Peggy is becoming more successful at work, with her ideas for Belle Jolie a hit with the clients. However, her relationship with Pete gets more complicated — they have sex on the couch in his office, but he acts very coldly towards her when everyone goes to a bar to celebrate her copywriting success. Bert gives Don a $2,500 bonus and urges him to read Atlas Shrugged. Away from the office, Don spends the evening smoking pot with Midge and her scruffy beatnik friends; the antagonism between them and the smartly-dressed ad man is mutual. A childhood encounter with a hobo who briefly stayed at his father's farm when he was a young boy (the events of which confirmed to the young Dick what he already suspected, that his father was a dishonest man) is told in flashbacks. Sal, meanwhile, goes to dinner with Elliott, one of the executives from Belle Jolie. They get on well and Elliott invites Sal back to his room; Sal, though, is afraid to follow through on his attraction to men.
This episode contains examples of:
- A Day in the Limelight: For Sal, whose homosexuality is touched on for the first time.
- "Not So Different" Remark: Bert believes that he and Don share certain qualities with each other. Namely, that they are productive, reasonable, and completely self-interested and unsentimental.
- Put on a Bus: Midge, whom Don stops seeing after this.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Don and Midge's friends go back and forth snarking at each other. He tells them to make something of themselves, and they chide him for wearing a suit and selling lies for a living. Don gets the final word when he leaves Midge's apartment when the police raid the building.Beatnik: The cops! You can't go out there.Don: You can't.
- Shout-Out: Cooper notes his love for Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged. Over at Midge's apartment, Don and the beatniks listen to Miles Davis's Sketches of Spain LP.
- Slobs Versus Snobs: Don's white collar presence is antagonized by Midge's beatnik friends. The condescension is mutual.
- Transparent Closet: Sal, upon being propositioned by Elliott. It's not so much that he denies being gay as much as realizes that it wouldn't be practical to endanger himself by acting upon their sexual tension.Sal: Elliott, I have thought about it. I know what I want. I know what I want to do.
- Troubled Backstory Flashback: Don recalls the time that he had a conversation with a hobo that his parents briefly housed in their barn. In the flashback, he reveals himself to be the son of a whore.
- Trying Not to Cry: Peggy. She jovially asks Pete to dance with her during the office party, and his response is cold enough to invoke this.Pete: I don't like you like this.
- You Have GOT to Be Kidding Me!: Sal is clearly hesitant to act upon an attraction to Elliott, and isn't given solace by the latter's nonchalance.Elliott: What are you afraid of?Sal: Are you joking?
