And Did You Rush to The Phone To Call? Mad Men, Season 2 Episode 12, The Mountain King

I have to start here, with Joan, because in a episode where everyone is ready to become someone new, someone different, her "new" is the most heartbreaking. The image of Joan being raped by her fiance on the floor of Don's office, staring blankly, and the image of her trying to compose herself and go to dinner with him afterward were two of the most gut-wrenching scenes of television I have seen in a long time. He wants someone else, someone less aggressive, more innocent, and he will force her into her place. Poor Joan. She knows she is too good and too smart for her job, and even as she recites all of his attributes, she knows that she is far too good for her rapist fiance. And yet, it seems she feels she has no choice but to accept what society is willing to give her. Too smart, too sexy, too beautiful for her own good, she is not yet brave enough to ask for anything more. I think the scene with Peggy shows us that Joan respects Peggy and even envies her, but cannot find a way to follow her. Peggy may be without a partner, but as she surveys the office alone at night, it seems she has become successful and even happy in a way that Joan cannot imagine. For now at least.

(I had a few naive fantasies after that rape scene. That Joan would whip her engagement ring into the doctor's face, that Roger would find out and take him down quietly, that Joan would confide to Peggy, Paul, or anyone else in the office... all unrealistic but preferable to Joan deciding that this is who she has to be now.)

Speaking of Peggy, I loved that little scene with her and Roger ("Did I call you something else?", "Ginger, did you hear about this?!" Roger Sterling, comedy genius!) . I think it is interesting that when Joan and Peggy met back in Season 1, Joan looked down on her as some country bumpkin who didn't understand the rules of polite society. Now those rules are holding Joan down, and it is Peggy's breaking of them that is creating her a whole new life. Her pitch for Popsicle was pure Don Draper, and she did it beautifully. I also loved the scene with her and Pete, speaking plainly and as equals, making a few little jokes ("I'm sleeping with Don. It's working out very well.") and even making Pete a bit more likable. I also loved him trying and failing to approximate normal human behavior ("You should put some pictures up in here. Your family, or...people..."). In contrast to Joan, the new life that Peggy is building for herself has the potential for actual satisfaction. (Even only she didn't have that one little secret dogging her...)

Ahh, but onto what we've been waiting for since last week. The king of new personas and new lives, looking again for a new one. Don Draper/Dick Whitman or someone in between? We now know at least that Don/Dick/ whoever does has some idea of what a good marriage is, because before he met Betty, he was in one, with the real Don Draper's wife! Those scenes with him and Anna were a revelation. Here is someone with whom he can be his true self. Jon Hamm continues to amaze me as he bring another side of our main character to life. This is not stone cold Don Draper or cowardly Dick Whitman, but a different man, who is soft but not weak, who is comfortable in his skin, who can talk, who can listen, who can even SMILE and mean it. I don't think it is just because she knows his secret. There seems to be a bond between them that we have not seen him have before, not with Rachel or even Peggy, who is so like him.

We learn a few more details about Don/Dick's back story here: Anna caught him and didn't turn him in, they became close and spent a good deal of time together, he has been supporting her (or at least sending her money) since then, and they seem to have lost contact after he married Betty.

But the details don't even matter when you see Don/Dick with Anna, both in the present and in flashbacks. He is just so thoroughly someone else when he is with her it is incredible. He discusses his ever growing detachment with her ("I feel like I'm watching my life from the outside. I scratch at the surface, but I just can't seem to get in."), his problems with Betty, his fears, all of it. When we see him in a flashback, Don/Dick seems so happy, so filled with hope. His marriage to Betty may have been the turning point for him. Before that, Don Draper was just a name, a way to get out of Korea, away from his family, maybe even a little bit of whim. But once he marries Betty he is cemented in that lie. He cannot go back and losing his truest friend is just part of the price he pays. Don Draper goes from being a name to being a life that he was to live

Hearing Don describe what he loves about Betty ("She's beautiful and happy. I love the way she looks at me..") makes me wonder if was ever realistic about who Betty really was, or if living with a liar has just changed her so much that his description of her seems unrecognizable. (Happy?) I think people have a hard time finding the character of Betty very likable, and though she does have her awful moments (that entire conversation with Sarah Beth was terrible! I have to agree she was being a horrible person there), I can't help but feel sympathy for her. Living with Don does not seem like it was ever easy. I thought her conversation with Sally was lovely, and about as good as you could do given the uncertain situation. I also think that it signalled that Betty's new persona is going to be an adult. An adult who wears riding pants all the time, but a grownup nonetheless, which is much more than we could say for her in the past.

Pete, our other child-like grownup seems to be ready to take a step into the real world himself. Not allowing his father in law to make a decision that should rightfully be his and his wife's was probably the best move I've seen Pete make in the whole series. He did have temper tantrum about the baby with his wife a few scenes prior, but I still feel like it was a nice step forward, as was his sincere congratulations and admiration for Peggy.

To bookend the horror of who Joan is forced to become someone else, is another entirely sad new life for Bert Cooper. After the merger, he feels like he is nothing more than a useless old man staring down death.

Still, so many questions and just one episode left! Will Don come back, will he and Betty work it out, will he open up to her, tell her everything, something, anything? Will he still have a place after the merger? Will my secret dreams come true and Roger and Joan will run off together in hotness?

One more episode! Sign those contracts for season 3 ASAP!!