In 1962, the Sterling Cooper agency faced a hostile takeover and internal collapse.
In short: Set against the backdrop of the Cuban Missile Crisis, the second season of Mad Men tracks the unraveling of Don Draper’s professional and personal life. As the agency faces a precarious buyout, the characters navigate shifting power dynamics, infidelity, and the haunting weight of their own hidden pasts.
The second season of Mad Men, which aired in 2008, spans from February 14 to October 24, 1962. The narrative centers on the internal instability at Sterling Cooper, exacerbated by Duck Phillips’s failed attempt to secure the American Airlines account. This professional blunder, combined with his ambition to lead the firm, leads Duck to orchestrate a secret buyout by the London-based agency Putnam, Powell & Lowe (PPL). While Don Draper is away on a business trip to California, partners Bert and Roger accept the deal, leaving the agency’s future in jeopardy.
Don’s personal life is equally volatile. His marriage to Betty deteriorates following his affair with Bobbie Barrett, the wife of comedian Jimmy Barrett. After Jimmy reveals the infidelity to Betty, she expels Don from their home. During his exile, Don travels to California to visit Anna Draper, the wife of the man whose identity he assumed, seeking refuge from his mounting identity crisis. Meanwhile, other characters face their own reckonings: Joan is assaulted by her fiancé, Greg Harris, and Peggy Olson leverages a new account to secure her own office, eventually revealing to Pete Campbell that they share a child given up for adoption.
Critically, the season was lauded for its historical authenticity and complex character studies. It secured the Primetime Emmy Award and the Golden Globe for Outstanding Drama Series for the second consecutive year. Critics noted that the show used the 1960s setting not merely for nostalgia, but to illustrate the internal lives of its characters. By the season finale, the agency’s structure is fundamentally altered, and Don returns to a fragile reconciliation with Betty, who is pregnant with their next child, leaving the firm and the marriage in a state of uneasy transition.
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- Summary by Intellect · source: Mad Men season 2
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