In the background check episode:
*Pete: This many years later? It must be past the statute of limitations.
Don: It’s desertion. There’s no statute of limitations. *
Whether or not that’s technically correct, Don thinks it is so that would continue to compel him to remain in hiding.
An actual MBA would probably tell you that there is no correct answer… governing and ownership are a matter of agreement.
More on Harry’s deal please… it wasn’t firm when they sent him out the door in the last meeting but it was firm enough that he would be the deciding vote to force Don out? …and why didn’t he walk in 5 seconds later with a signed deal before they could rescind it?
Loved Don’s smirk when Harry was sent out the door with his tail between his legs!
I can see Don and Peggy together…
Finally, I was surprised that Don’s cig meeting gambit didn’t pan out into a more importan plot line.
From what I gathered, Harry hasn’t signed the paperwork to make himself a partner because he has a pending divorce and doesn’t want to give his soon-to-be-ex wife the extra money.
Cutler kept adding Harry to the calculus because Harry was promised the partnership and so he probably assumed that any moment now Harry would have his name signed and be part of the voting process. You’ll notice that no one else really kicks Harry out except for Roger. Roger doesn’t much like Harry but he is correct in saying that Harry isn’t a partner and so has no place yet in the meetings. I get the impression that everyone else would have let it slide (or at least allowed him input in the meeting if not a vote).
Cutler overshot in the first meeting where he gives Don his walking papers. He probably planned on Harry’s vote and assumed he had Burt’s support. Hence Joan telling him that he shouldn’t have done that – now people knew his immediate goal and would start working against it.
The season (and the series) isn’t over yet.
But it did pan out into an important plot line. First, because they didn’t win the cigarette company’s business, the others felt free to send that letter to Don. That led to Don offering the firm for sale to McCann.
Was the issue of the real Mrs. Draper not being able to get widow’s benefits due to Dick-Don’s appropriation of her husband’s identity ever addressed?
Yes, Anna not being able to get widow’s benefits led to her discovery of Dick’s using Don’s identity, which led to them agreeing that he would take care of her and she wouldn’t spill the beans on him. Later, she gave “Don” a divorce so he could marry Betty.
It was my understanding too that there is no statute of limitations on desertion.
The wife and I just finished watching this half of the final season. Loved this episode. But I was a little confused as to why Megan was so quick to have the marriage over when she recently tried all sorts of desperate ploys to maintain his interest – the threesome, giving the “niece” $1000 to get rid of her.
Liked Robert Morse’s swan song. Explained his background to the wife and would like to find some of his early movies to show her. Early in Mad Men, I had no idea that was him. Then I noticed his name in the credits, got to thinking, then realized why Bert’s gap-toothed grin seemed so familiar. The last time I’d seen him, he had a body like Pete Campbell’s!
The morning after the threesome, Don still cruises. I assume Megan realizes that desperate ploys aren’t working. Plus the whole next morning of the redhead slinking out the door and Don saying “Well, back off the New York!” couldn’t have been good for her ego. Did Megan really want to stay married to a guy that she’s bribing with strange sex to stay around another night?