It is less profitable, but it’s somewhat safer, as comission can pay off big if the commercial is a “hit”. That ties into the theme of the episode, which contrasted the alpha-male drive to “get 100%” versus the safer but “piddly shit” work offered by second-tier clients. Lane–the beta swimming with the sharks–was an unfortunate casualty to that theme.
Was anything further made of Lane keeping that lady’s photo from the wallet he found? It seemed at the time to be developing into an interesting storyline but didn’t (IIRC) go anywhere.
Speaking of missing cast members, was Dawn ever meant to be anything but a minor side character?
Exactly. I would expect reverberations because everything comes back in this show. What I wouldn’t expect is next-day minutiae of coroner reports or people pouring through the books looking for clues. The standard seems to be episodes are spaced around a month apart so next week will be long after the cops and rug service have left the building.
Hm, good question. At this point, in hindsight, I’d say it’s just another brick in the “Lane’s life isn’t really going that great at the moment” wall.
In the interview w/ Jared Harris I linked to up-thread, he mentions that the costumes for Lane this season were more shabby and had stains and what not. So they’ve been doing little things like that to show his character’s downward spiral, so maybe the photo was just part of that.
Do the authorities even try to figure out why a person commited suicide? 
I thought the extent of their invesigation was simply to determine that yes, Lane hung himself, and it wasn’t murder fixed up to look like a suicide.
I don’t think there’s any difference size-wise, amenity wise, or viewise between Lane & Pete’s offices. Joan might want it simply because it has a lock, and doesn’t have the dual entrances that make people try to use her current office as a shortcut. Also she doesn’t need to spy on the conference room tru the 2-way mirror anymore. And if she’s too freaked out about Lane dying there she can always take over Harry’s office and make him move in.
I do think Joan will take over Lane’s position as Finance Director. She was basically Lane’s deputy, is a partner, and most importantly is already familiar with the books and the firm’s dirty laundry. Also it helps that none of the other partners really thought that being Finance Director was that important or significant a job.
I don’t believe Joan has any of the qualifications of a real Finance Director. She may handle the paperwork at the office, but she’s never dealt with a bank - and she certainly couldn’t talk to the bank contact over drinks the way Lane did.
This may be the clue to the otherwise inexplicable discussion of commissions vs. fees. As I said before, those lead to smaller agencies needing to be bought out by big ones. And Don must know now that he’ll never get the big airline while SCDP is a tiny boutique agency. He needs to play in the big leagues. Maybe we’ll see signs of that next week.
I think that she’s the best qualified of the partners to actually handle the finances. I bet that this is where she steps up and proves her real worth. She’ll actually meet with the bankers and throw them for a loop when they don’t take her seriously.
Who handled the books back in the first season? Did they have outside help or was there an accountant type I don’t remember? I know Cooper looked at them but I didn’t think he directly kept them.
I think that they’re going to need a real financial director, particularly for such thorny technical things such as the commissions vs fees issue.
It was a big company. There was an entire accounting department that we never saw.
That’s true. In retrospect, I’m surprised that we never heard from their finance director or anything. Especially during the buy-out.
I think Lane was their finance director. Sterling-Cooper was bought by a British company and Lane was brought in. SCDP was formed when another company bought the British company.
No, I meant the original Sterling Cooper. When you’re being bought out by another firm, you’d think you’d want your accounting head in on it. Or maybe he was and it wasn’t interesting enough for me to remember.
Lane’s original company basically bought Sterling Cooper, removed the fat and excess from ti, improved the finances and then was going to sell it for a profit. All of the dirty work of taking over and streamlining the company was done by Lane at the behest of the Home company. Once that was done they wanted to send Lane to India (I think) to basically do the same thing to another company. So I think Lane was made head of Finance.
So… Lane is Mitt Romney of Bain Capital?
Regarding Elisabeth Moss’ future on the show:
Fercryinoutloud. Bert Cooper comes back and takes Lane’s office. In his mind, it’s time the grownups took charge again.
Who’s the other grownup?
Well, Joan, I guess.
Harry Crane - at least on the business side of the aisle.
Harry. The answer is Harry. He’ll look excited for a moment and then realize they gave him a dead man’s office.