Mad Men - Episode 4.06 - Waldorf Stories - Recap

“Waldorf Stories” begins with Don reviewing the advertising book of Danny Siegel, a young (although probably not as young as he claims to be) hopeful ad man who has taken the slogan “the cure for the common cold” and recycled it for many other products. Don is unimpressed (nor is Peggy, who is assisting Don with the interview), and although Danny is related to Roger’s wife, it is not nearly enough for him to even be considered for the job. Don and Peggy have a brief conversation about the Glo-Coat commercial, which is up for an award at the Clio’s later that night. The conversation shortly turns to Vick Chemical, for which Peggy is responsible for creating an ad by the following Monday, even though she doesn’t get along with the new art director, Stan Rizzo.



Don then makes his way to Roger’s office, where they share a laugh about Danny’s incompetence before sharing a drink to prepare for the award’s show. Before they can leave for the award show they have a meeting scheduled with Life cereal. However the Life reps are grounded in Philly and cannot make the meeting in time, so the members of SCDP begin drinking in preparation of the Clio’s (which will be attended by Don, Roger, Pete, and Joan, even though Peggy took part in the creation of the ad).

While the others get drunk before the show, Peggy goes to discuss Vick Chemical with Stan Rizzo (who is showing off his reel, including the Daisy ad, to some of the secretaries). Peggy explains her disappointment in the lack of appreciation she has received for her role in the Glo-Coat ad, but Stan has no sympathy.

At the Waldorf (the site of the Clio’s), Don and Roger run into Ted Chaough, who is still his arrogant self, while Joan and Pete talk to Ken Cosgrove, a discussion that concerns Pete about SCDP possibly merging with (or being bought out by) Geier. The conversation is cut short, however, by the start of the awards. After a brief interruption by a very drunk Duck Philips, the show gets under way and awards begin to be given out. Before long, we come to the award for “Best Cleansers, Waxes, and Polishes.” Roger grabs a hold of Joan’s hand in anticipation for the announcement, and is followed by Don, who holds her other hand. SCDP is announced to be the winner, and in his excitement before accepting the award Don gives Joan a kiss on the lips. When he returns to the table, he is greeted b a secretary from the office, who tells them that the people from Life cereal rented a car, drove to New York, and are currently waiting at the SCDP office. Although Pete feels it would be wise to reschedule, Don is in such high spirits he decides to head back to the office right then to give the presentation.

Back at the office, Harry gives the people from Life a preview of the next few weeks of “Peyton Place” while they wait for the others to get back from the Clio’s. When they return, Don shows off the award before he drunkenly makes his way through the presentation. He shows the tagline, “Eat Life by the Bowlful,” and explains the idea, but even though the reps like the idea, they don’t feel that it will work. Instead of taking time to think over a new idea, Don begins to ramble off whatever comes into his head and eventually blurts out “the cure for the common breakfast,” which the reps love. Peggy realizes that Don has used Danny’s idea, but Don is too drunk and happy to care, and they agree to use the slogan.

Don hurries out of the meeting so he can get back to celebrating with Roger, but not before he assigns Miss Blankenship to find a hotel room for Peggy and Stan to work on the Vick’s ad. Pete pulls Lane aside to ask him about a possible merger with Geier, but Lane explains that there will be no merger. Instead, he is hiring Ken Cosgrove for his choice clients (Birds Eye, Mountain Dew, and Fillmore Auto Parts), and because he knows Roger doesn’t pull his weight and he wants someone to make life easier for Pete.

Out on the town, Don, Roger, Joan, and the Clio trophy continue the celebration. Don sees Faye miller talking to a man on the other side of the bar and goes over to “rescue” her. The two begin to talk about the award, but before long Don tries to turn on the charm and asks her to leave with him. However, just like the last time he hit on Faye, she turns him down and walks away.

At the hotel, Stan sits on the bed reading a Playboy as Peggy tries to get a hold of Don (unsuccessfully). Peggy then calls Stan out on talking about being a nudist but not actually being one. Stan says he knows Peggy is ashamed of her body (or at least she should be), but Peggy takes exception to this and begins to take off her clothes. She provokes him to join her, and the two strip until they are completely nude, sitting across the table from each other. Peggy tries to begin a conversation about the Vick’s ad, but notices that Stan is distracted (and aroused).

While Roger and Joan drink, a woman comes up to them to ask about Don. Joan informs her that he is in fact single, and the woman goes to introduce herself. Roger sulks about not getting recognition, claiming that they don’t give awards for what he does – find guys like Don.

Peggy continues to work on the ad, but gets no help from Stan who is still aroused and is trying to distract himself from Peggy’s naked body. However, Stan soon becomes embarrassed and decides to put his clothes back on (and Peggy does as well).

At Don’s apartment, he is bed with the woman, who is a Clio award winner herself. However, before they can get too far, Don passes out and wakes up only when he hears the phone ringing. He answers it and hears an angry Betty on the other line explaining to him that it’s noon and he was supposed to pick up Sally and Bobby two hours earlier. Don tries to tell Betty that he is picking them up on Sunday, but Betty informs in that it is Sunday. When Don hangs up the phone, the woman next to him asks if everything is okay, and Don sees that it is not the woman he went to bed with after the award show, but a woman he does not recognize (Doris, a waitress). Not only does he not remember anything about this woman (or the entire day before), but he apparently introduced himself as Dick Whitman. Don then claims he is late for something, and hides in the bathroom until she leaves.

When she leaves, Don pours himself a drink and lies down on the couch,where he passes out yet again, only to wake up later that night to a knock at the door. He opens the door to see Peggy, who says she has been trying to call him for the last two days. He lets her in, and she tells him that the tag he sold to Life cereal was actually Danny’s. Don has no recognition of pitching that tagline and asks Peggy to call Life to get them to change it, but she informs him that they loved it and will likely not be willing to change their minds. Peggy tells him that the only thing Don can do is bring Danny in to SCDP to talk about it.

The next morning, Lane walks into Pete’s office to let him know that Ken is on his way. Pete tells Lane that he will not be joining them for lunch and asks him to bring Ken to the conference room when he gets there. Peggy and Stan show Joey the mock up they created for the Vick’s ad, and Joey agrees that it is good. When Don gets to his office, he asks Miss Blankenship to call the Pen and Pencil to see if someone has found his award. He enters his office and finds Danny waiting for him. Don tells him that he is willing to give him $50 for his “cure for the common something” idea, but Danny doesn’t care about the money, he wants a job.

Lane brings Ken to the conference room as promised, where Pete is waiting for him. Pete tells Ken that he is willing to accept him to the team, but wants him to know that Pete is in charge, and Ken nods agreeably. Don asks Peggy to take Danny to see Joan, as he will be starting next Monday (which is shocking news to Peggy). Don then goes to Roger’s office, and after informing him that he has hired Danny, Roger takes Don’s award out of a cabinet and tells him that he left it at the bar. However, before he gives it back, he makes Don say that he couldn’t have done it without him.

Throughout the episode we are shown flashbacks of Don and Roger meeting and their following encounters that lead to Don’s hiring. The two first meet when Don is working at a fur company and Roger comes in looking for a new fur coat (which turns out to be a gift for Joan). As Don shows Roger a selection of coats, Roger notices an ad on the wall featuring a young Betty wearing a fur coat. Don tells Roger that he is the one who created the ad, and gives Don his card (but only to receive instructions on the delivery of the coat). When Joan takes the coat out of the box, Roger sees that Don has left his book in the box for Roger to review, but he ignores it.

Later, while Roger is waiting in the lobby of the old Sterling Cooper building, Don comes up to him to say hello. Don claims to have a meeting in the building, but Roger calls his bluff. It turns out that Don has left Roger several messages to see what he thought of his portfolio, but Roger tells him that not only did he ignore the messages; he also threw out Don’s portfolio. He tells Don that leaving it inside the box for the coat was a bad idea, but Don remains upbeat, telling Roger he is just trying to find a break. He then sweet talks Roger a little (calling him a very important man in a very important agency), and asks to buy him a drink (to which Roger accepts). The two talk over drinks at a restaurant, but after a few, Roger decides they should leave so he is not seen in his drunken state before the lunch crowd shows up.

Don again meets up with Roger in the lobby of the Sterling Cooper building, but this time Don claims that Roger told him to come in. Don says that Roger hired him the day before, and although Roger has no recollection of this (either Don made it up or Roger was too drunk to remember, I’m going with the former) the two get into the elevator together for Don’s first day at Sterling Cooper.

“Waldorf Stories” may not have been the best episode of the season, but it was probably the most entertaining episode so far. A week ago, we saw glimpses of Don back in his true form, using his business savvy to impress the people from Honda and his charm to impress Faye Miller. It turns out that it was nothing more than a glimpse, as Don returned to his struggling ways this week in what may in fact be rock bottom. He drunkenly used Danny’s tagline, was yet again shut down by Faye Miller, and blacked out for an entire day. Not all was bad for Don Draper, as the Clio will hopefully lead to more business for SCDP as it did for CGC, but winning the award was the catalyst for Don’s downward spiral. Not everything that happened in this episode was bad, however. Ken is back at SCDP (bringing some good accounts with him), and Peggy and Stan worked through their problems and came up with a good ad for Vick’s (hopefully this means they will be able to work well together in the future). This is also the type of episode where Pete’s antics would have annoyed me in the past, but now I’m almost happy to see him get his way and get Ken to acknowledge that he’s the one in charge. Things are starting to get very interesting at SCDP, and I can’t wait to see what the future holds with Ken (and the inept Danny) now working there, and to see if Don can turn things around after this debacle.

Mike