Mad Men 4x11

Lucky Strike, from the start, was the account on which our Mad Ad Men could count to remain financially solvent. Now American Tobacco wants to consolidate their business and take it elsewhere. Through the grapevine Ken hears about it from someone gloating that their firm is getting Lucky Strike. Ken calls Pete, Pete calls Don, Don calls Bert, Bert calls Roger. That same evening, Bert Cooper, Don Draper, Pete Campbell and Ken Cosgrove ambush Roger Sterling in his office about Lucky Strike, the sole account he had to look after. Losing it may financially ruin their firm. Roger feigns surprise and fakes a call to Lee Garner Jr., with his thumb on the receiver, acting shocked. He offers to fly to North Carolina to convince the board to change their minds. The next day, Roger continues the charade calling in to inform his partners it’s useless, the board has already made their decision, all the while sitting in a hotel room downtown.

Meanwhile, Peggy returns from a weekend on the beach with her hip friends. She takes Abe home and they make love. The next morning, she convinces him to stay awhile longer and they get it on again. When she comes into work late, the office is in a state of nervous energy. Don ensured their employees that nothing will change, that this is going to be an exhilarating challenge. No one knows how serious the loss of Lucky Strike is until Lane Pryce returns from London. Privately Don tells Peggy he’s counting on her. She has to give a Playtex presentation tomorrow, and with her amorous encounter fresh in her mind, she changes the course of the commercial to a more sensuous approach – how Playtex gloves preserve a woman’s hands for the things she really wants to touch. Then Abe arrives, pretending to be a delivery boy, and they have a go at it again in her office. Roger calls Joan from his hotel room, desperate, confiding like a little boy who confesses to his mommy that he knew for weeks that the account was lost. Joan responds with appropriate fury. Ken and Pete call clients to assure them the firm will remain viable. Then Don receives news that Glo-Coat is dropping the agency.

While they are in the hospital waiting for Trudy to deliver, Pete’s father-in-law suggests he should abandon ship. Pete even gets courted by a rival firm and is offered full partnership. Faye consoles Don that he is the most hirable man in the business, but he wants none of it. When she notices how tense he is about losing clients, she mentions that she has encountered enough unhappy clients in her consultancy. They get into an argument when he pushes her to arrange meetings with them. When Roger shows up at her apartment, Joan turns him away. “I can’t do this anymore,” she repeats over and over. The next day, Bert berates Roger that “Lee Garner Jr. never took you seriously because you never took yourself seriously.” Stan hopes to take advantage of Peggy’s nerves by kissing her, but she rejects him once again. In retaliation, he lets her walk into her presentation with lipstick smudge on her teeth. Nevertheless, the executive adores the new approach. At the end of the work day, with everyone gone, Don’s new secretary Megan throws herself at him. Good thing Don just had a fight with Faye. After the sex, Don goes home, only to find Faye in his hallway. She arranged a meeting for him with Heinz, because he means enough to her that she’ll bend her own rules for him.