"I Never Thought About Love, When I Thought About Home" Mad Men: Season 4, This Season So Far.

So far, this season of Mad Men has not been engaging me the way the first few seasons did. I was so exhilarated to see Don and Co. strike out on their own at the end of "Shut the Door, Have a Seat" I didn't fully consider the implications of such a move. The "successful at work/disaster at home" formula worked for me, and I have been have a hard time adjusting to the "shaky at work/unmitigated and total disaster in every other walk of life" identity that Don has taken on this season. Even though Don Draper is a right bastard, I don't really like seeing him get what's coming to him. Watching him pathetically unable to woo women who would have been throwing themselves at him a year before, seeing him forced to say goodbye to the one person who can actually say "I know everything about you, and I still love you.", seeing his children miserable without him (and with the ever more monstrous Betty) is just getting too relentlessly grim for me. Even the moments in the show that cause you to laugh or smile do it wistfully, with nothing like the triumph that came when Don Draper would get a one-up on someone in seasons past.


Don't get me wrong, the acting is still wonderful, and Jon Hamm still amazes me with how he is able to shift from being Don Draper to Dick Whitman in subtle, barely perceptible ways. (Get this man an Emmy!) The show is still miles better than anything on television right now. But there is something of letdown in the fact that even though it seemed that many characters were getting the change they wanted and so needed at the end of last season, they are still just stuck. Stuck married to idiot man-children, stuck being idiot man-children, stuck making a choice between career girl and happy homemaker, stuck between something new and something old. But more than the that, the grimness comes from a sense that each of these people is just so alone. Don, Joan, Peggy, Betty, these are all incredible dynamic people afraid to show their true selves to anyone, afraid to give love, to be loved, to actually connect with someone else. It brings a darkness to the show that is making it hard for me to connect with them this season.


So my hope for the rest of the season? Don gets a little swagger back, Joan gets a little spine back (at home), Peggy realizes she can have a different life than her mother and still be happy....and Betty? Well, it's hard to imagine a happy ending for her, even with my relentless optimism. Um, Betty keeps ignoring Bobby and therefore does not totally destroy him the way she will her daughter? That's kinda happy. I'll take it. (Also, more Roger. NEED MORE ROGER)

The 10 best things on television this year, that I can recall.

10. Liam. - Sigh. Modern day Dylan McKay, complete with boat building skills and poor-little-rich-boy problems? I'll take it. When is 90210 coming back on again?!!

It's cool everybody, he's 26!

9. The knowledge that if you're dancing to House Music, it isn't cheating. -Now it might seem crazy for me to find something that could be labeled "best" in the "so awful you can only watch silently with your mouth agape" Jersey Shore, but it was pretty damn amazing watching Snooki explain to J-Woww's (Yes those are their names. Feel free to call her Snickers though, everybody does.) boyfriend that since J-Woww was dancing to House Music and not R&B, the fact that she was rubbing herself all over Pauly D. was actually some kind of dance "battling" and not cheating. Or even flirting! The best part? He totally accepted it as true and correct. Thank you Snooki, you have added so much to my life.


8. Dexter's Season 4 Finale "The Getaway"
-In a season that seemed determined to at least rearrange the show's premise a bit, making Dexter less of a monster a more of a family man, the season finale not only gave us hope that Dexter might become something better, it also showed us the price he pays for giving into his "dark passenger". After a beautiful scene with his sister (Jennifer Carpenter) that helps him realize that he actually CAN connect with other people, Dexter (Michael C. Hall) goes home to find that his wife Rita, murdered by the man he just killed. "The Getaway" gave us everything we could ask for in a season finale: great work by the cast, excitement, suspense, tender moments and a shocking twist.

7. Torchwood: Children of Earth America, this is how you do great sci-fi. This 10 hour miniseries left me speechless, a little depressed and hungry for more. After a couple of fun but uneven seasons, creator Russell T. Davies fearlessly made sure that Torchwood would not be remembered as a some goofy Doctor Who spin-off, but as a gut-wrenching, unforgettable series of it's own.


6. JAMES FRANCO ON GENERAL HOSPITAL. - Confession time: I watch soap operas. When I got Soapnet on my cable system, I physically jumped for joy. Sometimes they get so terrible, I can't even watch them for months at a time. But sometimes, amazing things happen on them, and this was one of those times.I don't know how this happened, if it was performance art, a practical joke or a lost bet, but whatever it was, it was awesome.



5. Lost, Season 5 -Time travel? Love triangles? Nuclear bomb detonation? Sign me up. This season Lost got back to what it does best, showing us the humanity (and inhumanity) of these characters while putting them through twisty, turny suspenseful hell. (The actual best thing I saw on TV this year? Kate's hair in this episode.)

4. Jim and Pam's Wedding, The Office -If The Office's "Niagara Falls" didn't bring a tear to your eye, you are not human, man. You must be nothing more than an incredibly realistic looking human style robot or something. I mean Kevin was wearing tissue boxes as shoes! It was great.

3.Chuck, Season 2
-If a smart, adorable show about a nerd whose brain accidentally becomes the CIA's most important super computer doesn't sound like your cup of tea, get a new cup. Chuck has the most like-able cast on television, great music, an only deepening mythology, more laughs per hour than most comedies and more real, raw moments per hour than most dramas. Season 3 is coming in January, and if you're smart, which I think you are, you'll be watching.




2. Modern Family
-Ask anyone who knows me, I cannot say enough good things about this show. It is hilarious, has an amazing cast, including some incredibly gifted child actors, and kinda warms your heart sometimes too! Also, a giant clown named Fizbo threatening to kick a jerk's ass if he doesn't apologize to his boyfriend. Welcome to awesometown people.


1. Mad Men, Season 3 Finale, "Shut the Door, Have a Seat" -Part fun and jaunty caper flick, part heart wrenching family drama, there was nothing better this year than the season ender of this great show. As usual, creator Matthew Weiner made sure that everything, from the cast to the clothes, was perfect. This was Don Draper's hour, and Jon Hamm did beautiful work as always. The look of pride and triumph that he has as he surveys that tiny Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce office just made the episode for me. He is ready to value the people he works with, and he is ready to build something that is his. You can tell from the look in his eyes that he can't wait to see how it all turns out, and I can't either.

A Window in Your Heart: Mad Men, Season 3, Episode 13, Shut the Door, Have a Seat.

There was so much awesome in this episode I don't even know where to start. The episode almost felt like two, one with an incredibly depressing and dramatic tone, and one with a fun, jaunty tone. My favorite part was most definitely the creation of Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce which was like watching the best caper/ heist movie I can think of starring my favorite actors in the world. It was that good. Highlights include:

-Don got out of his contract, cut and ran, yet got everyone awesome to go hobo with him!

-The way Roger snapped his hand up when Don asked if they should vote. He doesn't even need dialogue. John Slattery is a genius.

-Roger: "Join or die?! That's your pitch?"

-Roger on Jane:"The most interest that girl has ever had in a book depository."

-Bert on Jane: "You sold your birthright so you could marry that trollop!"

-Pete in his pajamas. That is the nightmare man. You are faking sick and your bosses come to your house! I kind of loved Pete again that scene. Oh show, why do you want me to love all these horrible people so much? I don't know why, but I do.

-Trudy as Pete was losing his temper "Oh Peter, can I speak to you for a moment?" Despite their obvious problems, I always feel like Trudy and Pete really do match each other well. She knows his rhythms and how to respond to them.

-Peggy to Don: "I don't want to make a career of being kicked when you fail." Even though I really wanted Peggy to come with him, I was also really proud of her for standing up to Don. I'm pretty sure he was as well.

-Pete, completely freaked out that Harry isn't supposed to be in on the plan, yelling so obviously as they walk in "Hey everybody! Harry Crane is here!"

-Harry Crane (Luckiest bastard in the world by the way. They wanted him? Hopefully Joan will be running media within the month.): "Are you kidding?" Roger, in that perfect deadpan: Yes. Yes we are. Happy Birthday."

-Bert Cooper threatening to tie Harry up and throw him in a closet for the weekend. That guy is so great.

-Roger making the call! Of course we knew it was Joan!

-Joan striding in triumphantly and saving the day. Don: "Joan. Of course."

-Roger and Joan sniping at each other like an old married couple. "I can't read your writing. What does that even say?!" "It's very clear, it says 'correspondence." ROGER AND JOAN 4EVA people! 4eva.

-Don awesomely breaking down the door to the art department. How can you not love his guy?!! Oh right, there's that whole total liar thing.

-Don showing up, hat in hand, to make things right with Peggy. It was great to see him admit to her how important she was, and how much he valued her work. "I will spend the rest of my life trying to hire you." It was great for him to tell her that he sees her as an extension of himself because it shows you how important she is to him. They really are so much alike, and they are both amazingat their jobs because work is the only thing either of them feels safe putting all of themselves into. Don needs Peggy as a mirror, but I think she needs him just as much.

-Pryce's look of jubilation as he was fired from PPL. "Very good! Happy Christmas!"

-Joan helping Don get a new place. "Furnished?" "Yes." "I'm sorry." My friend Eric said it best, she's so discreet, she's like a spy. Love Joan. So glad she's going to back with the gang next season!

The fun of the creation of a new agency by all the old players we love (except Sal! Sadness.) was a stark contrast to Don's home-life scenes. Watching Don and Betty tell Sally and Bobby that they were going to separate was gut-wrenching. I thought both child actors did an incredible job there, and was especially impressed with Jared S. Gilmore as Bobby, who we haven't seen a ton of this season. The way he threw his arms around Don and begged him not to go brought even ice queen Betty to tears. It was like we were watching Sally be forced to grow up right there on screen. I think Kiernan Shipka has been great this season and I loved her line to her parents "You say things and you don't mean them and you can't do that!" Both Don and Betty would do well to learn that lesson.

One of the incredible things about Jon Hamm's performance as Don Draper as that even when you are completely repulsed by the character, you are inexplicably drawn to him, and in my opinion, rooting for him. Even though Don has lied to her for their entire marriage and cheated on her constantly, I still found myself completely outraged and saddened by Betty's treatment of him. Maybe it is because she dangled the hope of the two of them finally getting to live an honest life together in front of him for awhile. Maybe it's because she's "built herself a life raft" in the form of Henry Francis. (Can't believe Roger knew about that! I loved his, "I was going to tell you. No I wasn't.") Maybe it's because Don is right about one thing, she is a snob, and when she learned about Don's lies about his life, she couldn't abide living with the son of a whore when she had the chance to live with a real man of wealth and power. I don't know, but when Don told Betty he was going to take the kids because "God knows they'll better off" I really wanted that to happen! And when he called her and told he wouldn't fight her, I couldn't help but feel a little sense of defeat.

I think the fact that the writers have been giving us glimpses of Don's absolutely horrific childhood is one of the reasons he remains sympathetic. The scene where Don remembers himself as little Dick Whitman seeing his father killed leads him to realize something that Archie never could: You can't handle this world all on your own. It's taken Don Draper a long time to realize that he actually needs people, (Roger: You're no good at relationships because you don't think they're important.") and though he used this realization to fix things at work, it was too late for his marriage.

I am left wondering where this leaves Don and Betty for next season. After this episode and the interview creator Matthew Weiner gave in The Daily Beast this week it seems pretty clear that there will be no getting back together for the Drapers. But will Henry really be the knight in shining armor he claims to be? And if he's not, will we get to see that play out next season at all? Their entire relationship, from him hitting on her while she is heavily pregnant to his proposal after having spent no more than a few hours total with her has been very strange, and I can only assume that he isn't exactly all he claims to be. Unfortunately for Betty, she seems to be attracted to men with that quality.

In the end, it's Don Draper's show, and I guess that's why we can't help rooting for him despite some of the awful things he's done and said. The look of pride and triumph that he had as he surveys the tiny Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce office just made the episode for me. He is ready to value the people he works with, and he is ready to build something that is his. You can tell from the look in his eyes that he can't wait to see how it all turns out, and I can't either. August can't come soon enough.

Great Mad Men Spoof by Sidecar

I especially love the beginning! You know I hate those previews!
Milk Men - A Mad Men Parody

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It's Never Over: Mad Men, Season 3 Episode 12, The Grown-Ups

The Kennedy assassination has hung over Mad Men like a spectre this season. As soon as we saw the date November 23, 1963 (the day after the assassination) on Margaret's wedding invitation we knew there would be an episode dealing with this huge event in history. Matthew Weiner had actually said at one point during the second season that he didn't feel like he had anything to add to the story of the Kennedy Assassination, but a man is entitled to change his mind, right?! And change his mind he did. The entire season was building to this moment, and even though I feel it was a slow (and oh my god so depressing) episode, it was a major game changer plot wise for many characters.

The Don and Betty storyline just broke my heart in so many ways. When Betty looked at Don and told him "And then you tried to fix it. But there's no point anymore...", it just killed me. The Don of this episode was almost an entirely different person than the man we had come to know, and honestly he seemed entirely better. His face looked open, hungry and full of love for his wife. When he tells her 'everything is going to be okay', it's because he believes it. He believes that she loves him for who he really is, something he never though possible. He is stretching out and getting comfortable in this new life, this life without lies, just trying to gloss over all of the damage he has done to Betty. He is a master at forgetting, and he is ready to forget all the pain he has caused with his lies and his cheating and start a newer, more honest life with his family. And even though that is ridiculous, selfish, and even a little crazy, I just couldn't help wanting it for him as well.

What made Betty realize that she was done? Was she done already, and just letting the whole Dick Whitman thing blow over before she left? Was it the death of the president, seeing the Oswald shot or feeling the despair that came over the nation after these events? Or was it simply seeing someone she wanted more, and having Henry Francis tell her he just wants to take her to see her favorite movie (and MARRY her?!! speaking of crazy...). Even though it is hard not be sympathetic to a woman who has been cheated on and lied to throughout most of her marriage, there is still a part of me that feels like Betty is a petulant child, not making any kind of measured decisions but just deciding on a whim that she doesn't love Don, that even with him trying, she can't make it work.

It doesn't help Betty that Jon Hamm has been playing Don with an openness we have only rarely seen from this character. That look of fear on his face when Betty tells him she is going out for a drive, and the look of love he gives her at the wedding just had me melting. You know a guy is good when he can make you feel bad for a lying womanizer like Don.

This episode also brought big changes for Pete. He is ready to move on from Sterling-Cooper it seems. Oh Pete. Hated him, wanted to like him, kind of started to like him, hated him again and now...kinda had some affection for him again. That is a long winded way of saying that he is an incredibly complex character, and I think Weiner and Co. as well as Vincent Karthheiser do a great job bringing him to life. I really love that Pete's downfall is being too attentive to his clients, because he is such a weird robot human that of course that's what it would be! As we see when he is fixing the secretary's heater, Ken is just a naturally, genuinely nice guy, whereas it is just so hard for Pete to figure out how to be nice, how to be likeable, and he just reeks of trying to hard. I thought the scenes of he and Trudy were interesting because they showed their relationship as it is (she's poor little Petey's Mummy most of the time) but how on some level that works for them. Pete does need someone to take care of him and Trudy doesn't seem to mind doing it. At least for now. He might want to leave Sterling Cooper for Gray, but he won't do it until she suggests it. Maybe that is how Trudy can abide by his cheating (what she knows of it), because she holds the true power in their relationship.

And then there was Roger. The Roger story got me on a lot of levels. Roger was in it, for one, so I was pretty happy about that. I just loved the speech he made his daughter's wedding. Roger Sterling is a man who knows how to make toasts, you have got to say that for him. I like that he made going on with the wedding feel like a triumph instead of an act of stubbornness, or apathy towards the national tragedy. That guy is such a charming rogue! I can't help but love him. And of course, his call to Joan, his need to talk to her and his acknowledgement that "No one else is saying the right thing about this." Call me a romantic, or a fool, but I still love the idea of Joan and Roger together. She had his number right away. She knew he had found something that he just didn't know how to deal with by himself. "Because there's nothing funny about this." It is interesting that when talking to Annabel about Jane Roger said "I finally found a girl who doesn't care about the future." He loves Jane because she's not a grown up and doesn't expect him to be one. He can't have that with Mona or with Joan, but maybe now that he's carrying his drunken child bride out of his daughter's wedding, he realizes that he doesn't want it as much as he thought?

Stray thoughts:

-Loved Margaret's temper tantrums, and the fact that she was crying "It's all ruined" after the assassination.

-I think I'm in love with Mona, and I cannot believe Roger would leave her for Jane. Joan, sure.

-I hope Harry Crane does die unnoticed in that office! This season has certainly shown us what a complete dolt that guy is.

-Sometimes this episode was a little slow, having us watch people watch people watch TV and react to a situation. There were a few great moments pulled from that though, I especially liked Carla sitting down next to a sobbing Betty, taking out a cigarette and crying. A little of the facade she keeps up at work went away there.

-Henry Francis- Is he going to be as disappointed as Don when Betty can't live up to her "perfect woman" image?

-This was definitely an episode about the end of an era. The world is passing "The Grown-Ups" by, Roger, Don, etc. and they don't even know it yet.

-It was really sweet when Sally comforted her crying mother after the President was declared dead. Another instance of the children taking care of the grown-ups.

-There is always a lot of talk about how Betty and Pete are parallel characters, both overgrown children. I'll be interested to see if either of them keeps to the decision they made in this episode.

-I'm pretty sure that Peggy was just as disturbed as I was at the fact that Duck kept the news of the president's assassination from her until after they had sex. That's real class.

Next week: Season finale! I'm ready.

The End of The World As We Know It: Mad Men, Season 3, Episode 11, The Gypsy and the Hobo

It happened. The thing Don Draper has been been fearing since the day he took that name, since the day he got married, since the day he got his job, since the day his first child was born, that thing happened. Betty, the person from which he has been hiding so much, found out who he really was. She threw his real identity out in the open, exposed it to the light and...comforted him. She saw that her husband, both the man he was and the man she thought he was had been destroyed, and that someone new was being reborn in front of her. She saw that by exposing Dick Whitman she was effectively killing Don Draper. So she put her arm around him and watched him go.

This was a packed episode, but the long scenes between Don and Betty where he confesses everything (or almost everything...there was an accident? they made a mistake? hmm. so close.) to her were the heart of the show this week. Both Jon Hamm and January Jones gave amazing performances in these scenes, with Jones capturing Betty as a cool, calm, angry interrogator, and Hamm showing us Don Draper deteriorating before our eyes. When Betty says "You know I know what's in that drawer!" Hamm's face told us everything. He didn't know, and he is flat out terrified about what this means for his life. But instead of reaching for a story or running to the door, he sits, and he tells her. That his life is a lie, "a lie so big" that he cannot even light his own cigarette as he prepares to explain it. This is the thing he feared. This is was supposed to be the worst day of his life, but strangely, he sleeps soundly after the confrontation. Could unburdening himself to Betty bring down the walls between them? Could she learn to love this new man, who's life and past has now been revealed to her? Shockingly to Don, Betty learning the truth about him does not end their marriage, or his life. At least not yet. Maybe she is figuring out what to do next, maybe she is waiting to see what he'll do next, or maybe she is going to try and find out what it is like to be married to someone new, someone who is not a total mystery to her anymore.

Throughout these intense scenes, there is another layer of suspense because we the viewers know that Suzanne Farrell is waiting in the car for Don to return so they can go on a trip! I think Don forgets about her the moment he realizes Betty knows, but we never do! When poor Suzanne finally slinks away in the night, I feel I may have misjudged her. Maybe she's not a woman on the verge, maybe she is just a different kind of woman. Someone kind and sweet and peace-loving and unconventional stuck in a time when none of that was what someone looked for in a woman. Or a person. She might just be a woman ahead of her time, who really wants to know if Don's okay, and who really believes that she can enter into an affair with a married man and not form an attachment. We'll see if she proves me wrong and goes totally cuckoo, but I kind of wonder if Matthew Weiner created this character to challenge not just the expectations of the characters, but the expectations of the viewers.

I loved the scenes of the family trick or treating at the end. Even if Carlton's question was a little too on the nose "And what are you supposed to be?" it highlighted for the viewers the shift in paradigm they are about to see. Now that our protagonist has lost his Don Draper identity at home, who is he going to be now? He can't be the same man he was before with Betty, so can he be a new man there and the old Don Draper at work? Or will there be a new identity in both places? The question is asked, because Don doesn't know the answer yet. Can he become the kind of loving husband and father he wants to be now that he is freed of his past? Can he share the power of the household with his wife? And if he can't, what is to become of him now that she knows? I absolutely cannot wait to see the last two episodes of the season to find out.

There were two other amazing plots this week that I would be remiss if I didn't talk about. They featured two of my fave characters on the show Roger and Joan. I loved learning more about Roger's past, and seeing him act like a wise and mature man. There was a moment where I kind of wanted him to cheat on his 20 year old wife with the more age appropriate Annabell, but in the end I am glad that he did the right thing. I am not so sure though, that when he told Annabell she wasn't the one, that he was thinking of his young wife Jane. Staying late and making phone calls on Joan's behalf is really not something I see Roger doing for just any old fling. And when he tells his buddy, "she's important to me" you can tell that he really really means it.

(ROGER AND JOAN FOREVA!!)

It was incredibly satisfying to see Joan hit her rapist husband over the head with that vase, even if his line was again, a little too 'on the nose' for me. Christina Hendricks' face after he told her she didn't know what it was like to work for something for her whole life and not get it sold it for me. So what will become of Dr. Greg now? Will he die in Vietnam? Will he come back a broken man that Joan has to take care of for the rest of her life? Nothing about this story makes me think there will be any kind of happy ending for Joan, and it is so awful to see such a smart, beautiful, capable woman tied to a Neanderthal and trapped in this situation. Maybe my lame little girl fantasies of her and Roger finding thier way back to one another will come true, but that isn't really how this show works, so she'll probably be trapped in this hell forever.

Two episodes left people! I can't wait.

Days of Sink or Swim: Mad Men Season 3, Episode 10, "The Color Blue"

Sorry about missing the last two eps! I am hoping to get to them at some point, but I figured I would do this week's episode relatively on time while I still had the chance. (I was sick, in a wedding, went to NYC...excuses excuses...)

I love to be able to agree with Roger, and when he told Don in the last episode that he was in over his head, he couldn't have been more right.

Don is getting sloppy, in his personal life and his work life. Last season, everything he touched was gold, and he seemed to have a preternatural ability to know what people wanted to hear and how to handle almost everyone. This season, Don is lost about how to deal with Hilton, too preoccupied with his own need for Hilton's approval to understand how to deal with this kind of eccentric. Now that he is tied to his work life by a contract and his home life by an infant, you can see him chafing. By hiding the $5,000 signing bonus in his 'secret drawer', he is letting himself believe, just the tiniest bit, that he could run if he wanted to.

But deep down he knows he can't run. And he's getting reckless. The affair with the teacher seems to be doomed from the start, with both of them running wild eyed at each other. He wants her, and that makes this affair a little more dangerous than the ones we've seen before. Bobbi, Rachel, Midge...these women wanted him first, and were clear about it. Ms. Farrell played just that little bit hard to get and drew him in, and now he seems hooked, despite her off kilter behavior. The first scene between them revealed something kind of interesting about Don that I don't think we've seen too much of before. Even though he seems so intelligent, so worldly most of the time, he was so easily drawn into her silly, stoner questions about the color of blue, spinning it into the beautiful Don Draper prose in no time. "People may see things differently, but they don't really want to." Don sees the shallow, silly conversation with Ms. Farrell as one with some kind of depth, even though, as my friend Eric put it "She gets her wisdom from 8 year olds." There is something about her that is fascinating to him, and maybe it just the answer to the question he asked her in last week's ep..."Who are you?"

Don's old tricks aren't working at work, and they aren't working at home either. The baby's cries interrupt him and cause him to leave the key to his drawer of secrets (one should not have those!) where Betty can find it. I love the scene where Betty finds the box, trying desperately to use these items to put together some of the mystery of the man she is married to. As she waits for him to come home and face her confrontation, she loses more and more of her will to fight him, to stand for the lies he will surely tell to cover all this. So she becomes "pretty mommy", his radiant wife, and watches him lap up all the praise at the Sterling-Cooper 40th. He is happy, or at least he looks happy, and Betty sees the chance to know him slipping away, replaced, for now, with the chance to be him. To look as if you are someone entirely different than who you are on the inside, to have all the money, all the praise, to have everything. For all of the other characters on the show, Don is the person want to be. He has it all, and it seems to come so easy to him. He hides his deep unhappiness so well, and only shows the world, even his wife, his attractive facade.

Other thoughts:

Paul vs. Peggy: I think Paul realized that Peggy is incredibly talented at what she does, and unfortunately for him, far more talented than he is. He is a man with a big ego, but maybe he will try to learn from her instead of trying to take her down...we'll see how smart he is.

Don and Ms. Farrell's brother: Shades of his own brother, Adam? "I swore to myself I'd do this right once." Of course he sympathized with the kid's need to run away. "It seems bad now, but you can still change things." Does Don think this is still true?

Roger's mother thinking Jane was his daughter, Margaret was great. "Does Mona know?" Jane seemed so annoyed.

Bert Cooper looked so fragile in this episode! I loved the exchange between he and Layne- "Who told you I was vain?"

Even after the Brits decide to sell the company he has worked so hard to improve and his wife makes fun of his utter devotion to his bosses, Layne still does their bidding and gets Bert Cooper to the party. A company man for life?

How does Lois still have a job?! She cut a man's foot off drunkenly driving a lawnmower!

Next week:

Joan! Yay!

Only three episodes, left, so I better see more Sal soon!

What you are now, we were once: Mad Men, Season 3 Episode 7, Seven Twenty-Three

This was a rough episode for Don Draper. It was as if he was embodying Joan's quote about the unpredictability of life from last week. He woke up, looked great, felt great, shined his shoes, knew exactly where to move that lamp, and made his way to the place where he always shines brightest, Sterling-Cooper.

And when he got there...Conrad Hilton was waiting for him! Best day ever Don! However, the shine comes off pretty quickly when it is revealed that Conrad Hilton is going to be a pain in the ass. He reminds Don that he's not that young anymore (These young people give us energy!), chides him for being late, not having a bible or family photos, and worst of all gives Sterling-Cooper and Putnam, Powell and Lowe their moment to lock him down. Suddenly, Don doesn't have all the power anymore.


Don is being reminded of his ineffectuality everywhere he goes in this episode. The teacher that he lusts after (even as he tries to tell her, "Nothing's happening. We're just talking.") pegs him as just another suburban dad, burning off boredom by hitting on anything in a skirt and getting drunk all the time. Don, as we all do, wants to see himself as different from the men in his neighborhood. Different from everyone really. Don is a man who left his entire life behind and is living out his own fantasy. Self-made man in every sense of the word. He created this character, Don Draper, and this character is bullet-proof. Smart, handsome, great at his job, ethical, kind, can get any woman, can charm any man. But...maybe not? Maybe instead of turning himself into a fantasy, he somehow became, just a man? A man with a family and a job and boring things to do on the weekend and stuff he doesn't want to have to deal with all around him. All of a sudden Don Draper is no longer what he wants to be. So he finds himself asking, who would Dick Whitman have been?

The teacher's appraisal of Don is a little harsh (because let's be honest, there is something extraordinary about him), but not as harsh as the one he makes of himself. When the drugs the beatnik robbers give him kick in, he hallucinates his father, telling dirty jokes, looking like the epitome of everything he ran from, calling him a bum, a liar, and someone who doesn't even work for a living. He even acknowledges the fact that "he can't be tied down", and for a moment at least, sees that as a negative instead of a badge of honor. Don is seeing everything he ran from, everything he did not want to become, but also the failings of his own character. He wanted so much to become someone better than his whore-mongering, abusive father, but has had to make so many little compromises, tell so many lies to do it. And in these moments, where he's not even sure who he is, he's also not sure it was worth it.


The question for Don is, what happens when fantasy becomes reality? Dick Whitman could not even conceive of the life he was going to have as Don Draper, but when he imagined it, I am sure a cold bitchy wife and an old man blackmailing him into a contract were not in the equation. He just knew he wanted something better than what he had. Except now he wants the same thing. He wants better than Don Draper. He wants to move to London, to be powerful, to be a terrible husband with a happy wife, to be a father when he feels like it and a Lothario when he wants it. And because he can't have these things, these superhuman wants and needs, he feels impotent, old and trapped. "I signed it."


Trapped. That is a word that truly describes the way Betty Draper is feeling. New baby (that did not magically fix her life), fighting children, a closed off husband, even a decorator that doesn't want to hear her ideas! She is looking for her own small ways to get the hell out, for a while at least. With Henry she is getting a little thrill, a taste of real power, not "the guys down at the office really love my lyrical prose about Kodak" power, but "I advise the Governor on all matters" power. And he is a man attracted to her fragility, instead of repelled by it (as I am willing to bet Don once was as well). But Betty's not all dizzy spells and fainting couches, as her conversation with Don re: Roger's phone call revealed. I have to say, I LOVED the exchange between her and Don about the contract. Don- "I have all the power. They want me but they can't have me." Betty-"You're right. Why would that has anything to do with me?" Oh snap Betty! She knows that Don's contract with Sterling-Cooper is a proxy for his contract with her. "What, you don't know where you'll be in three years?"



Just as Don's ways as a husband have sent his wife looking for another man to make her feel special, his ways as a boss have sent Peggy into the arms of Duck. Literally into his arms. The whole Peggy and Duck sleep together thing came completely out of left field for me, but the more I think about it, the more I kind of like it. Here's why:

-Peggy could really use a good go-round.

-Duck was a character that I actually liked, despite his pathetic jealousy of Don.

-After Don said to Peggy. "You're good. Get better. Stop asking for things." She screwed him over with his rival (it would kill him to think about Peggy and Duck together, work wise or otherwise!) and THEN Bert Cooper pretty much said the same thing to him!

-As a lead up to the Duck/Peggy sex, we got a Peggy/Pete scene that kind of made me some kind of secret Peggy/Pete shipper. I know this is not the kind of show that is supposed to have shippers, but come on! "Stop coming in here and infecting me with your anxiety!" Maybe these two crazy kids can make it work.

-Peggy looked pretty into it. And I want her to be happy.

-It's not like Duck is unattractive really...he's just older than her. I mean he's no Roger, but I'm sure he does all right for himself.

So go Peggy! I hope Duck wasn't just using a really hard sell just to get you to be disloyal to Don and leave Sterling-Cooper though.

Stray thoughts:

-No more contact with Roger Sterling!!! I better get plenty more contact with Roger Sterling.

-Bert Cooper about Conrad Hilton "I hear he's a bit of an eccentric." Roger had the best look ever in response to that.

-Betty was an anthropology major at Bryn Mawr! There are layers to her we have not seen yet.

-Is that teacher crazy? I am getting a possible Fatal Attraction vibe from her.

-Vietnam is still hovering around the edges. We know it's coming.

-That fainting couch does look terrible there.

Next week:
You know better! Don't even ask. Sally's got a temper?

I stood, I felt a chill, I thought maybe you did too. I wanted to feel that way forever: Mad Men, Ep. 6, "A Guy Walks Into An Advertising Agency."

"One day you're on top of the world, and the next some secretary's running you over with a lawnmower."

Joan's words of wisdom, of course, were not just about poor Guy McKendrick and his now lost foot. They were first and foremost about her, though her fall from the top was a bit slower than Guy's, she can still feel that her dreams of being a secure and happy surgeon's wife have slipped away. She held onto them after he raped her in Don's office, she held onto them after he revealed himself to be an immature bully who always wanted his own way, she even held onto them after realizing that most of the people he works with think she is too good for him and not vice versa. But to have him come home, drunk and childlike, angry and in need of someone to take care of him, and admit his failure, that was the last straw. He will not be a surgeon. She had given up a place where she was secure and in control in service of his ambitions, only to find out that his ambitions were dashed, and her place at work was already gone. And yet, in last night's episode we were not filled with despair for Joan, because all we needed was to just glimpse her once in a crisis to know that she's a survivor, and she is far better than her current station in life. Water always finds it's level, and I am ready to see Joan rise up and her scummy husband slither down where he belongs.

Don and Betty are both having dreams and expectations dashed left and right too. Betty's hope that little Gene's birth would save her marriage, heal her family from her father's death and just generally make everything perfect is not quite working out. Little Sally is convinced that the baby is the ghost of her grandfather back to haunt her and Don resents the fact that she named their child after someone who hated him...and who he hated. "That's what people do Don!" She chastises him, reminding him that he "has no people" and cannot understand her need to memorialize her father. Instead of bringing them together, this incident just serves as a reminder of what is constantly tearing them apart.

Seeing Don be excited about the idea of a big promotion and then have his hopes dashed by McKendrick's stupid chart was so sad. The childlike smile he has in this picture (while talking to Bert Cooper) and when thinking about the idea in bed gave us a window into that side of Dick Whitman we saw in those flashbacks last season...the side that has hope. And joy. And all of the things that being Don Draper has sucked out of his life. BUT...oh there is a but. The but is, that Connie, the nice old man from Roger's party isn't just your run of the mill rich dude....he's CONRAD HILTON. And like Joan, Don is a survivor. And he just learned that being himself...who he has been running away from for so long...can actually help him in his new life. I am excited to see how this Hilton angle plays out.

And Roger. My beloved Roger was all over this episode, being hilarious and yet a little sad at the same time. "I like to think, 'I'm rich, they can't hurt me'" He tells Bert Cooper, but they can, because he believed that because his name is on the company, it is still his, even though he sold it. Just as Don's hopes for a promotion were dashed by McKendrick's stupid chart, so were Roger's hopes of continued relevance at the company that bears his name. "I'm being punished for making my job look easy." If anyone is right about that, it's Roger.

This was a wickedly funny episode, from Lois's terrible lawnmower driving leading to McKendrick getting more than his deserved comeuppance to the hilarious contrast between the Americans and the British. So many good lines!

-Paul, when jokingly asked to shave his beard.."What?! Who the hell are you people?"

-Bertram Cooper, weirdest guy ever, after meeting McKendrick. "Well, that was very strange indeed!"

-Evil British people, about McKendrick losing his foot "Doctor's say he'll never golf again."

-Pete, to Harry "They just reorganized the company and you're the only one in this room who got a promotion." Harry, in shock, "Really?!!"

-I loved Peggy trying to say something nice in her goodbye to Joan, even if she did get cut off.

-Joan and Don's moment at the end was very sweet.

-Roger, getting his nails done. I now agree it is manly, if Roger does it. Cause he is a MAN.

-Betty and the Barbie for Sally...at least she's trying! For real.

-Pete caught Peggy when she passed out after the lawnmower accident!

-Those British dudes are ruthless!

Next week: Who's laying on the floor?!! WHO IS IT?

God said, "Here is your future. It's gonna rain..." Mad Men, Season 3, Episode 5: The Fog

Last week's episode relied on the audience's knowledge that Jai Alai was never going to become America's pastime to move a plot along, and in "The Fog" the audience's knowledge of the future is even more important. Mad Men usually doesn't rely so blatantly on the whole "check out what these people don't even see coming!" idea, and I am not sure how I feel about it being so important in this episode. I do think that it is becoming more and more necessary as we move into the sixties, but at the same time I hope it isn't relied on too much, as it almost was here.


We had Sally interested in the death of Medgar Evers, which I think is a hint not only to the upcoming Civil Rights Movement but to the future of the character herself. Matthew Weiner has said in interviews that Sally is going to be representative of the generation of people who were radicalized by the Vietnam War and the Civil Rights movement, and I like that even though she is very young, we see her already taking in the injustices of the world. I am definitely interested to see what she does with them, and to see her rebelling against her perfect on the outside, so messed up on the inside parents.



Don making Sally a midnight snack and telling her that "Everything is going to be alright" was adorable as always. I think the fact that her teacher is so concerned for her is going to draw Don to the teacher even more than her physical attributes or the fact that she is a more "modern woman" than Betty, which he seems to have been attracted to in the past. She was obviously into him as well, which is kind of screwed up considering he was there with his pregnant wife, but kind of understandable because, well, she has eyes.

My favorite "they don't even know what's about to hit them" plot was Pete and the Admiral televisions. I loved this plot for so many reasons. One, because it showed us Pete as robot/Vulcan "It would be illogical for them to not want to make more money". And not only did it give us more "Civil Rights is coming" hints (Pete even uses the word integration! It was great when the guy was like, "That can't be legal!" and Pete just replied "Of course it's legal." while trying to stifle a laugh at the idiot.") but also because Pete, boy genius, idiot savant, standing right in front of us inventing niche marketing! And everyone (besides Layne) thinks it's a stupid idea! I also loved his conversation with Hollis in the elevator, because it showed race divisions in an interesting way. Pete wants to think of himself as not racist, and honestly Hollis wants to believe that he is at least less racist than many people, but he can't rely on "Mr. Campbell" seeming nice, because it could be a facade. The end where Pete asks him about baseball was great, because they acknowledged the awkwardness of the situation while still showing us that Pete really did want to be friendly, and he saw Hollis as just another customer in many ways. Sometimes Pete Campbell is a hard guy to like, but I liked him a lot in this ep.

Speaking of finding characters sympathetic even when they are often awful, I was feeling for Betty through every step! Having to go through all of that alone (and of course, with my modern expectations of having the father or at least someone by her side during the birth) being all drugged up and crazy (again, we now know that doing that is not the best idea), and having to face all of her demons all at once (Don's lies, her father's death, her mother's cruelty) made me really feel for the character. She had gone so cold this season that it was hard to remember why I identified with her so much last season, but the writers used her trippy twilight sleep to remind us why Betty is who she is. Her self image was definitely summed up in what her father as the janitor told her in her dream. "You're a house cat, very important with little to do." I think that image of herself is why she decided to let Carla leave and not get another maid/nanny. Betty wants to be more than what she is, and what the world sees her as, but she has no idea where to begin. She only knows that she has to get up in the night to get the baby, so that's what she does. Here's hoping that she softens towards little Gene (Oh Don loved that name!) as well as towards poor Sally and Bobby (Oh Bobby. Don wasn't kidding when he said he doesn't play catch with him enough! That kid is always ignored, by parents and writers alike!) She just wants everything to be okay when the baby comes. Who can blame her!?

*

Other thoughts:

*

-Don and the prison guard. Interesting juxtaposition. Maybe this is the person Don might have been had he remained Dick Whitman? Working class, but seemingly happy. Was Don inspired to be a better man by Dennis? Did Dennis give him some kind of permission to blame his parents for who he as become?

*

-Duck! Hmm he seems to have landed on his feet, though his eagerness to recruit Peggy and Pete was interesting. Does he need them for something? I hope he found Chauncey, I will say that much.

*

-Pete to Peggy. "Your decisions affect me." Understatement of a lifetime Pete!

*

-Peggy asking for equal pay. I really don't think Don was trying to put her off. He really is arguing for paper clips at this point, and creatives are being seen as lazy drunks. I think he even knows that she should be getting equal pay, and if she gives him a chance, will go to bat for her when he thinks he can win.

*

-Peggy to Don. "You have everything. And so much of it." Still, it's not enough. Don't emulate him too much Peggy!

*

-Best moment for me: Watching Don sell Layne on what the creatives need. Don is in his element when he is trying to convince someone of something, and it is always beautiful to watch. Bravo Jon Hamm! Also, we were reminded about how Don loves movies and sees them all, which is a good character callback.

*

Next week: Joan! I love Joan. And Roger! I LOVE Roger. Also, talking and stuff, or so it seems.

It Ain't Me: Mad Men Season 3, Episodes 3 and 4. My Old Kentucky Home, The Arrangments

So we have a late double post! Sorry about that. Now you know why I can't get paid to write this stuff!

The last two episodes of Mad Men have given us a lot of meaty character and thematic stuff to work with! "My Old Kentucky Home" brought us back to that well worn but always interesting trope of class and how it affects people. "The Arrangements was largely about parenting, and the way the decisions made by parents continue to follow their children throughout their lives. Since I skipped blogging last week, I am going to do things a little differently and just talk about where are characters are after these two illuminating eps!

Don- In "My Old Kentucky Home", we see how uncomfortable Don feels in his own skin and in places like Roger's country club. It was so amazing to see Don tell a real story, from his real life, to Connie, the man he met at inside the club. It was a rare unguarded moment where could see Dick Whitman, and how different his life was from the life he has created for himself in Don Draper. I think in some ways it also put in perspective his relationship to Betty, because no matter how much he is trying, he can never really be with her while he is keeping this huge secret from her. This country club world is her world, and she has no idea that it's not his. The fact that Don has to be someone else for her keeps an unscalable wall between them, even during tender moments like the kiss at the end of this episode.

In "The Arrangements", where we saw Don a good deal more than we had in the episode before, we are once again reminded why we love ourselves some Don Draper! There is always a pleasure in seeing that the impostor whose life is a lie has far more scruples than most people around him, and I loved his fatherly concern for Horace as he goes forward with his ill-conceived Jai Lai venture. I also loved how once Horace proved he really was too dumb and thought too much of himself to take that advice, Don was ready to "bill it to the kid" (Bert Cooper is going to be so mad about that ant farm!) Watching Don with his kids is also something that makes the viewers swoon, and even though he cannot bring himself to be as involved with them as he should (or wants to it seems), I liked how he told Bobby "There was a person in there." about the soldier's helmet, and the look of sincere sympathy he gave Sally after her sad outburst. If only he could have gotten up to comfort her!

Betty- If these two episodes reminded us why we like Don, they also reminded us of all of the things we don't like about Betty. In "My Old Kentucky Home" she can't even accept a compliment from Sally in a nice way, and shows us that her little back room dalliance with Captain Awesome might not be the only adultery she commits! (I suppose getting hit on while you are hugely pregnant might extra flattering though...). Her coldness towards her family was in full force during "The Arrangements". I thought it was incredibly interesting to see her father admit that he failed her by sheltering her too much, basically telling her that she needs to learn how to deal with life and stop acting like a child! (He was not the only parent in this episode to express that very opinion. Ho-Ho's dad felt much the same way when he said "We didn't know what kind of person we were making.") Unfortunately for him, and for the rest of her family, Betty is not ready to do that just yet. Watching her shut the door on her shocked and grieving daughter proved that.

Peggy- Peggy was on a streak of awesome for these two episodes! Trying weed, telling her sweet motherly secretary that she was going to be okay and get everything she wants, deciding to move to Manhattan because she "is one of those girls", Peggy is showing us a little of WHY it was so easy for Don to give up his old identity, just as it was for her to give up her child, in service of the greater good. Sometimes just deciding to become the person you want to be instead of the person you are frees and allows you to become better. We saw it with Don in the flashbacks he had with the real Mrs. Draper. At first, he was just so happy not to be Dick Whitman that the world was full of possibility! And look where it got him. Worlds away from where he came from, where he was running from. I think Peggy is finding the same thing. Though she carries a terrible burden, giving up that child has gotten her exactly where she wanted, and she knows she can go even further. I bet her new roommate is going to be really annoyed when she finds out that Peggy isn't actually very fun though.

Roger- Oh Roger. Even though he is a black face wearing, cheating, pompous man, I almost wanted to believe him when he said that people were just jealous of how happy he was. But I am pretty sure the fact that just a few scenes before he was singing to his 20 year old wife in black face, something that would be taboo just a few years later, and was at least offensive even at that time, shows us that he is becoming exactly what Don says, "a fool". Roger is the old guard, and he is retreating into denial to try to forget it.

Joan- Ugh, the Joan stuff is just killing me. At her first dinner party for her husband's colleagues, poor Joan realizes that her Doctor isn't all he's cracked up to be. With references to his killing a patient with a mistake ("everybody gets a bad result sometimes...") and the ever more remote possibility of his becoming chief resident, it becomes clear that Joan is undervaluing herself in every arena. How can she not see that SHE is the catch in this relationship, not the other way around? Her incredible ad for Peggy's roommate shows us that she could be right up there with Peggy and Don writing great copy! There seems to be nothing that she cannot do, besides of course break free from the conventions of her time and give herself a chance to be something! Betty's dad's words ring true for Joan as well as his own daughter.."If you'd even known what was possible..."



Other thoughts:



-The real world is closing in on our characters, and watching Sally watch news reports about forced integration and trouble in Vietnam makes me anxious to find out how the show is going to treat the tumultuous times that are coming.



- How could I forget about Sal and Trudy? Ugh I feel so bad for both of them, with Trudy slowly realizing that something is very wrong between them and Sal trying so hard to pretend there isn't. It is even sadder given the fact that of all the married people on this show, these two seem to actually like being with each the most!



-Even though the commercial was a failure, I am glad that Don is going to hire Sal to direct again. They are bonded together by secrets now!



-Stoned Peggy during "My Old Kentucky Home" was great. As was finding out what we already knew deep inside: Paul is a pseudo-intellectual covering up a Jersey accent.



-Pete and Trudy were kind of cute doing their little dance. Kind of sad too, but I feel like we are getting hints that their relationship is becoming a little more functional.



-Poor Sally. I know that Don wanted to go to her but felt like it would be betraying Betty, but man, it was so awful to see her lying in front of the TV in her little ballet uniform! Grandpa Gene bought peaches for her and everything!



-Next week: things are going to be said. Also, Sally's acting up, and it looks like her hot teacher is about to get in the mix. Bummer for Betty.

Don't Stand in the Doorway, Don't Block up the Hall: Mad Men Season 3, Episode 2: Love Among the Ruins

With episode two of this season, Mad Men is reminding us though so much had remained the same from the end of season 2 to the beginning of this one, it cannot remain so. "Love Among the Ruins" is an hour of television about change, and each of our characters is dealing with the vast changes in their lives and in their culture in different ways.

The most intriguing character of this episode to me was Peggy, almost cementing her place as a mini- Don, a liar, a seducer, someone who cannot find personal fulfillment despite her success and intelligence. Stuck in a place where being ahead of her time is more a curse than a blessing, Peggy cannot quite figure out how to be a desirable woman and a smart woman whose opinion actually matters at the same time. She is living in a world where those two ideas are still mutually exclusive to most men, so when she goes out looking for a little love in the night, she uses Joan's line, she pretends to be a secretary, she becomes someone else. Peggy has truly learned from the best when it comes to playing a role to make other people give you what you want, and now she is just honing those skills.

I did like that Peggy was disappointed in Don for being just as into the Ann-Margaret song as the other men, whom she considers lesser. Also you can't help but be proud of a girl who has the guts to go and disagree with Don Draper. Too bad for her she had the unfortunate luck of catching him after his meeting with Pryce about not taking the Madison Square Garden account!

Ahh, another person caught up in personal and professional change is my beloved Roger, who cannot seem to understand why everyone is just so darn mad at him for leaving Mona for Jane! His daughter his hurt and embarrassed, his ex had no desire to be understanding, Don is angry at him for using his words when he left Mona and for changing the game up. Don was perfectly happy to live in a world where men pretended to be happily married and women pretended not to cheat, and Roger is just a reminder to him and to everyone else of the tawdry reality under that fantasy. Roger's charm is falling flat on everyone these days, not just pissy, pregnant Betty, who could barely stand to look at him.

Betty was not in a good mood this episode, and you could see that Don was really trying to make her happy, which is a pretty huge change in their relationship. Not that he didn't relish the chance to one-up William and send him and his family packing (Poor Judy! She seems nice!), he still couldn't stand to see Betty wracked with the guilt of being a bad daughter, so he is letting a man he can't stand move into his house. Maybe it is because she is pregnant, but he even seemed to feel a bit bad about making her sit through that business dinner with the Pryces. Don and Betty don't seem to realize the huge change they have just embarked their family on by having her ill father move in with them, even after seeing him go back to Prohibition in his mind and pour all the booze down the drain. (What will Betty drink now when pregnancy gets her down! She needs something to go with those cigs!)

Though it was nice to see Don stand up for his whiny wife, Don is still Don and immediately drawn to any hot, independent brunette in his radius. I like that they had the teacher dressed up so she fit right with the origins of the maypole but also with the hippie future that is just on the horizon. Even as Don tries to be a good husband and father, the desire for something else, something different always seems to be eating him up inside. The teacher represents the kind of woman Don is always attracted to, and of course, poor Betty's polar opposite. 1963 was the end of America's innocence, and it change is on the horizon for the whole country, including Don Draper. Something tells me he might just be ready to embrace it.

Other thoughts-

-Goodbye Penn Station. For once, Paul is actually right about something! Maybe not the best venue to air his opinions though.

-Wedding on November 23, 1963? Oh dear.

-I loved Don's conversation with Pryce. It is always great to see Don break through his cool demeanor and come at someone with a little force. (Ditto the smackdown of William)

-So, is Don going to sleep with that teacher? I'm taking bets.

-The sweet wistful look between Roger and Joan really got me. She's still the only one that understands him.

-Ugh when Joan said that her husband told her to "watch out" after he got promoted to chief resident it made me ill. So sad that she married that rapist. Looks like we'll get a little window into that relationship next week. DON'T have a baby with him Joan!!

-Man, pregnancy is really getting to Betty! Or something. She was nastier than usual tonight.

Next week: Joan her rapist husband! Roger and Don have a fight! Talking! Quick Cuts!

Just Somebody That I Used To Know: Mad Men, Season Three, Episode One "Out of Town"

Starting with the scandalous squalor of his birth and moving us into the seeming domestic bliss of his current life, Mad Men's third season begins with the same question that has always been at the heart of this show. Who is Don Draper? And more importantly, who does he want to be?

The opening scene where Don imagines his birth to a prostitute his father made pregnant shows us why he is so determined to hold on to "Don Draper" and get as far away from Dick Whitman as possible. He is constantly terrified of his life slipping away from him, yet he cannot stop himself from pushing it away. I'll admit, after his letter to Betty in "Meditations in An Emergency" I would have liked to see Don resist the wiles of the (very Betty-like) stewardess, but I had no illusions that it would actually happen. And for all her sweetness and glowing smiles I have a feeling that Betty doesn't cling to that hope much herself. She and Don have settled into something different, but in many ways, it is where they began. Just as Don says to the Shelley, "I always end up somewhere I've already been." Indeed you do Don.

It seems that Don and Betty have come to a warm truce, trying to be close to each other while still being the same people who were torn apart. Betty saves her softness for her husband and unborn child while still reserving that strict coolness for the children they already have, ("Sally has something to tell you. I pried it out of her.") never quite living up to that goddess mother role that Don chose her fulfil. And Don is still tomcatting around, convincing himself that it's okay to sleep with Shelley, because it's his birthday, because he is damaged in ways no one can see, because it's just one time, because he's a man.

Don and Betty's back and forth is always fascinating to watch, and Jon Hamm's genius cannot be denied when you see him in scenes like the final one of the episode, trying to tell Sally the story of her birth and stumbling, thinking about his birth, the ways he has failed his family, and the ways he has made a better life for them than he ever had. All of that is written on Hamm's face as January Jones takes over the tale and Betty tells it from the perspective of the husband that she worships and loves and hates all at once, all the time. "He didn't want to get back in the car, but he did..."

Other developments in this episode include:

- Entirely not enough Roger. I love you John Slattery!

- Our dear Sal, finally giving in to his feelings and letting a man kiss him, and willing to do so much more, (great gaydar by the way bellhop!), foiled by a fire and caught by Don! Lucky for him if there is one thing that Don Draper can be counted on for, it's discretion. Sal is such a great character, and Bryan Batt did an amazing job showing us how much he wanted this and yet how horribly guilty (That "Oh God" he let out was sexy and heartbreaking all at once.) he feels about betraying Kitty, who he does seem to truly love. Sal is torn between who he knows he is and who he knows he needs to be. Here's hoping he won't follow Don's example and continue living an elaborate lie. Maybe this experience will have a more lasting impression on him.

-Six months in, and the Brits are still trimming the fat at Sterling-Cooper. (Roger's face falling while grousing, "Oh, it's that meeting." after walking in on Bert Peterson's firing was so perfect. Vintage silver fox Roger Sterling there!) Pitting Pete against Ken to see who would come out on top reminded us of both Pete's robot human self (That conversation with Mr. Pryce about hospitality! Man, Pete is so awkward!) and his whiny whiny baby self ("Why does it always have to be this way? Why can't good things happen all at once?!" Ugh, poor Trudy. ). It also reminded us that Ken Cosgrove is a pretty good guy, all things considered. I love how he just walked away from Pete while he was still whining.

-Bert Cooper is a weird old man. Erotic Japanese paintings, ant farms, no shoes in the office... weird guy.

-I think Jared Harris (most recently of Fringe) is going to be a great addition to the cast as Mr. Pryce. And I loved the way he took down Moneypenny without even knowing it! I will not be calling that guy Mr. Hooker. Sorry buddy!

-Not a lot of Peggy, but intriguing hints that things are going well for her at Sterling-Cooper even under British rule.

- I know I said this before, but Pete really is such a baby.

-I really enjoyed the scene where Don was spinning his tales of he and Sal working for Jimmy Hoffa to the stews and the pilot. He just lights up rediscovering the power of a story, that old glory of a lie. He knows that he has that voice, that face, and that no one can look away. He's addicted to it.

-Roger Sterling quote of the night, re: Pete vs. Ken. "I told him it was a stupid idea, but they don't always get our inflection." Jane Sterling, you are one lucky woman.

Next week on Mad Men: I don't really know, as Mad Men previews are usually just the characters saying totally out of context sentences inter cut with completely unconnected shots of other characters looking upset/happy/satisfied/afraid. So I think some sentences will be said, some emotions will be silently felt, and it will be completely awesome. Just a guess though.