Bert finds Lane's forged check and confronts Don, assuming – as it's his signature – that he gave Lane an unauthorised bonus. Don calls Lane into his office, pours him a drink and confronts him. After feigning ignorance, Lane apologises and argues that he was only taking what was owed to him. In response, Don demands Lane's resignation as he no longer trusts him, but gives him the weekend to think of an "elegant exit". Lane, drink in hand, wanders over to Joan’s office, but she sends him away after he makes a lewd comment.
After Don vents about not having big accounts, Roger sets up a meeting with Ed Baxter from Dow Chemicals, but only after clearing it with Ken who accepts it on condition that Pete is excluded from all meetings. At the meeting, Don brushes aside Ed's concerns and insists that Dow needs a new agency, despite having 50% of the market share. He chides them for being satisfied with this, insisting that SCDP is the agency that can help them get more.
Betty's getting ready for a family skiing holiday but Sally doesn’t want to go, angering Betty who calls Don to tell him that she'll be dropping Sally at his Manhattan apartment. When Sally shows up, it's just Megan there and she wasn't told about this. When Don gets home, she complains to him about not telling her, and he tells her that he's had to deal with Lane.
A drunk Lane goes home to find that Rebecca has surprised him with a new Jaguar. He vomits, but, the next morning, reassures her that he likes the car. That night, he attempts to commit suicide using the new car's exhaust, but it fails to start. He then walks into SCDP's empty office and types a letter at his desk.
Sally arranges to meet with Glen while Don and Megan are out. They go to the American Museum of Natural History. Feeling ill, Sally runs to the bathroom and finds blood on her underwear. Arriving home, Megan looks for Sally — who has taken a cab to the Francis house, where she tearfully tells her mother that her menstrual cycle has started. Glen shows up at the Draper apartment and tells Megan that Sally left him at the museum. Betty phones and tells her that Sally "became a woman today", and just needed her mother. Megan insists Glen stay until his train leaves. Betty gives Sally a hot water bottle and, in a rare display of parental affection, assures her that starting her cycle means "everything is working".
At the office, Joan finds that Lane's door is blocked. She goes into the neighbouring office, where Pete, Harry and Ken are conversing, and informs them. They look into Lane's office through the partition window, see that he has hanged himself and react with shock; Ken holds Joan as she bursts into tears. Back from their meeting with Dow, Don and Roger arrive to an almost-empty office — Bert, Pete and Joan have sent everyone else home on a contrived pretext. Don, Pete, and Roger force their way into Lane's office and find his corpse hanging from the door. They cut it down and place it on the couch to preserve his dignity. A letter is found - Lane's boilerplate (ie. bog-standard) resignation.
At home, Don offers to drive Glen back to his school. Glen states that "everything you think is going to make you happy just turns to crap". Don asks what Glen would do if he could do anything; later in Don's car, Glen drives and smiles as Don helps him steer.
This episode contains examples of:
- The Alleged Car: Lane's new Jaguar E-Type won't start.
- Beware the Nice Ones: This is more or less Megan's reaction to hearing that Lane was caught embezzling from the company.
- Black Comedy: Lane's attempt to commit suicide by carbon monoxide poisoning is thwarted when the Jaguar won't start because of its unreliability. He tries to fix the car before giving up.
- Blatant Lies: Just about everything Lane says to Rebecca, aside from the bit about not wanting to go out.
- Driven to Suicide: Lane commits suicide after forced to resign from the partnership.
- Call-Back. To Ed's remarks at the ACA dinner about not wanting to do business with SCDP because of that letter. And to Bert's remark, back when the idea of going after the Jaguar account was first raised, about them being unreliable cars ... although it's doubtful that using one as part of a suicide attempt was what he had in mind.
- Every Man Has His Price: Ken, reluctant to mix business and family, is happy to work with his father-in-law provided Pete gets excluded from the Dow account.
- Fatal Flaw: Lane's is his pride. If he had asked to borrow some money from the other partners, his problems wouldn't have snowballed into him ultimately forging Don's signature for a check. When confronted about this by Don, Lane states that it would have been humiliating to ask for money. Don genuinely can't understand why being caught forging a check, and thus losing the trust and respect of those he has worked with for several years, would be less humiliating.
- First Period Panic: Sally's first period comes as she's on a date with Glen. In a panic, she immediately takes a cab home and asks Betty for help.
- Five Stages of Grief: After being found out, Lane goes through these; after accepting that it's all over for him at SCDP, he kills himself.
- I Need a Freaking Drink: Lane, who knocks back a large whisky before confessing to Don, goes on to spend most of his final hours drinking, switching to brandy and, by the time he's ready to kill himself, just swigging from the bottle.
- It's Quiet… Too Quiet: Roger and Don return to the office from their meeting with Dow Chemical and immediately notice that the office is devoid of activity. The Partners inform them that they sent everyone home because Lane hanged himself in his office.
- My God, What Have I Done?: Don immediately has this reaction upon learning that Lane killed himself.
- Pet the Dog: Don letting Glen drive the car at the end.
- Shout-Out: A few:
- Roger describes Dow Chemicals as "the Moby-Dick of accounts".
- When Don gets home, he wants to watch Carson.
- When Megan, Emily and Sally look at the list of movies they might go to see, they come across Blow Up, Alfie, Georgy Girl and A Fistful of Dollars. Megan declines that last one, on the grounds that Don would never forgive her if she went to see it without him.
- Wham Episode: Lane commits suicide, becoming the first major character to be killed off. Also, Sally gets her first period.
