Meanwhile, Ken and Jim present Don with an RFP from
Hershey’s Chocolate. Don says it’s pointless because Hershey doesn’t advertise,
but admits that he loves the candy bar. He asks what Ted thinks of it, and Jim
says: “His plate is full and yours isn’t. If you take the lead on this, I think
he’ll follow.” Don goes to work on it, and by the end of the episode he
presents his ad campaign to the client in front of Jim, Ted, Bert, and others.
The artwork he displays is a simple Hershey bar wrapper, and he explains that
it’s the best billboard for the candy because everyone has their own memorable childhood
experience of it. Don weaves a tale about mowing the lawn as a boy and being
rewarded by his loving father with the opportunity to choose any item at the
store – and he always chose a Hershey bar. After the executives comment warmly
on the idea of childhood memories for this ad campaign, Don suddenly confesses
that he wishes Hershey wouldn’t advertise, and that he grew up in a whorehouse
and received Hershey bars as a reward for picking the pockets of Johns. Instead
of feeling loved, eating a Hershey bar made him feel like a normal kid, whereas
he usually did not. The executives are dumbfounded.
At home, Megan works hard to take care of Don by influencing
him to limit his drinking and eat more meals. Don goes along with her
suggestions to a point, but continues drinking behind her back. She also tries to help Don manage Sally, who
receives a letter in care of Don subpoenaing her to testify about the burglar
who entered their apartment when Sally was babysitting a few weeks earlier. Don
explains to Sally on the phone that she’s required by law to testify, but Sally
says, “My calendar’s full” and “You know what? Why don’t you just tell them
what I saw?” (referring to both the burglar and Don’s tryst with Sylvia).
Later, Betty phones Don late at night, and Megan wakes up to hear Don
discussing with Betty Sally’s latest trouble: getting suspended from school for
using a phony ID to buy beer and get herself and other girls drunk. Don is
sympathetic and reassuring towards Betty. Feeling like a third wheel, Megan
asks if there’s any way she can help, and Don settles back to sleep without answering
or even acknowledging her question.
During the following workday, Don goes to a bar and gets
into an argument with a Christian minister who’s there to proselytize the
clientele. Meanwhile, back at the office the clients from the Sheraton Royal Hawaiian
arrive to see Don, and Jim and Ted can’t locate him so have to handle the
account for him. At the bar, Don ends up punching the minister and lands in
jail overnight. During his night in jail, Don remembers a time during his
boyhood in the whorehouse when a preacher told his Uncle Mack and the ladies
they were sinners. Uncle Mack threw the man out, but young Don walked outside
to observe the preacher, who turned around and yelled: “The only unpardonable
sin is to believe God cannot forgive you.”
When Megan sees Don the following morning, he’s still
inebriated. She demands to know where he was. Don claims that while in jail, he
realized how far out of control he’s gotten. Megan tries to be sympathetic. However,
when Don informs Megan that they’re not going to California after all, Megan
explodes because she’s already given notice at work. She says the marriage
isn’t worth fighting for since they don’t have kids together, and since he just
wants to be alone with his liquor, his ex-wife, and his screwed-up kids. Megan
gets her coat and leaves, saying, “I can’t do this; I can’t be here right now,”
and slams the door.
On Thanksgiving morning, Don goes to the office for a 9:00 executive
meeting. There he’s confronted by Bert, Roger, Joan, and Jim and told that “the
verdict is reached”: he’s being placed on indefinite leave. As Don waits for
the down-elevator, the door opens and out walk Duck and Lou Avery, apparently
Don’s replacement. Don says, “You’re early,” and Duck replies, “Sorry about
that, old chum.”
That same day, Don drives Sally, Bobby, and Gene to see an
old, dilapidated house in a poor neighborhood somewhere in Pennsylvania. A young
African-American boy stands on the porch steps eating a popsicle. Don and the
kids gaze upwards and across the street to study the house after Don says,
“This is where I grew up.” We then hear the final music for the episode, the
Joni Mitchell song Both Sides Now.
Roger’s story starts when daughter Margaret and son-in-law
Brooks visit him at the agency. Roger and Brooks emerge from a private
discussion, with Roger advising, “I always thought you learn more from
disappointment than from success,” suggesting that he just turned Brooks down
on some request. Roger smiles at the drawing Margaret shows him, made by her
son, but when she invites him to lunch, Brooks says, “We’ve taken enough of his
time.” Roger says, “It’s not personal,” but Margaret says it is personal and
adds, “What do I have to do to be on the list of girls who get your money?” She
tells him not to bother coming over for Thanksgiving because their table will
be empty.
Roger’s next encounter is a brief chat with Pete, where
Roger asks, “How’s Motor City?” Pete says the airport is like Calcutta, but
Roger encourages him with: “It’s a hell-of-an account.” Soon we see Roger
speaking to Joan and Bob, who are standing together because Bob has presented
Joan with the gift of a toy car for Kevin. Roger is less than friendly, and Bob
lets him know that Chevy has already given him a real car. When Roger reaches
his office, he asks his secretary to summon Bob, and Bob reports to his office
almost immediately. Under the pretext of giving Bob a performance review, Roger
tells Bob to stay away from Joan and not toy with her emotions. Bob assures
Roger that they’re just buddies. With each of Roger’s quips, Bob has a response
that’s both professional and seemingly respectful.
Later in the episode, Roger’s secretary talks to Joan and
reveals that she’s worried about Roger, saying he’s forlorn. “For one thing,
Margaret and the son-in-law are bleeding him dry…I’d invite him to my place for
Thanksgiving but...[my family] would be too much for him.” Joan listens with
interest and ends up inviting Roger to Thanksgiving dinner to spend time with
Kevin. However, when Roger shows up, he is irritated to see Bob Benson carving
the turkey. Ultimately, Roger has fun feeding Kevin while Joan presumably turns
her attention to Bob.
At work, Roger is stunned by Don’s Hershey presentation, and
afterwards asks him if any of his story about being an orphan is true. Later,
at the executive meeting on the morning of Thanksgiving, Roger is the one who
very calmly delivers the verdict: “We think it’s best for you and the firm if
you take some time and regroup.”
Pete’s story revolves around his relationship losses. We
first see Clara, his secretary, reading him a telegram informing him that his
mother has fallen off the cruise ship. Clara is upset but Pete displays anger,
commanding Clara to get Bud on the phone, which she does. We then hear Pete
yelling over the phone: “They got married?! Tell the Panamanian criminals they
should put him under house arrest…” Then he commands Clara, “Give me Bob Benson
this minute!” She replies, “He’s been waiting for you. You’re late for your
flight to Detroit.” Meeting Bob in the elevator, Pete accuses him of being an
accessory to murder, although Bob denies having any knowledge of what happened
to Pete’s mother. Pete declares that he will never let this issue go.
Once they arrive together in Detroit, Bob and Pete meet
several Chevy executives in a large GM lobby where a couple of sports cars are
on display. Knowing Pete’s a bad driver, Bob challenges him to drive one of
them, and Pete tries to get out of it but can’t. After successfully starting
the car, he accidentally backs it into a large corporate sign that falls down,
endangering some women. As if to challenge his manhood, one of the Chevy
executives excoriates him with: “Jesus, you can’t drive a stick?!” Bob responds
smoothly: “We’ll pay for that.” Embarrassed, Pete loses his role in Detroit and
returns to New York.
When Pete arrives back at the agency, he tells Clara to find
him a place to live, since a tenant has already moved into his apartment. She
tells him that Bud has been trying to reach him. Pete and Bud then have a conference call with
“Alvin,” a contact from the ship who informs them about what happened to their
mother. During the Roaring 20’s dinner dance, she fell off the Promenade deck. The
ship was off the coast of Martinique in shark-infested waters. Alvin explains
that the ship has conducted its investigation and neither they nor the nearby
countries are motivated to investigate further. However, Alvin says he has a
private investigator prepared to board the ship and locate Manolo Cologne,
alias Marcus Constantine. “We will investigate, no stone unturned and no
expense spared, until we find out what happened.” Bud and Pete become uneasy
about the costs involved and decide to let go of the idea of an investigation.
Bud says, “When you think about it, it won’t bring her back. She’s in the
water, with Father.” Pete adds, “She loved the sea.”
We next see Pete visiting his old house, where Trudy and
Tammy still live and where Pete is storing some of his mother’s furniture. Trudy
tells him, “I don’t want your mother’s things, Peter” and Pete replies, “Well,
Bud’s not getting everything.” He and Trudy exchange a few words, and Pete goes
to Tammy’s bedroom to sit with her and caress her head while she sleeps. Trudy
watches him from the doorway, apparently moved by the scene of fatherly
affection.
As for Ted, we first see him listening to Jim complain that
representatives from the Sheraton Royal Hawaiian, Don’s client, have arrived at
the office but Draper can’t be found. Ted says, “Again?” Later, Ted walks
through the office past Peggy with his dressed-up wife and two young boys on
their way to the theater. When the boys run to the candy machine, Ted shouts,
“Absolutely not! We’ll have candy at the theater.” Nan says “hello” and “goodnight”
to Peggy as she walks by, communicating nonverbally: “He’s mine and you can’t
have him.” Ted looks back at Peggy apologetically.
Don informs the executive board that he wants the position in
California with Sunkist. Bert tells him it was intended to be a junior
position, but Ted comments: “I think we could spare you.” However, as soon as
Don leaves the room, Ted worries, “What if we need him?” and complains that
everybody’s decisions are subject to 10 opinions except Don’s.
Later on, Ted sits around a table at work with Jim and Harry
when Peggy stops in, all dressed up in her fancy black and pink dress, to tell
them she’s leaving early because she has plans – clearly mirroring Ted and Nan’s
promenade through the office in their fancy clothes prior to attending the
theater. Ted appears at Peggy’s apartment building later that night, saying he doesn’t
want anyone else to have her. They exchange quips and Ted makes his way into
her apartment to tell her he loves her. They kiss and have sex, and Ted
fantasizes about the two of them travelling to Hawaii together over the
Christmas holidays. Ted says he plans to leave his wife, and Peggy tells him
she’s not “that girl.” Peggy is convinced that Don “terrified” Ted into
ignoring her. She keeps encouraging Ted to go home, and eventually he does.
When he arrives home, Nan wakes up and greets him sweetly in bed, saying he
works too hard. She snuggles up to him, and Ted looks confused and conflicted.
Ted’s conflict becomes more apparent when he later goes to
Don’s office and tells him he wants to have the Sunkist job in California. “I
need you to help me put 3,000 miles between me and [Peggy] or my life is over.”
Even though Don says he can’t help, Ted advises Don to have a drink before the
Hershey meeting, and Don does so. At the
Hershey presentation, Ted is shocked by Don’s confused and all-too-personal revelations
about his childhood as an orphan. After
the meeting, when Don tells Ted he can have the Sunkist position, Ted thanks
him honestly. Next, Ted goes to Peggy’s office and announces his decision to move
to California. “You can stay here and have your life and your career, and let
this be the past.” Peggy’s response is: “I can’t believe Don did this. I knew
he wasn’t going…it’s Siberia…” Ted explains that he made this decision because,
although he wants her, he has a family and needs to hold onto them or “get lost
in the chaos.” Peggy yells, “Get out!” and Ted replies, “Someday you’ll be glad
I made this decision.” Peggy’s reply is: “Well aren’t you lucky to have decisions?”
On Thanksgiving morning when Don is placed on indefinite leave, Ted is absent. Presumably
he’s with his family that day. However, Peggy and Stan are both at work. Stan
walks by Don’s office and sees Peggy in Don’s chair. We view her from the back
of her slightly tilted head, similar to a “Draper” pose but without the
cigarette in hand. She tells Stan she’s there because “it’s where everything
is,” and Stan laughs at her trying to take Don’s place. We hear the song Moon River as she gazes out of Don’s
office window.
The final song, Both Sides Now, suggests the theme of seeing life from both sides. Probably
the most prominent activity supporting this theme is reversals.
·
Stan proposes to work on Sunkist in California,
and Don talks about how bad it is out there, but then reverses his position and
thinks it would be a great opportunity – for himself.
·
When Don first proposes to his fellow executives
that he take the Sunkist position in California, Ted tells Don, “I think we
could spare you.”Yet as soon as Don leaves the room, Ted asks Jim, “What if we
need him?”
·
After Don proposes to work on Sunkist in
California, Ted privately tries to get Don to reverse his position and send him
instead. Don says no but later agrees to do it.
·
Ted sees Don as the only person at the agency
who can make final decisions without going through multiple approvals, but at
the end of the show the entire executive board decides to put Don on leave, and
he has no choice.
·
When Don waits at the elevator after being let
go at his company, Duck arrives with Don’s replacement, Lou Avery. This is a
reversal because, in the past, the agency let Duck go for the same reasons:
alcoholism and inappropriate behavior.
·
Don learns about Sally being suspended from
school for inappropriate drinking behavior and tries to play the responsible
adult in his relationship with her; yet Don gets to see what it’s like on the
other side when he’s “suspended” at work for his out-of-control drinking and
related bad behavior.
·
Don at first doesn’t want to submit an ad
campaign to Hershey because he says they don’t advertise. By the end of the
conversation he says, “I love Hershey” and accepts the assignment. When he later
presents his ad idea to Hershey, he starts with a fake childhood story, then
reverses himself and says: “If I had my way, you wouldn’t advertise” and starts
talking about his real childhood experience, which is linked with Hershey but
not with advertising.
·
In Don’s flashback from childhood, he recalls
the minister passing harsh judgment on Uncle Mack and the women by calling them
all sinners. However, after the man leaves, he says, “The only unpardonable sin
is to believe God cannot forgive you,” which seems like the opposite message.
·
When Megan sees Don the morning after he spent
the night in jail, she first confronts him and then tries to be sympathetic. Later,
when Don reverses his decision to move to California, Megan reverses her
commitment to him and walks out.
·
When Megan is telling Don off, she first says rather
cruelly that his children are screwed up, but then she says she loves them
dearly.
·
Pete tries to sideline Bob when they meet the
Chevy executives in their corporate lobby by saying that Bob isn’t feeling
well. Bob immediately turns the situation around by cleverly forcing Pete to
drive a stick shift car, sidelining Pete.
·
We see Roger denying Margaret and Brooks some
sort of financial help, but later Joan hears from Roger’s secretary that Margaret
and Brooks are “bleeding Roger dry” – a reversal of the audience’s perception
of the young couple.
·
When Joan hears about Roger’s woes, she reverses
her decision to block Roger from her life altogether and allows him into
Kevin’s life – although not back into hers.
·
Pete is adamant about finding out the truth about
his mother’s death on the cruise ship and tells Bob he’ll never let it go.
However, once Pete and Bud learn about the expense involved in a private
investigation, they change their tune, saying that “She’s with Father” and “She
loved the water.”
·
Bobby and Sally Draper notice that they’re not
in a good neighborhood when Don takes them to the place where he grew up.
However, once he points out the house and says he grew up there, they begin to
gaze on it with a more sympathetic and inquisitive attitude.
·
Roger asks Pete how things are going in Motor
City. Pete says the airport is like Calcutta, but when Roger says it’s a great
account, Pete agrees with him. This isn’t a reversal of Pete’s perception, but
a reversal of attitude.
·
Ted secretly meets with Peggy and tells her he
doesn’t want to sneak around.
·
In seeing Peggy at her apartment, Ted tells her
he will get a divorce; however, when he gets back home to Nan, he reverses his
decision and decides to leave Peggy.
·
In the course of the episode, Peggy goes from fantasizing
about a life with Ted to fantasizing that she’s the new Don at the office.
·
Peggy gets to feel the excitement of being Ted’s
first choice of women; later she gets to feel what it’s like on the other side,
when Nan becomes Ted’s first choice and she’s the loser.
A major theme in this
episode is stepping up to fatherhood. This is suggested by the
title, In Care Of, because a major
challenge of fatherhood is to be present to take care of others, to lay down
boundaries so that children don’t go down the wrong path, and generally to make
decisions in the interests of the family, not just oneself.
·
After his childhood memories of being
uncared-for, Don steps up to try to become a better father. His decision to
remain in New York represents a decision to place the needs of his children
above his own urge to run away and start over.
·
Pete makes an effort to spend some time with
Tammy. Because he isn’t often with her, those few moments are precious to him.
·
Roger is a failure as a father to Margaret, at
least in her eyes and probably in his own. However, he’s happy to have a second
chance at fatherhood by forming a relationship with baby Kevin.
·
Roger also plays an almost fatherly role with
Pete when he asks him about Motor City and then gives him some words of
encouragement.
·
Ted plays a fatherly role with his sons when we
see the family together at the agency before they’re off to the theater. He
sets a strong boundary in not allowing his sons to have candy until they get to
the theater.
·
Ted struggles with his feelings for Peggy vs.
his feelings for Nan and the boys. His desire to be a good father helps him
decide to stick with Nan.
·
Ted takes an almost fatherly approach towards
Don when he tells him, “I know there’s a good person inside” and when he
advises Don not to try to quit alcohol all at once, briefly alluding to his
father’s alcoholism.
·
As the executive board, Bert, Roger, Jim, Ted,
and Joan act “fatherly” towards the agency, ensuring its continued success by eliminating
Don, at least for a while. They are also somewhat caring towards Don, as they don’t
fire him rudely, but instead encourage him to pull himself together, as a
father might encourage his wayward teen.
A parallel caretaker theme is women who watch out for others. This is not necessarily the same as
motherhood, unless you consider that typical mothers in 1960s America were
expected to serve men and children and watch out for them despite getting few
rewards in return. Many of these women could be called “invisible” characters because
they’re “just” secretaries whose names we may not recall; the wives are more
“visible” but nevertheless dwell in the background of their husband’s life.
These women generally experience financial dependence on their man, while their
man feels absolutely entitled to their caretaking.
·
Beyond her own career, Megan tries hard to
manage Don’s drinking and erratic behavior, Sally’s problems, and the boys’
daily needs. Like a lot of women in the 1960s, her caretaking work is taken for
granted and hardly acknowledged by Don.
·
Pete’s secretary, Clara, watches out for Pete both
professionally and (to some extent) personally, as most secretaries were
expected to do. Yet she is a background character, often yelled at and little
appreciated.
·
Roger’s secretary pours her care and concern
into Roger’s emotional life, although he simply expects it. She even fears that
her family Thanksgiving dinner might not be good for poor Roger.
·
For all her inadequacy as a mother, Betty works
hard to manage Sally and admits that she can’t do it by herself.
·
We see Nan getting rewarded when she gets to go
out with Ted to the theater, and especially when she gets to rub it in Peggy’s
face. However, Ted is more sympathetic and appreciative to Peggy than to Nan in
that instance. At another time, we see Nan being patient and caring when Ted
comes home late after cheating on her.
Finally, there’s the theme of “turning the page”: leaving the past behind
and moving on. The song, Moon
River, somehow reflects this sentiment, with each character wending his/her
way through life and chasing his/her own “rainbow’s end.”
·
Even before being placed on leave by SC&P, Don
turns the page in his life when he decides to become more honest about his
childhood during his Hershey presentation. Later, he reveals more about his
past to his children, another move towards honesty. What looks like a breakdown
in his personality that makes him lose his job is caused not only by alcohol,
but also by a personal decision to become more authentic. His transition to
greater authenticity is actually facilitated when he’s placed on indefinite leave
at work.
·
Don also turns the page in his life by deciding
to become a better father.
·
Megan turns the page in her life by walking out
on Don. We don’t know if she’ll leave him permanently, but she’s put up a
stronger boundary than before, signaling that something will have to change
significantly before she would return to that marriage.
·
Roger turns the page in his life when he says no to being a money-machine for Margaret
and Brooks, and finds a way to bond with his new son, Kevin, in an appropriate,
fatherly way. He also seems to accept Joan’s decision to exclude him from her
personal life, although we don’t know for sure if he’s really given up on her.
·
Pete turns a page in his life when he says
goodbye to Trudy and Tammy, to his deceased mother, and to his brief term in
Detroit. He even says goodbye to his apartment, which now has a tenant. About
the only things left for him are his job and his relationship with Clara, although
in the next chapter of his life Pete will no doubt encounter lots of new people
through work.
·
Ted turns a page in his life by deciding to drop
Peggy and to focus his attention on his family. In addition, he and his family
will be moving to California. If this move occurs as planned, it will help to
make the next chapter of his life new and different.
·
The SC&P executive board turns the page for
their company by dropping Don and hiring Lou or someone else to replace Don.
·
Peggy turns the page in her life by abandoning
the dream of a life with Ted and returning to her old professional dream: being
a corporate executive just like Don.
Will Don be
rehired at SC&P in the next season? It’s hard to imagine that all of the
wonderful characters at the agency would suddenly be out of the show for an
entire season. Maybe he’ll be hired at a competing agency the way Peggy was in
a previous season…but we hope he’ll be back at SC&P soon so we can continue
to enjoy the fabulous cast of characters at the agency!
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