The episode explores the role women play in men's lives and opens with Don's planning a meeting for lunch, but then cuts to him meeting Faye at his apartment for sex, sandwiches left forgotten on the table.
With Joyce's help, Abe "bumps into" Peggy at the local bar, where the two engage in a conversation about race and feminism. After Abe dismisses Peggy's assertions that women have it as bad as African-Americans, she leaves angrily. The next day, Abe arrives at SCDP attempting to make amends with an article he has written about corporate injustice towards women. But when she reads the story, Peggy explodes in anger, as the article could get her fired.
Roger learns that Joan's husband is being shipped off to Vietnam and takes her out to a diner to comfort her. While walking through a dangerous part of town, they are mugged at gunpoint by a mugger, who takes Roger's wallet and watch, Joan's purse, and Roger and Joan's rings. Roger calms Joan in an alleyway, where in the heat of the moment, the two have sex.
Back at the SCDP office, Don deals with several crises at once. His secretary, the elderly Miss Blankenship dies at her desk while he is meeting with Fillmore Auto Parts. The grief-stricken employees quietly remove the corpse without the Fillmore clients' knowing. Additionally, Sally arrives at the agency after being found as a stowaway on the train. Betty refuses to pick up her child, forcing Don to ask Faye to handle Sally. Faye does not have much parental chemistry with Sally, leading Faye to lash out at Don for forcing her into a high-pressure situation with his daughter. When Betty finally arrives to pick up Sally, Sally runs away, refusing to go with her. She falls on the floor and Don's new secretary, Megan, comforts her. Sally then reluctantly goes home with Betty.
Later, the ladies of the agency leave the office one-by-one. Joan, Peggy, and Faye walk into the same elevator car as the doors close on them.
This episode contains examples of:
- The Big Rotten Apple: Joan and Roger getting mugged; Truth in Television, as New York's period of urban decay began in the mid-1960s.
- Black Comedy: The attempt by Joan and Pete to conceal Ida's death from the attention of the clients in the conference room plays out like this. The only sound we hear is the complaint from Harry about them stealing a rug from his office to cover the body.Harry: My mother made that!
- Blonde, Brunette, Redhead: Two key scenes:
- The scene where Betty picks Sally up in the reception office features two Brunettes (raven haired Megan and brown haired Peggy), a Redhead (Joan), and two Blondes (Faye and Betty).
- The elevator scene at the end has Joan (Redhead), Peggy (Brunette) and Faye (Blonde) — three very different 1960s women, all looking quite serious.
- Color-Coded for Your Convenience: The women in reception are color coded to match Sally's dress. Megan in a yellow dress, Faye in a yellow blouse under a navy blue suit, Peggy in a bright green, and Joan in lavender and pink florals all to contrast with Ice Queen Betty in blue florals.
- Disneyland Dad: Don offers to take Sally to either the zoo or the dinosaur museum; her choice, but they have to be at the office by noon. When they do get to the office, it’s almost 5pm, the clear implication being that he’s taken her to both.
- Epic Fail: Played with: Sally makes Don some french toast for breakfast, but mistakes a bottle of rum for a bottle of Ms. Butterworth's. Don doesn't think it's bad.
- Foil: Faye is a career woman who doesn't yearn for children and is very modern and business-like, yet she manages to take care of Sally and keep her occupied while they wait for Don. Betty is a traditional Housewife and mother who takes pride in her role, but is abusive to her daughter.
- Funny Background Event: Don and his coworkers do their best to keep the focus on themselves while, out the conference room window, Campbell struggles manfully with Miss Blankenship's corpse. This eventually intrudes on the "foreground" event when Harry's line rings through the office.
- Killed Off for Real: Miss Blankenship dies suddenly while sitting at her desk.Roger: She died like she lived – surrounded by the people she answered phones for.Bert: She was born in 1898 in a barn. She died on the 37th floor of a skyscraper. She's an astronaut.
- Last-Second Word Swap: When Joyce visits Peggy at work, and invites her to go to a bar afterwards, Stan starts singing Petula Clark's "Downtown", though when Joyce names the place (P.J. Clarke's, a real bar in NYC), he changes it to "Midtown".note
- Mood Whiplash: Sally goes from being happy due to a rare day out with Don to being angry at the imminent prospect of going home with Betty very quickly.
- Don, after finding out Miss Blankenship died at her desk, is understandably in shock, but quickly has to put on a confident face for the Fillmore representatives in order to keep them from noticing the commotion outside.
- Ooh, Me Accent's Slipping: Discussed in-universe; Peggy tells Abe that if she has another drink, she'll revert to her natural Brooklyn accent.
- Pink Is Feminine: Joan wears a pink and lavender floral dress while Sally's dress has pink designs.
- Premature Encapsulation: After Don and Faye have sex, he asks her about a part of work she's not allowed to talk about, and she asks if he knows the concept of a Chinese Wall, which would be the name of Episode 11.
- Shout-Out: After Stan makes leering remarks about Joyce and Peggy going out for drinks, Joyce dismissively calls him "Jughead".
- Shown Their Work: Bert instructs the medical attendants to send Miss Blankenship to "Frank E. Campbell's", which was a real funeral home at the time (and still in existence, though at a different location).
- True Blue Femininity: Three examples, all to contrast to one another.
- Betty the Housewife is in a blue floral dress.
- Faye the working woman wears a navy blue suit that is very business like.
- Ida Blankenship the old lady was wearing a blue suit when she died, after remarking how young women are so "pushy" with men, and wondering if a little pushiness would have helped her with Bert.
- Unusually Uninteresting Sight: Faye and Ken seem to be unfazed by the sight of Pete and Joan trying to move Ida's corpse to an office so that the clients don't see it.
