Mad Men Season 3

The season opens six months after the Cuban Missile Crisis. Don has a vision of events surrounding his own birth: he sees a midwife carry away what is apparently the latest in a series of stillbirths born to his future stepmother, Abigail; his father's encounter with a prostitute, in which she vows to "cut off [his] dick" if she becomes pregnant; her eventual death in childbirth, loudly repeating her vow all the while; and the moment he was brought to Abigail by the same woman who had carried away the dead child before. She tells Abigail Whitman the child's name is Dick, "after a wish his mother should have lived to see." Don and Sal then leave for a business trip to Baltimore, where Don cavorts with a flight attendant. Sal, meanwhile, has a homosexual encounter with their hotel's bellboy. After the fire alarm is set off, Don sees Sal with the young man. Don keeps it to himself, then pitches Sal a new advertising tagline, ostensibly for London Fog raincoats —"Limit your exposure". Pete is offered the role of Head of Accounts by Lane Pryce, a PPL executive brought in from the London office. Pete is ecstatic until he learns that he will be splitting the responsibility with Ken Cosgrove. At a country club party that Roger and Jane throw, Don and Betty both connect with strangers. Don strikes up conversation with a man who turns out to be Conrad Hilton, founder of Hilton Hotels. Betty has a friendly conversation with an affable man named Henry Francis, who works for Governor Rockefeller. Roger, meanwhile, takes issue with his daughter, Margaret, who does not want her 20-year-old stepmother, Jane, at her wedding, scheduled for November 23, 1963. Betty's senile father Gene, who finds Don despicable and unsuitable for his daughter, comes to live with the Drapers and strikes up a friendship with Sally, even allowing the young girl to drive. Gene soon dies, and Sally scolds her parents and Betty's relatives for not caring about his demise. Betty gives birth to a boy, named Gene after her father and over Don's strenuous objections. Days before Joan's last day at the company, her husband returns home drunk, telling her that he was passed over for an important promotion and that he has been unofficially blacklisted by his teachers from being a professional surgeon in the state of New York due to his subpar surgical skills. She will have to keep working. Joan tells him that she has already quit Sterling Cooper, to which he demands she get another job. Executives from Putnam, Powell, and Lowe travel from London to take a look at the Sterling Cooper officers. Ken Cosgrove rides a John Deere tractor in the office after winning them as a new client. The secretaries begin riding the mower around the office in celebration. Lois rides it and loses control, running over a PPL executive's foot. Joan quickly takes control of the situation, resulting in her spending her last day on the job in a hospital waiting room, covered with blood. Meanwhile, Lane Pryce (whose work with the agency was to be "rewarded" with another transfer, this time to India) is informed that he will keep his job in the States. Unfortunately, weeks later, he is informed that the agency will be sold again and his future is left in doubt. Conrad Hilton starts harassing Don with late night phone calls, seeking off the books help with regard to advertising for his companies. Don finds it both flattering and overwhelming, as he struggles to create quality material for the man. When Connie learns Don is a free agent with no contract tying him to the agency, Cooper uses his knowledge of Don's assumed identity to pressure him into signing a contract so as to retain Hilton's business. Betty enlists Henry's help with a neighborhood petition, and becomes more smitten with him. She begins sending him letters and meeting with him in secret. Elsewhere, Don begins having an affair with Suzanne Farrell, Sally's teacher. During this period, Duck Phillips tempts both Pete and Peggy with business overtures to entice them to come to work with him at Grey; while neither accepts the business proposition, Peggy does accept Duck's initiation of a sexual relationship with her. While working late at night on a shoot for a Lucky Strike commercial, Lee Garner, Jr., makes a sexual advance to Sal. Sal refuses, causing Lee to call Sterling Cooper and demand his firing. Roger fires Sal. When Sal goes to Don for help, Don explains that the loss of Lucky Strike would be detrimental to Sterling Cooper and expresses little sympathy with Sal's refusal. From a payphone in a public park, Sal calls his wife and lies to her that he will be working late. Meanwhile, Betty breaks into the drawer to the desk in Don's den. She finds his box of Dick Whitman's family photos as well as evidence of Anna Draper's existence and Don's divorce from her. She confronts him. Don is forced to divulge the secret of his former identity and his desertion in Korea. Pete becomes despondent when alerted by Lane Pryce that Ken is to become Senior Vice President in charge of Account Services. The news of the assassination of John F. Kennedy hits even as Roger's daughter gets married. Pete is adamant about leaving the agency and mourns Kennedy on the couch with his wife. Greg informs Joan that he is enlisting to become an Army surgeon. Peggy hears of Kennedy's death after meeting with Duck for afternoon sex. Confronted with the lies her husband has told her regarding his identity and infidelities as well as her own growing attraction towards Henry, things come to a head with the Drapers following the assassination of the president. Don's inability to connect to Betty's emotional grief over the death of the President leads Betty to tell Don that she doesn't love him anymore and that she wants a divorce. Connie meets with Don to inform him that he's discovered that Sterling Cooper and PPL both are being bought out by McCann Ericson, the firm handling Hilton's other accounts, which he firmly insists precludes his working further with Don. Infuriated, Don returns to the office and begins hatching plans with Cooper, Sterling, and Pryce to buy the company. When their offer is rebuffed, Don realizes that Lane's authority to fire the other conspirators would sever their contracts, giving them the ability to walk away and start a new advertising agency, with Lane receiving a partnership stake in recognition of his essential role in the scheme. Don and Roger start reaching out to other employees to join their new agency, including Pete and Peggy. While drinking with Sterling, Don learns about Betty's relationship with Henry Francis, confronts her physically and calls her a whore. However, faced with his own sins, Don later calls Betty and tells her that he will not fight the divorce. Betty leaves with the baby and Henry to get a divorce in Reno. Don, Peggy, Roger, Bert, Lane and Pete subsequently break into the Sterling Cooper office to take necessary supplies and files. Joan and Harry are soon called in to join the company and help them. The group meets in a small hotel room, where Joan answers calls with the name of the new firm: Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce.