- Don goes AWOL from McCann Erickson in the middle of a meeting. Joan quickly gets fed up with the sexism at the new firm. Roger and Peggy put off reporting to their new jobs as long as possible.
- SC&P has made the physical move to the McCann Erickson offices. Some like Harry are looking forward to the new environment, some not so much. Several SC&P staff members are not going, some by choice, some not invited. One person's move that is delayed is Peggy, whose new office is not yet completed due to a mix-up. As such, she decides to stay at what is the largely empty and closed down old SC&P offices until such time as her new office is ready. She finds that it is a difficult period if only because of trying to do her work in a makeshift environment. Her final days at SC&P are illuminated by the few others who are straggling behind, one who is delaying the move by choice. Joan was anticipating a difficult move, being a partner at SC&P to a small player at McCann Erickson, which doesn't value the accounts on which she is working. Joan finds the transition even more difficult than she anticipated. One problem with a new coworker snowballs into another when she tries to rectify it on her own, without running for support from her old SC&P colleagues. She ultimately decides to take Richard's advice on the matter. One person who is welcomed with open arms is Don, as Jim Hobart has tried to woo him into the organization for years. Don will quickly find if he wants to reciprocate the love. He makes an impromptu decision to satisfy some need in his personal life.—Huggo
- It's moving day for those employees going over to McCann Erickson. Some, like Don, are welcomed with open arms while others aren't so lucky. Peggy, for example, learns that she doesn't have an office yet because they thought she was a secretary. She goes back to the old Sterling Cooper offices and spends time there with Roger who has yet to pack up his things but is already feeling homesick. Joan faces the biggest hurdles however as it becomes clear that her status at the old firm has not carried over the new. It leads to several confrontations and forces her to make a major decision. After Don walks out of a meeting with a roomful of creative directors, he once again sets out on a trek in search of fulfillment.—garykmcd
- "Mad Men" - "Lost Horizon" - May 3, 2015
Everyone is adrift tonight in what turned out to be a very melancholy episode.
Almost the entire gang has moved over to the McCann-Erickson building but they are all on different floors and don't get to see each other anymore. A chance meeting in the elevator finds Don and Joan forced to make a lunch date.
But not everyone has made it over just yet.
First up is Peggy who has had several mix-ups with her office furniture so she's been killing time in the old SCP offices with Ed, who did not get an offer to move over to ME. After she asks him to do some work on Dow--even though they're not a client anymore they still owe them work-- and he turns in a satirical drawing, even he quits.
After she gets flowers from ME-- delivered by her secretary Marsha to her house-- and learns they were given to all of the secretaries, she gets even more depressed.
But when she head back to SCP to kill more time she runs into Roger, who is wallowing in self-pity at the lost legacy of SCP, and having just received Shirley's resignation-- with her noting that advertising is not "comfortable" for everyone. They get into a bottle of vermouth and have a grand old time that ends with him playing the organ as Peggy rollerskates around the dilapidated offices.
Her furniture finally arrives and she heads into ME, wearing shades, a cigarette dangling from her lips, the picture of cool, a copywriter ready to take on a new challenge.
Sadly, Joan is running into lots of old challenges. Things look good at first when some female copy writers bring her a plant and talk about how they want to work on her accounts but they quickly go downhill when she has to work with the odious ME account executive Dennis who mocked her at SCP. He clearly doesn't take her accounts seriously and didn't bother reading her briefs on them and then makes a terrible gaffe with the Avon exec, asking after his golf game not remembering, or never knowing, that the guy is in a wheelchair. After she dresses him down he continues to be rude and sexist to her so she goes to speak to hot shot Ferg Donnelly.
Ferg points out that Dennis may have been as awful as Joan says but he asks her to look at it from Dennis's point of view. He's married with kids, he can't take orders "from a girl." He says he will personally oversee Joan's accounts and let her have free reign. But he makes it clear that this is a quid pro quo situation and that he expects to sleep with her. So, from bad to worse.
Joan's boyfriend Richard tries to get her talk about it post-coital but we learn that he has already basically told her not to complain so she is reluctant to share her terrible news. He tells her when he has a business problem he either lawyers up or gets some thugs to send a message which makes her both laugh and call him disturbed.
So Joan takes it one step higher and goes to see ME boss man Jim Hobart. Clearly sexism trickles down at ME because he is even more odious than Ferg and Dennis. She threatens to sue him and that she could have a whole lot of women join in her suit. He claims that women love working there. And when she threatens bad press he claims to essentially own the New York Times since they buy so much ad space. She assures him she could find a reporter looking to embarrass him personally. He doesn't take the bait saying that he doesn't care about her accounts, her former status at SCP, or her attitude. He offers to pay her 50 cents on the dollar on the half million she is still owed just to be rid of her. She is stunned. When Roger shows up to tell her that he can't help her and that she should take Jim's offer, she takes her Rolodex and her picture of Kevin and tells Roger that she will take the deal. It is heartbreaking.
Finally, we have a remarkably lost Don.
First, he is literally lost in the new offices, with Meredith helping shepherd him around. She also informs him his new apartment will be ready soon and he is apparently entrusting her with decoration and she has a real knack for it.
In his new office, which apparently smells bad, she reminds him that he is set to take Sally back to school the next day. When she leaves he presses on his windowpanes, seemingly testing their strength. (If they have him falling out the window like the opening credits, so help me God.)
Don then meets with Ferg and Jim Hobart in Jim's office. Ferg does a lame "impression" of Don that is clearly Nixon. Jim informs Don that he has meetings with Nabisco, NCR, and old buddy Conrad Hilton. He also tells him they bought an entire agency to get Miller Beer just for Don. Jim claims that Don is his white whale and that is ex expecting him to bring things up a notch at ME. Don says he'll do his best. Jim asks if he's introduced himself yet. Don says, "I'm Don Draper from McCann Erickson" and Jim pretends to swoon at the sound of it.
Don heads to the Miller Beer meeting the next day and it chock full of ME's other creative guys, and, Ted Chaough informs him, that is only half of them.
A man named Bill Phillips from ME's research team, Connelly, addresses the group and essentially begins giving a very Don-like pitch, explaining the kind of man who drinks Miller beer: Midwestern, some college, good living, works long hours, has a lawn mower, wants a hammock, has power tools he never uses, loves sports because he used to play them, loves dogs because they don't talk and drinks a specific brand of beer which is not open to discussion. Don begins to zone out and watches out the window at a plane flying above the New York skyline. As Bill starts talking about light beer, Don takes his lunch and leaves the room. Ted smiles to himself, understanding exactly what is happening and likely glad for Don, and turns his attention back to Bill as Don takes his leave.
In the Francis household, Betty calls for Loretta. Don has arrived to take Sally to school but Betty informs him she already got a ride with a friend and she told her to call him but Sally obviously didn't. She offers a drink. He turns her down. Betty says they can't be mad at her for being independent. She seems uncomfortable and he asks if she's okay. She notes she's been carrying textbooks-- and is currently reading Freud. He rubs her neck for a bit but when he tells her to find some nice freshman to carry her books she makes him stop. He asks when the boys will be home but when it turns out it won't be until 6:30 he says he will let her get back to her studies. She says she is fulfilling a dream by going back to school and he tells her, sweetly, "Knock 'em dead Birdie."
As he drives back to the city he gets a sudden wild hair and head off on 95. When we cut to him hours later he is already in Ohio and suddenly Bert Cooper materializes beside him in the car. Don realizes he is very tired. Bert wonders where he is going. Don says Racine, WI. Bert says he's going to see some waitress who doesn't care about him and that Don likes to play the stranger and say it's a bad idea. Don is very tired.
Don arrives in Racine and goes to Diana's old address. There he finds the new Mrs. Bauer, Laura. He claims to be Bill Phillips from Connelly Research who has the good news that she has won a brand new fridge full of Miller Beer. She invites him in saying that her husband can tell her how to find Diana. As he waits he meets Diana's older daughter who points out that if her mother won something, she should get it. He agrees this seems sound.
When Mr. Bauer comes home, however, he sees right through Don who fesses up to being... a collection agent. Bauer doesn't believe this either and Don says he was simply worried about Diana. Bauer explains that Don is not the first one that came looking for her and that she's a tornado, leaving a trail of broken bodies. Don apologizes. He says he just wanted to help since she seemed so lost. Bauer says he lost his daughter to God, and his wife to the devil and that Don can't save her. He notes that only Jesus can and that Jesus would be willing to help Don too if he would only ask Him for help.
Driving away, Don picks up a shaggy, guitar-playing, hippy hitchiker heading to St Paul. Don agrees to take him, saying he can go that way.
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