As 2015 wanes to start anew, it seems most appropriate to look back on a year of massive entertainment successes. My standout show this year (and favorite of all time) was Mad Men. The second half of its seventh season premiered April 5th of this year, concluding on May 17th. I was eight years late to the Mad Men party, and started watching the show just four days before its series finale. I blazed through 92 episodes in three weeks, a testament less so to my TV-watching abilities than to the magnetism of the show.
In a toast to one of television’s greatest, here are 12 of the most momentous lines in Mad Men history – one for each month of the year. Pour a drink (perhaps an Old Fashioned, wink-wink), light up a Lucky Strike, and prepare to fall in love all over again.
SPOILERS AHEAD: BEWARE!
Season 5, episode 11: “The Other Woman.” Originally aired May 27th, 2012.
This line is in one of my two all-time favorite Man Men scenes. The deeply-rooted, multifaceted relationship that exists between Peggy Olson and Don Draper falls from a crest with this line, as Peggy sings her swan song at Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce. She calls Don her champion, leaving the Time & Life Building in pursuit of greatness, and her future forever changed.
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Season 4, episode 8: “The Summer Man.” Originally aired September 12th, 2010.
Don Draper’s low-toned soliloquy, performed in voice-over as the camera sweeps across scenes of Henry Francis (Don’s ex-wife Betty’s new beau) mowing the lawn of Don’s old home and Don shoving cardboard boxes labeled “DRAPER” into an alley dumpster, airs on the side of cynicism, tingeing the episode with a film-noir feel. While many of Jon Hamm’s monologues are impactful not only to the character of Don Draper but to the through-lines of the show, this one is particularly significant as it sums up Don’s tragic flaw, the hamartia that nips at his psyche. Don’s want for so much more is omnipresent and relentless, contributing in large parts to his many rises and falls.
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[tps_header]“No one should have to make a mistake just like a man does and not be able to move on. She should be able to live the rest of her life just like a man does.”[/tps_header]
Season 7b, episode 11: “Time & Life.” Originally aired April 26th, 2015.
Another bold line from Elisabeth Moss’s Peggy Olson, this time in one of my favorite episodes from “The End of an Era,” the second half of the show’s final season. This line is one that resonated deeply with women, men, and everyone beyond and in between, as it still rings true in the present day. Within the show’s context, this line marked the moment our beloved badass Peggy Olson said the words she’d been yearning to say (or shout) for so long. They were so incredible to hear.
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Season 1, episode 8: “The Hobo Code.” Originally aired September 6th, 2007.
While this line may initially seem quite similar thematically to “The Summer Man”’s, there is a fundamental difference. The aforementioned is undeniably true in Don’s life, but this season 1 line teeters on the tightrope between Don’s actual beliefs and the things he says because they are what others need or want to hear. As he evolves through the years, this statement seeps further and further into the fabric of Don’s life. It seems to leave him thinking this could be true, that the universe could truly be indifferent, but knowing he is not fully ready to renounce hope for the opposition.
Season 5, episode 13: “The Phantom.” Originally aired June 10th, 2012.
This line may seem like it’s given by someone discussing Don Draper and the marriage and family life he once shared with Betty that slowly fell to bits, but it’s in fact describing Pete Campbell. Vincent Kartheiser delivers an arresting monologue to Alexis Bledel’s character Beth Dawes, Pete’s once-lover. In this scene, we see Pete so flawlessly illustrate his greatest fault, laying bare his Achilles heel, showing that he understands (but not why, exactly) that he is oftentimes unable feel alright living in his own life.
Season 4, episode 11: “Chinese Wall.” Originally aired October 3rd, 2010.
A classic from Christina Hendricks’s character Joan Harris, said to John Slattery’s Roger Sterling. This line is perhaps one of Mad Men’s most popular, being quoted by people who have yet to watch an episode, demonstrating the power of these words. Up until this point (and even in instances afterward), others had treated Joan as an object that would heal them, one they could turn to after they’d been thrown into tumult. She put her foot down and gave us this treat, as if to say, “I’m a person, not an object. Remember that.”
Season 3, episode 3: “My Old Kentucky Home.” Originally aired August 30th, 2009.
Sage words from Roger Sterling, the man who once searched for happiness in younger women, the bottom of liquor bottles, and the spiritual journeys he went on while high on LSD. Don follows this proclamation with, “No one thinks you’re happy. They think you’re foolish.” This line encompasses the time in which Roger filled a void with artificial love and all things grandiose, distinguishing it as the place he can compare his life to later when he really is happy – in a Parisian cafe with Marie Calvet, the woman with whom he finally got it right.
Season 3, episode 1: “Out of Town.” Originally aired August 16th, 2009.
Another marker of comparison for a character, this time for Pete Campbell. During Mad Men’s run, Vincent Kartheiser’s Pete Campbell struggled with his overwhelming desire for what he didn’t or couldn’t have, but felt like he rightly deserved. This line is particularly momentous when we consider where Pete ends up in the series’s finale: climbing aboard a Learjet with Trudy (with whom he repaired his once-broken marriage) and daughter Tammy, off to build a new life thanks to an illustrious job. So many good things all at once.
Season 7b, episode 13: “The Milk & Honey Route.” Originally aired May 10th, 2015.
Oh, little Birdie. A timeless beauty who fights silently and courageously, yet still hard and steadfast. In seasons past, Betty Draper did fight for many things (most notably her relationship with Don) in the hopes that they may stay glued together and may not leave her life. At once, Betty accepts the fate her illness has doled her. She makes peace with herself and refuses treatment, not because she “loves the tragedy” as her husband Henry accuses, but because she will not let her daughter Sally watch her die the way she watched her own mother pass. The complex confidence she exudes here is so very Betty, but this time, its context gives it a great deal more meaning.
Season 7a, episode 2: “A Day’s Work.” Originally aired April 20th, 2014.
Sally Draper realizes the complexity of her human nature, and the kind of weight the dysfunction her parents, their failed marriage, and their behavior (especially Don’s) subsequently bears on her. She opens herself up to her father – in a way, for the very first time – at a diner on Valentine’s Day. Both Don and the audience are made privy to the ways in which Sally’s world has repeatedly mended and broken each of her many dimensions.
Season 3, episode 2: “Love Among the Ruins.” Originally aired August 23rd, 2009.
THE line from Mad Men. No commentary needed.
Season 7b, episode 14: “Person to Person.” Originally aired May 17th, 2015.
Now this is from my other all-time favorite Mad Men scene. No surprise that it is another Peggy-Don one, as their scenes (particularly toward the end of the show’s run) became increasingly personal in nature and thus, more emotional and more consequential. With the delivery of this tearful question, Don is affronted with his life, playing like a mini-movie in his mind. He shares with Peggy (what he feels are) his shortcomings in the last on-screen moment that connects Don to his life in New York. You can almost feel your heart breaking after each word. Sigh.
Season 6, episode 13: “In Care Of.” Originally aired June 23rd, 2013.
Said by Pete Campbell to Bob Benson. Mad Men fans will forever be quoting this. (Forgive us, Vincent Kartheiser.)
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