The Schillings, husband-and-wife owners of the Utz Quality Food company, pay a visit to the set where comedian Jimmy Barrett is shooting an ad for their potato chips. Jimmy ad-libs jokes about Mrs. Schilling's weight, offending the couple. Roger puts Don on damage control and Don consults with Jimmy's wife/manager Bobbie in order to get her to persuade him to apologize. She agrees to a dinner with the Schillings and the Drapers, but only after sleeping with Don. At the dinner, Jimmy ignores the Schillings and spends most of his time hitting on Betty. Bobbie, for her part, claims after reading the contract that Jimmy doesn't have to apologize and that Sterling Cooper will still owe them money if he's fired for the incident. Don grabs her and threatens to ruin Jimmy and Bobbie gives in. Jimmy finally does apologize to the Schillings.
A man at Betty's riding club is a self-admitted poor equestrian who claims to only ride because all the men in his wife's family do. He has a reputation for seducing the women of the club, and finally makes a play for Betty as well. She appears tempted but turns him down.
Harry accidentally gets Ken Cosgrove's paycheck and opens it, seeing that Ken makes $300 per week, much more than Harry does. He calls his wife and she encourages him to demand a raise, but he loses the will to do this after a conversation with Sal. While feeling out a friend at CBS for a job, he learns of a controversial episode of The Defenders dealing with abortion. (The episode is real and was also titled "The Benefactor".) Sponsors are reluctant to be associated with an episode with such controversial subject matter. He brings the matter to Sterling Cooper, making the pitch with Don and Peggy's help that the controversy can help sell product. The cosmetics company they try to sell on it refuses, but Bert and Roger find a new admiration for Harry's initiative and they allow him to be the new head of the television department, which was initially his idea, as well as give him a small raise, although he still makes less than Ken.
This episode contains examples of:
- Actually Pretty Funny: Roger can't help but chuckle when Ken and Freddy recite what Jimmy said to Mrs. Schilling.
- Becoming the Mask: Jimmy Barrett's explanation for his rude behavior.Jimmy: There's the guy under the lights, and there's me. He's made me rich, but he hasn't made me very nice.
- Butt-Monkey: Lois gets chewed out and loses her position as Don's secretary over the Jimmy Barrett incident, even though Don was more at fault for playing hooky.
- Call-Back: Elliott and Sal share an awkward acknowledgment of each other following Harry's pitch. This alludes to Sal turning down Elliott's romantic proposition in Season 1's "The Hobo Code".
- Censor Decoy: In-universe: Harry's contact at CBS explains that the writers for The Defenders submitted a screenplay for an episode concerning a cannibalism trial. The CBS producers object that the story is far too edgy for television, but it's getting close to the shooting deadline, so they're forced to film the only other screenplay the writers have completed: a topical screenplay about abortion, which was the one the writers wanted to film all along.
- Day in the Limelight: Harry gets a lot more focus than usual, with this episode setting up his status as head of the Television Department.
- Dude, Not Funny!: In-universe, Jimmy's jokes are met more with confusion and horror than anything else.Jimmy: [points to someone to the side of him] Just for your information, this guy's laughing over here.
- Jerkass: Jimmy Barrett made some uncalled for jokes about Mrs. Schilling's weight. He claims that being a professional insult comic has made it hard to turn off the switch in his day-to-day life.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Ken, given that last season he called Peggy a "lobster" when she put on weight, is horrified about Barrett's calling Mrs. Schilling "the Hindenburg".Ken: My Mother is heavy-set.
- Good Girls Avoid Abortion: This trope is what makes the Defenders episode such a hot potato.
- Groin Attack: Rare female example. When Bobbie is giving Don attitude about Jimmy's apology, he grabs her somewhere down there and applies pressure until she listens to reason.
- Never My Fault: Ken and Freddy are quick to play hot potato with who is more at blame for the incident with Jimmy. Roger chews both of them out.Ken: I don't care that you drink, Freddy, but it's interfering with your job.Don: Woah.Freddy: Only an idiot would put Jimmy Barrett in a room with her. No visits!
- No Such Thing as Bad Publicity: In-Universe, part of the pitch the Sterling Cooper team makes for The Defenders.
- Shout-Out:
- Betty and Sarah remark that the male jock resembles Monty Clift in A Place in the Sun.
- Don negatively refers to Ken and Freddy as "Leopold and Loeb".
- Jimmy brings up Pinocchio when making fun of the Schillings and tells Don "I loved you in Gentleman's Agreement", which starred Gregory Peck.
- Surrounded by Idiots: Don is bombarded with the news of what happened with Jimmy Barrett, and after then being told about the fallout by Duck, wonders how it hasn't been tempered yet.
- Unwitting Instigator of Doom: It's implied that Freddy got Jimmy Barnett drunk, resulting in the latter's offensive jokes toward Mrs. Schilling.
- You Are Fat: Jimmy's Hindenberg joke.Ken: And he said something about the whale in Pinocchio.
