Richard Speck's crime spree and actor Ben Feldman's near imitation of Eddie Deezen. Contrarily, it was Feldman's Ginsberg character who calls others out for ogling Joyce's leaked photos.

The health scares continue....

[tbmforclasstsar · 9/10 · 9 April 2012]

Maybe the tagline for the fifth season of "Mad Men" should be "We aren't so young anymore."

Sure, in the past we have had a fair share of health scares on the hit AMC drama. From Roger's heart-attack to Peggy's surprise pregnancy and Don's panic-attacks, health has been a factor on this show in the past, but the health of our central and vital characters has been the biggest theme through the first three weeks and four episodes.

A week ago, Betty had a scare with cancer when a tumor was found on her throat during a checkup she was having (a checkup to receive diet pills for her now large frame). Though the tumor was benign, Betty and Don worried throughout the episode of the problems that could occur if she was to be sick and, possibly, pass away. Luckily, the tumor was not life-threatening.

One week later (in runtime not time of the show), Don is coughing away violently as he takes the elevator with his wife up to Sterling/Cooper/Draper/Pryce. Joined by a journalist and old romantic partner of Don's on the elevator ride, Megan is worried, both by Don continuously running into old flings and for his general health. Don needs to get through a meeting before he can go home, however, so he tries to rest before business.

To read the rest of the review, go to: http://custodianfilmcritic.com/mad-men-5-4-mystery-date/

High Fever and Hallucination- ***1/2

[edwagreen · 9/10 · 9 April 2012]

One thing about Draper. He always has to be in control and this episode conforms to that rule.

When he accidentally runs into his old flame, she comes to see him at his apartment while his wife at the office and he has a bad cold. Raging with fever, our mind plays tricks on us and Don is no exception. At least, I think he was hallucinating!

Popular topics of the 1960s again come into view...rioting in the major cities during the summer of 1967, the nurses being killed, drugs, you name it.

Bette's mother is some character and her surprise at the end of the show is contradictory in that she was supposed so much better off for being reared in a strict manner.

Our red-head can't get over that her husband has signed on for another year in Viet Nam. Looks like another marriage goes!