Mad Men - Episode 4.05 - The Chrysanthemum and the Sword - Recap

“The Chrysanthemum and the Sword” begins with Don receiving a phone call from Walter Hoffman of the New York Times. Hoffman is calling to get Don’s thoughts about Cutler, Gleason, and Chaough (CGC) signing Clearasil just shortly after acquiring Jai Alai, both of which recently left Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce (SCDP). However, Don is not willing to say anything about CGC, only that he has never heard of Ted Chaough.



Don then makes his way to the conference room for a luncheon with the partners, where Pete informs the other partners that he has set up a meeting with Honda Motorcyle Company. Lane believes this is a great opportunity, but Roger feels quite differently. After serving and losing many friends in World War II, he refuses to work with a Japanese company. He storms out of the meeting, but the other partners are not discouraged by his feelings and Don asks Pete to set up the meeting as soon as he can. Pete tells them that he has been advised read “The Chysanthemum and the Sword,” and before the meeting adjourns Don asks Joan to get everyone copies of the book while Bert tells the partners to keep Roger out of the loop.

That night, Don takes Bethany to Benihana, even though it is one of his rare nights with Sally and Bobby. Don leaves the kids with Phoebe (from across the hall), and while Phoebe sits with Bobby watching cartoons, Sally comes out of the bathroom to show off a haircut she gave herself. Phoebe sends Bobby to bed, and sits Sally down to talk, but a conversation about her hair turns into a conversation about sex. However, Phoebe cuts the discussion short and takes Sally back into the bathroom to try to fix her hair.

At Benihana, Don runs into Ted Chaough from CGC. Ted gloats over the Clearasil account, and not so subtly tells Don that he expects to win the Honda account over SCDP. Chaough then heads back to his own table, and Don is visibly upset that CGC is considered equal to SCDP when they haven’t had half the success. However, Bethany quickly gets Don back into a good mood so they can enjoy their dinner (chopsticks and all). When Don returns home, Phoebe immediately tells him what happened and apologizes for it. Understanding the problem that this will cause with Betty, Don informs Phoebe that he won’t be asking her to baby-sit again.

The next day, Don brings the kids home, and just as he had feared Betty does not deal well with Sally’s new haircut as she slaps her (to the dismay of both Don and Henry) and sends her up to her room. After Don leaves, Henry calms Betty down and convinces her to apologize to Sally, bring her to the hairdresser and let her go to the sleepover she has planned with her friends.

Don enters the SCDP office to find Pete scrambling to prepare for the Honda meeting that day (including removing the chrysanthemums from the office as they symbolize death). When the executives from Honda show up, Don gives them a tour of the office before sitting down for the meeting with himself, Pete and Bert Cooper. However, just as Pete gives them their gifts (a cantaloupe and Johnny Walker Red), Roger walks into the room perturbed to see that the meeting is taking place without his knowledge. He immediately starts to make offensive comments, and when they announce there are rules for the presentation (including a $3,000 payment), he continues to do his best to offend them before walking out.

After the meeting, Don goes to Roger’s office to confront him for his actions and try to convince him that the account would be good for the firm. Roger doesn’t care, however, claiming that he has refused to do business with the Japanese after the war. Pete comes into the office to give his point of view on the situation, but Roger also doesn’t care what he has to say considering he has never served in a war. Pete then makes a comment about Roger refusing to do business with Honda because it will make the company less dependant on Lucky Strike, and therefore, less dependant on Roger himself. Roger takes offense to this and goes after Pete, but he is held back by Don. Pete tells Roger that the rest of the partners are trying to build something, and before Don leaves he tells Roger that he agrees with Pete.

Sally sits on a couch at her sleepover after her other friends have gone to sleep. As she watches a movie, and makes sure her other friends are in fact asleep, she begins to touch herself. Her friend’s mother comes into the room and catches her and decides to bring her home. Henry answers the door, but her friend’s mother asks to speak to Betty alone about what happened. When Betty finds out, she is extremely embarrassed and straight up to Sally’s room to reprimand (and threaten) her briefly before going back to bed. She tells Henry what happened, and he tells Betty that it may be a good idea to bring Sally to a psychiatrist.

Back at SCDP, Pete (or Mr. Peters) and Lane come into Don’s office to talk about Honda, telling him that although the meeting was a disaster they have set a time for a presentation. Bert and Roger then enter the office (to a delayed reaction from Miss Blankenship), and Roger agrees to be more cooperative in the future and to allow SCDP to pursue a relationship with Honda. Pete tells them about the meeting, but Bert informs him that since they have not yet received a gift, they have no shot at the account. Don then pages Miss Blankenship, who tells him that he has in fact received a package. She brings it in (and briefly, yet hilariously refuses to give it to Pete until Don allows it), but when they open it they see that it is not from Honda. Instead, it is a cocky joke gift from Ted Chaough. However, Don believes that since they have the appointment set, they might as well use it to their advantage. Although the rules limit them to boards and copy, Don decides to shoot an entire commercial – but Lane informs him that they just don’t have it in the budget.

Back at his apartment, Don sits alone reading “The Chrysanthemum and the Sword” when he receives a phone call from Betty. She is calling to tell Don that she and Henry want Sally to see a psychiatrist she found through the school. She tells Don what happened at the sleepover, and although Don doesn’t think she needs to see a professional he eventually gives in.

The next morning, Don invites Joan, Pete, and Peggy into an office to advise them of a plan he has come up with. He wants to make CGC (which is the same size as SCDP and therefore has a similar budget) think that SCDP is making a commercial in hopes of fooling them into making one. He has Joan interview a director that is currently working for CGC so the information can get back to Ted. When it does, Ted calls in Smitty to get some insight into the way Don works. Smitty gives Don a rave review, which makes Ted even more determined to create a commercial.

They then book a set across from where CGC is filming their new Clearasil ad, and make sure that one of their partners see Peggy and Joey bringing a Honda motorcycle into it. The men from CGC then try to sneak into the set, but Joey tells them that it is a closed set (where Peggy is simply driving the bike around in circles)

Late night at the office, Don joins Faye Miller in the kitchen to open up his gift from Ted (a bottle of Sake). Faye tells Don that she is not married, and only wears a wedding ring to preemptively ward off single men. The two continue to make small talk, and the chemistry between them is very obvious.

We then see Betty having an introductory meeting with the psychiatrist, Dr. Edna. Betty gives her a background of Sally’s situation, which leads to a discussion of her own relationship with her mother. Dr. Edna tells Betty that it would be a good idea if the two of them met once a week to keep up with Sally’s progress, and that she wants to start Sally out at four days a week.

Don arrives at his presentation for Honda, and sees Ted on his way out as he brags about the commercial he created for them. Don walks into the meeting and informs them that because CGC did not follow the rules, SCDP is withdrawing itself from consideration. He then leaves the $3,000 payment in the form of a personal check and exits the meeting.

Back at SCDP, Joan enters Roger’s office to let him know that the voiceover guy for Lucky Strike has chest congestion, and he tells her to have Pete take care of it. After commenting on Honda, Roger begins to talk about his experiences in the war, but Joan cuts him off, telling him that she doesn’t want to hear it because her husband is going to be shipped to Vietnam soon. She tells him that she understands where he’s coming from, but that he fought to make the world a better place, and now it is.

Don returns to the office, and Pete and Lane join him in his office. They inform him that Honda never actually had plans to leave their current marketing firm, but SCDP will be their first choice when they want to begin marketing cars (with CGC out of the running). They begin to discuss the car, concluding that it is no more than a motorcycle with windows, but are still upbeat nonetheless.

We then see Sally in a waiting room with Carla, as Dr. Edna finishes with a patient and invites Sally into her office. Sally, looking exactly like a 10 year old version of her mother, gives Carla a quick look before following Dr. Edna inside.

“The Chrysanthemum and the Sword” was perhaps the first great episode of the season. After 4 episodes (and more than a year in real time) of Don being off his game, we see that he has found his old swagger again with the trick he pulls on CGC to get into Honda’s good graces. He also seems much happier, and more charming, both on his date with Bethany (their third in 5 months) and in the SCDP kitchen talking with Faye. His relationship with Faye has certainly taken a few steps in the right direction since the night they met and he asked to take her to dinner, and I would like to see it evolve into something romantic. The storyline with Sally is not too surprising, considering how much she misses Don and the way she is treated by Betty, and I have a bad feeling that it’s only going to get worse as she gets older (unless Dr. Edna can really work some magic). This episode also had a lot of good comedic moments, like the interpreter’s “I don’t know what this room is for,” Peggy riding the motorcycle, and the crazy Miss Blankenship (although it was a little much by the end of the episode). While the first few episodes of this season were solid, I enjoy Mad Men much more when Don is on his game, both in the office and in his personal life. Hopefully this episode was just the start of Don getting his charm back, and hopefully SCDP can gain some momentum and acquire another big account so they don’t have to be so dependant on Lucky Strike.

Mike