Ken is driving. A drunk Chevy executive in the back seat brandishes a gun while another executive covers Ken’s eyes. Sitting in the passenger seat, Chevy exec Mikey grabs the wheel. Tires squeal.
Don smokes in front of the Rosen service entrance. He throws the butt on the floor and leaves.
Ken enters the firm’s conference room using a cane. He says Chevy has given him a calendar with three years of monthly deadlines. All work must be run “up the ladder through all of GM until it gets to God, and then he’s gotta run it past his wife.” Dawn tells Don, Dr. Rosen’s on the phone. Jim plans to call his own doctor to “get everybody fixed up.”
In his office, Don takes Arnold’s call. It’s Sylvia. She tells him to stop loitering in her hallway. Don pleads with her. Sylvia wonders how she ever trusted him, then hangs up. Don throws the phone. He starts coughing.
In a flashback, a young Dick Whitman coughs at the rooming house kitchen table. Abigail listens to his back, then tells him to sleep in the cellar.
At the Francis home, Sally gets Bobby and Gene ready. Betty learns, Megan pays Sally to babysit.
At the office, Jim shares details for Frank Gleason’s funeral. Jim tells Don to see the doctor.
Upstairs at the office, Dr. Hecht injects Don with an “energy serum,” promising “24 to 72 hours of uninterrupted creative focus, energy and confidence.” Hecht asks about the agency’s new name.
Stan and Jim race through the upstairs lounge. Feeling the effects of the shot, Don watches Peggy console Ted. In a flashback, prostitute Ms. Swenson tells Dick he doesn’t have consumption, and she’ll take care of him.
In the lounge, the creatives work on new ideas for Chevy.
That night, an energized Don tells Ken to get him in a room with Chevy: “I don’t know whether I’ll be forceful or submissive, but I must be there in the flesh.” Ken tap dances as he details his experience with Chevy.
Don runs to the creative lounge to give a pep talk: “There is an answer that will open the door.” In a flashback, Ms. Swenson feeds soup to Dick. Don snaps back to the present: “I’ve got it.”
Don returns to the lounge unaware that a day has passed. Harry introduces Don to Wendy, who is giving psychic readings. Don asks Peggy to find art from a Sterling Cooper soup account.
In Don’s office, Wendy listens to his heart with a faulty stethoscope. “It’s broken,” she says. “You can hear that?” Don asks.
Don calls Megan to say he’ll be home later. Megan has Sally babysit so Megan can go to the theater.
The creatives throw X-Acto knives at an apple drawing above Stan’s head. Ginsberg hits Stan’s arm.
Don presses his ear against the Rosen service entrance.
Peggy wraps Stan’s arm with a bandage. They kiss. Peggy pulls away. Stan says his cousin was killed in the Navy. Peggy advises against dealing with grief by using drugs and sex.
At the Drapers’, a black woman rummaging through the cupboards tells Sally she’s her Grandma Ida. The woman asks if Sally’s alone.
In the archive room, Don finds an oatmeal ad featuring a woman resembling Sylvia. The tagline is “Because you know what he needs.” In a flashback, Ms. Swenson seduces a recuperated Dick.
Sally phones the police to report a stranger in the apartment. Ida intercepts the call then leaves.
Don calls Peggy and Ginsberg into his office to discuss a life-changing campaign strategy. Don says, “Let’s say I get her face to face. How do I capture her imagination?” Peggy asks, “Who’s her?” then adds, “Have you been working on Chevy at all?” Don leaves. Peggy walks past Jim who’s watching Stan have sex with Wendy.
As he walks toward his apartment, Don mutters: “Sylvia, don’t close the door on me.” He enters and sees Henry with police officers. Betty says Don’s been robbed. Don collapses.
In a flashback, Abigail beats Dick with a spoon for sleeping with Ms. Swenson. In the present, Don sits up in bed. Megan apologizes for leaving Sally in charge.
The next day, Sylvia joins Don on the elevator. They ride down in silence.
Don calls Sally and takes the blame for the robbery. She says, “I asked her everything I know. She had an answer for everything and I realized I don’t know anything about you.”
Ted chastises Don for shoddy Chevy work. Don says, “Call me around 1970 when they’re ready to make an ad.” He adds, “I’m sorry, Ted, but every time we get a car, this place turns into a whorehouse.”
Source: AMC.com
Written by MichaelDeBoey on Oct 29, 2015