Six Month Leave

The episode begins with Don Draper staying at a hotel due to Betty, his wife, putting him out. He goes to the door for the morning newspaper and finds out that Marilyn Monroe has died. Don walks into his office that morning to find all the secretaries very emotional and in distress over Marilyn Monroe’s passing.

Later, Jane enters Don’s office insisting that she made a mistake. His daughter called asking when he will be home from his business trip. Don says things are personal and he’s not willing to discuss things further with her.

Freddy Rumsen is practicing a presentation and gets very flustered and passes out. Amid him passing out, he pees his pants. This causes him to be the joke of the office. Pete then comes up with the idea of Peggy acting as Freddy’s stand-in.

In a later scene, Betty is asleep on the sofa and wakes up to Sarah Carson saying she has her eye on Arthur Case recently. Betty then considers this information and uses it later on.

Joan is caught crying by Roger over Marilyn Monroe’s death. He responds in a very insensitive way and Joanne makes sure to tell him that he will lose someone important to him one day and it’s going to hurt very badly. Joan was mourning her death because it was someone she related to.

The next day at work Jane brings in shirts for Don to use, being very thoughtful but not respecting his boundaries. Freddy then comes by and sees Peggy and realizes the executives loved the presentation when she stood in. Don finally learned about Freddy’s accident in the office and Roger says that Freddie must be fired and Don is not really for the idea but Roger insists and they are going to let him know over dinner.

Betty is finding her way to pull herself out of her depression, and she goes to the stables. She sees Aurthur Case and invites him to dinner and does the same thing with Sarah Beth, taking into consideration what she had told her earlier.

Later that night Roger, Freddy, and Don go out to dinner, and they let Freddy know that he’s fired from Sterling Cooper. They say it’s a six-month leave but in reality, are saying that he’s fired for good. They decide to celebrate and end up in an illegal gambling club. When he walks in Don sees Jimmy Barrett and goes over and punches him in the face for telling Betty that he is cheating. Don is escorted out of the club and eventually, Freddy goes home. Don and Roger say their goodbyes to Freddy and end up at a different club. Don finally opens up that he and Betty are separated at the moment, the one thing that Roger took away is that he should move forward because it’s his life.

The next day Peggy is promoted by Don and Peggy doesn’t want to accept it because she saw what happened to Freddy and knows it was just a mistake. Peggy then goes to confront Pete and he doesn’t understand where she’s coming from and he congratulates her on her new position.

The next scene cuts to Aurthur and Sarah Beth at lunch Betty tricked them into going out with each other by not showing up. Meanwhile, in the office, Roger's wife Mona walks into Don’s office and is very angry with Don because he inspired Roger to leave his wife for a secretary and she quotes him saying "move forward it’s your life". Jane, the secretary that Rogers is having an affair with, starts crying and Don says he wants her off of his desk.

Marilyn Monroe died. Steering Cooper’s workers are sad about her leaving. “We are lucky Playtex didn’t go for the Jackie/Marilyn campaign”, Peggy said to Don. Harry invites Don and Betty to a Mitch Miller concert by NBC. Pete, Salvatore, Peggy, and Freddy prepare a presentation for Samsonite luggage. In the news, Marilyn Monroe angrily protested to a reporter about an attack on stars, “we are what’s okay with the movie business. Management is what’s wrong with the business.”

Noel Murray wrote for the AV Club that he is not a fan of Betty's storyline in this episode. He says that he likes how Betty is becoming more of her own character, like when she manipulates Arthur and her friend to have an affair, but he does not like how the show is teasing “will Betty have an affair”. He points out that Betty's arc of her clinical depression is much more interesting and that the show should focus more on that.[1]

The Guardian writes that they were a bit taken back by Rodger’s affair with Jane. They think that the show put a spotlight on the flirtatious relationship between Roger and Joan, so to have Jane be the one that Rodger leaves Mona for was a bit random. The review points out that Roger has had stronger relationships with other women that he did not leave his wife and daughter for, and we never really saw Rodger and Jane together up until this reveal. [2]

Nomination for 2009 outstanding writing for a drama series.[3]