‘Mad Men’s’ Darkest Episode Follows Its Most Hated Character

He’s the most hated guy in the office and by fans worldwide, but no one hates him more than himself. Pete Campbell is Mad Men‘s most hated character, and Season 5 peels back the layers of a bully to find the small man underneath. Played by an enthralling Vincent Kartheiser, who delivers a deceptively difficult performance, Pete Campbell lies, cheats, and disrespects women in all avenues of life, from the office to his home. He seemingly has it all with a wife and kid in the suburbs and a good job at a prominent advertising agency. But, in reality, the materialism and status he so hungrily chases have landed him with nothing.

Season 5 of Mad Men is the show’s darkest season. Don is at his unhappiest while being faithful to his new wife, Megan (Jessica Paré), Lane Pryce (Jared Harris) is battling depression that results in his suicide, and Pete Campbell has transformed into a hapless working man lacking purpose. It all comes to a head in the Season 5 episode “Signal 30”, in which the show puts its focus on the misunderstood Pete. It’s a sad, jumbled puzzle that wonders what the most hated person in the office is like once he leaves for the day. Directed by fellow Mad Men star John Slattery and co-written by series creator Matthew Weiner and Frank Pierson, “Signal 30” became one of the season’s most critically acclaimed episodes and saddest.

Mad Men

A drama about one of New York’s most prestigious ad agencies at the beginning of the 1960s, focusing on one of the firm’s most mysterious but extremely talented ad executives, Donald Draper.

Release Date

July 19, 2007

Main Genre

Drama

Seasons

7

“Signal 30” Is a Bleak Character Study of Pete Campbell

“Signal 30” finds the tragedy of Pete Campbell, and the hilarity in his failed attempts at being the guy who has everything. The episode aims to correct some of the hatred towards Pete by letting viewers into the inner world of the bully-like character and why he inflicts pain on others. Pete’s life is perfectly encapsulated in the water drip that’s leaking from his faucet in the suburbs, where he finds himself trapped in a nightmare that most people would see as a dream.

Married to Trudy Campbell (Allison Brie) with a newborn baby girl, the leak in the faucet haunts Pete. It’s endless and insignificant, like the life Pete is living, but he can’t figure out how to fix it. When Pete hosts a dinner party with Don, Ken (Aaron Staton), and their wives, it’s a big deal for him. Pete hides his loneliness with materialism, as he proudly shows Ken his new stereo sound system and wants to prove to both him and Don that he has everything a man could ever want. As Ken casually reveals he is also a published author of short stories, it causes Pete more feelings of inadequacy and his need to turn everything into a competition.

When the sink inevitably bursts during dinner with water spraying everywhere, Don fixes it with ease, and the leak in the process. It’s one more competition that the men in the office partake in as Pete watches bitterly from the sidelines. Even with the sink fixed, there’s still something missing. Materialism doesn’t buy happiness, and Pete’s feelings of inadequacy make him a bad husband. H​​​​​is infidelities in the episode highlight the emptiness he’s trying to fill, and when he sleeps with a woman at a brothel later on, he only does so once she calls him “My King.” Pete desperately wants to be put on a pedestal and hailed for his greatness, but most people will only ever be okay at something in life.

Pete Campbell and Lane Pryce Have a Fist Fight in “Signal 30”

Pete is the biggest loser in “Signal 30,” literally. He fails at fixing his own sink, he’s bad at flirting with a teenage girl in driver’s ed, and then loses a fight by getting punched in the face and knocked to the ground. Pete and Lane’s fight adds a much-needed layer of comedy to the episode but is another sad moment in Pete’s life that seemingly has no end to his humiliation. The two decide to have a fistfight after a deal with a client falls through, with Don, Roger, and Bertram Cooper watching on eagerly. It has since become one of Mad Men‘s most iconic moments. The toxic boys club in the office has never been more alive or hilarious. As Pete and Lane trade punches, Lane wins easily, making a meal out of Pete’s face.

Kartheiser is riveting, detestable, and heartbreaking in “Signal 30” and deserved an Emmy Award nomination for his work in the episode alone. While the fight is funny, the sobering reality sets in afterward when Pete shares an elevator ride with Don. Pete is the butt of everyone’s joke, but he just wants to be liked and to be friends with his co-workers. With bruises forming, Pete’s ego has literally taken beating after beating. Starting the episode by telling Don he has everything, he does a full 180 by the end, telling him, “I have nothing.” As he begins to cry in the elevator, Kartheiser puts decades of loneliness into Pete’s eyes.

‘Mad Men’ Co-Star John Slattery Directed the Critically Acclaimed Episode

John Slattery, who plays fan-favorite and comedic relief Rodger Sterling, directed the episode “Signal 30.” It was his third time directing for the series, and he nailed the dark ambiance that the season favored. At the time of its release, it was hailed as the best episode of the season so far. Getting under the skin of Campbell in unsettling ways, Slattery’s use of the water drip throughout the episode was a commanding choice of direction to showcase the never-ending mundanity of Pete’s life.

The episode gets its title from the film shown in Pete’s driver’s ed class, Signal 30, an infamous movie about real-life car crashes. Pete’s lowest and creepiest moments come with his attempts at a flirtation with a teenage girl in the class as he sits behind her in his perfect suit, gazing. When a cute teenage boy joins the class, he and the girl hit it off immediately, yet another humiliation in Pete’s eyes. The episode’s last scene returns to the driver’s ed classroom, with Pete enviously watching the couple under the glow of a film playing. He’s alone in the darkness, separated from everyone, watching, just like how he helplessly watched Don fix the sink. While everyone else lives, Pete watches.

The ending scene is set in Ken’s new short story, “The Man With the Miniature Orchestra,” and is another shining example of Slattery’s poignant direction of creating the lonely image of Pete Campbell and of how strong the writing of Weiner and Pierson’s material was. Pierson is an iconic screenwriter known for his film, Dog Day’s Afternoon, and the episode is Mad Men‘s saddest entry. The ending finds Pete once again haunted by the sound of the water dripping while in class. Ken provides a voice-over narration of his short story, which is really about Pete, in the aftermath of watching him so desperately try to prove himself as the man who has everything at his dinner party. Ken writes, “The man with the miniature orchestra. Killing him with its silence and loneliness. Making everything ordinary too beautiful to bear.” As the water drop echoes through the final words, it’s a warning that Pete can either drown or find a lifejacket.

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