[freemonkey]

Originally Posted by livius drusus

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Ah, okay. It's true that he's been treated with compassion, or at least consideration, by most everyone (except for Pete in season one and Bert in season three when he blackmailed Don into signing a contract to snag the Hilton account). Even Betty was pretty nice to him about it and she had every reason to tear off his head and piss down his neck.

I still see that as different, though, or at least, I see Don's dealings with Lane as a business decision while the Dick situation is usually personal. (When it has been about business compassion wasn't in the equation, see above examples.) I think Don thought he was cutting Lane a break by letting him resign and by not telling people he embezzled and forged which would have destroyed his hard-won reputation as a great guy with the books.

He also meant what he said about starting over. Don can cut and run on a dime, so he probably couldn't even conceive that someone would envision the prospect as worse than death. Lane flipped PPL the bird, kept the SCDP going when Lucky Strike left and beat the shit out of Pete. The Lane Don knew was way tougher than him.

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I just want to say that what Don did was illegal and exposure would probably have cost him dearly in the business world for a time. Though, knowing Don, he could probably have spun it as an awesome re-branding campaign.