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Season 6, Episode 8: “The Crash”
The episode opens with Ken Cosgrove driving a car filled with drunk men who are distracting him, and he crashes after one covers his eyes. It turns out that he was meeting with Chevrolet representatives who didn’t like the firm’s pitches, but gave the creative department three years of calendars for deadlines they’re expected to meet. The two heads of creative, Ted Chaough and Don Draper are exhausted by the past six weeks of Chevy work and don’t see how they can carry on at this pace.
We see Don smoking outside the backdoor of his former mistress’s apartment, eavesdropping on her conversation with her husband; when he walks away, a pile of discarded cigarette butts is revealed. At work, Don is called by Sylvia Rosen (his ex-mistress) who tells him to stop loitering in hallway and shuts down his attempts to unburden his emotional turmoil on her. Don has flashback to his childhood in a brothel after this conversation and takes nap, which lasts a surprising two and a half hours.
Betty Francis has changed hair back to blond and is taking her kids to see Don; Sally says Megan Draper pays her to babysit her brothers, which annoys Betty.
At the office, Jim Cutler reveals that Frank Gleason, the head of his former firm’s former art department, has lost his battle to pancreatic cancer. Ted says he can’t work the Chevy account over the weekend and Peggy Olson says she’s going to the funeral but will be available to work.
Jim Gleason calls in his private doctor to help “fix up” people in the office. When Don takes his turn in the room with the doctor it turns out that he is giving everyone a shot of his “proprietary” mix of B vitamins and a stimulant to give them energy and focus. Don is skeptical but gets the shot anyway. Roger Sterling is next and the doctor takes him, despite his revelation that his has a heart condition. After getting the shot, Don hears normal noises as loud and echoing.
The copywriters are brainstorming for Chevy commercials, but Peggy and Michael Ginsberg didn’t get the shot and aren’t as manic as the others. Don insists that Ken allow him into the meeting on Monday and Ken says that he’s just a toy and starts tapdancing (on his foot that was injured in the accident) while talking about how unpleasant his job is. While walking down the hallway, Don has another flashback to childhood and lands on an idea; when he gets back to the creative meeting room, it’s the next day and he has missed the funeral. There’s a girl in the room named Wendy who seems to be a hippie with a mystic bent; when he walks down the hallway, she’s in his office and it seems like he has had another time lapse. She tries to seduce him and he turns her out, but he calls home and tells Megan that he can’t come home to watch the kids so Megan leaves Sally in charge.
Don knocks on the backdoor of the Rosens’ apartment but is drowned out by a radio playing in the kitchen.
Peggy tends to a small injury on Stan Rizzo’s arm when he tries to seduce her; when she rejects him, he tells her that his cousin was killed in Vietnam and she tries to counsel him to get through his grief without dampening his feelings with sex and drugs.
Sally finds an African-American woman in her apartment who says that she is her grandmother, Ida. When Sally says that’s impossible, she claims that she raised her father and that she’s here for a visit but that she didn’t expect anyone to be home. Ida doesn’t know her name and asks Sally about who else is home and when her parents will return. Sally tries to call the police but Ida interrupts.
Don pitches his idea to Michael and Peggy but it’s not about Chevy–it’s a grand theory about interconnectedness and human history. Michael is inspired but Peggy realizes he hasn’t been working on the Chevy account for the past few days. When she tries to stop Don on his way out, Jim points out Stan and Wendy having sex in his office.
Don returns home to find Megan and the Francis family meeting with the police. After finding out that Ida robbed a number of apartments in the building, Don passes out and finishes his series of flashbacks about the prostitute named Aimee who nursed him through a cold, took his virginity, and was kicked out of the brothel, inciting his stepmother to beat him. The next morning, Don and Sylvia share an elevator but barely speak. At the office, Don calls Sally to tell him that he’s fine and didn’t have a heart attack. She apologizes and admits that she didn’t know enough about her father to gauge the truth behind the burglar’s answers. Don tells her that he’s at fault for leaving the door open.
At the office, Jim reveals that Wendy was Frank’s daughter. When Ted demands to know why the work from the past weekend is all gibberish, Don refuses to work on Chevy anymore and says he’ll just evaluate others’ work from now on.