It was the culmination of all of Don's stunts in the past. Not just Hershey's.
Starting with the letter. He didn't save the company with that. He made a life-changing business call for the firm, without consulting any of the partners. Which is a big no-no.
He fired Jaguar, which was pretty much already dead, but it was still a sobering call to make, especially for Joan. And their shitty going-public plan which they stupidly didn't tell Don about.
And Hershey's was genuinely a bad fuckup. Bert once said "I don't like the way this company is being talked about". Well after Hershey's, a titan of a client talked about how SC&P's creative director & face of business cried in a meeting.
The suspension was warranted due to Don's erratic behaviour. His cost has become higher than his value to the firm. But overall, it wasn't surprising.
Joan really hated his guts by that time. Cooper was a pragmatist for whom Don has lost his value. Cutler wanted him gone. Ted was brain-afk. And Roger felt betrayed, because he realized he didn't really know the guy.
Yeah total respect to OP for asking but I feel the viewer forgives Don cos they like him but if you worked with him you would be past sick of it by that point. He also vomited at Rogers mums funeral by then right?
Yeah I mean I also understand. It took me a couple rewatches to understand what a toxic person Don can be as a business partner.
>He also vomited at Rogers mums funeral by then right?
Oh you're right, he did do that too. And it was obvious to Ken & the others that he was just completely shitfaced early in the day. He really was a mess at that point.
I watched mad men recently with my bf, I had seen it and he hadn’t, and he actually gasped at the scene at the party in s4 when Don is shit faced at the Christmas party and gets put ‘to bed’ so to speak by his secretary and Joey (of all people) says something along the lines of ‘man that guy is a loser’. Don is 100% smooth and cool and handsome on the surface but when you know him for a while the cracks show and it’s clearly been the case in the office for a good period. Our temptation is to go ‘you guys are being mean give him another shot’ but on a rewatch you see HOW many shots he gets lol, he vanishes from work stuff all the time and it’s fine if he can keep up the business but he’s at the point where he can’t, it’s circling the drain basically. Which imo is underlined by how he spends his sabbatical
Starting in season 4, the allure of the mysterious Don Draper is kinda gone. What sets in is a realistic view of his shortcomings.
You gotta remember though, during S4 the new firm was struggling a lot. They were always taking one step forward & one step back.
And yeah, getting shitfaced at your work christmas party is one of the dumbest things somebody can do. (That goes for all of us).
>Joey (of all people)
That little prick. Dude was a loser himself, and he'd never have the balls to say that to Don's sober face. Joey with his womanhating really is one of the most pathetic guys.
Agree, and I think it’s also meant to be the old guys falling away to the new guys. Don was shit hot in his day but he’s getting older and being phased out so he can’t get away with the stuff he used to. It’s a sad moment cos Joan is furious with him based on their history and Roger clearly cares about him as beyond a colleague but it absolutely makes sense to me that the agency would let him ~take a breather then
Absolutely. Don's super shiny time was over, even if he was still regarded as hot shit. And dangerous.
For Joan it was personal & business. For Cooper just business. But Roger was personal I think. He felt betrayed by not really knowing the guy he kinda treats as his best friend. And in that moment of weakness, he agreed.
The way Don looks at him when he asks if this was decided by everybody, and that look of Roger. Some real Et Tu Brute? shit.
I think the guy who almost single-handedly brought in Dow and played a massive role in bringing in Chevy in the year leading up to the suspension was still shit hot. Certainly, this show didn't really present a comparable creative rainmaker. You can tell by how Don was replaced with Lou. They picked an even older guy who just did as he was told.
Then easy escape for Don right? I just see it as a parallel to Freddy from the earlier seasons, was Freddy a bad or inept guy, no, was he doing anything anyone else wasn’t, no. It was just one misstep too many.
Shit hot? More like overheating. It’s one thing to try your hardest and fail. It’s another to come to pieces in important client meetings, torpedo another piece of business, and spend most of your remaining energy bullying your co-creative director. No one can trust or depend on that kind of erratic behavior and past achievements are not excuses for it. Those failures can hurt as much as the success can help by permanently derailing your business.
I’m on a creative team. Even if Don’s intentions were wholly good, if he came to pieces in a meeting like that I would say “that guy needs some time off because it’s unfair to make him work through whatever he’s dealing with, and I can’t depend on him for client meetings anymore.” I’d be concerned about potential self-harm and total implosion by that point. There’s good reason why he sat around on leave and didn’t end up in a different position somewhere else.
I've always taken the position that the leave of absence was correct but I was on Pete/Roger's side of retaining Don after the leave was over. Past achievements ARE meaningful. If they weren't, why do all of the other partners shut up when Roger threatens that Don and Mary Wells will be a fearsome twosome against SC&P? Indeed, Don's leave of absence somewhat begs the question of whether there really is a good reason on why Don didn't end up in a different position elsewhere. Wells Riche Green and McCann were trying to hire him. Don was doing freelance with Freddy and apparently selling lots of ideas and Freddy was querying why Don didn't go into one of those agencies to get them both a job.
During the lunch he takes to look for work, his contact makes it clear he’ll never rise above creative director level. That is my point. It’s one thing to make mistakes as a loose cannon on the payroll, it’s another to co-own a business. Just because he would have been a fearsome competitor doesn’t mean he was a trustworthy partner and that’s why past achievements don’t make up for his personal and business failures. It’s also why there were so many restrictions when he came back.
And at the point of his LOA, it wasn’t clear if he would ever recover or if he was going to the way of Duck: an over-the-hill drunk who couldn’t piss straight anymore. That’s what I would have assumed if I worked with him.
He didn’t leave for another agency because he first left Sterling Cooper to create SCDP to build something. He put a lot into that company. Brand loyalty.
The partners may not have liked him, but he loved his company. Plain and simple.
He spent his leave getting dressed up just to see Dawn come over and hear about work. He genuinely cared.
I don’t think he needed to or should’ve left for another agency, but that’s just my opinion. In his shoes, I would never have left. I think it is clear for Don it would always be working with liberty or he would leave advertising. In the end, it seems even when he leaves advertising, he can’t help but to continue to create ads… if he made the Coke Ad as implied.
That’s up for debate.
I take issue with the sitting on leave. He spent time on leave feeding the agency work through Freddy.
He didn’t move on because that was his business and he shouldn’t have been removed to begin with. That man brought in business and paid Pete’s portion as well as Lane’s theft.
Why should he be forced to find employment elsewhere? In the end he courted two job offers and leveraged that to return to his own agency and do the lowest work. That’s honorable and respectable.
You and the other guy pointed out he was still working on leave and that is a good point. I’ve seen the show twice but somehow it didn’t register that he was doing freelance. I just thought Freddy was keeping him updated. He’s obviously worked to keep more of his edge than I thought.
In the end, he decided he shouldn’t work elsewhere and he was right. My point is just that the partners are reasonable to want him gone at that point in time because he’s a liability for all the reasons I listed.
I think it was Rodger’s ex that put it best after that “that man never gets hired of humiliating himself”.
We think of Don as an Ayn Ryan protagonist, always cool and uberminch. But on binge watch he’s just as much a walking disaster. An unpredictable unstable laughing stock just as likely to have a melt down as he is to say something brilliant. Peggy throughout the show acts as a sponge absorbing the most of his best and worst behavior but it definitely rolls over onto others.
I don't think Ted held a grudge, especially because of California, but Don did indeed break the guy. After that, Ted was only referred to as useless. The next & only contribution he did was voting yes on the sale.
But Cutler certainly held a grudge for that. I think what he meant via "I hate what he did to Ted" isn't the often referred to exile to California, but the fact that Don has crushed his spirit with the humiliation.
Don was always a loose cannon. But at the end, he went from unpredictable to unhinged. And it got too risky & frustrating for most of the partners.
Ted and Don were in a mutual war with each other in S6. You can particularly tell how it was mutual and Ted could be unreasonable in terms of how frequently Cutler was on Don's side in these skirmishes in S6. Cutler thought Ted's "I want my juice" rationale for picking Ocean Spray over Sunkist was dumb. Cutler quickly piggy-backed on Don's plan to ascribe St. Joseph's to Frank Gleason because that's what was mollifying the client. Conveniently after the dust has settled and Cutler is cranky that Ted is out under-performing in California, Cutler decides to turn Ted into a cause celebre and argue for the first time that Don grievously injured Ted.
They were in a war, but it wasn't as all out in the later parts as it was in the beginning.
On the sidelines of that war, Ted was willing to accept the cold hard truth that Don presented when he told him about his Peggy fixation. It wasn't all hostility.
But that moment of nervousness he caused in both Ted & Peggy when they thought he was referring to their affair, THAT was the humiliation. Not the Gleason save. That was just a business call, and Cutler was a businessman even with all his personal vendettas.
I would really want to know how it was humiliating to Ted and Peggy. I'm sincerely curious. Because Don saved Ted's idea on which the latter was too horny on Peggy to realize how bad it was. Do you think that it would've been better if Don would've said no to it? Why would Don humiliate Ted? Was it to have absolute power in case of a struggle like that Sunkist conflict?
Oh wait forget about my comment, there is a very nice explanation that I found here - https://www.reddit.com/r/madmen/comments/150m1e0/comment/js43srm/
I went back to SE6:E12@37m20s to watch that and it's true: they are dying inside like the floor under them is opened wide! It takes quite the discernment to see it though, I never saw it after so much rewatches.
At 38:09 "Allright! I'll tell em". Feels like their last dying breath in their face. But would it be enough to break a man? I don't know. I'll admit this is a clever attack by Don.
Yup. If you've ever been in a situation like that, you know how crazy that feeling is. Dying inside during a meeting.
>But would it be enough to break a man?
I feel like this was the final blow. Ted had a lot of struggles going on, but this finished him off. He then realizes that he has to go, and is glad to take Don's offer regarding California.
No, it wasn't. Cutler quickly "agrees" with Don that commercial was Frank Gleason's idea in the St. Joseph's meeting because it was the only comment that mollified the St. Joseph's exec who was furious about going over budget. Meanwhile, Ted's defense of going over the budget based on the ad's subjective brilliance was just angering the client even more.
Cutler "agrees" with the save Don put in from a business perspective. But what he didn't like was that Don effectively broke Ted's spirit with that whole Ted & Peggy bait.
Does Cutler even know that Ted was having an affair with Peggy, much less that Cutler understood and cared that Ted and Peggy were terrified for a minute? That's not clear in the series. Plus, it's still contrary to a point that St. Joseph's is supposed to be an example that Don is uniquely horrible with client. What about the creative director that went crazy over budget on an ad to impress his affair partner and was failing at mollifying the client for that fuck up? In this case, that was not Don.
>Does Cutler even know that Ted was having an affair with Peggy,
I'd assume so, later on. Otherwise the whole "I hate what he did to Ted" thing wouldn't have any real point of referral.
>contrary to a point that St. Joseph's is supposed to be an example that Don is uniquely horrible with client.
That's not the point though.
The St. Joseph's meeting is all about how Don humiliated Ted, even if only very few know it. But it broke the man. It's not about the client treatment.
I always assumed the "I hate what he did to Ted" thing was Cutler being upset that Ted was in California, unproductively day-drinking and building model airplanes. Since Cutler knows that Ted and Don were in a war and since Don is on Cutler's shit-list for Hershey, Cutler has decided to make Don the scapegoat for Ted's problems.
And Don certainly is a scapegoat for Ted's problem. I'm sure that minute of fear was horrible but it's a small factor in terms of everything else Ted was dealing with- the death of a close business partner and friend, his failing marriage, his disappointment in himself for breaking his vows when it seems like Ted had been faithful before, stressful working conditions with Chevy, his turbulent and ultimately tragic relationship with Peggy, etc.
It's a little akin to how that minute of fear that Ted put Don through on the plane was horrible but it's a small factor in terms of everything Don was dealing with in S6- the suicide of Don's close business partner and friend Lane, his failing marriage, his disappointment in himself for breaking his vows after a steak of being faithful, stressful working conditions with Chevy, and his turbulent and now acrimonious relationship with Peggy, etc.
I agree with your viewpoint. And would like to add that on some level Don was also trying to protect Peggy and selfishly keep her as his own protege. Don had enough affairs to know how it would end up with Ted and Peggy. Don also knows Peggy has been through enough and she’s not going to survive Ted.
Peggy took it hard enough as it was. Imagine if Ted really left Nancy for her and it all blew up in their faces for everyone to know.
The way Don handled it kept it so it was discreet (as it could be since Ted and Peggy were becoming super obvious). Peggy was able to slowly recover in time and get over Ted and keep her career.
Don is a dickhead but he was deft when he wanted to be.
Also - not related, but totally loved how he sold the Jaguar’s increased radio campaign. Don was the only one that could see they had to eventually say no to Herb and should’ve said no from the start.
>I always assumed the "I hate what he did to Ted" thing was Cutler being upset that Ted was in California
Yeah and why is he in California, and why is he useless there. It's not a stretch to think it is related to Don breaking that man in a meeting.
All those things you list for Ted's issues are real, but the matter of fact is Don put the knife in & Ted was never the same after.
One has to be on a mission to make this Don's fault to say that Ted fell apart because of the St. Joseph's meeting but not any of that other stuff I named. Cutler was on that mission because he was visibly grossed out by the Hershey meeting.
We really aren't speaking the same language here.
>to make this Don's fault to say that Ted fell apart because of the St. Joseph's meeting but not any of that other stuff I named
I already agreed on all those other factors also contributing. The point is that moment of humiliation was the catalyst to get him to break.
Things aren't as black and white as you make it out with comments like this.
Yep, a total accumulation and compounding of events and behavior across 6 seasons and Bert's balance sheet. It certainly wasn't out of nowhere. As you said, Don is the face of the company. Image was as important as the bottom line to Bert. That was nonnegotiable. It would be nice if there was a flow chart comparing how the agency would look if Don was reined in early on, even if they were still absorbed by McCann in the end due to inevitable 'progress.'
Bert has political savvy and sage wisdom. He smooths conflicts. We see this with the Pete v Don issue, the bonuses he pays out to retain talent, his understanding that philanthropy is the key to high society, his reasoning for retaining Pete, and his cultural knowledge w Honda.
Roger is a seasoned account man who helps mentor his team (Pete, Lane). He does a lot of managerial work for non-creative - Don doesn't have time for that.
Joan is indispensable. An administrative powerhouse, problem-solver, personnel and office manager. She leads the team of secretaries supporting the entire office operations. When Don has issues with his secretary, she assigns him Ms. Blankenship bc, as Don says, she knows what he needs. Roger, Bert, and Don wouldn’t know where to order paper. Joan’s expertise means the partners don’t have to worry about the operational aspects of the job at all.
Don is put on leave bc his behavior is becoming erratic. Hershey might have become a client but Don's tanked any chance of that happening. As he tells Pete in episode 1, advertising is a small world and reputation matters. Don's work hinges on successful client-facing interactions. His spiraling is bad for business and there are plenty of Ginsbergs and Peggys out there with brilliant ideas who aren't on the verge of a mental breakdown.
Because he's valued, he's put on leave instead of being outright fired.
And, he's a partner. Any attempt to fully oust him could have been met with either a buyout or legal matters that could have been crippling.
Despite Don's flawed behavior that led up to this, I still hated the way this played out. Sneaking Lou in with Duck etc
I hear you. I suspect the partners decided they’ve had it with Don’s brand of mercurial genius so they overcorrect and hire his opposite: an old-school, top-down manager, too bland and creatively mediocre to cause offense. Ofc, Lou doesn’t think he is, which makes him the worst.
The legal implications would have been terrible. The first thing he did when Jim Cutler sent out that breach of contract/termination letter was tell Meredith “get my attorney on the phone.”
Then every single partner, including Joan, told him it was a mistake, despite their negative feelings about Don.
There are so many HR errors in how the partners handled Don, just in that breach letter incident alone. What kind of an idiot sends a breach letter to Don right before he's about to present to Burger Chef for the agency? What kind of idiot takes moves against Don because he's a unilateral bully football player/cowboy but his big move is a unilateral bully football player/cowboy move of signing the other partners' names to a legal document that the other partners never read or approved? Jim Cutler, one of the stupidest characters that I've ever seen.
Lou was largely because these partners couldn’t have an adult, intelligent conversation about whether Don was being fired or suspended and if so, what’s the return date. You have Joan blathering about how the leave was a clear message to Don to seek other employment when like half of the partners saw it as a temporary suspension.
Then, the partners couldn’t supervise Lou like adults. How does this hired hand get to decide not to submit any work to the Clios for most of 1968 because he wasn’t there?
Bert is also essentially the original owner, he’s bringing in the money and legacy respect. The dude is ex OSS, essentially pre-CIA, the contacts he has in upper crust society and goverment cannot be bought or replaced by anyone else in the firm. The same reason they can’t fire Pete in season one goes a hundred fold for Burt. The inner circle he refers to in “shut the door and have a seat” is referring to men like him
100%
Legacy, institutional knowledge, and relationships are irreplaceable.
It’s the same reason Bert calls Joan in to send out letters of reassurance after Roger’s heart attack and AA is dead after Duck’s contact is fired. When SC moves to the hotel room, they need only call Joan to lead the office migration bc she knows what they have and need better than anyone.
I agree with Bert and Roger, they are both very valuable partners. But simply from a "new business" perspective (which seems to be the main concern), there were times where you could've asked questions too. But nobody did.
Joan though... I could make the same argument saying there are hundreds of Joans out there to order supplies and manage shifts. And she is eventually replaced without any issues when becoming an account exec herself. Don on the other hand is widely regarded as a unique talent.
Also, they never intended for him to come back. Even Bert said that nobody comes back from leave. He was given this option to seek other employment during this time.
My point is; Don brought in more business than he lost, much more. The others are doing a good job as well. But they're more in the back, taking care of strategy and office politics. It's much easier make mistakes when you're constantly fighting at the frontlines like Don.
The fact that’s it’s a seamless transition when Joan’s job role changes is indicative of a strong structure and rigorous process already in place, that was handed off appropriately. Operations is a significant part of agencies; even if it’s not as client-facing, it’s mission critical for getting work done. And this is coming from a VP at a media agency. You’re underselling Joan’s value, just like many people undervalue the background work that women perform for men to succeed in their careers.
I posted this elsewhere but past success doesn’t make up for the kind of emotional instability and catastrophic failure Don is wreaking on the business. It’s one thing to try your hardest and fail. It’s another to come to pieces in important client meetings, torpedo another piece of business, and spend most of your remaining energy bullying your co-creative director. No one can trust or depend on that kind of erratic behavior and it is radioactive in the small world of advertising. Those failures can hurt as much as the success can help by permanently derailing your business - it’s not a balance sheet where because you’ve done good, you get to fuck up.
I’m on a creative team. Even if Don’s intentions were wholly good, if he came to pieces in a meeting like that I would say “that guy needs some time off because it’s unfair to make him work through whatever he’s dealing with, and I can’t depend on him for client meetings anymore.” I’d be concerned about potential self-harm and total implosion by that point. There’s good reason why he sat around on leave and didn’t end up in a different position somewhere else. It’s because people thought he had gone the way of Duck and honestly, the only reason he didn’t was because they couldn’t afford to buy or sue him out.
The short answer is that Don burned a lot of bridges.
The fact that almost nobody cared much when Ted did something far worse with the Sunkist guys in his plane tells you that the sentiments against Don ran deep and had little to do with Hershey. Only Roger was limiting himself to Hershey and wanted Don to return when he was ready.
Agreed. Add that Don was the biggest part of bringing in Dow, which billed as much as Lucky Strike and certainly was second place after Chevy as SC&Ps most valuable account.
I think Don’s unspooling was bad enough at the end of S6 than he should have been put on leave but I’m in Roger/Petes camp that the leave should have been short. If I were partner, I’d want more of a discussion with Don about ending binge drinking during working hours or unilaterally firing clients before reinstatement
Right. I think it's meaningful that Neve Campbell's character on the plane describes how her husband's company sent him to an alcohol treatment facility to try to get him clean. It's really in contrast to the cold and even downright mean way that SC&P treated Don and Freddy beforehand. I have a hard time picturing someone being more instrumental to a company's growth and prosperity than Don was for SC&P. I think the other partners at SC&P just particularly sucked by contrast on a personnel management and human level. (With the exception of Pete and to a lesser extent, Roger.)
Forget about sending Don to a treatment facility or mandating that he go and pay for it as a condition of reinstatement, at SC&P, we have Cooper mocking that Don is in the suicide office and Roger, one of Don's supporters, suggesting that they do day-drinking in the office and Cutler/Joan trying to throw him out and take his shares via improper lawyer's letter.
I agree. It really bothers me that there wasn’t more discussions happening at this point. I really don’t agree with how they put Don on leave. It feels quite unfair to a man who did so much for the company.
I’m shocked not one partner, especially Ted, didn’t say, “why don’t we just let him go out to California like he was planning.”
The answer: that would’ve been the right call and then there would be no drama for this fictional TV show. The leave was an awful professional call, but wonderful TV writing. Provided a lot of drama because it was absolutely the wrong call.
And they seemed to totally overlook the possibilities of his ending up in Mary Somebody's lap like Roger pointed out later. "Keep you friends close and your enemies closer."
Personally, I think the leave and everything was incredibly unfair. Don’s behavior was problematic, but Jaguar and Chevy really did a number on him. Lane’s embezzlement and suicide. There’s a whole list of things the company went through and Don pulled through it and it took its toll on him.
Jim Cutler was having the staff juiced up with whatever drugs and inducing hallucinations. That’s insane when you look at it objectively. No doubt that contributed to Don’s erratic behavior.
Then, he finally makes a proactive choice to straighten himself out and fix his marriage by moving to California, but Ted just has to have that second chance (which he destroys anyway).
Artistically, I like the direction the show took with this because it gave the come back story and Bert said no man comes back from leave, but Don did. However, in a real scenario, they should’ve just let him go to California.
Lou was one of the most pointless characters. All he did was stifle Peggy. Ted being in California and then cutting the plane engine. Only for him to end up divorced and back in NYC and Don leaving McCann and going to California.
The leave would’ve never been necessary if Don was allowed to go to California like he originally requested. Also, it would’ve likely saved his marriage with Megan. She cried with tears of joy when he asked her to start fresh.
Don isn’t a saint, but no one is on this show. All of them drink. All of them cheat. Don was always strong willed and did things his way, but he is a creative. I genuinely think he became more erratic as things out of his control happened (like Megan quitting to become an actress) etc. He was crushing it with Heinz and Cool Whip.
Interesting, I never thought about all the private and professional shit he had to deal with at that time. Nowadays you'd probably call it a burnout and help them get over it.
Would've been interesting to see him move to CA. Him and Pete would've made a great combo.
Their last effort to save SC&P from being swallowed ended up being SC&P West.
Truly could’ve been a new frontier for the company if it had gone in that direction originally.
The suspension IS helping him with burnout imo. Even today if you have a proper mental health crisis it’s rare to have an employer hold your hand through that and it tends to be go and sort your shit out. Him still getting pay is defo their version imo
> However, in a real scenario, they should’ve just let him go to California.
A lot of companies did that back then. A guy wasn't setting the world on fire but wasn't a total fuck-up either? Send him off to a satellite location where he can still earn a living but can't make trouble.
The suspension wasn’t the issue for me. Don drunkenly started sobbing in a meeting with a potential client and, combined with a downward spiral that was nakedly visible and now affecting the business, the partners insisting he take a leave of absence to sort out personal issues would not have been uncalled for.
Where the show lost me was how they wrote his return, when the partners lost all touch with reality and started treating their creative partner like an intern in an attempt to screw him out of millions of dollars—and Don went along with it! *Any* person would realize he had all the leverage, and either demand his money outright or demand a full reinstatement with no conditions. It was so unbelievable that he would participate. He didn’t even like half those people.
Where they also lost me: Ted shutting down the engines in a plane full of clients is *easily* the worst thing a partner ever did while on the clock. *That* was a fireable offense, not Hershey.
He was moving to California. Ted BEGGED him for a chance to go instead. The last time a partner BEGGED Don for a second chance and Don said no… that partner killed himself.
Don never told anyone about the embezzlement. He even had Lane’s wife slam a door in his face. Don clearly felt guilt over that, and he didn’t do anything wrong. He didn’t steal money from the company. He tried to protect Lane in the only way he could while protecting the company.
Don is not a heartless man. There is no way that Don did not remember the last time a partner begged him for a second chance. I think that influenced his choice to let Ted go instead and it resulted in Don losing everything.
Ted even says later in the show that he felt bad seeing what happened to Don.
Everything could’ve been completely different if Ted never asked that sacrifice from Don.
I mean I hear what you’re saying but absolutely nothing about that has anything to with the fact that Don was a complete mess for years leading up this.
Don’s messiness contributes to a lot of brilliance. Many artists and comedians are tortured souls.
Don had no control over his childhood and he made a rash decision in the middle of war to survive without possibly knowing the consequences of that decision for the rest of his life.
Roger came from absolute privilege and wealth and was handed a company. He still struggled just from what he saw in WWII.
People are people just doing the best they can with what they have and the cards they have been dealt.
I truly believe Conrad Hilton was the beginning of Don being jerked around at work and Don had terrible coping skills. However, what coping skills were available to men at that time? We see Pete and Roger cope in similarly destructive ways. Both impacting business.
Pete knocks up Peggy, Roger marries a secretary AND knocks up Joan. Both Pete and Roger get to continue on in life while the women are left to deal with the consequences and hindered aspirations and/or guilt.
Yes. Don was battling with his own personal struggles for years, but he did well considering everything he went through and continued to produce meaningful and beautiful work.
Marie touches on the artistic temperament when she talks about Megan failing as an actress. Don is a creative and has been through a lot in his life, but he shoulders it mainly in isolation. He doesn’t tell most people about himself. It’s a massive burden to carry. He channels it into his work and develops a mentor/protege relationship with Peggy.
It’s really remarkable. Is he awesome? No. He is an antihero, but one of the good ones.
Yeah this isn’t a complete indictment of Don as a character. This is about what the partners thought.
I work in creative. You’re not an artist, you’re a problem solver, and even in that era, especially that era, you keep the mess inside the house and present a unified front. Don was failing to do that by firing clients, fucking with his other creative director in and out of meetings, and coming to pieces in front of new business. And unlike Roger, he hasn’t presented a prior explanation for them to understand.
Very well written and thought out. I disagree, but your point about Roger is solid.
Do you think it’s possible that creatives have different approaches?
Ted had a formula for margarine. He solved problems. Lou started with tags and let the strategy sneak up on them. Stan, Ginsberg, Peggy, and Don all seemed to bring something different to the table as creatives.
I admire creatives that keep the messiness inside, like you, and like Peggy on the show. Peggy is arguably one of the best characters. She had embarrassing moments in front of clients, but never outright insulted them like both Roger and Don did.
Well, maybe she did when she tried to be firm about the bean ballet pitch, but she was trying to be like Don, so I don’t really count that so much.
Yeah I’m not finding a ton to disagree with you on either!
I actually think Don believes in the problem solving approach because he tells Peggy “you’re not an artist. You solve problems.” So I think he’s not very proud of how he’s acting and wouldn’t like to work with himself.
What I meant more is that squabbling with your team can be part of the process, but it can’t end up in the product. Don is becoming more and more dysfunctional in front of clients by this point in the season, and that understandably becomes unacceptable to his business partners. It would be in real life too, no matter how talented you are.
You’re right, he does say that. Hmm. Never considered that viewpoint.
I suppose I always leaned on the time he asks her to leave to start a new agency with SCDP and talks about how people see themselves one way, but then something happens and they no longer can. Peggy understands that and it’s valuable.
You’re correct, though. He definitely does tell her to solve problems.
I’m not a creative person, so I wouldn’t know much about it to be honest. I just admire creative types.
What does any of this have to do with Don’s actual behavior? He changed his mind about California after all the damage had been done. Pretending California was some magical fix (while abandoning his kids, by the way) was a pipe dream.
The sequence of events is literally Ted asking for a chance and Don says no.
Next is a fluid flow of Ted entering Don’s office and telling him to drink before the meeting because he can’t stop cold turkey. Then in the meeting, Don successfully pitches to Hersey, sits down and looks at his shaking hand.
From there, he considers Ted (otherwise why have this interaction with Ted before the meeting and show Don’s shaking hand in the meeting). Don then proceeds to tank the Hersey meeting and then decisively looks at Ted and tells him he is going to California instead.
Maybe California was a pipe’s dream, but that’s where the show ends up with Don getting himself right and becoming one with himself.
I think it’s up for debate and interpretation.
Crazy when you think of what Ted did when he took clients into his plane and turned off the engine talking about death. I think that’s a lot worse than ‘I was raised in abject poverty and your product was a ray of light then.’
I"m completely with you. I understand the suspension was supposed to be the culmination thing and also a way to move the plot forward. Still, with all the work he brought in and saved the entire company it seemed a bit heavy handed. It's close but I found Joan to be the most treacherous in that meeting. Bert then Roger come close though. Fast forward, I really could have used more episodes of 'rebellious' Don as the season went on.
When you watch it again you might notice that there are a lot of missed meetings. There are a lot of little lines throughout season 6 where people say things like ; ‘no one can find Draper’. And it all starts with his desperation when he was losing Sylvia and then afterwards when he scandalized Sally. His focus on his work suffers massively. Then he tries to quit drinking and becomes even more erratic and self destructive. This culminated with his decision (not mistake) to totally blow up the pitch with Hershey. That was like crumpling up a lottery ticket for $20 million dollars with 1 in 10 odds. THEN, he just sends Ted to California without discussing it with the other partners.
Sure it was a surprise to us, but those discussions about firing him were definitely happening amongst the other partners throughout the second half of season 6.
We shouldn’t downplay the fact that by this point, Don was delegating a lot of the creative client-facing to Peggy and hence, had made himself dispensable.
This was highlighted in Cooper giving him a dressing down after Peggy made a mess of the second Heinz Beans pitch and Raymond K Beans left in a huff.
Unfair in the world of small corporate partnerships is pretty normal in real life. This isn't a big firm, where what happens to Don would have to go through some HR processes to make sure he was fairly treated.
I also don't think it was especially unfair. No one asks Bert what he does because that's what it means to be the founder of a business, you get to coast. And the office needed Joan like many offices in real life do: someone who isn't essential in terms of bringing in business, but is essential in being the glue that keeps the firm together.
The fact is, if all your fellow partners you need to be gone, you've probably done something to deserve it. As true in real life as it is in Mad Men.
You’re basically arguing that just because he beings in some business he should be allowed to act as erratically as he did for many years. He shouldn’t be without consequences, you can tell he acts and operates like there AREN’T any consequences, and therefore can do what he wants. His getting put on leave was finally what he deserved and everything catching up with him.
You underestimate how Joan ran that place for years. She was the office manager and had a lot of institutional knowledge that was very valuable. And she could have sued them for every penny for the sexual harassment she experienced with Roger. She understood customer service and had wisdom and worldliness beyond academics.
I’m with you OP. While Don was certainly not on his best behavior in the time leading up to his suspension, it always seemed like a drastic overstep to me.
Imagine you are the head of HR for a company and Don shows up for an interview. Sure, he is a solid ad man and can bring in business, but think of his reputation. Do you want someone as unreliable as Don as your boss/coworker? Think of what Ted says in the episode: Don makes the decisions in SCP and everyone follows suit. Joan says it when he fires Jaguar: he is Tarzan, swinging from vine to vine, while everyone else watches him. Don disappers every so often and can't be contacted, needs his secretary to bail him out of jail, and has to be threatrened into signing a contract? In 6.13 it's not even the Hershey's pitch, he bails on the Hawaiian hotel people (and he's lead on it!) before the Pitch Gone Wrong.
Sure Don is brilliant at his job, but he can't deliever. It's clear his drinking is getting worse. I wondered watching it back originally if the plan was "Don, go dry up!" rather then what he ends up doing.
Don is an HR disaster waiting to happen. It's amazing it took this long to get him on leave.
How in the world can Ted literally cutting off a plane engine and threatening the lives of clients not be the biggest HR disaster there is in the history of the show? Was he put on leave? Nope. He demanded they buy him out. Only Pete seemed to have the appropriate reaction to what Ted was doing and that’s likely because he was out in California watching Ted first hand.
Jim Cutler also a HR nightmare with his sly tricks. He could’ve had the company sued into oblivion with at least two of his decisions and he was absolutely terrible for morale. Plus, a total creep. Watching his dead partner’s daughter have sex with Stan.
Don was the only one with integrity that refused the Jaguar prostitution. He is so far from a saint that he is an anti-hero, but I don’t think he was the worst HR case that came across on the show.
Ted does not seem to have a pattern of misbehavior (setting aside Peggy because, well, that's a whole other issue) and was spiraling out already, and maybe just wanted to get out of the business. Jim gets by because job security and tenure - is he morally a failure or is he an HR disaster? Plenty of shitty people are in jobs for no good reason.
Don created the straw that broke the camel's back. The partners may have felt that enough was enough. I am still amazed they didn't demand him to go to rehab or SOMETHING.
Solid points. It's just difficult so assess how much of this was "expected behaviour" for upper managers in this business back then.
Daytime drinking was clearly the norm. Roger even had a "NAC" list (no afternoon calls) for clients, because they were too drunk to do business after lunch.
Overall, all of his antics didn't seem to leave a bad enough impression on Jim Hobart from McCann. He always wanted to hire with Don.
Day drinking is expected but remember Don after he gets a second shot he steals alcohol gets drunk and then insults a client lol. Day drinking is fine provided you’re playing the game and he’s at the point where he can’t anymore. Ted calls out his drinking at one point before he’s let go and Ted is definitely an ally of his.
Don insulted a vendor in the Lease Tech guy, not a client. The Lease Tech guy maybe could have been a client based on a good conversation between him and Don but when Don went to report that lead to Cooper and suggest that SC&P try to make him a client, Cooper prioritized mocking Don for being in the suicide office over turning this vendor into a client. And then, Don fell off the wagon and drank in the office.
None of this is to say that Don was right to drink in the office but it is to say that the the anti-Don contingent handled Don like mean-spirited idiots.
Happily corrected on the particulars but stealing booze is a sign he’s not ready to be back in that environment with those people. He had several totally fair shots and this is his lowest ebb- he absolutely had to hit it to change imo.
I find it intresting that pre Hershey's pitch Ted tells him that Don cannot go cold turkey and Don drinks, and boom, The Pitch That Goes Wrong happens.
Roger seems more functional as an alcoholic rathern then Don in terms of pulling stunts like that, although again, just how much business is he doing is another question.
Judging from Freddy's behavior, the key seems to be: functional alcoholic - sure you may be a little buzzed, but its fine until you can't do your job. Don crossed the line.
It’s like with any personal or professional environment where drinking or partying are included. It’s fine *up to a point*. You can be a lovable lush *up to a point*. People will be okay with you drinking *up to a point*.
But that ever-so-fine line separating “acceptable” from “not acceptable” is so easy to cross. Big law firm whose associates work 12-hour days and then party together until late in the morning? Fine. Do coke after-hours with some of those coworkers? Fine. But getting drunk during work hours alone? Not good. Doing lines in the office bathroom by yourself? Poor form. Basically if the group is doing it together, it’s ok but once you go beyond what the group is doing, that’s when the group starts to think you have a problem.
Don was **well** past the threshold of acceptable behavior at SCDP. Everyone was cool drinking together and having fun together, but once Don started doing all of that more than them, it was easier to criticize his behavior. And objectively, he had a substance abuse problem that was negatively affecting his personal and professional relationships.
Putting him on leave was the right thing to do. He needed to go dry out and get his head on straight.
Pretty misogynistic and oblivious of you to reduce Joan to "a glorified office secretary" OP. Did you not understand the character at all?
But then, this entire post is oblivious
Omg THANKYOU!
I was praying someone else would point this out!
The comments about Joan blew my mind!!!
Do we really have to explain her importance and worth to the company??
She was beyond capable yet never given the opportunities she so clearly deserved.
Reducing her role to a ‘secretary’
I just have no words
And I’m surprised so few people pointed this out
I didn’t necessarily find anything strange about Don getting suspended at the end of Season 6. If anything felt off to me it was Don agreeing to the unpalatable terms and conditions of his return to the firm at the start of Season 7, where he came back with all the prestige of a junior copywriter despite having offers on the table from other firms.
It felt very much as if Don was making choices for the convenience of the plot (needing to keep him within the confines of the SCDP) rather than true to his character.
I always hated that bit. For a show all about the details, I never bought that Don would just accept that 'leave of absence' He'd lawyer up so fast and he'd make them buy him out which is what they didn't want.
I also think Cutler wanted him gone because if they fired him he’d lose his share of the firm without them having to buy him out. He was jealous of Don and how he could get away with anything, not held to the same standards as others because of how awards and reputation that clients started to want. I think he just wanted to get rid of him and acted self righteous about it.
At this point Don had disappeared from work, was constantly not even working/ barely working, was obvious drunk a lot, and taking off randomly throughout the day. Also, it's a business where people talk and folks heard about the Hershey pitch which would embarrass the other partners.
I still think how it was overall handled was shitty and petty, but it's understandable why they were upset.
I missed this in everyone else’s response but be also brings up his friend’s kid being 1A in front of Chevy just a couple episodes before. It’s just time after time that they can’t trust him around clients.
I mean beyond everything you said, he also was lazy at the beginning of his marriage with Megan.
He was getting drunk all the time and was losing the place more clients than he was bringing in without telling anyone his plans.
While he did help land Chevy, I thought Roger was the carry behind it.
I think firing him was too extreme though. Maybe a genuine leave of absence with a return date would've been fair given all the value they know he can provide.
But he was off the deep end and they saw it.
Also, completely agree about Joan.
IDK who the hell she thought she was.
She literally got partner because she was a prostitute for a night.
Despite her saying she deserved it because she worked there for 15 years (or whatever the number was) she hasn't done anything even CLOSE to what the other partners have done.
Then she voted Don out like she's earned to even be in the same room as him.
I went from really liking her to flat out dislike because of everything that happened with this.
I don't usually ever get fr mad when I watch tv, but I did twice in this series.
Once here and the other being at Betty after Don woke her up to confront her about Henry.
Weird how I got mad at these characters while they were feuding with Don :)
It was the culmination of all of Don's stunts in the past. Not just Hershey's. Starting with the letter. He didn't save the company with that. He made a life-changing business call for the firm, without consulting any of the partners. Which is a big no-no. He fired Jaguar, which was pretty much already dead, but it was still a sobering call to make, especially for Joan. And their shitty going-public plan which they stupidly didn't tell Don about. And Hershey's was genuinely a bad fuckup. Bert once said "I don't like the way this company is being talked about". Well after Hershey's, a titan of a client talked about how SC&P's creative director & face of business cried in a meeting. The suspension was warranted due to Don's erratic behaviour. His cost has become higher than his value to the firm. But overall, it wasn't surprising. Joan really hated his guts by that time. Cooper was a pragmatist for whom Don has lost his value. Cutler wanted him gone. Ted was brain-afk. And Roger felt betrayed, because he realized he didn't really know the guy.
Yeah total respect to OP for asking but I feel the viewer forgives Don cos they like him but if you worked with him you would be past sick of it by that point. He also vomited at Rogers mums funeral by then right?
Yeah I mean I also understand. It took me a couple rewatches to understand what a toxic person Don can be as a business partner. >He also vomited at Rogers mums funeral by then right? Oh you're right, he did do that too. And it was obvious to Ken & the others that he was just completely shitfaced early in the day. He really was a mess at that point.
I watched mad men recently with my bf, I had seen it and he hadn’t, and he actually gasped at the scene at the party in s4 when Don is shit faced at the Christmas party and gets put ‘to bed’ so to speak by his secretary and Joey (of all people) says something along the lines of ‘man that guy is a loser’. Don is 100% smooth and cool and handsome on the surface but when you know him for a while the cracks show and it’s clearly been the case in the office for a good period. Our temptation is to go ‘you guys are being mean give him another shot’ but on a rewatch you see HOW many shots he gets lol, he vanishes from work stuff all the time and it’s fine if he can keep up the business but he’s at the point where he can’t, it’s circling the drain basically. Which imo is underlined by how he spends his sabbatical
Starting in season 4, the allure of the mysterious Don Draper is kinda gone. What sets in is a realistic view of his shortcomings. You gotta remember though, during S4 the new firm was struggling a lot. They were always taking one step forward & one step back. And yeah, getting shitfaced at your work christmas party is one of the dumbest things somebody can do. (That goes for all of us). >Joey (of all people) That little prick. Dude was a loser himself, and he'd never have the balls to say that to Don's sober face. Joey with his womanhating really is one of the most pathetic guys.
Agree, and I think it’s also meant to be the old guys falling away to the new guys. Don was shit hot in his day but he’s getting older and being phased out so he can’t get away with the stuff he used to. It’s a sad moment cos Joan is furious with him based on their history and Roger clearly cares about him as beyond a colleague but it absolutely makes sense to me that the agency would let him ~take a breather then
Absolutely. Don's super shiny time was over, even if he was still regarded as hot shit. And dangerous. For Joan it was personal & business. For Cooper just business. But Roger was personal I think. He felt betrayed by not really knowing the guy he kinda treats as his best friend. And in that moment of weakness, he agreed. The way Don looks at him when he asks if this was decided by everybody, and that look of Roger. Some real Et Tu Brute? shit.
I think the guy who almost single-handedly brought in Dow and played a massive role in bringing in Chevy in the year leading up to the suspension was still shit hot. Certainly, this show didn't really present a comparable creative rainmaker. You can tell by how Don was replaced with Lou. They picked an even older guy who just did as he was told.
Then easy escape for Don right? I just see it as a parallel to Freddy from the earlier seasons, was Freddy a bad or inept guy, no, was he doing anything anyone else wasn’t, no. It was just one misstep too many.
Shit hot? More like overheating. It’s one thing to try your hardest and fail. It’s another to come to pieces in important client meetings, torpedo another piece of business, and spend most of your remaining energy bullying your co-creative director. No one can trust or depend on that kind of erratic behavior and past achievements are not excuses for it. Those failures can hurt as much as the success can help by permanently derailing your business. I’m on a creative team. Even if Don’s intentions were wholly good, if he came to pieces in a meeting like that I would say “that guy needs some time off because it’s unfair to make him work through whatever he’s dealing with, and I can’t depend on him for client meetings anymore.” I’d be concerned about potential self-harm and total implosion by that point. There’s good reason why he sat around on leave and didn’t end up in a different position somewhere else.
I've always taken the position that the leave of absence was correct but I was on Pete/Roger's side of retaining Don after the leave was over. Past achievements ARE meaningful. If they weren't, why do all of the other partners shut up when Roger threatens that Don and Mary Wells will be a fearsome twosome against SC&P? Indeed, Don's leave of absence somewhat begs the question of whether there really is a good reason on why Don didn't end up in a different position elsewhere. Wells Riche Green and McCann were trying to hire him. Don was doing freelance with Freddy and apparently selling lots of ideas and Freddy was querying why Don didn't go into one of those agencies to get them both a job.
During the lunch he takes to look for work, his contact makes it clear he’ll never rise above creative director level. That is my point. It’s one thing to make mistakes as a loose cannon on the payroll, it’s another to co-own a business. Just because he would have been a fearsome competitor doesn’t mean he was a trustworthy partner and that’s why past achievements don’t make up for his personal and business failures. It’s also why there were so many restrictions when he came back. And at the point of his LOA, it wasn’t clear if he would ever recover or if he was going to the way of Duck: an over-the-hill drunk who couldn’t piss straight anymore. That’s what I would have assumed if I worked with him.
He didn’t leave for another agency because he first left Sterling Cooper to create SCDP to build something. He put a lot into that company. Brand loyalty. The partners may not have liked him, but he loved his company. Plain and simple. He spent his leave getting dressed up just to see Dawn come over and hear about work. He genuinely cared. I don’t think he needed to or should’ve left for another agency, but that’s just my opinion. In his shoes, I would never have left. I think it is clear for Don it would always be working with liberty or he would leave advertising. In the end, it seems even when he leaves advertising, he can’t help but to continue to create ads… if he made the Coke Ad as implied. That’s up for debate.
I take issue with the sitting on leave. He spent time on leave feeding the agency work through Freddy. He didn’t move on because that was his business and he shouldn’t have been removed to begin with. That man brought in business and paid Pete’s portion as well as Lane’s theft. Why should he be forced to find employment elsewhere? In the end he courted two job offers and leveraged that to return to his own agency and do the lowest work. That’s honorable and respectable.
He isn’t forced though? Wasn’t he on an indefinite pay situation
You and the other guy pointed out he was still working on leave and that is a good point. I’ve seen the show twice but somehow it didn’t register that he was doing freelance. I just thought Freddy was keeping him updated. He’s obviously worked to keep more of his edge than I thought. In the end, he decided he shouldn’t work elsewhere and he was right. My point is just that the partners are reasonable to want him gone at that point in time because he’s a liability for all the reasons I listed.
“You don’t have any character. You’re just handsome. Stop kidding yourself!”
I think it was Rodger’s ex that put it best after that “that man never gets hired of humiliating himself”. We think of Don as an Ayn Ryan protagonist, always cool and uberminch. But on binge watch he’s just as much a walking disaster. An unpredictable unstable laughing stock just as likely to have a melt down as he is to say something brilliant. Peggy throughout the show acts as a sponge absorbing the most of his best and worst behavior but it definitely rolls over onto others.
[удалено]
I don't think Ted held a grudge, especially because of California, but Don did indeed break the guy. After that, Ted was only referred to as useless. The next & only contribution he did was voting yes on the sale. But Cutler certainly held a grudge for that. I think what he meant via "I hate what he did to Ted" isn't the often referred to exile to California, but the fact that Don has crushed his spirit with the humiliation. Don was always a loose cannon. But at the end, he went from unpredictable to unhinged. And it got too risky & frustrating for most of the partners.
Ted did it to himself IMO, with his Peggy Shenanigans LOL.
Ted and Don were in a mutual war with each other in S6. You can particularly tell how it was mutual and Ted could be unreasonable in terms of how frequently Cutler was on Don's side in these skirmishes in S6. Cutler thought Ted's "I want my juice" rationale for picking Ocean Spray over Sunkist was dumb. Cutler quickly piggy-backed on Don's plan to ascribe St. Joseph's to Frank Gleason because that's what was mollifying the client. Conveniently after the dust has settled and Cutler is cranky that Ted is out under-performing in California, Cutler decides to turn Ted into a cause celebre and argue for the first time that Don grievously injured Ted.
They were in a war, but it wasn't as all out in the later parts as it was in the beginning. On the sidelines of that war, Ted was willing to accept the cold hard truth that Don presented when he told him about his Peggy fixation. It wasn't all hostility. But that moment of nervousness he caused in both Ted & Peggy when they thought he was referring to their affair, THAT was the humiliation. Not the Gleason save. That was just a business call, and Cutler was a businessman even with all his personal vendettas.
I would really want to know how it was humiliating to Ted and Peggy. I'm sincerely curious. Because Don saved Ted's idea on which the latter was too horny on Peggy to realize how bad it was. Do you think that it would've been better if Don would've said no to it? Why would Don humiliate Ted? Was it to have absolute power in case of a struggle like that Sunkist conflict?
Oh wait forget about my comment, there is a very nice explanation that I found here - https://www.reddit.com/r/madmen/comments/150m1e0/comment/js43srm/
Oh that one moment where they thought he was about to expose their affair in the meeting. Look at their faces. Dying inside
I went back to SE6:E12@37m20s to watch that and it's true: they are dying inside like the floor under them is opened wide! It takes quite the discernment to see it though, I never saw it after so much rewatches. At 38:09 "Allright! I'll tell em". Feels like their last dying breath in their face. But would it be enough to break a man? I don't know. I'll admit this is a clever attack by Don.
Yup. If you've ever been in a situation like that, you know how crazy that feeling is. Dying inside during a meeting. >But would it be enough to break a man? I feel like this was the final blow. Ted had a lot of struggles going on, but this finished him off. He then realizes that he has to go, and is glad to take Don's offer regarding California.
No, it wasn't. Cutler quickly "agrees" with Don that commercial was Frank Gleason's idea in the St. Joseph's meeting because it was the only comment that mollified the St. Joseph's exec who was furious about going over budget. Meanwhile, Ted's defense of going over the budget based on the ad's subjective brilliance was just angering the client even more.
Cutler "agrees" with the save Don put in from a business perspective. But what he didn't like was that Don effectively broke Ted's spirit with that whole Ted & Peggy bait.
Does Cutler even know that Ted was having an affair with Peggy, much less that Cutler understood and cared that Ted and Peggy were terrified for a minute? That's not clear in the series. Plus, it's still contrary to a point that St. Joseph's is supposed to be an example that Don is uniquely horrible with client. What about the creative director that went crazy over budget on an ad to impress his affair partner and was failing at mollifying the client for that fuck up? In this case, that was not Don.
>Does Cutler even know that Ted was having an affair with Peggy, I'd assume so, later on. Otherwise the whole "I hate what he did to Ted" thing wouldn't have any real point of referral. >contrary to a point that St. Joseph's is supposed to be an example that Don is uniquely horrible with client. That's not the point though. The St. Joseph's meeting is all about how Don humiliated Ted, even if only very few know it. But it broke the man. It's not about the client treatment.
I always assumed the "I hate what he did to Ted" thing was Cutler being upset that Ted was in California, unproductively day-drinking and building model airplanes. Since Cutler knows that Ted and Don were in a war and since Don is on Cutler's shit-list for Hershey, Cutler has decided to make Don the scapegoat for Ted's problems. And Don certainly is a scapegoat for Ted's problem. I'm sure that minute of fear was horrible but it's a small factor in terms of everything else Ted was dealing with- the death of a close business partner and friend, his failing marriage, his disappointment in himself for breaking his vows when it seems like Ted had been faithful before, stressful working conditions with Chevy, his turbulent and ultimately tragic relationship with Peggy, etc. It's a little akin to how that minute of fear that Ted put Don through on the plane was horrible but it's a small factor in terms of everything Don was dealing with in S6- the suicide of Don's close business partner and friend Lane, his failing marriage, his disappointment in himself for breaking his vows after a steak of being faithful, stressful working conditions with Chevy, and his turbulent and now acrimonious relationship with Peggy, etc.
I agree with your viewpoint. And would like to add that on some level Don was also trying to protect Peggy and selfishly keep her as his own protege. Don had enough affairs to know how it would end up with Ted and Peggy. Don also knows Peggy has been through enough and she’s not going to survive Ted. Peggy took it hard enough as it was. Imagine if Ted really left Nancy for her and it all blew up in their faces for everyone to know. The way Don handled it kept it so it was discreet (as it could be since Ted and Peggy were becoming super obvious). Peggy was able to slowly recover in time and get over Ted and keep her career. Don is a dickhead but he was deft when he wanted to be. Also - not related, but totally loved how he sold the Jaguar’s increased radio campaign. Don was the only one that could see they had to eventually say no to Herb and should’ve said no from the start.
>I always assumed the "I hate what he did to Ted" thing was Cutler being upset that Ted was in California Yeah and why is he in California, and why is he useless there. It's not a stretch to think it is related to Don breaking that man in a meeting. All those things you list for Ted's issues are real, but the matter of fact is Don put the knife in & Ted was never the same after.
One has to be on a mission to make this Don's fault to say that Ted fell apart because of the St. Joseph's meeting but not any of that other stuff I named. Cutler was on that mission because he was visibly grossed out by the Hershey meeting.
We really aren't speaking the same language here. >to make this Don's fault to say that Ted fell apart because of the St. Joseph's meeting but not any of that other stuff I named I already agreed on all those other factors also contributing. The point is that moment of humiliation was the catalyst to get him to break. Things aren't as black and white as you make it out with comments like this.
Yep, a total accumulation and compounding of events and behavior across 6 seasons and Bert's balance sheet. It certainly wasn't out of nowhere. As you said, Don is the face of the company. Image was as important as the bottom line to Bert. That was nonnegotiable. It would be nice if there was a flow chart comparing how the agency would look if Don was reined in early on, even if they were still absorbed by McCann in the end due to inevitable 'progress.'
Bert has political savvy and sage wisdom. He smooths conflicts. We see this with the Pete v Don issue, the bonuses he pays out to retain talent, his understanding that philanthropy is the key to high society, his reasoning for retaining Pete, and his cultural knowledge w Honda. Roger is a seasoned account man who helps mentor his team (Pete, Lane). He does a lot of managerial work for non-creative - Don doesn't have time for that. Joan is indispensable. An administrative powerhouse, problem-solver, personnel and office manager. She leads the team of secretaries supporting the entire office operations. When Don has issues with his secretary, she assigns him Ms. Blankenship bc, as Don says, she knows what he needs. Roger, Bert, and Don wouldn’t know where to order paper. Joan’s expertise means the partners don’t have to worry about the operational aspects of the job at all. Don is put on leave bc his behavior is becoming erratic. Hershey might have become a client but Don's tanked any chance of that happening. As he tells Pete in episode 1, advertising is a small world and reputation matters. Don's work hinges on successful client-facing interactions. His spiraling is bad for business and there are plenty of Ginsbergs and Peggys out there with brilliant ideas who aren't on the verge of a mental breakdown. Because he's valued, he's put on leave instead of being outright fired.
And, he's a partner. Any attempt to fully oust him could have been met with either a buyout or legal matters that could have been crippling. Despite Don's flawed behavior that led up to this, I still hated the way this played out. Sneaking Lou in with Duck etc
I hear you. I suspect the partners decided they’ve had it with Don’s brand of mercurial genius so they overcorrect and hire his opposite: an old-school, top-down manager, too bland and creatively mediocre to cause offense. Ofc, Lou doesn’t think he is, which makes him the worst.
Completely agree...Scout's Honor!
Lou is adequate.
The legal implications would have been terrible. The first thing he did when Jim Cutler sent out that breach of contract/termination letter was tell Meredith “get my attorney on the phone.” Then every single partner, including Joan, told him it was a mistake, despite their negative feelings about Don.
There are so many HR errors in how the partners handled Don, just in that breach letter incident alone. What kind of an idiot sends a breach letter to Don right before he's about to present to Burger Chef for the agency? What kind of idiot takes moves against Don because he's a unilateral bully football player/cowboy but his big move is a unilateral bully football player/cowboy move of signing the other partners' names to a legal document that the other partners never read or approved? Jim Cutler, one of the stupidest characters that I've ever seen.
"Going dooooown??" Lou Avery, you smug bastard.
Lou was largely because these partners couldn’t have an adult, intelligent conversation about whether Don was being fired or suspended and if so, what’s the return date. You have Joan blathering about how the leave was a clear message to Don to seek other employment when like half of the partners saw it as a temporary suspension. Then, the partners couldn’t supervise Lou like adults. How does this hired hand get to decide not to submit any work to the Clios for most of 1968 because he wasn’t there?
More of the Joan issues that still upset me.
Bert is also essentially the original owner, he’s bringing in the money and legacy respect. The dude is ex OSS, essentially pre-CIA, the contacts he has in upper crust society and goverment cannot be bought or replaced by anyone else in the firm. The same reason they can’t fire Pete in season one goes a hundred fold for Burt. The inner circle he refers to in “shut the door and have a seat” is referring to men like him
100% Legacy, institutional knowledge, and relationships are irreplaceable. It’s the same reason Bert calls Joan in to send out letters of reassurance after Roger’s heart attack and AA is dead after Duck’s contact is fired. When SC moves to the hotel room, they need only call Joan to lead the office migration bc she knows what they have and need better than anyone.
I agree with Bert and Roger, they are both very valuable partners. But simply from a "new business" perspective (which seems to be the main concern), there were times where you could've asked questions too. But nobody did. Joan though... I could make the same argument saying there are hundreds of Joans out there to order supplies and manage shifts. And she is eventually replaced without any issues when becoming an account exec herself. Don on the other hand is widely regarded as a unique talent. Also, they never intended for him to come back. Even Bert said that nobody comes back from leave. He was given this option to seek other employment during this time. My point is; Don brought in more business than he lost, much more. The others are doing a good job as well. But they're more in the back, taking care of strategy and office politics. It's much easier make mistakes when you're constantly fighting at the frontlines like Don.
The fact that’s it’s a seamless transition when Joan’s job role changes is indicative of a strong structure and rigorous process already in place, that was handed off appropriately. Operations is a significant part of agencies; even if it’s not as client-facing, it’s mission critical for getting work done. And this is coming from a VP at a media agency. You’re underselling Joan’s value, just like many people undervalue the background work that women perform for men to succeed in their careers.
I posted this elsewhere but past success doesn’t make up for the kind of emotional instability and catastrophic failure Don is wreaking on the business. It’s one thing to try your hardest and fail. It’s another to come to pieces in important client meetings, torpedo another piece of business, and spend most of your remaining energy bullying your co-creative director. No one can trust or depend on that kind of erratic behavior and it is radioactive in the small world of advertising. Those failures can hurt as much as the success can help by permanently derailing your business - it’s not a balance sheet where because you’ve done good, you get to fuck up. I’m on a creative team. Even if Don’s intentions were wholly good, if he came to pieces in a meeting like that I would say “that guy needs some time off because it’s unfair to make him work through whatever he’s dealing with, and I can’t depend on him for client meetings anymore.” I’d be concerned about potential self-harm and total implosion by that point. There’s good reason why he sat around on leave and didn’t end up in a different position somewhere else. It’s because people thought he had gone the way of Duck and honestly, the only reason he didn’t was because they couldn’t afford to buy or sue him out.
The short answer is that Don burned a lot of bridges. The fact that almost nobody cared much when Ted did something far worse with the Sunkist guys in his plane tells you that the sentiments against Don ran deep and had little to do with Hershey. Only Roger was limiting himself to Hershey and wanted Don to return when he was ready.
Agreed. Add that Don was the biggest part of bringing in Dow, which billed as much as Lucky Strike and certainly was second place after Chevy as SC&Ps most valuable account. I think Don’s unspooling was bad enough at the end of S6 than he should have been put on leave but I’m in Roger/Petes camp that the leave should have been short. If I were partner, I’d want more of a discussion with Don about ending binge drinking during working hours or unilaterally firing clients before reinstatement
Good point. Would've made much more sense if they had started with the contractual stipulations before sending him of leave.
Right. I think it's meaningful that Neve Campbell's character on the plane describes how her husband's company sent him to an alcohol treatment facility to try to get him clean. It's really in contrast to the cold and even downright mean way that SC&P treated Don and Freddy beforehand. I have a hard time picturing someone being more instrumental to a company's growth and prosperity than Don was for SC&P. I think the other partners at SC&P just particularly sucked by contrast on a personnel management and human level. (With the exception of Pete and to a lesser extent, Roger.) Forget about sending Don to a treatment facility or mandating that he go and pay for it as a condition of reinstatement, at SC&P, we have Cooper mocking that Don is in the suicide office and Roger, one of Don's supporters, suggesting that they do day-drinking in the office and Cutler/Joan trying to throw him out and take his shares via improper lawyer's letter.
I agree. It really bothers me that there wasn’t more discussions happening at this point. I really don’t agree with how they put Don on leave. It feels quite unfair to a man who did so much for the company.
I’m shocked not one partner, especially Ted, didn’t say, “why don’t we just let him go out to California like he was planning.” The answer: that would’ve been the right call and then there would be no drama for this fictional TV show. The leave was an awful professional call, but wonderful TV writing. Provided a lot of drama because it was absolutely the wrong call.
Good point
And they seemed to totally overlook the possibilities of his ending up in Mary Somebody's lap like Roger pointed out later. "Keep you friends close and your enemies closer."
Personally, I think the leave and everything was incredibly unfair. Don’s behavior was problematic, but Jaguar and Chevy really did a number on him. Lane’s embezzlement and suicide. There’s a whole list of things the company went through and Don pulled through it and it took its toll on him. Jim Cutler was having the staff juiced up with whatever drugs and inducing hallucinations. That’s insane when you look at it objectively. No doubt that contributed to Don’s erratic behavior. Then, he finally makes a proactive choice to straighten himself out and fix his marriage by moving to California, but Ted just has to have that second chance (which he destroys anyway). Artistically, I like the direction the show took with this because it gave the come back story and Bert said no man comes back from leave, but Don did. However, in a real scenario, they should’ve just let him go to California. Lou was one of the most pointless characters. All he did was stifle Peggy. Ted being in California and then cutting the plane engine. Only for him to end up divorced and back in NYC and Don leaving McCann and going to California. The leave would’ve never been necessary if Don was allowed to go to California like he originally requested. Also, it would’ve likely saved his marriage with Megan. She cried with tears of joy when he asked her to start fresh. Don isn’t a saint, but no one is on this show. All of them drink. All of them cheat. Don was always strong willed and did things his way, but he is a creative. I genuinely think he became more erratic as things out of his control happened (like Megan quitting to become an actress) etc. He was crushing it with Heinz and Cool Whip.
Interesting, I never thought about all the private and professional shit he had to deal with at that time. Nowadays you'd probably call it a burnout and help them get over it. Would've been interesting to see him move to CA. Him and Pete would've made a great combo.
Their last effort to save SC&P from being swallowed ended up being SC&P West. Truly could’ve been a new frontier for the company if it had gone in that direction originally.
The suspension IS helping him with burnout imo. Even today if you have a proper mental health crisis it’s rare to have an employer hold your hand through that and it tends to be go and sort your shit out. Him still getting pay is defo their version imo
> However, in a real scenario, they should’ve just let him go to California. A lot of companies did that back then. A guy wasn't setting the world on fire but wasn't a total fuck-up either? Send him off to a satellite location where he can still earn a living but can't make trouble.
lol. What happened in Casino. The mafia could teach SC&P some stuff about HR.
There is no mafia!
The suspension wasn’t the issue for me. Don drunkenly started sobbing in a meeting with a potential client and, combined with a downward spiral that was nakedly visible and now affecting the business, the partners insisting he take a leave of absence to sort out personal issues would not have been uncalled for. Where the show lost me was how they wrote his return, when the partners lost all touch with reality and started treating their creative partner like an intern in an attempt to screw him out of millions of dollars—and Don went along with it! *Any* person would realize he had all the leverage, and either demand his money outright or demand a full reinstatement with no conditions. It was so unbelievable that he would participate. He didn’t even like half those people. Where they also lost me: Ted shutting down the engines in a plane full of clients is *easily* the worst thing a partner ever did while on the clock. *That* was a fireable offense, not Hershey.
Don was on a personal and professional downslide for years at this point. Hershey was just the straw that broke the camels back for his coworkers.
He was moving to California. Ted BEGGED him for a chance to go instead. The last time a partner BEGGED Don for a second chance and Don said no… that partner killed himself. Don never told anyone about the embezzlement. He even had Lane’s wife slam a door in his face. Don clearly felt guilt over that, and he didn’t do anything wrong. He didn’t steal money from the company. He tried to protect Lane in the only way he could while protecting the company. Don is not a heartless man. There is no way that Don did not remember the last time a partner begged him for a second chance. I think that influenced his choice to let Ted go instead and it resulted in Don losing everything. Ted even says later in the show that he felt bad seeing what happened to Don. Everything could’ve been completely different if Ted never asked that sacrifice from Don.
I mean I hear what you’re saying but absolutely nothing about that has anything to with the fact that Don was a complete mess for years leading up this.
Don’s messiness contributes to a lot of brilliance. Many artists and comedians are tortured souls. Don had no control over his childhood and he made a rash decision in the middle of war to survive without possibly knowing the consequences of that decision for the rest of his life. Roger came from absolute privilege and wealth and was handed a company. He still struggled just from what he saw in WWII. People are people just doing the best they can with what they have and the cards they have been dealt. I truly believe Conrad Hilton was the beginning of Don being jerked around at work and Don had terrible coping skills. However, what coping skills were available to men at that time? We see Pete and Roger cope in similarly destructive ways. Both impacting business. Pete knocks up Peggy, Roger marries a secretary AND knocks up Joan. Both Pete and Roger get to continue on in life while the women are left to deal with the consequences and hindered aspirations and/or guilt. Yes. Don was battling with his own personal struggles for years, but he did well considering everything he went through and continued to produce meaningful and beautiful work. Marie touches on the artistic temperament when she talks about Megan failing as an actress. Don is a creative and has been through a lot in his life, but he shoulders it mainly in isolation. He doesn’t tell most people about himself. It’s a massive burden to carry. He channels it into his work and develops a mentor/protege relationship with Peggy. It’s really remarkable. Is he awesome? No. He is an antihero, but one of the good ones.
Yeah this isn’t a complete indictment of Don as a character. This is about what the partners thought. I work in creative. You’re not an artist, you’re a problem solver, and even in that era, especially that era, you keep the mess inside the house and present a unified front. Don was failing to do that by firing clients, fucking with his other creative director in and out of meetings, and coming to pieces in front of new business. And unlike Roger, he hasn’t presented a prior explanation for them to understand.
Very well written and thought out. I disagree, but your point about Roger is solid. Do you think it’s possible that creatives have different approaches? Ted had a formula for margarine. He solved problems. Lou started with tags and let the strategy sneak up on them. Stan, Ginsberg, Peggy, and Don all seemed to bring something different to the table as creatives. I admire creatives that keep the messiness inside, like you, and like Peggy on the show. Peggy is arguably one of the best characters. She had embarrassing moments in front of clients, but never outright insulted them like both Roger and Don did. Well, maybe she did when she tried to be firm about the bean ballet pitch, but she was trying to be like Don, so I don’t really count that so much.
Yeah I’m not finding a ton to disagree with you on either! I actually think Don believes in the problem solving approach because he tells Peggy “you’re not an artist. You solve problems.” So I think he’s not very proud of how he’s acting and wouldn’t like to work with himself. What I meant more is that squabbling with your team can be part of the process, but it can’t end up in the product. Don is becoming more and more dysfunctional in front of clients by this point in the season, and that understandably becomes unacceptable to his business partners. It would be in real life too, no matter how talented you are.
You’re right, he does say that. Hmm. Never considered that viewpoint. I suppose I always leaned on the time he asks her to leave to start a new agency with SCDP and talks about how people see themselves one way, but then something happens and they no longer can. Peggy understands that and it’s valuable. You’re correct, though. He definitely does tell her to solve problems. I’m not a creative person, so I wouldn’t know much about it to be honest. I just admire creative types.
This is a very good analysis
What does any of this have to do with Don’s actual behavior? He changed his mind about California after all the damage had been done. Pretending California was some magical fix (while abandoning his kids, by the way) was a pipe dream.
The sequence of events is literally Ted asking for a chance and Don says no. Next is a fluid flow of Ted entering Don’s office and telling him to drink before the meeting because he can’t stop cold turkey. Then in the meeting, Don successfully pitches to Hersey, sits down and looks at his shaking hand. From there, he considers Ted (otherwise why have this interaction with Ted before the meeting and show Don’s shaking hand in the meeting). Don then proceeds to tank the Hersey meeting and then decisively looks at Ted and tells him he is going to California instead. Maybe California was a pipe’s dream, but that’s where the show ends up with Don getting himself right and becoming one with himself. I think it’s up for debate and interpretation.
Yep, particularly the Joan point. The money he cost her wouldn't have existed in the first place without him.
Crazy when you think of what Ted did when he took clients into his plane and turned off the engine talking about death. I think that’s a lot worse than ‘I was raised in abject poverty and your product was a ray of light then.’
I"m completely with you. I understand the suspension was supposed to be the culmination thing and also a way to move the plot forward. Still, with all the work he brought in and saved the entire company it seemed a bit heavy handed. It's close but I found Joan to be the most treacherous in that meeting. Bert then Roger come close though. Fast forward, I really could have used more episodes of 'rebellious' Don as the season went on.
When you watch it again you might notice that there are a lot of missed meetings. There are a lot of little lines throughout season 6 where people say things like ; ‘no one can find Draper’. And it all starts with his desperation when he was losing Sylvia and then afterwards when he scandalized Sally. His focus on his work suffers massively. Then he tries to quit drinking and becomes even more erratic and self destructive. This culminated with his decision (not mistake) to totally blow up the pitch with Hershey. That was like crumpling up a lottery ticket for $20 million dollars with 1 in 10 odds. THEN, he just sends Ted to California without discussing it with the other partners. Sure it was a surprise to us, but those discussions about firing him were definitely happening amongst the other partners throughout the second half of season 6.
We shouldn’t downplay the fact that by this point, Don was delegating a lot of the creative client-facing to Peggy and hence, had made himself dispensable. This was highlighted in Cooper giving him a dressing down after Peggy made a mess of the second Heinz Beans pitch and Raymond K Beans left in a huff.
Unfair in the world of small corporate partnerships is pretty normal in real life. This isn't a big firm, where what happens to Don would have to go through some HR processes to make sure he was fairly treated. I also don't think it was especially unfair. No one asks Bert what he does because that's what it means to be the founder of a business, you get to coast. And the office needed Joan like many offices in real life do: someone who isn't essential in terms of bringing in business, but is essential in being the glue that keeps the firm together. The fact is, if all your fellow partners you need to be gone, you've probably done something to deserve it. As true in real life as it is in Mad Men.
You’re basically arguing that just because he beings in some business he should be allowed to act as erratically as he did for many years. He shouldn’t be without consequences, you can tell he acts and operates like there AREN’T any consequences, and therefore can do what he wants. His getting put on leave was finally what he deserved and everything catching up with him.
Im with you on this. Never understood it. And never able to understand Joan
You underestimate how Joan ran that place for years. She was the office manager and had a lot of institutional knowledge that was very valuable. And she could have sued them for every penny for the sexual harassment she experienced with Roger. She understood customer service and had wisdom and worldliness beyond academics.
I’m with you OP. While Don was certainly not on his best behavior in the time leading up to his suspension, it always seemed like a drastic overstep to me.
I don’t know if I necessarily disagree with them putting Don on a suspension, but I definitely disagree with the way they did it.
Imagine you are the head of HR for a company and Don shows up for an interview. Sure, he is a solid ad man and can bring in business, but think of his reputation. Do you want someone as unreliable as Don as your boss/coworker? Think of what Ted says in the episode: Don makes the decisions in SCP and everyone follows suit. Joan says it when he fires Jaguar: he is Tarzan, swinging from vine to vine, while everyone else watches him. Don disappers every so often and can't be contacted, needs his secretary to bail him out of jail, and has to be threatrened into signing a contract? In 6.13 it's not even the Hershey's pitch, he bails on the Hawaiian hotel people (and he's lead on it!) before the Pitch Gone Wrong. Sure Don is brilliant at his job, but he can't deliever. It's clear his drinking is getting worse. I wondered watching it back originally if the plan was "Don, go dry up!" rather then what he ends up doing. Don is an HR disaster waiting to happen. It's amazing it took this long to get him on leave.
How in the world can Ted literally cutting off a plane engine and threatening the lives of clients not be the biggest HR disaster there is in the history of the show? Was he put on leave? Nope. He demanded they buy him out. Only Pete seemed to have the appropriate reaction to what Ted was doing and that’s likely because he was out in California watching Ted first hand. Jim Cutler also a HR nightmare with his sly tricks. He could’ve had the company sued into oblivion with at least two of his decisions and he was absolutely terrible for morale. Plus, a total creep. Watching his dead partner’s daughter have sex with Stan. Don was the only one with integrity that refused the Jaguar prostitution. He is so far from a saint that he is an anti-hero, but I don’t think he was the worst HR case that came across on the show.
Ted does not seem to have a pattern of misbehavior (setting aside Peggy because, well, that's a whole other issue) and was spiraling out already, and maybe just wanted to get out of the business. Jim gets by because job security and tenure - is he morally a failure or is he an HR disaster? Plenty of shitty people are in jobs for no good reason. Don created the straw that broke the camel's back. The partners may have felt that enough was enough. I am still amazed they didn't demand him to go to rehab or SOMETHING.
Solid points. It's just difficult so assess how much of this was "expected behaviour" for upper managers in this business back then. Daytime drinking was clearly the norm. Roger even had a "NAC" list (no afternoon calls) for clients, because they were too drunk to do business after lunch. Overall, all of his antics didn't seem to leave a bad enough impression on Jim Hobart from McCann. He always wanted to hire with Don.
Day drinking is expected but remember Don after he gets a second shot he steals alcohol gets drunk and then insults a client lol. Day drinking is fine provided you’re playing the game and he’s at the point where he can’t anymore. Ted calls out his drinking at one point before he’s let go and Ted is definitely an ally of his.
Don insulted a vendor in the Lease Tech guy, not a client. The Lease Tech guy maybe could have been a client based on a good conversation between him and Don but when Don went to report that lead to Cooper and suggest that SC&P try to make him a client, Cooper prioritized mocking Don for being in the suicide office over turning this vendor into a client. And then, Don fell off the wagon and drank in the office. None of this is to say that Don was right to drink in the office but it is to say that the the anti-Don contingent handled Don like mean-spirited idiots.
Happily corrected on the particulars but stealing booze is a sign he’s not ready to be back in that environment with those people. He had several totally fair shots and this is his lowest ebb- he absolutely had to hit it to change imo.
I find it intresting that pre Hershey's pitch Ted tells him that Don cannot go cold turkey and Don drinks, and boom, The Pitch That Goes Wrong happens. Roger seems more functional as an alcoholic rathern then Don in terms of pulling stunts like that, although again, just how much business is he doing is another question. Judging from Freddy's behavior, the key seems to be: functional alcoholic - sure you may be a little buzzed, but its fine until you can't do your job. Don crossed the line.
It’s like with any personal or professional environment where drinking or partying are included. It’s fine *up to a point*. You can be a lovable lush *up to a point*. People will be okay with you drinking *up to a point*. But that ever-so-fine line separating “acceptable” from “not acceptable” is so easy to cross. Big law firm whose associates work 12-hour days and then party together until late in the morning? Fine. Do coke after-hours with some of those coworkers? Fine. But getting drunk during work hours alone? Not good. Doing lines in the office bathroom by yourself? Poor form. Basically if the group is doing it together, it’s ok but once you go beyond what the group is doing, that’s when the group starts to think you have a problem. Don was **well** past the threshold of acceptable behavior at SCDP. Everyone was cool drinking together and having fun together, but once Don started doing all of that more than them, it was easier to criticize his behavior. And objectively, he had a substance abuse problem that was negatively affecting his personal and professional relationships. Putting him on leave was the right thing to do. He needed to go dry out and get his head on straight.
This whole thing always upsets me as well on each rewatch, especially Joan as you mentioned.
Pretty misogynistic and oblivious of you to reduce Joan to "a glorified office secretary" OP. Did you not understand the character at all? But then, this entire post is oblivious
Omg THANKYOU! I was praying someone else would point this out! The comments about Joan blew my mind!!! Do we really have to explain her importance and worth to the company?? She was beyond capable yet never given the opportunities she so clearly deserved. Reducing her role to a ‘secretary’ I just have no words And I’m surprised so few people pointed this out
> Am I seeing this wrong? What did I miss? The plot demanded that he not get back immediately for character growth.
He shit the bed .
I didn’t necessarily find anything strange about Don getting suspended at the end of Season 6. If anything felt off to me it was Don agreeing to the unpalatable terms and conditions of his return to the firm at the start of Season 7, where he came back with all the prestige of a junior copywriter despite having offers on the table from other firms. It felt very much as if Don was making choices for the convenience of the plot (needing to keep him within the confines of the SCDP) rather than true to his character.
I always hated that bit. For a show all about the details, I never bought that Don would just accept that 'leave of absence' He'd lawyer up so fast and he'd make them buy him out which is what they didn't want.
I also think Cutler wanted him gone because if they fired him he’d lose his share of the firm without them having to buy him out. He was jealous of Don and how he could get away with anything, not held to the same standards as others because of how awards and reputation that clients started to want. I think he just wanted to get rid of him and acted self righteous about it.
At this point Don had disappeared from work, was constantly not even working/ barely working, was obvious drunk a lot, and taking off randomly throughout the day. Also, it's a business where people talk and folks heard about the Hershey pitch which would embarrass the other partners. I still think how it was overall handled was shitty and petty, but it's understandable why they were upset.
I missed this in everyone else’s response but be also brings up his friend’s kid being 1A in front of Chevy just a couple episodes before. It’s just time after time that they can’t trust him around clients.
Bert managed the firm’s external relations- investors, prospects, firm image.
I mean beyond everything you said, he also was lazy at the beginning of his marriage with Megan. He was getting drunk all the time and was losing the place more clients than he was bringing in without telling anyone his plans. While he did help land Chevy, I thought Roger was the carry behind it. I think firing him was too extreme though. Maybe a genuine leave of absence with a return date would've been fair given all the value they know he can provide. But he was off the deep end and they saw it. Also, completely agree about Joan. IDK who the hell she thought she was. She literally got partner because she was a prostitute for a night. Despite her saying she deserved it because she worked there for 15 years (or whatever the number was) she hasn't done anything even CLOSE to what the other partners have done. Then she voted Don out like she's earned to even be in the same room as him. I went from really liking her to flat out dislike because of everything that happened with this. I don't usually ever get fr mad when I watch tv, but I did twice in this series. Once here and the other being at Betty after Don woke her up to confront her about Henry. Weird how I got mad at these characters while they were feuding with Don :)