Matt Weiner has said that the theme of this season is “everyone for
themselves.” Again and again, through nearly all of the big and many of the
small developments this season, we’ve seen this theme manifest in the mindset and
behavior of the characters: Don’s hedonistic “love leave” comes at the expense
of SCDP; Megan quits her advertising career to focus on her acting dream; Peggy
leaves SCDP to advance her career; Joan prostitutes herself for a partnership;
Michael and Peggy each bilk Roger for under-the-table work he throws their way;
Don leaves Michael’s Snoball pitch in the cab, and so on and so forth. Lane’s embezzlement
of company money to pay his taxes is yet another prime example, and in “Commissions
and Fees,” we finally see some of the saddest consequences of this mindset. In the
payoff to what other critics have described as an excessive amount of
foreshadowing of something tragic befalling one of the SCDP partners, Lane
hangs himself rather than deal with the shame of being fired by Don once Don discovers
what Lane has done.*
