A Day's Work

A Day's Work
Production
Season 7 Episode 2
Air date	April 20, 2014
Written by	Jonathan Igla and Matthew Weiner
Directed by	Michael Uppendahl
Previous Time Zones	Next Field Trip

Plot

Peggy receives a bouquet of flowers at the office. Pete navigates the politics of new business. Joan is put in an impossibly awkward situation.

Synopsis

Don wakes up in the afternoon, watches "The Little Rascals" on television, flips through some magazines, and spots a huge cockroach in his apartment. He picks up a bottle of liquor and makes a mark, noting the level. Next, he gets dressed in a suit and tie, and then the doorbell rings. This is why Don got dressed -- It's Dawn, dropping off some paperwork. Don asks her about the goings-on at SC&P. He tries to give her money, but she demurs, saying that she was not able to get a document from Peggy's office. Don assures her that's fine, and eventually gets her to accept the money.

Don lounges at home, A Day's Work.

Meanwhile, Sally is smoking a cigarette with her friends in a dorm room at her private school. They are making plans for their classmate Sarah's mother's funeral in New York tomorrow. They plan to skip the burial and go shopping in Greenwich Village. Sally’s friend Carol notes that Sarah won't be back at school until Easter and that she wishes her own mother would die. Sally adds she would stay at school until 1975 if she could "get Betty in the ground."

In California, Pete and Bonnie return to Pete's office after their date and kiss passionately on his desk Ted walks by, and Pete does his best to hide Bonnie, but Ted bids them both goodnight. He goes into his office, seeming depressed.

In the SC&P elevator, Peggy tries to convince Stan and Michael to work late when they remind her it's Valentine's Day. They then tease her about her lack of a date. Michael jokes that Peggy's calendar for the day reads, "Masturbate gloomily". They approach Peggy's office and she notices a vase of dozen red roses. She assumes they are from Ted and takes them into her office. Meanwhile, Peggy is first flattered by the roses then becomes upset. She calls Moira, Ted's secretary, leaves a stilted message for Ted about the loss of a made-up account that is supposed to convey that Ted's flowers won't fix things with Peggy. "There’s nothing more you can do," Peggy declares. "The account is lost." Moira asks which client she’s talking about and Peggy says Ted will know.

Roger bursts into the office, and recounts to Lou an encounter he had this morning with a woman who mistook him for Jewish and called him a "kike." Lou is unimpressed and goes back to work, leaving Roger alone. Meanwhile, Sally and her friends are on the train home from their shopping adventure. Sally notices her purse is missing. She leaves hurriedly, and tells her friends she will take a later train.

Dawn and Shirley discuss their bosses, A Day's Work.

Back at SC&P, Shirley and Dawn meet up in the coffee room. Shirley is upset because the roses were actually meant for her, from her fiance Charlie. She asks Dawn for advice on how to get her roses back. Dawn tells Shirley to keep her mouth shut about it if she wants to keep her job. For an example, Dawn mentions that Don hasn’t told his wife he’s on leave. “Keep pretending. That’s your job,” she shrugs.

Don has lunch with Dave Wooster from Wells Rich Greene. Dave mentions the rumors he has heard about what happened with Don. “I don’t know what the truth is, and I don’t really care," he tells Don. He offers him a position at Wells Rich and Green, but Don assures him that he still has a job and also a non-compete clause. He insists he is not looking for another position.

Apparently after an unsuccessful search for her bag, Sally walks toward Don's old office at SC&P. To her surprise, Lou is there. She asks for Don and Lou gently explains that Don is probably at home. She then asks for Joan, but Joan is at lunch. Sally leaves.

File:Chevy1960s-logo.jpg

Chevrolet

Bert Cooper is on a conference call with Pete and Ted in California. Pete announces that he has landed an account with the Southern California Chevrolet dealers' association. Bert thinks Bob should be brought in, since he has the Chevrolet corporate account.

Sally is sitting in Don's apartment when he arrives from lunch. He lies, saying he left the office early because he wasn’t feeling well. She explains that she lost her purse and missed the train and now needs a note explaining her tardy return. The phone rings, and it is Dawn, who warns Don that Sally visited SC&P, and that she spoke with Lou. When Don hangs up, he asks Sally what the note should say. "Just tell the truth," she sighs.

Back at SC&P, Lou calls Joan and Dawn into his office. He is angry that he had to deal with Sally, and blames Dawn, whose time is split between Don and him. "I want my own girl," he says to Joan, adding that Dawn should have been there to deal with Sally. Dawn stands up for herself, reminding Lou that she skipped lunch to guy a gift for his wife. "If you had been thoughtful enough to get her a gift when I told you about it ten days ago, I would’ve been here,” she points out. A sputtering Lou counters, “Don’t you understand? It’s not my problem.” Joan agrees to switch the secretaries for him.

Roger calls Pete and tells him that he’s not going to be the sole contact for the Chevy dealers. Pete starts to argue, but Roger hangs up on him. Pete vents to Ted that there’s no reason to get new accounts, since they are just taken away. He complains that sometimes he doesn't know if he is "dead, in heaven, in hell, or what". He snaps at Ted for moping around the office. He leaves work early and tells Ted to pretend that Pete is in New York.

As Don and Sally drive back to school, Sally acts coldly towards him. He asks why she didn't say anything about stopping in at SC&P. “It’s more embarrassing to catch you in a lie than it is to watch you lie,” says Sally. She is defensive, claiming that it was hard for her to go to his apartment, since she risked running into Sylvia. They drive in silence.

Peggy learns the truth about the roses, A Day's Work.

Peggy lies on the sofa in her office, drinking. Shirley informs her that Moira is on the phone for her. “Tell her to

tell Ted I have no intention of talking to him today,” Peggy orders. She marches out to Shirley’s desk and places the roses on her desk, complaining they smell "like an Italian funeral." Then, Peggy decides she wants to throw the flowers away because they’re “cursed”. Shirley finally blurts out that they are from her fiancé. “You have a ring on,” snaps Peggy, holding back tears. “We all know you’re engaged. You did not have to embarrass me.”

Joan has moved Dawn from outside Lou's office to reception so Meredith is now Lou's secretary. Bert walks into Joan’s office, displeased with the new arrangement. “I’m all for the national advancement of colored people, but I don’t believe people should advance all the way to the front,” he says. He orders Joan to switch the secretaries around again but Dawn or Shirley cannot be at reception.

Back in California, Pete surprises Bonnie at the house she is showing and attempts to convince her to leave work early to they can spend Valentine's Day togehter. When Bonnie refuses, Pete vents about the lost Chevy account. She reminds Pete that they are both in sales, and are both at the mercy of higher-ups. Bonnie tells him a story about a house she sold to "some Okies" that burned down while in escrow, and describes it as an act of God. “Our fortunes are in other people’s hands and we have to take them,” she tells him. Pete agrees to let Bonnie finish her work.

Don and Sally have dinner together, A Day's Work.

Don and Sally stop for gas and a meal. She is still pouting, so he explains why he lost his job. “I said the wrong things to the wrong people at the wrong time. I told the truth about myself, but it wasn’t the right time,” he explains He assures her that she knows the truth about him. Sally asks if he still loves Megan, he says yes. Then Sally asks why he doesn’t just tell Megan that he doesn’t want to move to California. Don doesn't have an answer for her.

Back at SC&P, Peggy goes to see Joan, and tells her that she doesn't want Shirley as her secretary any more. Joan, frustrated with the secretarial musical chairs, suggests Moira or Meredith, but Peggy refuses them both. "Just fix it," she snarls before storming out. Jim walks in to talk about Avon account, and Joan snaps at him. She apologizes and tells him about the personnel problems. He observes that Joan is doing two jobs. He tells her that he has an open office upstairs for an account man, and that Joan should think about which job she'd prefer doing.

At the diner, Sally and Don finish their meal. Don jokingly proposes that they "dine and dash", which makes Sally smile. Meanwhile, Joan runs into Roger as she settles into her new office, which is next to his. She asks what he thinks and he tells her it doesn't matter.

Shirley walks out of the office with Lou, her new boss. Dawn brings her things into Joan's office, and sits down in Joan's chair as the new director of personnel. Jim and Roger take the elevator downstairs together, and Jim tells him, "I'd hate to think of you as an adversary".

Don drops Sally off at school, and as she leaves the car, she wishes him a "Happy Valentine's Day" and tells him that she loves him. Don watches as she walks up the steps of her dormitory.

Trivia

• "This Will Be Our Year" by The Zombies plays over the credits.