Bert, Pete and Joan are preparing for a share issue, unbeknownst to Don. Megan's mother, Marie, visits and Roger convinces her to join their dinner with Jaguar. At the dinner (which Roger contrives to miss), Don becomes annoyed with Herb, whom he's never truly trusted over Herb's condition for the Jaguar deal in the first place, and announces that SCDP no longer wants his business. The other partners, especially Joan, react with fury. Meanwhile, Pete runs into his father-in-law at a brothel — which results in SCDP losing the Vicks account. Pete later tells Trudy about this, but she refuses to believe him. Roger secures SCDP a spot with General Motors for the new Chevrolet project XP-887.
On arriving in Detroit, Don finds Ted Chaough at the same bar. The two rivals quickly realize that GM intends to give the account to McCann-Erickson, and are only meeting with SCDP and CGC to create the appearance of a fair bidding process and take any worthwhile ideas the two smaller agencies may have. Don proposes merging the agencies to win the account, to which Ted agrees (as, subsequently, do the other partners). After their success, Don and Ted declare a nonplussed Peggy the copy chief of the new firm and task her with writing the press release announcing the merger of the two companies.
This episode contains examples of:
- Be Careful What You Wish For: Don has expressed a desire to work with Chevrolet before; now, he has their new project XP-887 ... which will turn out to be the ill-fated Vega.
- Brilliant, but Lazy: Roger gets a meeting with Chevy through a quite brilliant display of seduction and subterfuge, showing that he's more than just an LSD-taking, well-dressed, functioning Alcoholic Silver Fox who happens to have the best one-liners in the show. When he puts his mind to it, he really can deliver the goods for the firm in ways none of the other account men are capable of... he just doesn't put his mind to it very often.
- Call-Back: A few:
- Don's dislike of Herb goes back to the latter's indecent proposal in "The Other Woman". Joan's fury at Don firing Jaguar is because of what she had to do to get the account in the same episode.
- As Don's pitching to Ted about a merger of their firms, he says "Hey, Lieutenant, want to get into some trouble?", which is what PFC Dinkins said to him back in "The Doorway".
- Evil Is Petty: Pete vindictively tells Trudy that he caught her father at a whorehouse, purely out of spite.
- Foil: While Don and Ted are both really effective ad men, they have some differences that are highlighted more in this episode:
- Don's not openly communicating with his partners unless he has to, and this causes problems with his partners' plans. Ted's being withheld information by his partners out of fear that it may put unnecessary pressure on his pitch.
- Don has a very casual attitude towards his affairs. Ted is immediately horrified with himself about kissing Peggy.
- Hypocrite: Tom terminates business with SCDP after he's caught in a whorehouse by Pete. His excuse, however, is because of Pete's immorality.
- Imagine Spot: Peggy imagines Ted when she starts making out with Abe.
- My God, What Have I Done?: Ted reacts this way after he impulsively kisses Peggy.
- Poor Communication Kills: Bert, Joan and Pete have been secretly making plans for the firm to go public. Unfortunately, their secrecy causes some problems when Don hits his rage breaking point and impulsively fires Herb as a client.
- Rage Breaking Point: It's been no secret that Don's been openly contemptuous of Herb since SCDP secured the Jaguar account, but Herb's suggestion that SCDP's work be reviewed first by one of Herb's dealership employees causes him to snap.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Joan gives one to Don after Don fired Herb (and Jaguar) as a client:Joan: Honestly, Don, if I could deal with him, you could deal with him. And what now? I went through all of that for nothing?Don: Joan, don't worry. I will win this.Joan: Just once I would like to hear you use the word "we." Because we're all rooting for you from the sidelines, hoping that you'll decide whatever you think is right for our lives.
- Shout-Out: Tarzan can now be added to the list of characters Don's been compared to.Pete: Don't act like you had a plan. You're like Tarzan, swinging from vine to vine.
- Title Drop: Peggy's press release for the merger of SCDP and CGC is captioned with "For Immediate Release."
- You Are Fat: Just to underscore how much Don doesn't care about Herb anymore:Herb: You know the somersaults I'm doing 'cause you're so touchy?Don: Really? A man your size?
- Wrong Genre Savvy: Both Ken, and by extension Pete, think that Tom will do nothing after they run into each other at a brothel, because it would be Mutually Assured Destruction. They fail to take into account that Tom doesn't respect Pete or see him as a threat, and has a good deal more power because he controls the Vicks account. Pete has nothing to really hurt Tom with after he's fired but impotently insult him to Trudy, which does nothing except put the final nail in the coffin to his own marriage.
