- Betty has hallucinations of her deceased father as she delivers her baby, Peter considers trying to sell the untapped "Negro market" to a reluctant client, and Peggy begins to question her future at Sterling Cooper.
- Betty goes into labor just as Don arrives home from work. At the hospital, she has a strange dream while in a drug induced semi-consciousness and he spends a night in the waiting room chatting with another expectant father. At the office Lane Pryce is worried about expense account spending and the excessive use of office supplies. Don walks out of the meeting and later tries to get him to focus on the bigger picture. Duck Phillips re-appears and is trying to recruit two of Sterling Coopers finest to join him at his new ad agency. Peggy approaches Don about a raise but in the current cost-cutting climate, doesn't get much encouragement. Pete Campbell, still unhappy about sharing his duties, is dealing with the Admiral TV account. Their sales are down but in looking at the demographics, finds they may have a market that is not reaching its full potential. His idea falls flat with both Admiral and his bosses but Lane Pryce thinks he may be onto something.—garykmcd
- Sally has been acting up in school because of grieving for her Grandfather, Gene. Sally's teacher, who has a conference with Don and Betty, is over-sensitive to the reason behind Sally's behavior. Sally isn't the only person who misses her grandpa. Meanwhile, Betty goes into labor. Out in the waiting room, Don has a philosophical chat with new expectant father, Dennis Hobart, a prison guard by profession, about family life. Betty, under sedation, dreams about her lot in life with Don. At Sterling Cooper, Lane is scrutinizing the executives expenses accounts, especially what he sees as over use of office supplies. This penny-pinching irks Don. With Sterling Cooper in this financial situation, it is not a good time for Peggy to ask for a raise. Pete is also feeling under-appreciated with, in his mind, the short stick of the accounts distribution versus Ken. So he makes a controversial decision on one of his accounts, Admiral Television. Peggy and Pete have other considerations, specifically in discussions with Duck Phillips. The events at Sterling Cooper over their respective situations may sway their decisions.—Huggo
- "Mad Men" - "The Fog" - September 13, 2009
The Drapers meet with Sally's teacher because she got into a scrape with a "bruiser" girl at school. The teacher asks about changes at home. Betty explains about her dad dying. In the midst of the discussion Betty excuses herself to go to the bathroom. The teacher explains to Don that Sally is grieving and the special pain of losing someone at that age and doesn't know if Don can understand. He says he can. Betty comes back and the teacher say it can wait. Betty is glad because she wants to put it behind them so that everything can be perfect.
Don enters a meeting and Lane is going over their expenses from their Baltimore trip and then complains about office supplies and disappearing credenzas. Don leaves the meeting.
Kinsey blathers about Marx to Pete who is struggling with Admiral TV account and griping that Ken got all the good clients. He notices that while overall Admiral is flat there are upticks in urban area, great jazz cities, Kinsey calls them. They realize this means black people are buying Admirals. Harry enters and agrees. Cosgrove comes in with Mets tickets and he and Kinsey take off.
Don is dictating as Lane enters. He nickels and dimes Don and Don tells him that they have to let the creatives be unproductive until they are. Don says if he wants to make money he needs to start getting his nails dirty with Bert and Harry.
Pete is looking over some maps. He gets a call from his Uncle Herman. It turns out it's actually Duck Phillips calling to invite him to lunch and tells him he won't waste his time.
The phone is ringing as Don enters. The house appears empty. It's Suzanne Farrell Sally's teacher. She's calling to apologize for the meeting. She's having a drink while she talks. He wonders why she's apologizing. She says her father died when she was 8 and she might have over done it relating to Sally and didn't mean to upset Betty. She says she doesn't know why she's calling and embarrassing herself. He smiles and says she's fine. Betty calls him, it's time to go to the hospital. She asks who was on the phone, he says no one.
Don gets Betty to the hospital and into a wheelchair and the nurse sends him off to the solarium saying his job's done. As she's wheeled to the door she sees a janitor and thinks it's her dad. She fills out her paperwork but has trouble with the pen. The nurse takes the clipboard and fills out the paperwork. She's having contractions and she says her water never breaks.
Don waits in the waiting room with another man, Hobart, whose baby is coming breach and he's freaking out a bit. He tries to chat up Don and shows him a bottle, Don offers to drink with him. The guy has been there all day. He works at a prison. He asks if Don's done it before. Twice. He says he never thought to bring a bottle. Don says his daughter took forever. Hobart asks if he throws the ball around with his son. Don says not enough. Don comes across a car ad in a magazine and pulls it out.
Back in her room Betty is getting ready for the baby: a shave and an enema. She overhears another woman screaming.
Don and Hobart chat. He works in a prison. He recalls a time when the prison team played the Yankees. Don jokes everyone was in stripes. Hobart observes he has to be careful with his child since he knows every one of the animals in prison would blame their mom and dad. for the way their lives tured out.
Betty is getting stuck painfully by nurse, she wonders where Dr. Aldrich is. The nurse assures her that the man on call, Dr. Mandelewitz, is the top man. Betty doesn't want another doctor she wants her own doctor. The nurse explains once the drugs start working Betty will go into a familiar twilight. Betty soon starts going into a weird hallucination. She's walking down a suburban tree-lined street in a pretty dress on a lovely afternoon. She catches a caterpillar in her hand.
Don and the other guy are rocking the cigarette machine at he hospital. They both have one after they shake out a pack. Hobart is getting emotional, worried that something might happen to his wife and then what would he do with the baby, and how could he love it. Don says our worst fears lie in anticipation. The guy wonders if Don is sure.
Betty is struggling with the nurse, calling the nurse a bitch, wondering where Don is, saying he's never where you expect him to be. She asks to call him. She says "I'm just a housewife why are you doing this to me?" And then the Demerol kicks in.
The nurse comes in to tell Mr. Hobart that he has a little baby boy and that both mom and baby will be fine after some complications. (The nurse is played by Yeardley Smith the voice of Lisa Simpson). He gets up and is excited. Don congratulates him. Hobart tells him he's alright and that his baby is going to be good too. He tells Don that he can tell he's an honest guy. He wonders why the women in their lives put up with them since they don't deserve it. He says he doesn't know who's up there -meaning God- but he says it's a fresh start and pledges to be a better man. He asks Don if he heard him. Don says he did.
Betty for some reason is fighting the urge to bear down. She says she can't do it. She drifts of again and imagines herself walking down the hospital hallway in her johnny. Then she is in a housedress in the kitchen. She sees her dad again mopping the floor, this time in her kitchen. He says he doesn't know her. He turns around, he says he misses her but he had to go. She asks if she's dying. He says to ask her mother. Her mother is at the table with a black man. She tells Betty to shut her mouth or she'll catch flies. Betty says she left her lunch pail on the bus and she's having a baby. Her dad says she's a housecat, that she's very important and she has little to do. The scene changes and she wakes up in a private room, drained and still a little sweaty, holding her baby. She says she's beautiful. Don informs her it's a boy. She tells him he looks terrible. He asks how she feels. She says she has to put her face on. She says Gene softly as she looks at the baby. She wants to call him Eugene. Don says they don't have to decide on a name right now. She looks at the baby again and calls him Gene.
Don goes to the office. It's full of baby stuff. The phone rings as he enters, it's Roger. He asks for Don to get back to work since the art dept. is anxiously awaiting his approval on some things. He says he was gone half a day. Roger calls Lane a tick and says he'll see him at the traffic meeting.
Pete is surprised when he arrives for his lunch with Duck Phillips to see that Peggy is also there. He's offering them both jobs. (He says he realized that they had a secret relationship, that they engineered Freddy Rumson's demise so Peggy could move up). He says at Grey they'll be sitting on velvet pillows and showered with riches. Pete says no. Peggy wonders if they have to go together. Pete says if Duck wants to woo him he needs to buy Pete his own lunch. Peggy thinks she should leave too. Duck says why, she's so talented she should strike while the iron is hot. She wonders what that means. He says she's a freewheeling career gal with great ideas and that this is her time.
Back at the office Pete asks Hollis the elevator operator about what type of TV he has. He has an RCA. He wonders why he doesn't have an Admiral since so many other Negroes seem to be buying them. Hollis says black people have more to worry about besides TV. Hollis doesn't want to get in trouble but Pete says he's really just trying to have an honest conversation. Hollis says he barely watches TV anyway. Pete doesn't believe Hollis doesn't watch baseball. Hollis laughs a conciliatory laugh but still doesn't give up any Negro-TV-buying intel.
The next day the kids wave up at Betty and the baby through the hospital window.
Later, Don tries to make some late night grub. Sally comes down to join him for a snack. She didn't know he could cook. He says Mommy's much better. They banter about eggs and chickens. She wonders if the baby's going to live in Grandpa Gene's room. Don says it's not Grandpa Gene's room it's the baby's room. Sally says she thought the baby was going to be a girl. He says he thought she was going to be a boy so not all surprises are bad. Don tells her everything's going to be fine. Sally says that's what Mrs. Farrell said. So it must be true, says Don.
On his way to pick up Betty Don sees Hobart wheeling out his wife. For some reason Hobart shines him as Don tries to smile at him.
Pete and Kinsey take a meeting with Admiral execs. They lay out a plan in which the company takes out ads in black magazines like Ebony and Jet and urban newspapers. It would be pennies on the dollar on white-owned ad space and even a small increase in the Negro market would be like a doubling of a white market. The Admiral dudes are intrigued by the idea of white ads and Negro ads. Pete suggests doing integrated ads. One of the Admiral guys thinks that's illegal. Pete assures them it's not. The other executive says the conversation's not worth having and saysmaybe blacks are buying because they think Admiral is what whites want.
Peggy comes to Don's office with a baby gift. She says she knows he probably got a lot of clothes but not to return them because as the baby of her family she knows they never get anything new. She says she wants to talk to him about something serious and then essentially asks for a raise. She points out a newspaper article in which it says a law was passed in which women are supposedly supposed to be compensated the same as men for the same work. She says she does the same job as Paul Kinsey and often better. Don says it's not a good time. She says it's not a good time for her either. He says it's not going to happen, he's fighting for paperclips with Lane. She fingers the baby booty on her gift and says the third time must be old hat. He hands her a drink and says she's going to be fine. She says she looks at him and thinks she wants what he has: everything, and so much of it. He says he supposes that's true. He asks what she wants him to say. She says she was pretty clear. He asks if she's seen what's gone on at SC over the last six months. She puts down the drink and goes to leave and turns and asks, what if this is my time?
Pete sees her leaving Don's office. He asks if she said anything. She says it's none of his business. He says for her it might make sense to let them know and start a bidding war but he's in a precarious position since he's already sharing his job with Cosgrove. She says it's her decision. He says her decisions affect him. She walks away.
Pete gets called on the carpet by Lane, Bert, and Roger about the Admiral account. They don't want anything to do with the Negro market and Pete should've been sensitive to that. After they're done yelling at him Lane thinks they should pursue the Negro market with somebody since money is there to be made. Bert says they'll look into it.
Betty and Don come home with the baby. Francine is there and takes the baby as they sit in the living room. Francine says the fridge is full of goodies. She can't believe she's letting Carla go. Betty says Carla needed to be with her family and she can manage. Don offers to get her a bite. Bobby introduces himself to his baby brother.
Later that night, the baby begins to cry. Betty rises and walks down the hall. She pauses before she gets to the room, the baby continues to cry, she continues on.
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