As a die-hard “Mad Men” fan, I would say there is no “worst episode.” However, if you want to rank every episode, something has to have the lowest score, even if it’s not particularly low. On IMDb, just like with entire movies or TV series, you can rate individual episodes on a scale of 1 to 10, and the ratings are then aggregated, with the overall score based on the median. Taking all the scores from each episode, the lowest rated episode of “Mad Men” ends up being “Ladies Room”, which is only the second episode of the first season, receiving a rating of 7.5 on the base of 4.3 thousand votes.

I’m surprised this isn’t an episode from one of the later seasons, especially season six where Don Draper’s “Dante’s Inferno” hell-like repetition of bad habits becomes somewhat tedious to watch . What, exactly, is turning viewers off from “Ladies Room”? Perhaps this seems disappointing after following one of the best pilots of all time, “Smoke Gets in Your Eyes,” which introduced us to the handsome and insightful adman Don Draper. There is one unforgettable moment after another, from Don summing up consumerism and advertising as a balm for happiness to the mind-boggling ending when he returns home from drinking, smoking and West Village trysts to his adoring wife and sleeping children. Still, “Ladies Room” has a lot of merit – especially for a second episode – that makes its “worst episode” label too harsh.

“Some TV shows struggle to establish an identity in their first season, but ‘Mad Men’ knew what it wanted to be from its first episode.” /Screenwriter Liam Gaughan astutely observes in his season rankings, and we can say the same about “Ladies Room”. The episode immediately establishes “Mad Men” as a slow-burn novel you need to pay close attention to, one that is interested in studying the psychological workings of its characters. “Ladies Room” isn’t as gripping as some of the upcoming episodes, but the little details we discover are important and will blossom in later episodes.

“Ladies Room” sets up Don’s secret as he avoids questions about his childhood, but mainly establishes that the female characters are just as important to the narrative. “Mad Men” will also look at how they navigate a patriarchal world. Peggy must navigate the minefields of her lecherous colleagues, their incessant advances gradually eroding her naivety. The scenes where Betty undergoes psychoanalysis are a bit long, but they help express her suburban boredom and her jealousy of the recently divorced Helen’s freedom and stronger self-esteem. Yet this confessional isn’t even a safe space for his thoughts and emotions, as the final scene reveals his psychiatrist discussing his sessions with Don over the phone.

A strange element of “Ladies Room” is that it ends with the modern song “Beautiful Mine” by RJD2, which sounds like an electronic lullaby. This could indicate how Don often views her with childish innocence, expecting her to be nothing more than a happy housewife. Even if “Ladies Room” didn’t do my list of the best episodes of “Mad Men”it’s still a very solid one that doesn’t deserve the label “worst episode”.