Synopsis: Trudy and Pete Campbell have difficulty conceiving a child, and therefore visit a fertility doctor. Don Draper receives a surprise visit from Bobbie Barrett asking his help to sell an idea for a television show. Having sold the idea, both Don and Bobbie indiscreetly celebrate, and fall victim to a car accident. Meanwhile, Joan Holloway accepted her boyfriend’s proposal, and is now engaged to a doctor. In anticipation of her wedding preparations, Joan hires a new girl to become Don Draper’s secretary.Episode Summary: Trudy and Pete Campbell worry of their difficulty conceiving a child, and decide to visit a fertility doctor. Pete becomes uncomfortable of the doctor’s questions, and finds them insulting to his manhood. However, the one that bothered him the most is the question about his willingness to father a child. Though Pete Campbell does not realize it, the doctor sees that the young man carries a lot of weight on his shoulders. In their conversation, Pete had hinted his anxiety towards his job as an account executive. He finds that bringing a large account to his company does not make him indispensable, and finding a new job given the contracting economy could be tough. In addition, his father had just recently passed away. Continue reading...
Meanwhile, at the office, Don Draper receives a call from Bobbie Barrett. The woman has sold her idea for a television show called Grin & Barrett. Tipsy and bored, she wants Don to come join her celebrate. The man who cannot resist a booty call responds. He, however, is shocked to find Rachel Menken, and even more surprised at learning that she is now married. Maybe it is the disappointment of seeing Rachel with another man or it is just Don being Don Draper, but he decides to go for a drive with Bobbie Barrett. The woman starts to seduce the man such that Don loses control of the wheel causing his car to tailspin, and crash on its side. He and Bobbie are banged up, but not enough to rush them to a hospital. Having been caught driving under the influence, the police would not release Don until he pays the hundred fifty dollar fine. Short in cash with only sixty-three dollars, and unable to call his wife given that he is with another woman, Don decides to call Peggy Olson. The young woman arrives with a hundred and ten dollars, and is shocked to find him with a woman other than his wife. Peggy went out of her way to bail out her boss, and his lover too, borrowing her brother-in-law’s car to pick them up, and agreeing to have Bobbie spend the night at her apartment. The young copywriter has gained her boss’ complete trust especially since no one in the office must know of the events of that night.
Don Draper arrives home to find his wife up all night waiting for him. Seeing him bruised and hurt, Betty becomes even more worried. Don comes up with a lie to explain his accident. According to him, his doctor diagnosed him with high blood pressure for which he took medication that he mixed with a drink causing him to lose control of the car. Betty believes him. Meanwhile, Bobbie Barrett is on the phone informing her husband that she has checked herself in a fat farm when in reality she is staying at Peggy Olson’s apartment.
At Sterling Cooper, Joan Holloway is briefing Don Draper’s new secretary. Joan who temporarily took the place of Peggy as Don’s secretary has her hands full given her recent engagement to a doctor. Joan is ecstatic, and could not help but show off her beautiful engagement ring. The mad men, on the other hand, could not care less. They are more interested with the gorgeous new girl, Jane Siegel. The only man who cares much about Joan is Roger Sterling. Learning that her former lover is tying the knot, Roger is filled with sadness and cynicism. Joan sees through his lover, and although the man appears to be disillusioned with the idea of marriage, she knows that his unhappiness is with his wife, and not the institution.
Don Draper arrives with his arm in a sling, and an alibi to explain it too. Ken Cosgrove could not wait to talk to him about the call he got from Jimmy Barrett. He orders the young account executive to stall the man from visiting the office. Worried that he has been caught cheating with the man’s wife, Don calls Bobbie. Bobbie who knows nothing of her husband’s call attests that her alibi is covered. She will be staying at Peggy’s until her bruises heal. Bobbie could not help but be curious at Peggy going an extra mile to help her boss. The woman suspects that Peggy and Don are having an affair, and is surprised to learn that they are not. The young woman explains that she is in debt to Don for making her a copywriter, but Bobbie believes that she got the job on merit, and that there must be some other reason why Peggy would go out of her way to rescue her boss.
Days have gone by, and Bobbie is ready to leave. Though most of the time, the woman may seem tactless and ungrateful, Bobbie has her moments. Seeing how Peggy’s submissiveness prevents her from realizing her full potential, the seasoned woman gives her some piece of advice. In order for her to rise up to her boss’ level, she must treat Don Draper as her equal. Embrace who she is, and not even try to be a man. Instead, “Be a woman”, she says. This is good advice, but the truth is Peggy owes a debt of gratitude to Don much larger than her promotion. When she gave birth to a child she unknowingly conceived, and was brought to a psychiatric hospital for her failure to acknowledge this fact, it was Don Draper who pulled her out of the ashes. He taught her to forget what had happened, and to move on.
Pete Campbell arrives home happy to hear from his doctor that his sample is viable. Pete gloats without realizing that it has been hurting his wife given that the problem lies with her. Insensitive, he continues to rave about the good news, and fails to understand what it is doing to his wife. Later realizing that he had made his wife upset, Pete tries to sell the idea that having a baby is not as wonderful as people make it out. This angered Trudy even more for she truly wants to have a baby, which is why she is all the more frustrated knowing that it is she who has trouble conceiving.
The dreaded meeting with Jimmy Barrett arrives. He walks in his office with an aura of smugness, which only made the words that came out of his mouth a surprise to Don Draper. He dropped by to personally thank Don for convincing Utz to bend their contract, and allow Jimmy to pursue his television show. He once again dodges a bullet. Quite relieved, Don arrives home surviving yet another day at the office. Though he tries to forget his accident, and the indiscretion that led to it, it seems to continue to haunt him. It started with Peggy asking for the hundred ten dollars she used to bail him out, and ended with Betty removing salt from his diet given the alibi that he gave her. So it seems, one cannot absolutely forget ones mistakes.
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