Dick Dong Swinger is having an affair with his neighbour, doctor's wife Linda Cardellini, while Megan pursues an acting career, about which he's not happy - double standards at work again, not just from him.
In an outrageous episode eight, written by Weiner and Jason Grote, the staff of the newly merged ad agencies take some 'vitamin' injection - coke? - and go crazy, whilst Sally wakes up to find a strange black woman in the apartment who claims to be Don' s mother. This is interspersed with young Dick in whorehouse being cared for (in more than one way) by a young prostitute, intercut with Don's mad quest for an old ad image, one that is the key to some Grand Idea...
Looking at Dick's life - his mother died giving birth, his step-mother hated him, his Dad was no better, then raised in a whore house - it's not surprising that he has such difficult relationships with women. He knows how to charm, flatter and flirt, is suitably handsome, confident and mysterious, and can be tender and thoughtful... but at the end of the day he can't share himself with them - even the ones that know about his past - and just doesn't get how to relate to them at all. It's a nicely complex characterisation.
Anyway, in a slightly unlikely plot development, Don tries to help the doctor's son not get drafted to Vietnam; Sally catches him 'comforting' the mother - she then decides she'd rather be at boarding school. (I cannot seem to stop writing dangling modifiers at the moment.) (Don also 'comforted' Betty at camp.)
Ken: 'I told them Cynthia was pregnant and to celebrate they took me out and shot me... On the way to the hospital, they tried to stop for lunch.' Pete's mum says he was 'a sour little boy'. James Wolk is the too-smooth Bob Benson.
The ending is that Don gets too personal with Hershey and as a result is put on indeterminate leave. And Pete's mum goes overboard on a cruise. I was beginning to get a feeling that it was becoming a bit far-fetched.
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