Synopsis: On the day Don Draper and Suzanne Farrell were supposed to spend time together as a real couple, Don arrives home only to find that his wife and kids have returned earlier than planned. Moreover, Betty reveals that she has uncovered his deep, dark secret. Meanwhile, the women from Roger’s past have come to haunt him with the re-emergence of Annabelle Mathis and Joan Holloway. Both women want something from Roger, but he is only willing to help one of them.Episode Summary: Annabelle Mathis, a woman Roger Sterling had a history with, is now running Caldecott Farms having inherited it back from her family following the death of her husband. She has come to Sterling Cooper to ask for their help after the movie The Misfits exposed how horses were used to make dog food. The outrage following the movie proved to be a public relations nightmare that significantly affected the company’s sales that even Caldecott Farms’ ad agency Benton & Bowles decided to sever their relationship with the troubled company. Mrs. Mathis is looking for a new ad agency that will be able to invent a more acceptable name for horsemeat, one that will present to her the best idea to revive the company’s reputation without changing its name or product. Continue reading...
After learning that he does not have a future as a surgeon, Greg Harris decides to change specializations and enlists the help of his wife in nailing his interview. Joan Holloway conducts a practice interview, and learns that her husband’s choice to become a psychiatrist is rooted to his father’s nervous breakdown that resulted to his mother running away. His father soon got over his mental condition thanks to the help of a psychiatrist. Joan advises her husband to answer his interviewer the same way he answered her for it is a story so personal, which is exactly what psychiatry is.
Betty and William meet with Mr. Milton, their father’s lawyer, to discuss their inheritance. William is infuriated at their father for leaving their ancestral house to both of them making it difficult for him to get sole ownership of the house if he wanted to for it would require buying out Betty’s share that he would never be able to afford. Meanwhile, Betty speaks to Mr. Milton in confidence to ask advise on how to deal with Don having learned of his past. Mr. Milton advises that she could ask for a divorce, which would require her to prove in the court of law that Don committed adultery, while if Don asks the divorce Betty will not get a penny, and she may lose custody of the kids. Mr. Milton’s other advice is for Betty to return home, and give her marriage another shot.
Roger receives a call from Joan, and unlike his meeting with Annabelle he finds her re-emergence a pleasant surprise even though the woman has called only to ask his help in finding a job. Roger offers her a job at Sterling Cooper, but Joan would not want to go back because she had already been replaced, and claims to be earning more working at a department store than as a secretary. One evening, Roger fulfills the date he was forced to make with Annabelle. The woman would like to reminisce about the time when they were together, and the reason for Roger’s aversion to Annabelle is revealed. Annabelle left Roger for another man, a man she later married and one who later ran her father’s dog food company. Roger moved on and married Mona then was shipped to the Pacific during the war. In his return, Roger joined Sterling Cooper, and took the blame when the agency lost the Caldecott Farms’ account. The two leave the restaurant drunk after finishing off a bottle of Bordeaux with Annabelle believing that Roger will fall for her again, but she was mistaken. Annabelle leaves the restaurant rejected and humiliated.
Joan arrives home only to find a surly Greg with a bottle of beer in his hand. Greg blew his interview, and is in the mood to sour grape about not wanting to be a psychiatrist anyway for his dream is to be a surgeon. Greg tells Joan that she does not know how to want something her whole life and to strive to have it only to end up not getting it. Joan has had it with Greg; gone is the supportive wife when she grabs a vase and hits her husband in the head with it.
Don arranges a focus group for Caldecott Farms that quickly goes awry when the dog owners learn that the food their dogs were eating was from Caldecott Farms, the brand of dog food singled out for using horsemeat. Annabelle could not stand to watch the reaction of the dog owners upon hearing that their dogs were fed horsemeat, and Don’s insistence that the brand Caldecott Farms has been poisoned and should be changed proved much harder to swallow. Annabelle walks out of the room, and Roger wonders if her reaction was due to her being rejected the previous night, but the woman confesses to not having any recollection of that evening. Roger bluntly stating her throwing herself at him only to be rejected upset her even more, but her anger subsided when she hears from him that she had broken his heart when she left him for another man. With her husband dead and buried, Annabelle reveals that leaving Roger was a mistake, one she continued to regret up to the day she buried her late husband. Roger was the man for her. Unfortunately for Annabelle, she was not the woman for him. Soon, Roger calls one of his friends, and recommends hiring Joan.
With Betty and the kids away, Don Draper comes home to Suzanne Farrell, and learns that the woman has come to a realization that she wanted more than she thought she would want from their relationship. Suzanne assures Don that her need to be more than a mistress to him will pass, but Don confesses that he too wishes that they could truly be with each other. The two speak about going away as a couple with Suzanne picking a place where they could stay. Don drops by his house to get a few things for their trip, and has Suzanne wait in the car. He enters the house only to be greeted by his children and his wife, fully aware that Suzanne is in the car waiting for him, Don tries his best to get back to the car to inform her, but miserably fails for Betty has something important to show him. Betty demands Don to open the locked drawer in his study, but the man refuses to and prevents his wife from opening it only to learn that the woman already knows what is in it and only then did Don let Betty open the drawer. Shaken at the realization that his deep, dark secret has been revealed to his wife, Don struggles to find the words to explain what Betty uncovered.
Don tells Betty that he was Dick Whitman, and how he ran away to join the army and that is where he met Donald Draper who later died of an accident. He was in that accident as well but was only injured so when their names got switched, he decided to assume Donald Draper’s identity that he may leave Korea. Don later found that it was easier to be Donald Draper than to start over as Dick Whitman, but did not realize that the man had a wife. Learning of this, he decided to take care of Anna Draper whom he divorced three months before he and Betty got married. Betty does not know who Don Draper really is, and finds that she cannot trust him. Don for the very first time speaks to Betty of his family, and reveals that his mother was a twenty-two year old prostitute who died of childbirth. It was his father’s wife Abigail who raised him, but when Archibald died Abigail moved in with another man whom he called Uncle Mack. He remembers Uncle Mack as someone who was good to him. Don tells Betty that all of his family are dead, and he is surprised to hear Betty ask about Adam, the little boy in the pictures she assumed to be her brother. Don uncharacteristically breaks down to tears when he tells Betty of how he turned Adam away when he wanted to be part of his life, because he could not risk losing his life as Don Draper. Adam hung himself soon after. Hours had passed, and there still is no sight of Don. Suzanne hauls her luggage out of the car and walks back home.
Greg arrives home with a bouquet of flowers and a demeanor that is the complete opposite he had the previous night. Greg tells Joan that he found a solution to his problem; he joined the army. He is ecstatic, because his wife will be taken care of, and on top of that, he can fulfill his dream of becoming a surgeon. With Greg elated with the choice he made, Joan is left with no other option but to be happy for him too.
Don wakes up, and is relieved to find that he has not lost his family. To the surprise of his secretary, he arrives for work when he is supposed to be on vacation. He gives Suzanne a call to tell her that they can no longer see each other. Later that night, he returns home to his wife and kids, and they go trick or treating as a family with Sally dressed as a gypsy and Bobby as a hobo.
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