Mad Men's 14 Most Slap-Worthy Moments

11. "I don't like you like this." - Pete Campbell

1x08 One of the most fascinating relationships on the show is between Pete and Peggy. In season one, the two of them engaged in a two-time, heated sexual affair that began the night of his bachelor party for his wedding to Trudy. Pete had spent the day making snide innuendos at Peggy, "the new girl," and really exploiting his role as a dominant male in the office. The only trick was that Peggy went for it in a non-submissive way. She didn't expect Pete to leave his wife (although she certainly wondered about it). She invited his advances (because she enjoyed them). I also interpreted her pursuit of Pete as an autonomous task. In episode 1x08, the opening scene involves Pete and Peggy as the first arrivals to the office. They take advantage of the situation and have sex on Pete's couch. They go about their day afterward, and during the course of that time, Peggy lands a copy writing assignment - the first secretary to do so. The office heads out to a bar to celebrate. There's this amazing, kind of heartbreaking moment when Pete and Peggy are eying each other from across the room, while Chubby Checker's "The Twist," plays in the background. Peggy approaches him and proposes a dance. He stares her down and says in the most cold, brutally honest way, "I don't like you like this." Vincent Kartheiser is brilliant at making us hate Pete for his shamelessness. In this scene it's so visceral. It's clear that in this setting, he, like many of the other unfaithful, married employees at Sterling Cooper, divides his home life and his cavalier, secretive sex life with a clear line. A line that everyone knows is there but doesn't talk about. Peggy crosses that line, and she gets too close - so Pete knocks her down in such a quietly brutal way.
In this post: 
Mad Men
 
Posted On: 
Contributor
Contributor

Natalie Hulla hasn't written a bio just yet, but if they had... it would appear here.