Mad Men

Don agreeing to SC&P's stipulations was personal growth, not some scheme. He learned something about honesty with his daughter and then with Megan. He's putting his ego aside to become better. He may know that eventually Lou will be gone and he'll be back in charge, but he's accepting the hole he dug.

Both sides also didn't really have much of a choice. They can't fire him unless they buy out his contract and free him from his noncompete. He can't quit because it won't let him work elsewhere. They have a win win. They put the chains on him and he either breaks contract by drinking or something and gives up all his shares, or he plays by their rules and they get the benefit of Don but none of the drawbacks. His only hope is if he actually HAS changed and manages to keep the agreement.

I was also surprised at Peggy and bigred's reaction to Don. Seemed forced.

I really don't see Don being comfortable working for a guy like Lou, regardless of his personal growth. I do not believe that Don would have agreed had Don not had some kind of idea that the situation with Lou would be temporary. And the pitch stuff, too. Some of Don's best stuff was off the cuff, although I imagine he understands he has to earn that privilege back. The drinking stuff is a no brainer.

The one thing I didn't understand was the threat of "reabsorption of shares" if he breaks their stipulations. Does that basically mean they can toss him out without paying him? Those are some pretty strict rules he's under, and I could easily see friction with Lou leading to a breach.

Yeah, that's what it means. They told him that if he fucks up even once then

See, that has to be a trap and surely Don realizes it. The season could just as easily end with Don being thrown out of SC&P for good if so.

We got three episodes into the season before the reemergence of Betty and her constant "what about me and my problems" routine. Am I the only one that had not been missing her at all?

Royal_sl said:

We got three episodes into the season before the reemergence of Betty and her constant "what about me and my problems" routine. Am I the only one that had not been missing her at all?

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I hope her husband divorces her and somehow gets custody of the children

Yeah, those stipulations are sort of in that TV-drama grey area between a Gentlemens Agreement and a legal contract. All in all though, it's kinda dicey. And I think a few things. Don just really wants to work, he wants to work enough that he's willing to take that deal. Don is Don, and he think he can earn back his place at the table (which he probably could). If they give him 6 months he can re-establish himself on the quality of his work and the quality of his "I promise to not be a womanizing alcoholic powermonger" personality.

I dunno. Don has sort of accepted that going forward he has to be a team player. He expects that Roger will sort of have his back enough to at least give him the chance to prove that he can be. The Dweeb may or may not torpedo the fuck out of Don. Joan may or may not torpedo the fuck out of Don. Old man Cooper really only cares about the money and has been very consistent in that througout all the seasons. Pete won't torpedo Don and neither will Ted. So really he has to make good with Joan and The Dweeb. In the immortal words of the late Jon Luvitz, master thespian, "That's... DRAMA!"

No, wait. "Thats... ACTING!"

I kinda wonder if we'll get a big betty arc. They don't really need to do it. They did a very good job this past episode of showing exactly what Betty is very firmly on the road to becoming. Fuckin Pete's mom. I mean, she needs more scenes in order to give that a satisfying conclusion, but she doesn't need some big betty arc to do it.

Heylel_sl said:

The one thing I didn't understand was the threat of "reabsorption of shares" if he breaks their stipulations. Does that basically mean they can toss him out without paying him? Those are some pretty strict rules he's under, and I could easily see friction with Lou leading to a breach.

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This is why I really didn't get it; Don had a huge amount of power. They had to pay him JUST so he wouldn't compete with them. They know a big portion of their "loyal" clients would jump ship to go where Don was working. He didn't even use that though to get some wiggle room in his new contract, it was like they fired one shot across his bow and they got an unconditional surrender.

This whole signing away of his rights feels like a narrative piece of BS to get him to a low point for the mid season finale, and I'm going to be really annoyed with the show if that's case. I agree Don capitulatingsomeof of his powers to be a "team player", and put his ego aside, would have been personal growth; but there are limits to where that's believable. The sheer amount of capitulations required of him and the severity of consequences he accepted just pushed it from the realm of believable character growth, to really ham fisted plot element. (I guess we'll see; but if Don winds up with nothing but his boot straps, and his friends, during the mid season finale I'll be rolling my eyes.)

On another note though; rewatching these episodes with the wife this time, I'm really noticing all of Cutler's maneuverings. He's really attempting to be king of that company and Don coming back will uneven the sides a great deal. The computer Dweeb is essentially a dumber version of Cooper. He is willing to accept blind mediocrity if he gets to be in charge and that seems to be his goal. He knows he'll never be any exceptional, so he wants to drag everyone down just enough so he sits a little higher (But all while staying just good enough to turn a profit.)

Yeah, I'd agree with that.

But on the other hand you have to give them some room for creative liberty. The deal would be more like "you get significantly less" than "you get nothing". But to explain exactly how much less he'd get they'd have to devote at least one crazy boring scene of don sitting with a lawyer going over financials -- so it's sort of easier for them to say, "You get nothing!" It also helps the story to flow better even though it's a bit hard to swallow.

Hopefully they aren't pushing him down just to build him back up again. That's cheap, and beneath the writers of this show. Even though they sort of have done exactly that for the past 2 seasons. Being the final season they can't even sort of do that.

He's still got Freddy. Maybe Don has hatched a plan to burn SCPD to the fucking ground and take over the agency that he was interviewing with. That would be lols.

Iannis_sl said:

Pete won't torpedo Don and neither will Ted.

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I guess it's too much to hope that Pete could have enough Tywin Lannister in him to quietly torpedo Don without him knowing it just to lure him out west and set up their own shop.

Yeah, it is too much to hope.

It makes you think though, doesn't it? He could have said no without giving up any bargaining power and forced a buyout that, according to Roger, was roughly equal to four years operating profit. That's a lot of money for a high powered NYC ad agency, and Don is already very well situated. He could have taken the payout and gone to California with his wife (remember when California was his escape?), and literally done anything he wanted.

When you stop and think about it, this really was Don capitulating more than any sort of character growth.

Lithose_sl said:

This whole signing away of his rights feels like a narrative piece of BS to get him to a low point for the mid season finale, and I'm going to be really annoyed with the show if that's case. I agree Don capitulatingsomeof of his powers to be a "team player", and put his ego aside, would have been personal growth; but there are limits to where that's believable. The sheer amount of capitulations required of him and the severity of consequences he accepted just pushed it from the realm of believable character growth, to really ham fisted plot element. (I guess we'll see; but if Don winds up with nothing but his boot straps, and his friends, during the mid season finale I'll be rolling my eyes.)

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Don seemed pretty desperate to get back to work. I mean, the guy was giving away part of his paycheck just so he could continue to pitch ideas. He might not see these stipulations as being big sacrifices for him to make. He was already trying to give up drinking under his own volition. Being alone with clients likely isn't a big deal, since he'd usually have an account manager with him anyways. And, sticking to the script in meetings is something he'll likely have no trouble working around since nothing says he can't have Peggy or one of her lemmings push his ideas.

The biggest sacrifice will be working under Lou, which Don might not even realize at this point. He hasn't interacted with Lou enough to know what his work ethic is like and that he's content with "good enough." Don may be trying to be a better person and going through personal growth, but having respect for the work is intrinsic to who he is. It's inevitable they butt heads considering their differences of how they approach things, and that's likely to cause rifts within the company. (Peggy may be pissed at Don now, but I'm sure she'll quickly fall behind him since she has a similar desire for quality.)

Or Don might just not view Lou as being much of a threat. Don has, after all, pretty much been running the company for the past several years and gotten around people in higher positions than Lou before. Not to mention, it probably won't take long for Don's work to start reinforcing his importance to SC&P, and the higher his stake in the company becomes, the lower Lou's does.

i was hoping don would say fuck off, just gimme my monthly salary and i will see you all in hell.

then he goes off to LA, divorces gap tooth, bangs the gay agent so hard he gives him every leading man role, bangs every hot model in california, changes his name to Ronald Reagan, runs for President, and orders the CIA to assassinate everyone at SCP except Roger