The Dream of the Fisherman's Wife
painted by Hokusai

At McCann Erickson, Joan is mistreated by McCann's chauvinist executives and finds that her accounts are being jeopardized by the careless incompetence of a male McCann colleague. She ultimately takes her complaint to Jim Hobart, who offers to buy out her $500,000 stake in the company for 50 cents on the dollar. Joan threatens legal action and bad publicity, but eventually capitulates. Peggy also experiences mistreatment; while all her male colleagues and subordinates have been moved to McCann's premises, she alone is left without a new office. On principle, she refuses to leave the SC&P offices until this is remedied, and during the interim she bonds with Roger, who also lingers at the remains of his agency. She makes her eventual triumphant entrance to the McCann offices acting like a brash male: hung over, sporting dark sunglasses, smoking, and carrying Bert Cooper's 19th Century Japanese print of The Dream of the Fisherman's Wife that Roger gifted her. Don is invited to a kickoff meeting with Miller Beer focused on how to market the company's forthcoming "diet beer" product (not yet known as Miller Lite). As a younger employee captures the attention of the legions of redundant admen, with a vivid description of the product's core target consumer (the kind of presentation that Don used to star in), Don quietly leaves the meeting and starts driving west. In the middle of the night, he becomes so tired behind the wheel that he hallucinates holding a conversation with Bert Cooper. After arriving in Racine, Wisconsin, he goes to Diana Bauer's former home, hoping to find her but instead finding Diana's ex-husband's new wife. Don spins a tale about needing to deliver a contest prize to Diana, but is found out when Mr. Bauer arrives. Bauer tells Don he is not the only broken heart Diana has left behind and forces Don to leave. Don continues driving west and picks up a hitchhiker on his way to St. Paul, Minnesota.