It's No 'Field Trip' For This Couple

Well, it's a little hard to say we didn't see this one coming from a mile away or 3,000 miles away, for that matter. Poor Megan — who already seems to be falling apart at the seams out in California — officially reached her breaking point with Don during the latest episode of Mad Men, "Field Trip." After a wrenching conversation Megan broke up with Don and it stuck, no matter how many half-hearted lines Don fed her. ("I haven't been drinking that much.")

It all unfolded after Don headed out to California to see Megan when Alan alerted him that she had more or less stalked a casting director to give her another audition. And while that news alone irritated Megan (her husband didn't come out to see her because he missed her, rather he did it to check on her) that wasn't the real issue at hand. It was that Don had clearly been lying about his whereabouts and Megan was certain he was being unfaithful. (He hasn't, shockingly enough, but could you blame her for thinking that given his track record?)

An affair probably would have been less devastating than Don finally dropping the bomb that he'd been put on leave from work and kept it a secret from Megan this entire time. The realization that her husband had not only been keeping a major part of his life under wraps from her, but made a conscious decision to not be with her everyday proved to be too much. "Get on a plane, go home, don't worry about me anymore," a tearful, deflated Megan told Don. Then she really dropped the gut-wrenching hammer: "This is the way it ends...it's so much easier for both of us."

This motivates Don to ask for his job back, missing the point of why Megan was upset completely. She wasn't upset about his lack of work, it was that he didn't look for a job closer to her, like he'd promised. Don tried to patch things up during a late night phone call, but none of it soothed Megan's heartache about their relationship. Megan pleaded that Don, who pushes her "away with both hands," not come out to see her. Megan said some especially harrowing things during the episode, but when she responded to Don's "I love you" with a "Goodnight," it was perhaps the worst moment of all. It's been expected — and, at times, a little satisfying — to watch Don's perpetual downfall, but Megan didn't deserve hers, not in her career and not in her love life, either. (Let's hope she sticks to her convictions with Don and gets a big break in Hollywood.)

If Don turns out to be the one falling out of the window in the opening credits, we can only hope he doesn't take Megan down with him. She doesn't deserve it. Here's to hoping she gets out of this mess alive, in every sense of the word.

Image: AMC