[Review & Recap] Mad Men: Season 5 Episode 12 “Commissions and Fees”
Every week Don awakens a wee bit more from his love coma and makes a steady return to the ad man we used to know; the man who was passionate about the business. But like Trudy Campbell once said dissatisfaction is the coal that fuels the fire. He’s gotten what he wanted with Jaguar, but it’s not enough. “What’s happiness? A moment before you need more happiness.” His awakening may bring him back to the helm of SCDP, but his missteps are apparent now. In this episode he makes a hard choice about Lane, necessary for the business but off the mark on a personal level.
Lane seemed to be looking for understanding from Don, he opened up to him in that office in a way he hadn’t opened up to anyone throughout his ordeal. He appealed to his humanity; mentioning that Don has always been kindest to him, and cried his eyes out about his shame. “I can’t go back to England like this.” Don thinks he is being kind “I’m doing the most decent thing I could.” His advice on what to tell his wife and family back in England is eerie. “You’ll tell them the next thing will be better, because it always is.” But after Lane takes his own life, Don will no doubt feel responsible.
Still, perhaps no longer living with the shame of having mucked up things beyond a point of foreseeable return is better for him. Lane underhandedly collected the commission he felt he was owed but in the long run paid the fee with his life. We get the sense Don will pay emotional tithes of guilt over setting off this morbid chain of events. Maybe that’s the price you pay (no pun intended) when as Lane pointed out to him all he does is line his pockets. When Don offers to cover the money Lane owes he responds bitterly. “Because $7500 is nothing to you. Do you know how the rest of us live?” he implores.
On the other hand Don is still paying for the Lucky Strike letter. What will it take to erase the stain of vindictiveness from SCDP? And that’s not the only stain they’ve accumulated. Poor Joan is finally thinking of using the commissions earned from her defilement to take a much needed vacation. Now suddenly she has to pay heavy respects. She was the closest person in the agency to Lane, the one who’d bothered to get to know him the most and shared an intimate moment or two. Aside from Don, we think his death has hit her the hardest.
The secondary theme of “Commissions and Fees” is another we’ve gotten glimpses of all season — out with the old, in with the new. But does it have to be so cut and dry. Sally’s gradual maturation juxtaposed with Don’s apparent struggle against disconnected old fogy-dom is symbolic. All season he’s made it a war – him against Ginsberg, hating the Beatles, grappling for common ground with a much younger Megan – but maybe it doesn’t have to be. At the end of this episode we see Don surrendering control to this young kid, steadily guiding his wheel but allowing him to drive. Will he finally catch on in the season finale, accepting a new role as mentor and allowing young talent to shine?
