A Night to Remember (Mad Men)

Betty Draper (January Jones) is struggling on how to confront Don Draper (Jon Hamm) on his recent affair with Bobbie Barrett (Melinda McGraw). Don and Betty are planning a dinner party for Crab Colson. Don tells Betty not to worry about it and he will make sure to get done the things on the list. Later that day, Betty sees that one of the chairs has a loose leg and bangs it repeatedly until it breaks into pieces.

Back at the office, Harry Crain (Rich Sommer) is struggling to keep up with the work load as a head of television. When Roger denies his request for some help, Joan steps in. Joan is shown at home reading the scripts as her new fiancé says she should be “watching those shows with a box of bon bons on her lap to soothe her craving”. She says she enjoys doing it. Later in the show, Roger tells Harry he can hire someone at $150 a week to help him. He calls Joan into his office to introduce her to the new hire and asks her if she can show him the ropes. Joan, clearly disappointed, explains the basic tasks and says she will be around.

Father Gill asks Peggy Olson for her help jazzing up a flyer so the kids will come to the Catholic Young Organization dance. She comes up with the slogan “A Night to Remember” but is later disappointed when Father Gill calls to say that the ladies on the committee don’t like her slogan. They think it will cause trouble. Peggy insists that it is romantic and will get the girls to come, which will in turn get the boys to come. Peggy says, “I know better than them”. She agrees to meet with the committee which results in them still not being happy with her idea. She says she will see what she can do and pulls Father Gill aside. She explains that he asked for her expertise so he should be supporting her and he apologizes.

Back at the Draper household, Betty has set up a “trip around the world” with food from all around the world, including Heineken from Holland. This is ironic since Don said it would appeal to housewives and they all share a laugh about it. Duck asks if Don put her up to this and Don says no and that he “doesn’t even get to pick where he sits." Betty, still not in on the joke, asks for an explanation. Duck says, “he said you were the market, and you are”. Betty laughs but shows she is not happy. After the dinner party she tells Don, “you embarrassed me” multiple times. We know this is not only about dinner but about the Bobbie situation as well. She works up the courage to blurt out she knows he is having an affair. He denies it, saying Jimmy would make that up because he hates them. Later that night, Betty wakes up Don and he claims he loves her and the kids and doesn’t want to lose all of it. Betty seems to have some compassion until the next day. As Betty is sitting at home, an Utz commercial with Jimmy Barrett comes on. This puts Betty over the edge, telling Don “don’t come home. I don’t care what you do, I just don’t want you here.”

Series creator and executive producer Matthew Weiner wrote “A Night to Remember” together with Robin Veith. This episode was directed by Lesli Linka Glatter.

In an interview with AMCTV, Weiner explains how in real life, there is a certain time to say things on your mind. He explains that sometimes you don’t know how to say it so it comes out of nowhere. Weiner also explains how the scene between Father Gills and Peggy is set up like a confessional, giving her the opportunity to share the truth, which she denies.[1] Jon Hamm and January Jones, also share their own perspectives. Jones explains when she says, “you embarrassed me in front of all these people”, talking about the dinner party, she is deep down explaining in general with everything that happened with Bobbie Barrett.[1] Hamm also explains how he is torn. He “desperately wants this to work and yet, he’s genuinely unsure of if he really loves his wife.”[1]

Harry mentions the TV series show Love of Life (1951) while he’s talking with a client from Maytag, he tells them they should buy airtime during Love of Life because women will be watching and they like to fantasize about having active lifestyles. Joan mentions the TV series show As the World Turns (1956) to her husband after she’s been reading the scripts. She then brings it up again while talking to clients from Maytag, since she’s read the scripts she knows something big is coming. If they buy airtime with that now, they will be making more money when it gets really popular.

This episode had a total of 1.87 million viewers, which is a slight decline from 2.1 million the first episode of season two had.[2]

Alan Sepinwall, was a fan of how Christina Hendricks (Joan) was so perfect in the moment where Harry unwittingly delivered the news to Joan that Danny was taking over and Joan needed to fill him in on what she’d been doing.[3] Noel Murray, writing for The A.V. Club in 2008, praised the episode for containing moments that were concise, funny, and character defining. Examples are when Betty smashed the wobbly chair from the dining room and when Peggy was pretending to be her own secretary.[4] Dan Owen, from Dan’s Media Digest, wrote about how suitable the title of the episode was since it was the night that Betty confronts Don about his affairs, making it a real turning point in the series.[5] The Chicago Tribune[6] compliments how January Jones (Betty) has grown as an actress from the amount of intense work she had to do in this episode and how her performance was restrained, nuanced, and detailed.