Trust Me Episode 1.06 Promises Promises

On Friday morning, Mason gets ready for work and tells Erin he's excited about their weekend-three nights of hotel living with just the two of them. She doesn't seem as thrilled, however, and he senses it. When he calls her out, she says she's being cautious. Too many times he's promised a getaway and then stiffed both her and the rest of the family for work. That time in Florida when he left her and the kids stranded-with his parents-because of a Kraft pitch? Yeah, she hasn't forgotten. Mason tells her that happened back when he was a company big shot and had places to be. Now he's just the got that lost Arc Mobile, their biggest account. Nothing is going to get in the way of this weekend. As of three o'clock this afternoon, he's all hers.

Nonethless, Erin promises she'll be excited when she wakes up next to him after sleeping on 700-thread count bedsheets.

At the office, Hector reports that the color printer is broken. He says he's just going to use one on another floor, but Tom tells him to wait-he doesn't like the copy they have. It's too obvious. It appears as though the two of them are doing a little freelance work for Club Lucky, which now delivers to offices. The tagline they've come up with-Get Lucky at work!-does seem a bit gratuitous, but Hector reminds Tom that they don't have time to nitpick. They need five billboard designs plus print pronto. When Tom puts his foot down and says they need to stop waiting until the last minute to bang this stuff out, Hector responds by saying that's the beauty of freelancing-you wait and wait until a brilliant idea flashes, then you enjoy the flash of easy cash that follows. Before Tom can say anything else, Sarah walks in with a box of cinnamon rolls, which Hector sniffs out immediately. He tries grabbing them, but she tells him they're for her new partner.

Wait, what? She has a new partner?

Yep-Julie Finn.

Tom recognizes the name. She's the woman who did the Nike campaign that won a bunch of awards, like, ten years ago. She must be old school. Sarah rolls her eyes and tells him she took time off to have a couple of kids. When she found out that she wanted back in the ad business, Sarah provided a doorway. She tells both Hector and Tom they're lucky they get to sit next to Julie-they're going to learn a lot.

Mason gets off of the elevator and is passed by two maintenance guys wheeling boxes upon boxes of Arc Mobile files and designs out of the office. He swallows this, along with his pride, and makes his way to Tom's desk to ask him if he's finished the Bertolli radio spots. When he sees the Club Lucky work up on his computer, he knows his answer. He scolds both him and Hector for doing freelance work while on the clock at RGM. Hector tries calling him out and saying that he's done freelance stuff in the past, but Mason one-ups him-he's never been stupid enough to do it in front of his boss. He tells them to have the radio stuff done by three so he can look at it before he leaves early today and tells them maybe Sarah, who's busy setting up Julie's cube next door, will help them. Sarah says no, though; she has to bring Julie up to speed on the Dove accounts today. Knowing he can't argue with her, Mason keeps moving to his office, where he finds Conner. . .being tended to by a professional masseuse.

Conner looks up from the massage table and introduces him to, Shannon, the masseuse. He tells Mason all of the Arc stuff has the group stressed and completely toxic, so he brought Shannon in to help ease their pain. Mason isn't impressed by Conner's version of problem solving, but doesn't stop the massage. Instead, he sits down behind his desk and tells Conner to work on the Bertolli radio spots because he doesn't think Tom will deliver. Conner thinks Mason should get up on the table next-he's too tense for his own good. Mason refuses because he hates massages-they stress him out. Are you supposed to leave your underwear on or not? He never knows. Shannon tells him people are supposed to ask, but Mason isn't comfortable with that. How is it less stressful to ask a complete stranger that?

Conner says he's not doing the radio spots. Tom will take care of it and, if he doesn't, Mason can push the client meeting with Bertolli back until Monday. Mason doesn't want to do this, though, because it'd hang over his head all weekend. He tells Conner that he and Erin have booked a little getaway for the next three days-in Chicago. Conner likes this idea-a staycation, if you will. Maybe that's what he needs to cleanse his system of all the Arc drama. Can he come with Mason and Erin?

Mason says no, needless to say.

Julie Finn walks in and makes her way toward Sarah. She's stopped by Hector, who asks if she'd like some help with the books she's carrying, but she gives him a snappy answer involving his "varsity jacket," and keeps moving. An extremely overzealous Sarah offers Julie the cinnamon rolls at her new desk, adding that they're not warm anymore because she got them at nine this morning. This first exchange smells of veiled backhandedness. Julie says she wasn't aware people came into the office at nine. Sarah tells her to come in whenever she wants, but tells her that she comes in at nine. Really pushing the rolls, Sarah shoves them in Julie's face excitedly, perhaps even nervously. At first Julie declines, saying she ate on the train on the way over, but, after realizing Sarah won't be relenting any time soon, she grabs one and takes the world's smallest bite.

Good. Now that that's over with, they can get to work on the Dove stuff. Sarah begins, but Julie stops here-she's working in a cube? When she was told by Sarah that'd she'd be getting an office with a window, she envisioned having her own personal space surrounded by four walls. After all, she works best that way. Trying to make her happy at any cost, Sarah says she agrees and tells her they'll go work in her office. As they move in that direction, Julie rolls her eyes.

That didn't go well. . .

Tom rushes into Mason's office with a paper in his hand to find Conner still on the masseuse's table, even though his boss is working right there behind his desk. Mason expects the paper to have radio copy on it, but he's wrong. When Tom was on the 25th floor printing of his freela-uh, stuff-he found that sitting on the tray. He hands Mason the paper, on which the title page of a creative brief for the 2016 Olympic Chicago bid is printed. Apparently, someone at RGM is working on this and neither Mason nor Conner is particularly thrilled that it's not their group, especially because Tom found this on 25-that's Cochran's floor.

Perhaps working on the Olympic bid is exactly what this group needs to get rid of the toxins, Conner points out. Mason agrees and says they need to talk to Tony about it. When he moves to the door, Conner doesn't follow. He says Tony is still mad at him about the whole shooting of the Arc Mobile commercial without his permission, so he wants to avoid him. Mason tells him that he's his partner, so he's probably pissed at the both of them. Conner still doesn't budge, so Mason is forced to go by himself.

He walks into Tony's office to find his boss doing a crossword puzzle. Two things are clear: losing the Arc account has created a good deal of free time for him and, based on the fact that he doesn't even turn around when Mason addresses him, he's still mad at him. Nonetheless, his Creative Director speaks his piece.

He asks if Tony was aware that Cochran's group was working on a campaign that could possibly convince the Olympic Committee that the city of Chicago could host the Olympics in 2016. Tony did know this, actually, and names off several other groups in addition to Cochran's that are working on it, as well. As it turns out, a few months back Rayner asked Tony if he'd like the opportunity to work on the Olympic stuff, but he declined because the group was so busy with the Arc campaign. So very, very busy, he adds. Mason takes this dagger and pushes further-now that they don't have that account, Tony could call Rayner and ask to see if there was still room for them to get in on the Olympic bid. Tony, sarcastic as all get out, picks up his phone and pretends to talk to Rayner. He asks her if, now that they've lost a $75 million account, if they can pick up work on the new Olympic campaign. He reports to Mason that the fake Rayner in his head told him to tell the group to work on the projects they already have.

Even in the face of this, Mason stands up for everyone. He tells Tony that it's fine if he still wants to be mad at him for what he did, just don't take it out on the group. Doing the Olympic stuff would provide a big confidence and morale boost-lately, it's been like a funeral around the office.

Mason receives only silence from Tony, so he begins walking out. Tony stops him. He'll call Rayner, for real this time. Unless, of course, Mason wants to go behind his back and call her first. . .

Mason walks into Conner's office and his partner immediately starts acting out the Bertolli radio spot he's written. He plays the part of an angry Italian chef, complete with bad Italian accent, miffed about how much people enjoy Bertolli Oven Baked Meals. After reading the spot and getting excited about it being done, Conner notices that Mason isn't quite has happy. Why not? Well, Mason begins, he just convinced Tony to call Rayner about the Olympics stuff and she gave them permission to start working on a campaign. Conner doesn't understand-that's really good news. Mason finishes. The presentation to the client is on Monday.

So much for that staycation.

That afternoon, Mason debriefs the team. They've all heard the clichés about Chicago and he doesn't want any of that in their Olympic pitch. They need to convince the committee that their city can handle an event of this magnitude, both in volume and tradition. They need designs for everything-TV, print, outdoor, internet-by Monday. When the team hears this, it gives a collective groan, but Mason points out that they've worked weekends before. Plus, come on, it's the Olympics. It's huge. This is a great opportunity for their group to stand out.

The plan is to work all weekend, present to Tony first thing Monday morning and, if all goes well, present to Rayner second thing. Sarah asks what the brief is and Mason gives it to them:

Chicago is. . .

Huh? Chicago is. . .what?

Exactly, that's what they need to figure out. It's wide open. Sarah thinks that's complete laziness on the committee's part and Hector asks if they can bring in freelancers on this. Mason says absolutely not. They can't afford to spend company money on an account they don't even have yet. Sarah chooses this as a good time to introduce Julie to the group and tells everyone that they'll have her help all weekend. Julie receives a somewhat distracted cheer, as most of the group is already thinking about the project at hand. This is probably a good thing because it prevents them from hearing what Julie says to Sarah next-she was under the impression that they didn't work off-hours here. Her husband is out of town this weekend and she doesn't have a nanny. Sarah shows off her great ability to be empathetic. . .by laughing in Julie's face and calling her "hilarious." Mason tells them that they'll go over rough ideas tomorrow morning and choose a few from there.

Erin walks into the office with suitcases in hand and, because Mason's back is to the door, the entire conference room sees her before him. Conner waves and, when Mason turns around, the realization that he failed to call her hits him full force. Preparing for the storm that will surely hit, he walks away from the group and to her, saying she's early. Actually, she's twenty minutes late, Erin tells him, and immediately knows something's up. That's when she gets angry. When Mason tries to explain, she tells him she shouldn't be surprised, yet she can't believe she's choosing the group over him. Why didn't he call her? Mason says he was trying to figure out a way to tell her without making her upset. It's obviously too late for that and Erin begins walking out of the office. Mason doesn't want her to go home angry, but that's not where she's heading at all. She's going to the hotel to have a nice, relaxing weekend. She would've liked for him to be there, too. Erin shoves his suitcase towards him and storms out. Mason trudges back to his office.

Conner walks in there a bit later and asks why Mason didn't call Erin. He completely forgot about it-he was going to, though. Conner tells him he needs to go to the hotel immediately, but Mason doesn't agree. He forced Tony to call Rayner to get them this project and it'd look awful on his part if he left. No, Conner counters, it'd look like he loves his wife. Plus, they already have good ideas to work on, so he has no reason to worry about being out of the office. Still, Mason doesn't move. Erin will be fine-scoring this account would really put the Mink group back on the map.

Okay then. Conner says he's going.

Wait, where?

To the hotel. He grabs Mason's suitcase and walks out of his office. Mason follows him out into the land of cubicles, where everybody pretends to be working but really listens in on their conversation. When he asks Conner why he's taking his suitcase, Conner tells him that there's a beautiful woman waiting at the hotel and someone needs to take care of her. Mason stops him. He wants to go on his staycation, but he doesn't want to be the asshole boss that leaves his group working over the weekend, then comes in on Monday morning to find out that he hates their work. Conner tells him not to worry about it-he can leave him in charge. He'll be just like Mason, so he can have full confidence that everything is in good hands. He can go enjoy his relaxing weekend while Conner works with everyone else to put together a great campaign. It'll all be here for Mason on Monday morning, crisp and awesome.

Finally, Mason relents and agrees. He tells Conner, however, that he'll leave his cell phone on all weekend and he wants to be contacted with updates and ideas so he knows everything is going well.

After Mason leaves, Sarah walks over to Julie's cube to ask her if she's got anything. Julie says she received a nanny recommendation from a friend who said Ukrainians are great nannies. She's not sure if this is true or not, but she's running out of options. Sarah says she meant she wanted to know if she had any ideas for the Olympics stuff.

Conner calls the group to attention. He tells them that Mason had a family commitment this weekend and he's asked all of them to run their work by him, Conner, who will then report to Mason. As a result, his first act as acting Creative Director is the following: go home. They will meet back tomorrow morning at 9:00a.m. Wait, no. Make it 9:30. He walks into his office and shuts the door. Knowing full well Mason probably wouldn't like this, nobody budges. Sarah looks at Julie and tells her that they're going nowhere. On his way out of the building, Mason runs into Tony when his elevator opens on the 22nd floor and he's forced to share a very painful ride with him. Mason asks him what he was doing down on that floor, but Tony's question trumps his-why does he have a suitcase? Oh, this? Well, um, he's about to go check-in at a hotel nearby. With all of the work they have to do this weekend, he wants to stay close. Complete lie.

Wait. He keeps a suitcase at the office? Mason continues the (sort of) fib and says Erin dropped it off for him. He exits the elevator, almost passing out from nerves, and Tony tells him he's looking forward to hearing their ideas on Monday.

On Saturday morning in the hotel room, Erin reads the paper as Mason draws an Olympics logo on his sketch pad. When she calls him out for being too wrapped up in work, he tries to defend himself. It was just an idea he had and he needed to get it out. Now that it's on paper, he's done. This isn't very convincing. She tells him that he needs to relax and stop thinking about work. In fact, she's going to help him with that. She scheduled a couple's massage for them later that day. Unfortunately, this only riles him up. He doesn't want to do that-the prospect of some other woman rubbing him down while she's right next to him isn't really palatable. And what if their masseuses are guys? He doesn't want to watch some dude put his hands all over her. Just thinking of that stuff stresses him out. Erin, knowing that the massages aren't to blame for him being tense, says it's fine if he wants to go into the office for an hour to see that it can run without him if that'll settle him down. Knowing her husband, though, once he sees that, he'll probably get depressed because it'll appear as though they don't need him. At first, Mason says he's not going, but she pushes him. They can meet up at the spa later and, after that, it's all about them back in the hotel room for some fun. . .

At the office, Julie watches in horror as her young son, Ellison, runs wild around the cubes knocking things over and making a general ruckus. She apologizes to everyone. The Ukrainian nanny turned out to be 80 years' old and Julie felt as though her baby was enough for the woman to handle. Hence Ellison being at RGM.

Conner is nowhere to be seen and people are starting to get antsy. Tom yells at Hector to get up off of the couch to finish their freelance work so they can get their Olympics pitch together. Julie tells Sarah that Conner needs to get there because she needs to be out at 2:00p.m. on the dot. Sarah calls Conner and hears his phone ringing from behind his closed office door. What the hell? She goes into his office and finds his cell phone, but not him. That's when Mason walks in. He asks the whereabouts of Conner and is told that nobody knows. He was supposed to be in over an hour ago. As if on cue, his buddy strolls in excitedly rallying the troops and telling them to get ready to work. Then he sees Mason looking less than pleased.

In Conner's office, Mason asks him to explain where the hell he's been, see how it's after eleven in the morning. He was mining an idea. Conner pulls out a cocktail napkin with some writing on it and says he struck gold. He basically has an entire campaign, all he needs is an art director-but not Mason. What's Mason doing at the office? He said he'd call him when things got underway and they're now officially underway. Mason says he'd been kicking some ideas around and he thought he'd maybe get some people together a brainstorm a bit. Conner turns serious-if he didn't know any better, it'd seem like Mason was there because he didn't trust that he could manage the office. Everything will be fine. He won't let anybody let him down. He hands Mason his briefcase and tells him to head back to the hotel. Mason lets Conner hold onto the reins for now.

As he walks out amongst the cubicles, it's clear that the nerves of the team are a bit frayed. Ellison has finally settled down. Julie says he's lying down because his stomach hurts because he got into the cinnamon rolls. Conner tells everyone to gather in the conference room for a meeting and, right before walking out, Mason tells him to listen to everyone's ideas. They've had a long morning and, you never know-they might have some more gold for him.

Conner walks into the conference room and calls on Hector first-what's his idea? Hector hesitates and it seems like he might not actually have an idea. Tom talks for him. They're thinking that in 2016, people probably won't even be watching TV, so they pitch an idea for a completely user-generated campaign. People can walk around Chicago and film why they think their city is the greatest on Earth, then upload them online. They'll get a first hand look at what makes Chicago worthy of the Olympics.

Conner shoots this down immediately. No TV, no radio, just internet? Not only does it sound like they want to get out of doing work, it appears as though they want to do no work at all with all of this user-generated talk. Just like that, Hector and Tom are shot down.

Next up, Sarah and Julie.

With Conner rudely hurrying them along, they struggle to pitch him their first idea. Open on Lakeshore Drive during what appears to be the marathon. When they pull out, it's actually hundreds of marble statues, each speaking to the thousands of years of Olympic history. Conner calls it cheesy and shuts them down.

Trying to save face, Sarah suggests focusing on the food of Chicago, like deep-dish pizza and Polish hot dogs. They can focus on all of the international flavors of the city and-

What is this, the Eating Olympics, Conner interjects. Everyone in the room is stunned by his very unproductive candor. Who the hell does this guy think he is?

Sarah tries beginning in on idea number three, but Conner stops her-he thinks he knows where this all is going. It's hard what they're trying to do-to come up with multiple full-blown, smart campaigns in such a short amount of time. It's nearly impossible. Instead, what they can do is come up with one very full-blown and very smart campaign to present to Tony. Sarah points out that Mason was quite clear when he said it was good to have several ideas and options in their arsenal on this project, but Conner is rolling. He says Mason isn't there and, if he was, he'd surely see the right way to do things. Conner delves right into his idea. . .

They combine the achievements of Chicagoans with the achievements of Olympians-a Chicago landmark with an Olympic athlete. Imagine a pole vaulter going over the Sears Tower; a high jumper clearing the L track; a long jumper leaping over the Chicago River. And so on and so on.

Lucky for them, he's done most of the TV stuff for this campaign. He still needs posters, though, and a spare few other things. From somewhere else in the office, Ellison calls out for "Mommy" and Julie rushes out of the room as Conner begins handing out responsibilities. He tells Hector he'll be working with him, Tom will be doing internet, and, since she appears to be alone, Sarah gets the radio spots. When she scoffs and says she's not going to do radio, Conner ignores it thanks her for being a team player. If anybody needs him, he'll be in his office. When he walks out, Hector speaks to the group and says, "I never thought I'd say this, but I wish Mason was here."

True that.

In the spa, Mason props himself on his elbows and looks completely frazzled lying on the massage table. Erin, who lies on the table right next to him, tells him to relax. The two masseuses then walk in-a man and a woman. When the woman asks if they have a preference, Mason requests that the dude touch neither of them. Erin directs the female to work on her husband, who looks to be about two seconds away from having a completely mental breakdown.

Back at the office, things aren't getting any better. Tom walks out of Conner's office completely beside himself. He reports to Hector that he just pitched ten internet ideas to Conner, but was told they weren't as good as the one Conner came up with in five seconds. He was then directed to work on that one idea, which wasn't as good as the ones that kept spewing from Conner's mouth. Hector tries to get this straight-King Conner didn't like his ideas and told him to try and come up with something better than the one he gave him. Yep, Tom says, but he was also told that he probably wasn't going to be able to come up with anything better.

Conner is clearly not boss material.

As if this wasn't enough, Tom's phone begins ringing-it's Club Lucky. Oh, they must want their ads, which were due yesterday. Tom stares at Hector, then storms off. Hector tries to say something to defend himself, but can't.

Sarah drops a collection of radio spots on Conner's desk and, without even reading them, he says they look long. When she points out that he hasn't even read them, he says he will when she makes them shorter. Sarah's not one to take anybody's crap, so she tells him that she's going to work on another idea instead. Conner lets her know that she can work on as many ideas as she wants, but she won't be presenting them to Tony. When she points out that he's not her boss-they have the same title-he agrees, but adds that Mason left him in charge. She leaves his office without another word.

Sarah tells Hector that he's going to have to help her because Julie had to go home. He isn't even halfway done with Conner's TV spots, so, no, he can't. There's no way he can help her and get his stuff done. As she turns around to leave, Tom frantically calls for him from across the room and beckons him to follow.

In the spa, Erin moans with relish when Mason's cell phone begins ringing. Not knowing that this was some sort of faux pas, he has his masseuse hand it to him. Hector is on the other line sounding like he might burst from frustration. He and Tom are hiding out in Tony's office to report to him-Sarah is angry, Julie's kid puked so she left, and that's not all. Hector tells him that Conner is being a major jerk and he's only letting them work on the campaign he created. He goes into the details about him shutting Tom's internet ideas down, which led him to take a walk around the office to cool down. When he did, he ended up on the 25th floor-and found Cochran's group's campaign. As it turns out, they're focusing their project almost entirely on Chicago architecture-just like Conner, except he doesn't know it. It's not that Cochran stole the idea, they just happened to come up with the same one simultaneously.

That's all fine and good, but why can't they just go tell Conner this?

Because he's not exactly open to other ideas or criticism at the moment.

Now, Mason's blood is almost boiling. The staycation is officially taking a backseat.

A bit later, Mason stomps through the cubicles and heads straight to Conner's office. He shuts the door behind him, but the entire conversation can be heard through the walls. Mason admonishes Conner for terrorizing the group so much that they decided calling him during his couple's massage was a better idea than trying to reason with him in his office. Conner asks who called with daggers in his voice, but Mason says it doesn't matter. What is important, however, is that Conner is planning on pitching a campaign very similar to Cochran's, yet he's too blinded by his power trip to realize it.

Wait, what's Cochran's idea?

Mason tells him he's merging the architecture of Greece with that of Chicago. Famous ancient Greek buildings and structures will be put in various places in the city. Conner points out that his idea is about achievement, not architecture. Nonetheless, this isn't the root of the issue.

The two men are yelling at this point. Mason says it's crazy that he actually thought telling the group to work on one campaign was a good idea. Conner laughs at him-he's never liked that Mason was a "come up with a hundred ideas and hope one of them sticks" guy. But what if someone from the team came up with a better idea than his and was too afraid to stand up for themselves? Conner wants to find out. He opens his office door and yells at the captive audience staring at them-do any of them think they have a better idea than his? Nobody really looks like they're going to say anything, of course, except for Sarah. She almost raises her hand, but, in the end, even she's silenced by this fight.

Conner, seeing the lack of hands and hearing the void of sound, thinks he won the argument. Mason, of course, can't really take that seriously. Arguing to the point of turning red in the face, it comes down to this: Conner wants Mason to admit that he's a control freak who just can't let go; Mason wants Conner to admit that he's being a huge asshole.

Neither obliges the other and when Conner asks Mason to leave, he refuses. This project is too important-he's taking it over. He walks down to his office and slams his door. Conner, looking to at least match this, slams his as well.

Quite a show. Quite a show indeed.

On Saturday night, Mason rushes into a swanky restaurant and finds Erin already eating a piece of cheesecake. Apparently, he missed dinner. He sits down and she looks up at him with a look mixed with hurt and anger. He apologizes for looking like a schlep, but he didn't want to stop back at the hotel to change out of fear of being late. Unfortunately, he's late anyway. That's okay, however, he assures, because he's there now. Erin asks if he really is, though. Is his mind really away from the office? She wishes he would've either chosen the staycation or work this weekend, even though he probably would've picked work. Mason argues that, even though he hates to say it, if he always chose her over work, there would be know getaways like they were supposed to have. She tells that they don't enjoy any getaways as it is. Good point.

In any case, she would've enjoyed herself a lot more had she planned on not having him around this weekend. She could've gone shopping and watched TV shows he hates. Instead, she spent the entire weekend waiting for him, hoping he'd walk through the hotel room door so they could be together. Holding back tears, she tells him that he misled her. He didn't make good on his promise to be with her. He always does this, too. He thinks he can be everywhere for everyone and he's such a good salesman that she believes him every time, even though he falls short a lot.

Mason didn't mean for this to happen. Nevertheless it did and it prevents Erin from enjoying the time they do have together tonight. She walks out of the restaurant, leaving Mason by himself.

On Sunday, the group struggles to come up with something. Sarah pitches here idea to some of the team, but it isn't met warmly. Mason and Conner play the avoidance game, but sporadically run into each other throughout the day. Tom and Hector are on their last nerve and don't really know how to deal with it.

The Mink group's campaign ideas might not be so hot. . .

On Monday morning, Mason and Conner share a terse greeting at an art table out on the office floor before parting. Sarah asks Mason if she can talk to him and is told no unless it's about the campaign. She goes on, even though it's not. She's beginning to think Julie and her aren't going to work out as partners. Yes, they've only been working together for around a day and a half, but Julie doesn't have the same work habits as her. She doesn't want to work weekends or late nights and she actually brought her kid to work. Mason points out that she just doesn't have the same priorities as Sarah and this is what's bothering her. He doesn't want her to punish Julie because she has a family. When he tells her that this job can devour your life if you turn your back on it, he's speaking out of experience. Sarah drops the issues and asks if Mason can help her with her campaign. He says no.

A bit later, Tony looks over the three projects presented to him in a conference room with their owners standing proudly next to them. He compliments Mason, Conner and Hector, and Sarah on there work. He seems to be pleased with all of their stuff and says he likes having so many options. Mason gives Conner a look. However, he thinks it'll be good to take just one idea to Rayner. Conner shoots Mason a look. That idea will be. . .his.

What? The collective face-and mood-of the group standing before him drop even lower, if possible.

Over the weekend, Tony says he had some spare time and he came up with something that just stuck. He begins explaining it-the flag of Chicago has four stars, each commemorating an important event in the city's history and he's been working in a fifth-but then looks at his watch. There's no time to go through it all. He'll pitch it to Rayner, then report back to them later. Before leaving he looks them all in the eye and thanks them for all of their hard work. He exits with a smirk.

Retribution is sweet, if not completely destructive.

Sarah walks into her office a bit later and Julie is already sitting waiting for her. Sarah takes a seat and begins her spiel. She tells Julie that it's become quite obvious that they have different priorities and that a partnership between them just isn't going to work. The two women clearly don't like each other and their conversation is laced with barbs. Sarah tells Julie to not feel bad for letting her down; Julie tells her not to worry-she won't because it's the other way around. Sarah let her down. She promised a flexible job, one that didn't require to her work weekends and provided her a window office. When Sarah says that sort of job doesn't exist in advertising, Julie expresses relief. Hearing that makes it so much easier to say the next two words:

I quit.

Sarah tries to save face by saying the fact that firing someone was weighing on her all weekend, but Julie, who's just has muleheaded as she, doesn't let her get away with it. She quit-she wasn't fired-plain and simple. Like any bad break up, the two women part on completely awful terms.

Back in the conference room, Mason and Conner regard each other's campaigns. They compliment each other on their work and their friendship begins to mend. They're both pretty sure that Tony had the fifth star idea the entire time and just wanted to make a point and, man oh man, did he. They laugh, then Conner points out that he was right the first time. Had he gone on the staycation with Erin, none of this would've happened. Mason gives him a look and asks the time. He starts walking out of the room and Conner tells him almost eleven. . .

Mason, sweaty and slightly disheveled, walks into his and Erin's hotel room to find his wife finishing up her packing. Emotionless, she asks how the pitch went. He doesn't want to talk about it; she knows it went poorly. Then he tells her how it is. . .

He just ran there, he's a little bit sweaty, he hasn't slept all weekend, they haven't had sex in a while so he's out of practice, but. . .he'll try his best.

Finally, Erin smiles and says that's all she asks for.

They fall onto the bed together and Erin pushes multiple crisp-and full-looking boutique bags off of it so they can finally explore those 700-thread count sheets. . .