It look’s like we’re seeing Betty again; I wonder who the friend is. Is Cutthroat Bitch too much to ask for? 
Yes Betty, it was a perfect day until Bobby ruined it. :rolleyes: The answer to your question is no BTW. Seeing Francine was the high point of her subplot.
I’m really surprised Don took them up on their offer (which they obviously didn’t either). “Reabsorption of shares” as a penalty? Don’s going to loose big time if & when he screws up in most minor way. The offer is nothing more than a trap so they can get rid of him on the cheap once and for all.
What’s the alternative – quit, and be stuck under a noncompete clause?
If they’re want to play hardball, Don can play hardball too!
He could have tried to negotiate.
Yeah, the only thing I could think of was that Don plans to set the place on (figurative) fire and prove his value. Or maybe he’s been at the bottom enough times that the threat of it doesn’t scare him any more. Back in the day, Don used to keep his cash in a desk drawer because he really just had no concept of wanting or needing it beyond what he needed to sustain the “Don Draper” lifestyle – maybe the threat of losing his partnership share means less to him than the partners expected.
I think what it is, is that Megan rejected Don. All he has left is that he’s an ad man. So he’s willing to do whatever is necessary to get back to work, even if that involves a bad deal.
True enough although I bet a few of us were expecting Don to say “Screw you” to the offer and take the other agency’s deal.
Not that the show could really handle being between New Agency, SCP New York, SCP LA, Megan LA, Betty’s boring ass stories and whatever other splinter plots are going on. Betty’s a bitchy terrible mother but I don’t see where this hour told us anything the previous umpteen hours of her terrible bitchy parenting didn’t.
Except he can’t do that because of the non-compete clause. It’s actually really confusing; they brought up the non-compete clause and not wanting Don to go to the completion, but at the same time it seems that that was exactly what they expected him to do. 
Or did they expect him to look for work in a difference city/field?
I wasn’t quite sure what the point of Betty’s story was; it seemed like it was supposed to be paralleling Don’s somehow, but I’m not quite sure how. Something about how they both are stuck in lives where nobody wants them? If so, I’m not convinced that worked.
Damn, Peggy. She’s really turning into an unlikable b**ch this year. I know she’s frustrated with Lou, but still…
And even Joan turned on Don? Et tu, red?
So Lane is dead, Pete is exiled to California, Don has basically been emasculated, and Roger is in a hedonistic limbo, Bert (and Joan) is siding with Ted on everything. Basically all the partners who created the firm are either out the door or being knocked down. It looks like Cutler & Chaogh won out in the big struggle to take control of the united firm. (Ted even seems to have more seniority at the California office.) Is that the theme of this year then? Don leading the revolt to win back the heart & soul of the once vital (now mediocre) SC & P?
Maybe they expected him to come to them when he got an offer and dissolve the non-compete or something so they could stop paying him and just end their relationship entirely. Obviously something would have to be done about the partnership stake in that case as well – buy it back at a reduced price or somesuch? I’m sure there’s options assuming everyone’s ready to call it an end.
Best line was from Bobby: “I wish it was yesterday.” Delivered perfectly.
Don’s still a partner, and if they want him out they’ll have to buy him out. I really doubt that little one-page memo they handed him altered the partnership agreement or the shareholder percentages.
I’m still not sure what Don did that was so incredibly bad in that Hershey’s meeting.
Interesting setup of the constant conflict between creative and media over what an ad agency is about.
I couldn’t believe it.
Up until the last few seconds, I was all set to see a fabulous episode. I expected Don to smile at them all and thank them all very much and then tell them to keep their offer.
It seems to me that Don made most of the people in that agency and now they want to treat him like a … oh shit! I don’t know what … but it’s far less than he deserves.
I couldn’t believe the way Joan and Peggy spoke to him. I thought he had them over a barrel. Why would he agree to come back as a … what? … a house boy? It didn’t really make a lot of sense to me.
I would have preferred so much to have watched him go to another agency and drive those people out of business. Seems like that is what they deserve.
I guess maybe I must be missing the point here. Matthew Wiener must have something in mind and I have no clue what it can be.
I sure do wish Don would have kept Megan somehow. She was really beautiful in this episode. I wish he would have kept Megan and dumped Joan and Peggy and the rest of those incompetent older men. How in the world do they deserve to keep that agency running as a success?
I better stop here. I guess I just don’t understand. I just don’t get the point.
I really, really expected Don to stand up, straighten his tie, tug down on his jacket (Jean Luc Picard style) and say, “You can all go fuck yourselves.” But obviously he didn’t.
The way I heard the deal, if he violates the agreement, his shares are “reabsorbed” and he loses everything. I can’t imagine he would agree to that (or that it would hold up in court), but then the script was kind of ambiguous.
I also was looking for a parallel between Betty’s field trip and Don’s adventure. Couldn’t see much of one, except that they both had someone else eat their lunch. (It was nice to see Cutthroat Bitch again.) And I was really surprised to see both Joan and Peggy turn on him. Seems like Roger is his last friend in the world. Well, Roger, and that chick with the room on the top floor next to the elevator.
Detail: I really loved Megan’s lime green telephone! And “My Favorite Martian” on the television. My first car was a brown 1976 Mustang II that I named “Lorelei Brown” after the landlady on that show.
I fully expected that as well.
Seems to me that Roger was sufficiently sober that he understood Don’s value and appreciated Don for what he is worth above and beyond one stupid mistake.
I would just love it so much if we could see Don make all those assholes pay for treating him with so little compassion.
Seems to me that at one time or another, Don has treated most all of them with a lot of compassion when they needed it.
Now … I just want to see those assholes suffer in the way they are trying to make Don suffer.
Well, you know what they say about how revenge is best served…
My take on Don’s “Okay” is that it is a beachhead. He can’t storm the place without a foothold, and now he’s got one. And the board has to be shitting, because that was an offer crafted to be denied.
He’ll butt heads with Lou and clean his clock with his work, and over time the strictness will lighten up. Maybe Lou will fall down that elevator shaft.
Please, someone remind me what exactly Don did that has pissed off Peggy?
I was also surprised Don said ok, but I also don’t think it is out of character. Don is learning a shit ton of humility so far this season, from his work, his wife and his daughter.
Does anybody think Betty adds anything to the show that couldn’t be achieved by a silent shot of a water cooler?
I can’t believe Peggy is so cold considering that Don’s veto of the Rosemary’s Baby ad was completely sound and the fact that while he can be an ass he generally respected her much more than Lou does. I was also surprised at how cold Joan was.
I wanted Dawn to slap Don, but otherwise I was generally on his side.
Was anybody else expecting him to discover Megan with another man?
In Peggy’s eyes, Don essentially broke her and Ted up. He was a jerk to her all last season, fucked up her St. Joseph’s ad (and told the client it was the dead partner’s idea, not hers) because he was jealous of her relationship with Ted, and finally gave Ted the California job. It’s not surprising that she’s not happy to see him back. She already tried to get away from him by leaving Sterling Cooper, but, Godfather-like, he keeps dragging her back in.
The only question is, now that Creative is essentially a hate-triangle of Don/Peggy/Lou, which two will put aside their differences and gang up on the odd man out? (I think we know the answer to this, but Weiner keeps surprising me.)
I don’t really know.
But I’m guessing that Don is able to live his life while he is hit by obstacles and tragedies and still remains a reasonably competent and somewhat happy person.
I would guess that Peggy can’t stand that because she is unable to deal with any of that in her life and is on the road to becoming a miserable lonely old lady.