Mad Men!  Still makin’ my jaw drop with each week’s scandal!

Sunday’s ep threw us smack dab in the midst of another Don Draper affair: this time with daughter Sally’s former teacher, Suzanne Farrell.  He’s been visiting Miss Farrell each night, telling wife Betty Draper he’s working late.  One night, during one such rendez-vous, there’s a knock at Miss Farrell’s door, and she goes to answer, while Don scrambles to get his clothes on and sneak out undetected.

Turns out it’s Miss Farrell’s little brother Danny, an epileptic who’s just been fired from another job after another episode - and Miss Farrell really wants Don to meet him (ack! getting too serious!). Don exchanges a few awkward words with the guy and shuffles home, promising Miss Farrell he’ll call.  It may be my imagination, but there brother Danny seems to remind Don of his own brother, Adam!

At Sterling Cooper, Peggy Olson and Paul Kinsey are pitching ideas to Don for an Aqua Net commercial, which Don thinks are over-thought, too complicated, too wordy.  Peggy breaks it down to just a simple image, which Don likes. Paul later chews her out in her office for winning Don’s favor yet again and making him look stupid.  He tells her to work alone for their next account - the Western Union telegraph commercial - so they can see who comes out on top.

That night, both Peggy and Kinsey are up late brainstorming.  Peggy gets a bunch of ideas into a tape recorder and calls it a night, even though she hasn’t really found the right one.  Kinsey stays up playing jazz and slamming back whiskeys, to no avail.  He goes out into the kitchen to grab something from the fridge and runs into Achilles the janitor, who somehow seems to spark the winning idea in him.  He goes back to his office and, after a few more pounds of the whiskey bottle, passes out without having written down his stroke of genius.

The next morning, Kinsey is flipping out in his office, trying to figure out where his idea went.  Peggy comes in and sympathizes, telling him they may as well go face the firing squad (Don). “The faintest ink is better than the best memory,” Kinsey tells Peggy, lamenting his lost idea with a Chinese proverb.  Peggy, in turn, goes into Don’s office and turns these words into a killer idea for the telegram campaign.  You can’t frame a phone call, after all.  A telegram is forever.  Kinsey looks at her in complete awe.  Genius!  Go Peggy!

That night at the Draper household, there’s a phone call, which little Sally picks up.  No one responds.  Of course, both Betty and Don independently suspect that it’s their lover - Henry Francis and Miss Farrell - calling.  The next day, Betty calls Henry to ask whether it was him who called the house - obviously just an excuse to call the guy.  Henry responds somewhat aggressively, telling Betty not to waste his time with stupid excuses for phone calls.  If she wants to call, just call!  Betty hangs up, humbled.

Don, of course, assumes it’s Miss Farrell, who he hadn’t called after promising to do so.  The next morning, Miss F surprises him on the train, which weirds him out.  He asks if she had called the house last night, and she denies it.  Miss Farrell seems a bit hurt that he would accuse her of such a thing and Don can’t seem to resist melting when she replies, “I don’t care about your marriage, your work or any of that. As long as I know you’re with me.”  She tells him to come over that night, as baby brother Danny will be off at the new job she secured for him in Massachusetts.  They hold hands for the remainder of the trip.  Careful, Don Draper!!!

Later, doing the laundry, Betty comes across the keys to Don’s desk drawer, where he recently stashed his $5,000 bonus, along with other stacks of cash (planning a getaway, perhaps?).  Betty goes to the drawer and starts going through its contents, which include the box that Don Draper / Dick Whitman’s brother Adam gave him.  The sordid box includes family photos of Don labeled “Dick” (kinda confusing), a deed to a house in Long Beach (pretty confusing), and divorce papers between Don and Anna Draper (REALLY confusing).  Betty is, understandably, taken waaay aback.  She sends Carla off with the kids and sits up all night with the box waiting for Don, presumably to confront him.   Hours pass, and he’s still not home; she goes to bed.

Meanwhile, Don pays another late-night visit to Miss Farrell - whose brother is unexpectedly still at the apartment.  Miss Farrell will be driving him off to Massachusetts that night, and tells Don Draper to sit tight.  Don, out of kindness (I think?), offers to drive Danny himself.  I see this as some sort of atonement for how he treated brother Adam, who is still reminding me of Danny.

Early in the car ride, Danny gives it to him straight: he ain’t going to Massachusetts.  He’s too smart to be mopping up floors at some hospital and knows it’ll end like any other job: he’ll have a seizure, people will freak out, he’ll get fired.  He asks Don to drop him off at the corner, which Don does after giving him a fistful of cash and his business card to call if he’s ever in trouble. Don goes home to Miss Farrell, where she is upset about her brother’s future. He comforts her, waaaay more tenderly than he ever has his own wife (though she’s an ice queen, who can blame him?).

The next morning, Don calls Betty from the office after not having gone home all night to remind her to get his tux n shizz ready for that night’s Sterling Cooper 40th anniversary party, which will be, in part, honoring his efforts.  Betty, likely not knowing what to do, agrees, hangs up.

The episode ends with the big Sterling Cooper gala, where Don is being presented with an award for his humanity (wha?).  Roger Sterling introduces him with the gushiest speech I’ve ever heard in my life (though privately, laughing that HE was the one to find Don at a fur company sales job).  Don takes the stage and begins his acceptance speech, as Betty gives him the death stare from her seat. Mad Men S03E10 fades out…

“The Color Blue”: what does the title mean?  Miss Farrell tells Don of a student named Charlie who asks, “How do I knew if the color blue is the same blue that you see?”  This, of course, has to do with people seeing things differently - with possibly the most obvious connection being Don seeing Danny as Adam.  There’s also the connection to viewing the world through the lens of advertising, to viewing Don Draper through Betty Draper’s new eyes, to being Peggy Olson versus Paul Kinsey… the list goes on.  Curious to hear your interpretations, folks.

Within “The Color Blue,” we also find out from Lane Pryce that Sterling Cooper is being put on sale by the Brits again - part of the motivation behind the 40th anny party was to garner interest from potential buyers.  The season is concluding… I predict a major office cliffhanger coming our way.

Not to mention a huge Don / Betty showdown!  What will happen to Dick Whitman?

Only three episodes left of the third season!  Should we start placing bets?

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