A tragedy with a happy ending. My favorite kind.
But it isn't all bad; Ken's just brought in an account with John Deere, complete with his own riding lawnmower which everybody takes turns riding and HOLY SHIT WHAT JUST HAPPENED??!!
Guy (Lane's replacement) gets his foot run over by a drunken Lois on the lawnmower. He's taken to hospital, where what's left of his foot gets amputated. As a result, he's fired, Lane stays on, Mr. Hooker is still the office manager, and Joan is out.
So everything's back to normal, except a little bit worse. Bully.
The title of this episode is a reference to The Sopranos's Season 2 premiere (Guy Walks Into A Psychiatrist's Office), which Mad Men creator Matthew Weiner worked on prior to this show.
This episode contains examples of:
- The Ace: Guy is swiftly established as one: charismatic, savvy, sharp, intelligent, authoritative, respected, and quite handsome. And by the episode's end, he's been broken in so obscene a way that he can't even retain his honours as a Broken Ace.
- Actually Pretty Funny: Everyone may be in shock over Guy's accident, but they all grin (at the very least) from this gem:Paul: He might lose his foot.
Roger: Right when he got it in the door. - Afraid of Blood: Peggy faints when she sees how badly the replacement was injured. Harry Crane also shows signs of weakness when he sees blood on a window being cleaned up.
- Black Comedy Burst: On a show that's pretty dark at the best of times.
- Bloody Hilarious: The lawn mower scene.
- Brick Joke: That guy Connie at the club three episodes ago? The one from San Antonio, New Mexico, before it was a state? That was Conrad Hilton. And he wants to work with Don.
- Captain Obvious: Don points out the obvious flaw in Connie's idea for an ad campaign for his hotels featuring a cartoon mouse.Don: I don't think anyone wants to think about a mouse in a hotel.
- Career-Ending Injury: Guy's superiors at Puttnam, Powell, and Lowe declare him a lost cause after his foot is amputated. Don seems a little offput by the callousness.
- Chekhov's Gun: If a riding lawnmower is hung on the mantle in Act 1, it must run over someone's foot by Act 3.
- Eating the Eye Candy: The secretaries and Peggy are mesmerized by the new guy. Peggy's secretary Olive speaks for them.That is such a handsome man.
- Generation Xerox: Sally's aversion to her new brother is explained away this way.Sally: Grandpa Gene. He's not supposed to be here anymore. ... He's called Gene, he sleeps in his room, he looks just like him, and I bet when he starts talking, he's gonna sound just like him, too.
- Kicked Upstairs: Lane's intended replacement, Guy, announces that he'll be taking over all the management duties in the company, with Bert shoved aside to an evidently powerless "chairman emeritus" role. Roger gets it even worse, as the PPL people initially forget that he even exists, and have to hastily scribble him into the appropriate chart as Bert's (only) subordinate.
- My God, What Have I Done?: Lois says this word-for-word after accidentally mangling Guy's foot with a lawnmower.
- Pun-Based Title: "Guy Walks Into an Advertising Agency" is a play on a popular joke setup, "Guy walks into a bar..." It's also a quite literal event in the episode: the new character named Guy MacKendrick walks into Sterling Cooper. And he doesn't walk out.
- Punch-Clock Villain: While Guy may come across as a Smug Snake, he's really just doing the job his superiors are telling him to do, and doesn't really do anything so bad as to deserve to have his foot mutilated and amputated.
- Reassigned to Antarctica: Lane is told that he'll be sent to PPL's new office in Bombay. The executives try to dress it up as a reward for having done such good work at Sterling Cooper, but it's clear that they only ever intended for Lane to be a temporary solution while Guy was trained up for the job. In the end, Guy's injury results in Lane being left in situ indefinitely.
- Shout-Out: To the Profumo scandal
, of all things, when Joan and Hooker are discussing what to do for the British execs' visit.Joan: We could hire some prostitutes. I know your Prime Minister enjoys their company.Hooker: Secretary of War. And you'd do best not to bring that up tomorrow. - Sympathy for the Devil: While the Sterling Cooper staff weren't exactly looking forward to having Guy take over the running of the company, they're naturally sympathetic when he loses his foot, and subsequently, his job.
- We Hardly Knew Ye: Guy MacKendrick is introduced as Lane's replacement in this episode ... and then gets his foot run over by a lawn mower, resulting in its amputation. As far as his superiors are concerned, that's his career over as they don't see how he can be a high-level advertising executive with just one foot, given that (to use the example they give) he won't be able to play golf with clients. Guy plays no further part in the show.Joan: That's life. One minute you're on top of the world, the next minute some secretary's running you over with a lawn mower.
- White Shirt of Death: Not death, but it's in that direction.
- Written-In Absence: Joan's farewell party, as Christina Hendricks will be mostly absent for the next few episodes.
- You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: After Guy's accident, the PPL executives rather callously declare that they'll have to make him redundant, as they can't see how a man with just the one foot can be of any use in their business. Truth in Television, as this was before the movement for fair treatment for disabled people really got started.
