The title of this episode, "The Collaborators," can refer to those who work together on a project or for a common end. Or it can have the more malignant meaning of ones who work with the enemy, usually surreptitiously. There is much talk this episode about faithfulness but most of the action centers around betrayal. Don and Pete each betray their wives by cheating, their paramours betray their own spouses and friends, Megan betrays Don with her silence, Peggy (albeit innocently) betrays Stan's confidence, a Heinz exec betrays a rival, and Don betrays a client.
And still the show has the audacity to have Don extolling the virtues of loyalty.
We've known that Don Draper was a serial cheater, who has little trouble living a dual life, since the start. And yet it is still jarring to see him exchange pleasantries with his new good friend Dr. Arnold Rosen while planning on going back to Arnie's place and having sex with Arnie's wife. Sylvia, with no shame, questions how easy it is for Don to switch back and forth from Arnold's friend to his betrayer. That's the difference between Don and the other unfaithful on the show. He acts without guilt, segmenting his actions and his thoughts into discreet areas that never commingle, enabling him to cheat without suffering any internal conflict. The others wring their hands and feel shame yet continue to cheat.
And speaking of cheating, Pete Campbell continues to try and emulate Don by using his Manhattan apartment to entertain one of Trudy's friends. She is smitten and tries in various ways to express to Pete that this is not just a casual affair. But Pete just brushes her aside callously. This is not a relationship to him, it's just a perk of his station of life. The house in the country, the partnership, the beautiful wife, and the mistress in the city. He's got it all. That is until the woman is beat up by her husband who learns about the affair and she eventually tells Trudy. It's sad that all Trudy wanted was the resemblance of a faithful marriage. With Pete in the City and her at home she could pretend that all was well. What she didn't know couldn't hurt her. But Pete didn't have the discretion to find someone on his own to have an affair with, he had to choose her friend from down the street.
Sylvia walks in on Megan berating her housekeeper and later discovers that Megan is on edge because she's been keeping a secret from Don. Two weeks before she had a miscarriage and she still hasn't told Don. It could be because her Catholic guilt that makes her feel somehow responsible for the unborn life but more likely it's because she realizes that she was relieved not to be pregnant. Her career is starting to take off and this would be the wrong time to have a baby. And so she's kept this news to herself to not have that conversation with Don. Meanwhile, Sylvia, with whom Don is cheating, is being a comforting and nonjudgmental presence for Megan in her time of need. Not at all awkward.
Also not awkward, when Don comes home to find his wife in tears and his mistress looking uncomfortable and eager to leave. As Sylvia leaves, Don says, "See you tomorrow," and Sylvia looks like she's going to pass out until Don reminds her that the four of them have plans for dinner tomorrow night. So he wasn't making plans for their next dalliance in front of the wife. The next night, Megan is not feeling well (and as of yet still not telling Don why) and so he joins the Rosens for dinner. Until Dr. Rosen is pulled away for a medical emergency and Don and Sylvia are left to dine alone. They rush through their meal to get to what they really want and then each go home to their respective spouses as if nothing happened,
Peggy Olson is having the problem women have had from the first time they even approach cracking the glass ceiling at work. If you're too nice, you're not strong enough or tough enough to be in charge. If you're too hard, you're a bitch. And thus her male underlings prank her with a faux product: Quest Feminine Hygiene Powder. "Proof points--has baking soda, makes you nicer if you're stinky, kills overly critical bacteria. Target--professional women and other Olsons." She later complains to Stan about her problems at work and he wasn't at all surprised. They share stories from work and it's a great relationship they have where they can safely go and complain. Except with Ted Chaough decides to use some of the information from the call to his firm's advantage.
Heinz ketchup, one of the bigger ad gets, is displeased with its current sales and wants a little of whatever has been helping the Heinz beans sector take off. One of Sterling Cooper's first clients was Heinz beans and the work they did for that department has resulted in a spike in sales, while the ketchup branch's sales have remained flat. So the young hot shot from ketchup asks for an introduction and to get some of that magic working for him. Don takes the meeting and all goes well until it becomes painfully clear that the beans guy does NOT want Don helping the smug pompous ketchup guy succeed and you get a perfect picture of the pettiness inside corporate America. So the question is, do you stick with the guy who supported you, gave you his business when no one else did, or do you dump him for the bigger, better part of the company. While Don and his group decide, Ted is working to steal the client out from under them thanks to the tip from Peggy. Peggy resists at first, not wanting to betray the trust of her old friend Stan. But Ted convinces her there are no friends in business and that you take whatever advantage happens to come your way.
There are other clients causing problems for Don. Herb Rennet, the pig who demanded a night with Joan in exchange for his vote on hiring the firm to represent Jaguar, is back. He wants Don and company convince the Jaguar team that more ad money should be directed at the local market, bringing in buyers, rather than in a national ad on the luxury and exclusiveness of the car. Don probably wouldn't like the redirection of his ad campaign if it came from any other client, but he has a particular disgust for Herb. And so he devises an ingenious plan of backstabbing Herb while pretending to do exactly what he asked for. In a sea of betrayals, it's one we can all rally behind.
The episode leaves some issues still to be resolved. Will Peggy put together a great pitch for Heinz that Stan learns about and will it harm their friendship? Will Herb find a way to punish Don et al. for sabotaging him? Will Pete ever stop chasing dreams of being Don Draper 2.0 and realize he had the good life and is throwing it away? And how long before Don slips up and puts Sylvia's marriage at risk? He's playing with fire--coming to her back door unannounced, leaving her money (no tie-in to his youth in a brothel there!), sneaking into the apartment when Arnold is away--and it is hard to imagine they won't both get burned. And all the while Bob Benson is just there, big puppy dog smile and eager to help. Nobody is that nice; what's his story?
Quotes:
Sylvia: You don't mind sitting across the table from your wife and my husband?
Don: I don't think about it.
Don: I have to go.
Sylvia: You love to go.
Don: This didn't happen.
Herb: I know there's a part of you that's glad to see me.
Joan: [looking at his gut] And I know there's a part of you that you haven't seen in years.
Peggy: Everyone hates me here.
Stan: Well, that was bound to happen.
Trudy: I refuse to be a failure. I don't care what you want anymore. This is how it's going to work: You will be here only when I tell you you can be here. I'm drawing a 50-mile radius around this house, and if you so much as open your fly to urinate I will destroy you. Do you understand?
Pete: You know what? You're going to go to bed alone tonight, and you're going to realize that you don't know anything for sure.
Sylvia: You enjoy how foolish they both look.
Don: Now I understand. You want to feel shitty right up until the point where I take your dress off.
Roger: As my mother used to say, your options were dishonor or war. You chose dishonor, you might still get war.
Don: That was Churchill.
Observations:
Don's statement to Sylvia that "this didn't happen" (referring to their affair) harkens back to his quote to Peggy back in Season 2, Episode 5 , "It'll shock you how much this didn't happen." It is one of Don's greatest gifts--his ability to compartmentalize his life and ignore harsh truths as if they don't exist. It's his self-absorption that leads him to believe that this is as easy for everyone else to do as it is for him.
We can time stamp this episode as after October 17, 1967, the Broadway debut of "Hair." This hippie, counter-culture, free love and stop-the-war musical was shocking to some, with its nudity, raw language and depiction of drug usage. If you were to watch the watered-down film version, you might not get what all the fuss was about. But it was revolutionary at the time giving voice to a movement and to the fears and dreams of young people in the Vietnam era. I know that I listened to that cast album about an infinity amount of times as a youngster living in the boring San Fernando Valley, dreaming of going to Haight-Ashbury or even New York City to be cool and hip and free. You can watch a 50th anniversary performance here.
Another time marker is the reference to the North Koreans taking a US spy ship in January of 1968. The USS Pueblo was the only U.S. Navy ship held by a foreign government and its men were held and tortured for almost a year before finally being released. The ship is still in North Korea. For more information, you can start here. Around the same time, the North Vietnamese launched what is now known as the Tet Offensive, a surprise attack on South Vietnamese sites during the Tet holiday. You can start your reading on this attack here.
We also get another Dick Whitman flashback, this one showing how growing up with an unattractive bowl cut could scar one for life. And also how living in a whorehouse where you watch your evil stepmother get sexually assaulted while pregnant may negatively affect your relationship with women in the future. Who'd have thought? The whole flashback is unnecessary and too on the nose. Living around prostitution makes you a repeat philanderer? We didn't need it--it didn't make Don a sympathetic character and didn't explain his behavior, it just gave an easy out rather than holding him accountable for his actions.
Pete tells Bob that "his wife" asked him to get more toilet paper. In reality, it was his girlfriend who mentioned they were out last time she was at is apartment. Pete is keeping up appearances that he's still a happily married man with errands to run for the wife.
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Spoiler-y Observations: DON'T READ UNTIL YOU'RE ALL CAUGHT UP
The fact that Peggy regrets breaching Stan's confidence and is loathe to take advantage of his inside information could be because she harbors some feelings for Stan (as will come to light next season) or because she still feels some loyalty to Don and her old firm. They did give her the opportunities to learn and develop her talents and become the bad ass ad exec. In the end, she can't abandon Don or the firm forever. She just needed to be appreciated and not taken for granted.
This episode makes it clear that Megan's number one goal is to become a successful actress and she won't let anything stand in the way of her dream. Not Don, not motherhood. She gave up her dream for a while, she won't make that mistake again as she ultimately moves to Hollywood, sans Don, to pursue her dream.
We ultimately learn that Bob Benson, who references his preppy, blue-blood background, was in fact an invention (much like Don Draper). A creation built to replace the boring West Virginia boy he wanted to leave behind.
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