The best episode this season – and perhaps one of the best ever – ‘The Suitcase’ could easily have been called ‘The Fight’ or ‘The Birthday.’  But ‘The Suitcase’ is apt, since Samsonite is strong and sturdy, and as Don says, “You always have to have it ready to go.”

If Elisabeth Moss doesn’t win an Emmy for this episode, she never will for this show.  The same may be true for Jon Hamm.  Peggy and Don make a remarkable evolution from the episode’s start to finish.  Peggy goes from being sick and resentful of Don’s criticism to the one (living) person who truly understands him.  And Don seems poised to emerge from his ever-deepening hole of loneliness, leaving the metaphorical door open at episode’s end.

It all starts with Peggy & Co.’s failed Samsonite ad campaign.  They come up with a silly football routine to star Joe Namath, but Don sees through it.  Peggy takes it personally, and when she fails to come up with something to Don’s satisfaction, he asks her to stay just as she is on her way out the door to a birthday dinner with Mark – and unbeknownst to her, her entire family.  Don, meanwhile, is relieved to stay at work and drink to avoid going to see the second Ali-Liston fight with some AA clients.

Don seems to get meaner to Peggy with every drink, and Peggy loses patience with each sip.  After she finally confesses it’s her birthday and he’s making her wait, he tells her it’s “time to get over birthdays,” so she stays.  Mark, meanwhile, grows a backbone and breaks up with Peggy over the phone as her family listens, hungry at the table.

After a heated confrontation between Don and Peggy, she returns from a bathroom breakdown ready to work.  Don, meanwhile, has loosened up and scales back on the attitude.  Having gotten a message from Stephanie in California he knows is bad news, he escapes with Peggy for dinner at a diner, then for drinks at a bar to hear the results of the fight.  Clay – whom Don bet against – is, of course, the victor.

Back at the office, Peggy marches Don into the men’s restroom so he can throw up.  She looks like a terrified child in a male teacher’s school break room.  Suddenly Duck, whom Peggy had earlier rejected as a drunken mess – shows up, telling Peggy she’s the only person who can help him.  He and Don Duke it out Ali style, with Don shouting “uncle.”

Finally, after falling asleep with his head in Peggy’s lap and dreaming of Anna walking away with a suitcase in her hand, Don makes the call he’s been dreading.  Anna is gone, Stephanie says, telling him, “She wanted you to know.”  Don breaks down, with Peggy watching.  When he tells her someone close to him died, the only person who knows the “real” him – Peggy says that’s not true.  Knowing glances and a brief touch of hands at episode’s end reveals a surprising and strong bond between them.

Tidbits:

-Wow, Duck has reached a new low.  Trying to crap on Don’s chair?  Something tells me he’s not going to be around for long.  He may have won the “fight” with Don, but his life seems like a losing battle.

-Roger’s “diary” tape revealing Ida was a “hellcat” and Cooper lost his testicles is… well, a hoot.

-Peggy reveals she watched her Dad die of a heart attack when she was 12.   Don, clearly, has equally sad stories for her.

-Another episode without Betty and Sally.  Is their story falling by the wayside?  How can the show keep incorporating them?

-Best quote of the night:

                Peggy (staring at mural in cheap dinner): Why is there a dog at the Parthenon?

                Don: That’s a roach.  Let’s go someplace darker.

That’s comic relief at its finest.  The Suitcase:  A+