1. Passing time is not only one of Mad Men's themes, it's one of its obsessions.
2. And Bert Cooper (Robert Morse) is watching Apollo 11 take off.
3. Bert looks at the successful liftoff with wonder.
4. Meanwhile, in California, Ted (Kevin Rahm) is losing his mind.
He threatens to kill himself and his passengers — the Sunkist clients – in a small prop plane. It's the first of many times in this episode that the characters see their own situations in terms of the attempt to land on the moon.
"Maybe they won't make it," Ted says of the astronauts. "Then all their problems will be over."
5. Jim (Harry Hamlin) and Pete (Vincent Kartheiser) call Ted to reprimand him.
Ted, drunk, doesn't care. He asks Jim: "You used to fly. Didn't you ever feel that?" Jim says: "Over Dresden? I wanted to live!"
Pete: "And the clients want to live too, Ted!"
Ted says: "I don't want to die. I just don't want to do this anymore."
6. Lou Avery, who is basically a lame duck since Don returned, storms into Jim's office to complain about Don.
7. Betty's friend from college has come to visit with her two sons.
8. Sally (Kiernan Shipka) seems to take an interest in the older, buff son.
9. Harry (Rich Sommer) has been offered a partnership, but thinks he should ask for more money. Don tells him, "Just accept the deal!"
10. The team is planning the Burger Chef pitch. They seem ready. Don (Jon Hamm) and Peggy (Elisabeth Moss) are totally in sync.
11. Peggy comes home, finds a workman in her house, and flirts with him. She's also stern with him when she thinks he's going to ask her for money for a job that isn't yet done.
The workman thinks Julio (Jacob Guenther) is her son.
12. Because as usual, Julio is at Peggy's house watching her TV.
13. Betty and her friend Carolyn (Kellie Martin) talk in the kitchen. "I have to ask. Do you ever see Don?" "Only when absolutely necessary. I'm starting to think of him as an old bad boyfriend. Someone a teenaged anthropologist would marry."
14. Carolyn's son Sean (Charlie DePew) is shirtless and runs into Sally. She's on her way to her lifeguarding job. "She's never worn lipstick to the pool before," says Betty.
15. Don's secretary Meredith (Stephanie Drake) shows him a letter he's received: "It's very upsetting news," she says.
16. Meredith tells him "I am your strength" and kisses him.
17. Don's face!
18. Don storms into Jim's office.
19. Don seems taken aback by Jim's viciousness. He storms out of the office.
20. Don gets everyone together. He asks for a show of hands of who wants him gone. Jim votes yes, and has Ted's proxy. Joan (Christina Hendricks) raises her hand too. Roger, Bert, Pete, and Don vote against. "Motion denied!" Don shouts.
21. Pete yells at Jim for rattling Don before the Burger Chef pitch.
22. Peggy asks Julio which outfit she should wear — a dress or a suit — to the Burger Chef meeting. She mentions they're worried the astronauts will die, which will be a national tragedy and will ruin their pitch. Julio looks sad.
23. Julio tells Peggy they're moving to Newark, and he doesn't want to. He hugs her. She hugs him back, and tries not to cry. She wipes away a tear.
24. Megan (Jessica Paré), who has only a few weeks to live before being killed by the Manson family — just kidding — gets a call from Don.
It's a casual call; they're both just sitting around. She's going to see The Wild Bunch. He says he wants to see that. She asks whether she should wait for him to see it.
He tells Megan he's going to get fired. "They want me to move on," he says. Then: "I could finally move out there." She doesn't answer. "Is that what you want me to do?" he asks.
Nope. "Don—" she starts. "I'll always take care of you," he says. "I'll be fine," she says.
25. She begins to cry: "You don't owe me anything."
26. No one wants Don. He's sitting in the dark by himself.
27. Bert and Roger discuss Don. Bert agrees with Jim that Don is too wild. He compares Don to Napoleon — they have unsuccessful comebacks in common.
28. Because of what's coming, we see a lot of the Bert/Roger relationship. He tells Roger, "You're not a leader."
29. Pete, Peggy, Harry, and Don are flying to Indiana for Burger Chef.
30. Everyone is watching the lunar landing. In directing this sequence, Weiner shows each group — except for Bert — from the front and then the back.
31. Roger is with his grandson, son-in-law, and ex-wife.
32. Bert watches with his maid. "Bravo," he says as they start the moon walk.
33. The Francises watch with their guests.
34. Sean says he can't believe what a waste of money the space program is.
35. Feeling moved, Don calls his kids. Sally answers, and repeats what Sean just said about the money. Don scoffs at her, and asks to speak with her brothers.
36. Roger's phone rings. "Ah, shit," he says.
37. He goes to Bert's office and takes his name plate off his door.
38. Joan arrives, teary-eyed. “I’m so sorry,” she says to Roger. Jim comes too: “Roger, my condolences. He was a giant.”
Jim uses this opportunity to keep trying to fire Don. Roger can't believe it. "Is this what would happen if I died?"
39. Sally goes outside. The nerdier kid, Neil (Elijah Nelson), is looking at the sky through a telescope. Sally kisses him.
40. Sally, like her father, seems to take what she can get because it's there. Looking like her mother, she stares up at the stars.
41. Roger calls Don to tell him about Bert.
"Now I'm going to lose you too," he says to Don. "We don't have the votes anymore."
Roger is drunk. "Poor Bert. I should have realized it was the end. Every time an old man starts talking about Napoleon, you know they're gonna die." And: "He was hard on me. But maybe he was right." He ends by saying, "Give 'em hell tomorrow." Don says OK.
42. In watching the lunar landing, Don has looked into the future — and he knows he's of the past. The future is Peggy. He goes to her room.
43. "I wouldn't do this if I didn't know you could." He has complete confidence in her.
"We have no liquor!" she says.
44. Roger goes to meet with the McCann Erickson guy to propose that they buy the agency. He tells Roger he's interested if Roger can bury the hatchet with Ted.
45. Peggy is going to pitch. Don introduces her.
It's how she was going to introduce him: "Every great ad tells a story. Here to tell that story is Peggy Olson."
46. All eyes are on her.
47. Roger is waiting for Don at home.
48. Roger tells Don that they've gotten an offer from McCann Erickson, and they would be a separate, independently run agency.
Don is resistant, but Roger convinces him, or gets close to, that it's their only choice. He tells Don, "Cutler's not gonna stop until the firm is just Harry and the computer."
49. Everyone gathers in Roger's office. Jim thinks that Don's ouster is a given.
50. Roger tells them about the offer, a 51% ownership provided everyone signs five-year contracts.
51. Joan and Pete are thrilled once he tells them how much money they'll be getting. Jim is panicking. Ted looks sick.
52. Harry walks in, eager. He says he finally wants to sign his partner deal: What are they meeting about?
53. Ted tells them all that he doesn't want to stand in the way, but he's "done with advertising." Don asks Ted to imagine that he could just go back to creative.
"I know you. I know the man I walked into Chevy with," Don says to Ted. "You don’t have to work for us, but you have to work." Ted looks confused. "I'd move back to the city?"
Roger: "Ted's in. Let's have a vote."
54. Ted votes yes. Jim votes yes!
55. Peggy tells Don they got Burger Chef. "Well, they heard what I heard," he tells her.
56. Roger has gathered the office to remember Bert. But Don heads downstairs.
"Where are you going?" Peggy asks.
"Back to work!" Don answers.
57. But before he can do that, Don — who has always been prone to seeing ghosts — hears someone say his name.
58. It's Bert.
59. Bert sings "The Best Things in Life Are Free" to Don. He is shoeless!
60. Both, I think. Don starts off delighted, but by the end, he has tears in his eyes.
Good-bye, Bert.
61. Don is so taken aback by his sadness that he sits down.
