Episode Summary: Jane Siegel’s cousin, Danny Siegel, has come to meet with Don Draper and Peggy Olson to interview for a copywriter job. The young man who has worked as a custodian at Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce has aspirations of becoming a copywriter in spite of a lack of talent. He, however, believes that his being a relative of Roger Sterling by way of marriage would land him the job. Unlucky for him, Don could not care less about his connections. The interview with Danny reminds Peggy of how far along she has come, from being Don’s mousy secretary to becoming a gifted copywriter who was able to come up with the inspired ad for Glo-Coat that garnered a CLIO nomination for Don.Continue reading...
Don has come a long way himself. He first met Roger at Heller’s when he used to sell fur coats. Roger had come in the shop to buy a pricey but not too expensive fur coat for a woman. He notices a framed ad hanging on the wall whose copy caught his attention, because he found it asinine. He soon learns that Don wrote the copy, and that writing copy is a job that interests Don. Roger hands him his business card, and Don learns that his customer is an ad executive. Don hints of applying for a job at his agency, but Roger advises against it. He had only given him his card that he may know where to deliver his purchase. Roger meets Joan Holloway at a hotel room bringing with him his purchase from Heller’s Luxury Furs. Joan is delighted with the gift, but Roger finds that there is something else inside the box. Don had sneaked inside it an ad he envisioned for Play-Doh
Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce has a meeting with executives at Life Cereal right before the award ceremony. Joan informs them that inclement weather grounded their clients in Philadelphia, and recommends that they make use of the extra hour they have to celebrate. Peggy foregoes the celebration to work on the Vick Chemical account only to find that the new art director, Stan Rizzo, has not done any work on it. Meanwhile, Don, Pete, Joan, and Roger continue their drinking at the CLIOs, a time meant for networking. The four, however, received more annoyance than new business as competitors decided to use the time to brag of their achievements. Worry overcomes Pete after a former client hints of a possible merger with Geyer, and Joan’s deferral of his question to Lane Pryce only added to his anxiety. Pete decides to confront Don about the rumor, but the man is too anxious at the prospect of winning an award to speak to him. Discomfiture spreads through the ceremony when an intoxicated Duck Phillips interrupts the host. Soon, security escorts the drunkard out of the premises.
At the agency, Peggy continues to brood over not getting recognition for her work on Glo-Coat, and more so for Don taking all the credit. There will be more reason for her to fret about for Don just won the best ad for cleansers, waxes and polishes. Before Don could relish having received an award, Megan Calvet arrives to inform them that the people from Life Cereal decided to drive to New York, and are already waiting for them at the office. Pete recommends rescheduling the meeting, but Don invigorated by his win decides to meet with their clients. The crew arrives with both Don and Roger reeking of alcohol, and boastful of their win. Don pushes through with the presentation deviating from the plan of having Joey go through the pitch, and decides to give it himself. The executives at Life Cereal found the creative too shrewd for their audience. Pete suggests that they reconvene at another time to allow Don to come up with a few more ideas. The combination of having won the CLIO award and large amounts of alcohol, however, had made Don brash and overconfident that he begins to run through various slogans on the spot causing unease for everyone. Unlucky for him, of all the slogans he blurted out, the client chose “Life. Cure for the common breakfast.” It was an idea taken out of Danny Siegel’s portfolio, but no one in the room knows this except for Peggy. She tries to confront Don about it, but the man is currently full of himself that he instead puts the Vicks deadline over her head, and orders Ms. Blankenship to book a hotel room for Peggy and Stan where the two are to stay until they come up with an idea for Vicks. She decides to speak to Pete about it, but the man has concerns of his own that he brushes her off.
Pete confronts Lane about the rumor of the agency merging with Geyer, and learns that there is no truth in it. Moreover, the truth is more undesirable than the rumor. Ken Cosgrove is coming to Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce bringing along with him his choice clients. Pete, a partner, at the agency denies hiring his rival for he has not forgotten Lane choosing Ken over him at Sterling Cooper. Lane, however, speaks to Pete of his reason for hiring Ken. He is very much aware that Roger is not pulling his weight leaving Pete to work on the accounts by himself. He believes that Ken has proven himself a reliable and responsible account executive that will be of tremendous help to the agency. His rivalry with Ken, however, clouds Pete’s judgment.
Don, Roger, and Joan continue with the celebration at the after party. Don rudely interrupts Faye’s conversation with a man and pulls her away from him. He invites her to celebrate at his place, but the woman knows better and turns it down. Meanwhile, Peggy and Stan comply with Don’s order to lock themselves in a hotel room until they come up with an idea for Vicks. The animosity between Stan and Peggy continues as the man spends the night staring at nude pictures claiming that he derives inspiration from them. Tired of all his talk about nudity, and his insinuation that she is a prude, Peggy takes off her clothes to prove a point. Moreover, she concedes that this is the way to get the man to work, and she was right. Stan takes his clothes off, and becomes aroused at the sight of Peggy’s breasts. Completely distracted at the nude woman in front of him, the man could not think. He acknowledges that Peggy has made her point. Stan puts his clothes on, and then takes a shower.
Roger mopes about living in the shadow of Don, and remembers the time when the man whom now everyone wants was nothing. Ever since Don learned that Roger owned an ad agency, the man has not stopped hounding him, and it reached the point where Don had come up to him while waiting for an elevator feigning having a meeting in the same building. Roger knew very well that the young man had stalked him, but gives Don a chance when the young man offered to buy him a drink and to listen to anything he has to say. Don ends up having drinks with Roger at ten in the morning.
Don comes home with the woman who won the jingle for cakes mixes and toppings. He wakes up to the ringing of a phone with his livid ex-wife on the other line yelling at him for not fetching the kids at a day when she and her new husband was supposed to go to a very important brunch. He is surprised to learn that it is already Sunday, and finds that he is now in bed with a woman he has no recollection of having brought home. Soon he becomes aware that he had slept with the server from the diner he ostensibly had dined in with a woman whom he referred to as his sister. He makes an excuse forcing the woman to leave. He then gets another drink, and sleeps on the couch only to be awakened by a knock on the door. It was Peggy. The young woman has been trying to reach him since Friday. She dropped by to tell him that he used Danny Siegel’s tag for the Life Cereal ad. Don was too inebriated at that time to remember even having sold the tag to Life Cereal. Peggy reminds Don that their clients already bought the tag, and so the only thing left to do is to go with it no matter how awful the slogan is. Moreover, Don has to fix the problem of having stolen the young man’s tag line.
Monday has come leaving all of them the whole weekend to ruminate on the issues they have to face at the start of the workweek. Pete having privately spoken with Ken and having confirmed the man’s loyalty to him has decided to allow his rival to work at Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce. Although Don has no memory of ordering Peggy and Stan to spend the weekend at a hotel room in order to come up with ideas for Vicks, the exercise was a success. Now sober, Don becomes aware of the consequences of his intoxication including having lost his trophy. Moreover, he is left to deal with the mess that resulted from it beginning with the slogan he unintentionally stole from Danny. He offers the kid $50 for the slogan, but the kid could see Don’s desperation and managed to get the man to give him a job at the agency, much to everyone’s chagrin. Roger dodging his young wife’s wrath made him the only person to not regret Don having hired Danny. He returns Don’s award after the drunkard winner left it at a bar, and remembers the time he hired Don; an act Roger was too drunk to remember doing, but ostensibly did.
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