Mad Men Season 5 Episode 12: Commissions and Fees

 Joe Chiarenzelli is an editor at The Gadfly Press and wishes he was Don Draper.

             Mandy Lafond is a graduate of St. Lawrence University with a degree in Philosophy and a minor in Asian studies.  She’s currently working as a Naturalist at the Seacoast Science Center. In her spare time she likes philosophizing, playing with her pet rabbit and reading Wikipedia for fun.

Mandy:

Part of the genius of Mad Men is that you never know what’s coming next, though you know there will be handshakes and people walking through doors (“Next week on Mad Men…”) Season Five’s penultimate episode “Commission and Fees” will surely go down in TV history as one of Mad Men’s finest. While impending tragedy seemed inevitable this season, what with all the suicide allusions, I don’t think anyone saw this coming. For all the talk of Pete Campbell’s woes and Roger’s marital unhappiness, the tragic result of this episode came out of left field. Who would have expected Lane Pryce to take his own life? While the past few episodes showed his embezzlement from the firm, I had assumed Lane was being written off the show and would leave the firm or something else less…permanent. What will become of SCDP without its P, this loveable Brit? Who else will be there to kick Pete’s ass when he steps out of line? 

            Lane’s world begins to crash down around him when Bert Cooper discovers a bonus check with Don’s signature on it, even though it was explicitly agreed there would be no bonuses. When confronted by Bert, Don immediately figures out what’s happened- Lane’s been embezzling funds and forged his signature. Now Don having some secrets of his own decides to give Lane a chance to come clean, so long as he gives a letter of resignation. No one would have to find out about Lane’s crime, giving him a chance to exit with some dignity. Unfortunately however, Lane’s also accepted a position on a financial responsibility committee for American Association of Advertising Agencies, and it becomes all too much. Lane’s nightmare continues when he returns home to find his wife has purchased a Jaguar. Too proud to tell his wife and son, Lane decides suicide is the only option, and stuffs a rag in the exhaust pipe of the new car. But, in a darkly comedic set of circumstances, the car will not start. The Jaguar: a beautiful car, but not the most reliable, a truly dark failed suicide attempt. At this, I assumed he would not try again, but boy was I wrong.

            Joe:

            I personally thought that Lane killing himself was always a possibility. If you think back to season three and how strongly he objected to being transferred to India because he loved the United States and then the seemingly dominant power his father had over him when delivering his beat down in season four then I could see why he would be reluctant to leave his job and thus his adopted home. While Don is quite an obvious example of the pot calling the kettle black (Yeah you can’t “trust him” Mr. Whitman?), I think that how things played out was a strong example of what makes Don Draper different from some of the other people who’ve passed through his life. Don thinks that Lane can do the same thing he has done many times before, hit rock bottom and fight his way back up. It’s a similar dismissal to the one he gave his brother Adam back in the first season.

            However distressful Don found it to dismiss Lane, it certainly seemed to energize his business side. He storms into Roger’s office and starts asking why they bother to do this job if they don’t aim to be the best, he doesn’t want Mohawk airlines he wants American. He also finally tells Roger what Ken’s father in law (Ed Baxter) told him about never getting big business again because of his stunt after Lucky Strike dropped them. Roger is surprised that Don let a “wax figurine” discourage him and immediately goes about trying to set up a meeting with Dow Chemical, the first obstacle is getting Ken to acquiesce to the idea which sets up a lovely scene. Roger and Ken meet in a nightclub higher up in the building and Roger works it out so that Ken couldn’t have anything to do with approaching Dow, he was busy having drinks with his boss how could he have known about it? As part of the deal he makes Pete is not going to be allowed anywhere near the account (I cannot wait to see Pete’s reaction to this) and Roger has to “force” him onto the account.

            While all this is happening Sally Draper is mocking her mother’s weight and getting herself out of a skiing trip, which results in her being dropped off to an unsuspecting Megan. Since Monday morning Megan has an audition and Don has the meeting with Dow, they figure that Sally can stay at home that morning. Sally, has other plans and invites Glenn to come for a visit.

            Mandy: 

            Later we see Lane head to the office at SCDP. It’s late at night, and Lane is typing away at his typewriter. Is it a suicide note? We can’t be sure. And while Lane had been gazing longingly out the window after his meeting with Don earlier, I thought perhaps he would jump to his death. The next morning several people comment that Lane’s door is locked, and finally Joan peeks in and her face has a look of pure horror. A table’s been propped against the door, and the smell of death pervades. She runs next door to the partners meeting and tells them something is horribly wrong, to which Pete Campbell jumps up on the couch to look over through the glass at the top of the wall into Lane’s office. Lane has hanged himself. When Don and Roger walk in, Don immediately feels guilty. Another dark secret for Don to keep. The coroner is on the way, but Don feels he has to grant Lane one last dignity, so with Roger and Pete’s help, they cut him down and lie him on the couch. I was not expecting them to show Lane’s dead body, but they did, in all its gruesome detail, his contorted, discolored face and all. And that letter he wrote? A “boilerplate” resignation letter. Just like Don asked for.

            Joe:

            Inter-cut with Lane’s demise are two very starkly contrasting scenes. The first is Don’s meeting with Dow where he tells them that they shouldn’t be content with fifty percent of the market share, they should want to take it all. Then he storms out and Roger, belatedly (since he had no idea what Don was planning on doing), follows him out. Roger looks stunned at seeing the reemergence of the old Don Draper telling him, “I'll buy you a drink when you rub the blood off your mouth.” The second is Glenn arriving and taking Sally to the museum. Once at the Museum Glenn tells her about how he gets picked on at school and that he may have told everyone at school that he was going into the city to “do her.” Sally says she doesn’t feel well and goes to the bathroom, where she discovers she’s gotten her first period.

            Sally takes off and catches a cab back to her mother’s house and is uncharacteristically comforted and helped by Betty. Megan meanwhile is immensely confused by the fact that Sally is nowhere to be found and the fact that a dark-haired dead-eyed boy has shown up looking to get his bag back. Glenn tells Megan that he has no idea where Sally went and that she just took off, this is interrupted by Betty calling to tell her that Sally is safe with her and that she “just needed her mother.” Megan let’s Glenn stay at the apartment until his train departs, but as Don arrives back from the grisly scene at the office looking dazed, he decides to take Glenn back to school. As they descend in the elevator they discuss why everything has to turn to crap and Don asks Glenn what he would most want to do. The episode closes with Glenn behind the wheel of Don’s car as Don corrects his steering and the following lyrics play:

"Please don't you cry when the time to part has come
It's not for what you've said or anything that you've done
I've got to go anywhere any time
And I'm leaving, gone today
On my way
I'm going home."

            You have to wonder what this means for Don, it’s now two people who have killed themselves partially because of Don’s dismissiveness. I think Don’s insistence that they need to cut Lane down is almost an act of atonement for not being present when his brother met his demise. Will this be another dark secret of Don’s or will he confide in Megan, she already knows that Lane had embezzled and that Don fired him. Won’t it be easy for her to infer the chain of events? Bon voyage Mr. Pryce.

What will happen to Mrs. Pryce now since Lane is gone? I wonder if we will get to see Lane's funeral? It's been a couple of dark weeks on Mad Men eh? What did you think about Lane's suicide? Let us know in the comments.