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Mad Men Season 5 Episode 12

Commissions and Fees

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AIRED: Jun 03, 2012

9.2

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Episode Summary

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While the company revels in the glory of its successful Jaguar pitch, Lane reaches breaking point. Plus, Sally is reunited with an old friend.

TV.com Episode Review

Mad Men: The Five Stages of Loss

All the little clues that've been dropped throughout the season finally came to a head in "Commissions and Fees."

By MaryAnn Sleasman, Jun 04, 2012

Fan Episode Reviews (3)

Commissions and Fees

7.5

By thefanof, Jun 09, 2012

Well, this was a different episode yet again, the show has been trying to give us something new week to week as opposed to previous seasons, but I am disappointed in them killing Lane off. His character never quite fit in, but he added a lot to the show all the time whenever they did give him a true storyline.

Entertaining show tonight, but not a fan of the decision they made.moreless
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Shock and Oh!

8.0

By BigB11, Jun 04, 2012

I watched the recent episode of 'Mad Men' and the British guy Lane had a big way to go out. First,he's called to Don' s office aboout a rejected check to discover Lane was being shady. BUSTED! Lane is fired,and as soon as he got home his wife wants to take a ride in a new car.He didn't tell her he'd been let go. He had some financial problems,but I think he can't keep it to himself. At least he should've talked to somebody like his wife.But she didn't care less. Later at night,Lane gets outta bed to head back to the office.When Joan tries to enter that morning,the door is blocked by a table. She and the others discover Lane comitted suicide by hanging. OMG! First Megan quit to pursue acting, last week Peggy quit to work for a rival agency,and Lane gone. It's like SCDP is losing people. It's like The Temptations song "I'm Losing You". The other OMG is that Sally got her period while spending time with that boy who used to live in her neighborhood. Looks like Sally is developing.moreless
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Lane leaves and Sally becomes a woman

8.5

By Gilda, Jun 04, 2012

Well this was a very Lane and Sally centered episode. The two main things that happen in this episode is that Sally secretly spends the day with Glen and Lane finally gets caught for embezzling. This episode was executed fairly well and there were a couple of funny parts. However Lane's story does get quite depressing. I give this episode 8.5 out of 10 even though the main stories were executed very well, Lane was never one of my favorite characters and b/c he is the main focus I didn't enjoy it as much (However what ends up happening to Lane will probably influence the final and it is quite major so you should watch this episode). I also found that some of the scenes were kind of slow. The other thing that kind of disappointed me with this episode is that we didn't see Peggy at all so hopefully we will see her in the final b/c I want to see what her life is like after leaving SCDP.

Ok so now for some spoilers so don't read on if you want to be surprised.

Ok so Lane finally gets caught for embezzling the company's money. Don notices that he did not sign for the check and confronts Lane. Lane then begs for forgiveness however this broken trust causes Don to tell him that he must leave the agency and he promised that the other partners would not be told why. Don also pretty much says that if he asked for help in the begging they would have helped. At this point Lane is now losing money fast and doesn't have a job to support his wife and son and returns home to find out his wife has bought him a Jag (which to him would be a constant reminder of the lies that he did during his stay at SCDP). But at this point Lane has given up on life and later in the night takes a rubber hose and some rags in order to commit suicide. I was shocked to see this happen but the funny thing is that the Jaguar won't start and I loved that scene because reinforced the joke that Jaguars are not reliable for anything. At this point I really thought that he would take this as a sign to start over in life and not to give up. But being Mad Men the next scene shows him returning to the office to write a letter of resignation and the next day he is discovered by Joan to have hanged himself (btw you do see the body and that is some powerful shots in this episode to see what the other characters see). And in the end you see that Don feels responsible for not giving him another chance and for not trying harder to help him. However I also saw this as something Lane would do. Instead of acknowledging his problems and standing up for himself and telling his wife what is happening he ends up taking the easy way out, the same approach that got him in trouble in the first place. It's too bad that he ended up leaving this way, throughout his run this season he was always struggling to find his place and his worth to the company, but he had some good scenes this season (beating up Pete). I do think that they won't change the name of the ad agency but I do wonder how this event will affect not only the final but also the rest of the series and how it will affect Don's look on life and his actions.

The other story that happens in this episode has to do with Sally. The main thing that really happens with her is that she refuses to go on a ski trip with her mother (claiming that she hates Betty and doesn't like spending time with her) so she goes to stay with Don and Megan. Because Megan has an audition and Don has a meeting she gets to stay home alone. She uses this opportunity to meet up with Glen and they go to the museum. There Glen talks about how horrible his life is, how he only sees Sally as a little sister and some other things about life. During their outing Sally kind of comes to the realisation that Glen isnt really the guy for her and the fantasies that she has been forming about him kind of fade (earlier in the episode he tells Megan and her friend that Glen is her boyfriend). While there Sally gets her period and not knowing what to do ditches Glen and returns to her mother's house. I've always found Sally's relationship with Betty interesting b/c her feelings towards her mother always flip-flop. Like how she constantly complains how horrible her mother is but whenever she faces problems or doesn't know what to do she does run to Betty for help because unlike Megan Betty is her mother. One of my favorite scenes in this episode is one of the ones towards the end where Betty crawls into bed with Sally and lies next to her and this grin forms. I think part of it is b/c she likes the fact that Sally does need her and partly b/c to her she has won yet another battle against Megan b/c Sally came to her for help. I kind of hope that eventually Sally and Betty form a better mother/daughter relationship. Yeah so overall it wasn't a bad episode however I did find that it did get slow at certain parts. Overall it was very interesting however I dont think it will be one of the episodes from this season that I will be rewatching alot.

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Cast & Crew: STARS

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Jon Hamm	Don Draper
Elisabeth Moss	Peggy Olson
Vincent Kartheiser	Pete Campbell
January Jones	Betty Francis
Christina Hendricks	Joan Holloway Harris
Jared Harris	Lane Pryce

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Cast & Crew: RECURRING AND GUESTS

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Timothy Carhart	Jed Covington	Guest Star
Ray Wise	Ed Baxter	Guest Star
Michael Chieffo	Jim Buckley	Guest Star
Embeth Davidtz	Rebecca Pryce	Recurring Role
Mason Vale Cotton	Bobby Draper	Recurring Role
Marten Holden Weiner	Glen Bishop	Recurring Role

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Jessica Pare and Kiernan Shipka in Mad M...

© 2012 AMC Networks Inc.
January Jones in Mad Men from "Commissio...

© 2012 AMC Networks Inc.
Jared Harris in Mad Men from "Commission...

© 2012 AMC Networks Inc.
Timothy Carhart, Jon Hamm, and John Knox...

© 2012 AMC Networks Inc.

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- Although credited, Elisabeth Moss (Peggy Olson) and Jay R. Ferguson (Stan Rizzo) do not appear in this episode.
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