Ah, Mad Men, I still feel the lack!

I just finished reading The Daily Beast’s second Mad Men Postmortem - an interview with show creator Matthew Weiner.  I particularly liked the bit of color he gave about the John Deere accident episode, “Guy Walks Into an Advertising Agency“:

There was a lot of focus on rural America at that time. It probably climaxes the next year when The Beverly Hillbillies comes on the air but Hootenanny and Hee Haw… that whole thing was a big part of commercial television for sure. John Deere had an ad that was like Green Acres, a city slicker on his new sit-down tractor. I loved the idea of telling a story about the fact the people who were from the country have perspective and respect for this machinery and the city slickers get drunk and then it’s just some stupid lawnmower and that they were going to come face to face with the fact that they had contempt for the country. I don’t know if any of that comes across but I tried to thematically and dramatically express that in the way that the British treat the Americans, which is basically that they’re a bunch of bumpkins, but at the same time they’re using their talents because they obviously knew how to do it better than them…

They really do put a lot of thought into each detail, don’t they?  I wish I could watch the show with Matthew Weiner commentary on each week.

Another Monday morning with no Mad Men episode to recap.  Luckily, I have a few distractions to offer.

May I present to you with illustrator Dyna Moe’s Joan Holloway - er, Joan Harris - paper dolls, Seasons 1, 2, and 3!

I love these!  I definitely recognize more than a few of these Janie Bryant looks.  And such great attention to detail - please note the blood stains on Joan’s dress from episode 6 (”Guy Walks Into an Advertising Agency”).  You know, the one with the John Deere lawnmower accident.

Visit Dyna Moe’s Flickr page to view these in huge size and print ‘em out.  Enjoy!

Ho hum.  It’s Monday morning and I have nary a Mad Men episode to recap.  I’ve lost all sense of purpose in life.

To fill the void, let’s watch this clip of January Jones (that’s disgruntled housewife Betty Draper!) playing beer pong last week on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon:

Perhaps we just can’t see past the Betty Draper facade.  Or maybe Jones is just one of those babes whose terrible jokes always get laughed at by the boys because she’s hot.  No more of that, please.

The actress also hosted Saturday Night Live over the weekend, with musical guest Black Eyed Peas.  I have yet to view the episode, but will be doing so later today.  Let’s watch!  We’ll see who has the last laugh.

[Source: EW.com]

Thanks 4 coming 2 this week’s poll party!  On Monday, we dared ask:

Q: When Should Mad Men Season 4 Pick Back Up?

A: The day after the finale!

Seems like either y’all don’t want to miss a single minute of Mad Men, or you have no respect for history.  I think it’s probably the first one!

Unfortch, I have a feeling your wishes won’t be granted.  With Season 1 ending on Thanksgiving 1960 and Season 2 starting Valentine’s Day 1962, and Season 2 ending October 1962 and Season 3 beginning spring 1963 (whew!), it seems though Matthew Weiner and co. will put a few months between Season 3’s end and Season 4’s start.

So much sweet, sweet waiting.  Happy Friday!

Yep, it’s a two-Mad Men-posts-in-one-afternoon kind of day.  I’m really curious to hear what everyone had to think about last night’s Season 3 finale, so make sure to leave me a note in the comments section of my recap.

Now on to the weekly poll! Mad Men Season 2 ended in October 1962, near the Cuban Missile Crisis, while Season 3 picked back up half a year later, in spring 1963 and ended in December, after the assassination of JFK .  With these unexpected jumps in time, it’s hard to predict when Season 4 will begin… but it’s highly likely the season premiere will surround a significant point in time.

And thus, we ask:

Oh boy.  If last week’s episode of Mad Men concerned itself with the world ending and hope dying, last night’s Season 3 finale certainly had to do with rebirth.  Where to begin?

The finale kicks off with a visit to Conrad Hilton.  The eccentric entrepreneur informs Don Draper that they can no longer work together, as McCann Erickson is planning on buying both Puttnam, Powell, and Lowe (PPL), and Sterling Cooper - something which Don had not yet heard about.  Don is, understandably, pissed beyond all belief, because Hilton was the whole reason he reluctantly signed a three-year contract with Sterling Cooper in the first place (”You come and go as you please, and you don’t care that my future is tied up in this mess because of you”).  Connie responds to Don with little sympathy: “I’ve got everything I have on my own. It’s made me immune to those who complain and cry because they can’t. I didn’t take you as one of them, Don. Are you?”

Cue flashback to Don / Dick Whitman as a child, watching his father break apart from the farming cooperative he was a part of.  This memory, plus Hilton’s harsh words, seem to inspire Don to march down to Bertram Cooper’s office and propose a revolution of their own: to buy back Sterling Cooper from PPL.  After some pleading from Don and assurance that he values their relationship,  Roger Sterling is recruited as well.  Bromance reinstated.

At home, more strife.  Wife Betty Draper informs Don that she’s made an appointment with a divorce attorney and suggests he does the same.  Don responds by telling her that maybe she should go see a doctor, as she hasn’t been herself lately.  Betty uncharacteristically stands her ground and brushes his comments off.

Cue the rest of Don’s flashback, which shows Don / Dick Whitman’s father, drunk as a skunk, readying his horse to go to the city to sell his crop and avoid losing his home.  Don / Dick follows his father out into the stable, where his spooked horse kicks the elder Whitman in the head and kills him.  Here, we see an obvious parallel to Don’s current situation: he, too, is staging a revolution because he’s about to lose his home and his life’s work.  Hopefully Don, unlike dad, will be able to take his own spooked horse by the reigns.

The next day, Betty meets with an attorney with lover Henry Francis by her side to figure out her options.  Said attorney informs her that divorce is a bitch in New York, and that she is perhaps better off going to Nevada for six weeks to establish residency and get a fast divorce.  Betty and Henry decide to follow the attorney’s advice, as they want all ties to Don cut as immediately as possible.

Back at Sterling Cooper, our newly-formed trio (Don, Bertram, Roger) marches down to Lane Pryce’s office to discuss purchase price. Lane is of little help and informs them that their information is faulty; Sterling Cooper is being sold, but PPL is not.  However, when he phones up Powell (who is totally the dad from The Nanny, btw) to tell him about the meeting, it turns out that Connie’s info was accurate: PPL is being sold, and Lane can expect to be pushed into McCann along with it.  Lane thus meets back up with the revolutionary trio and Don comes up with a fantastic plan: Lane fires Don, Bertram, and Roger, thus freeing them from their contracts.  Then, the trio + Lane will start their own agency, taking accounts with them.  And thus recruiting for Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce begins!

Don meets with Peggy Olson and basically assumes she’ll follow him, which is met by much scorn from the Peggster.  She’s tired of him overlooking her value and taking credit for her brilliance.  Besides, she’s had “other offers.”  Draper later goes to her apartment to put in a better effort at convincing the girl to join his team.  He puts his ego aside and admits he’s seen her as an extension of himself, that she’s brilliant, a visionary, and if she turns him down, he’ll spend the rest of his life trying to hire her back.  It’s a lovely, almost father/daughteresque scene, and they look at each other with eyes glassy with near-tears.  Peggy finally accepts his offer, realizing that Don is sincere.  All she’s ever wanted was his approval, after all.

Next up is Pete Campbell, who’s been feigning sick in order to interview at Ogilvy.  Don and Roger show up at his apartment to recruit him, and are met with a big more pushback.  Like Peggy, Pete feels undervalued and often overlooked, and he demands that Don specifically tell him what he’s worth to him.  Don, again putting ego aside, replies that he’s always abreast of the trends - aeronautics, teenagers, the “Negro market” - and they need him to keep the company looking forward.  The conversation mirrors the one Don had with Peggy, which backs up Duck Phillips‘ assertion that Pete and Peggy are cut from the same cloth.  Pete, playing hardball, demands partnership, which Don and Roger accept, as long as he’s able to pull in their accounts.

That evening, Don and Roger sit down for a much-needed nightcap.  Don informs Roger of his troubles at home, and Roger spills the beans on what he knows.  His daughter Margaret is, after all, friends with Henry Francis‘ daughter, and knows a thing or two about Betty’s relationship with the man.  Don is stunned and goes home tipsy to confront his wife.

What ensues is a hot mess of a fight, in which Don grabs Betty by the neck of her nightgown and pulls her from her slumber, demanding to know who Henry Francis is.  She responds coldly, refusing to answer his questions, and he calls her spoiled, self-righteous, and finally, a whore - which I found shocking, because Don Draper was, of course, born to a prostitute himself, and spent his entire life trying to forget it.  Betty informs him that she’s moving forward with the divorce and wants him out of the house.

The next day, they sit children Sally and Bobby down in the living room to let them know that daddy is moving out.  Don tries to soften the blow by suggesting the split might be just temporary, but Betty, again, stands firm.  Sally throws a fit and runs out - an old soul, she knows promises of continued family unity are b.s. - while Bobby throws himself into his father’s arms, in tears - he thinks it’s his fault.  The scene is clearly very hard on both Betty and Don.

On Sunday, Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce meet at the office to get files organized and steal back clients.  Harry Crane is also invited to join.  Buried in paperwork, they soon realize they need another person of value to join them: Joan Holloway!  Could this company get any better?

The next day, the remaining unrecruited Sterling Cooperites arrive at work to find the office a shamble.  Ken Cosgrove and Paul Kinsey seem to have specifically been written off.

Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce get set up in a suite in the Pierre Hotel, with the expert organizational help of Joan.  The episode ends with Don calling Betty from the hotel and telling her he won’t fight her; he hopes she finds the happiness she’s been looking for.  Betty tells him he’ll always be the father of her children, and they say goodbye to each other like they really mean it.  Don then goes out and smiles at his new family - Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce - like a proud papa.  They’re all he has left.

Flash to scenes of Betty and Henry en route to Nevada and Carla taking care of the abandoned kids as Don moves into a new place, alone. Roy Orbison sings us out with “Shahdaroba”: “The future is much better than the past.”  Let’s hope so!

ZOMG, am I right?  Don Draper has lost everything, his worst fears of being a lonely Oliver seemingly coming true.  As emotionally wrenching as the entire episode was, there was a definite glimmer of hope to be found as Don gazed at his new work family; though he’s lost it all, he’s not afraid of starting from scratch - he’s done it before, after all.  I couldn’t help but keep thinking of Conrad Hilton’s words to Don at the beginning of the episode, about people who cry about not getting what they want.  It’s clear that Don isn’t one of those people, and it seems as though these words and this quality were exactly the kick in the ass Don needed to begin repairing his life.  Unfortunately, this same immunity broke his family apart - an immunity to wife Betty’s complaints at not having what she wants (a faithful husband, happiness) and an overall refusal to see things from her perspective are what got him in trouble at home.

Will Don Draper change?  He seemed resolved to start over, to end things with Betty peacefully and begin his new life.  But will this new life be one of higher morals?  He’s set some of his ego aside to improve, but will he really get yet another chance at rebirth?

No idea.  I’m at the edge of my seat here, reeling at the idea of waiting so so many months for the next chapter of our story.  WHAT’S GONNA HAPPEN?!

And where’s Salvatore Romano when you need him?  Call the guy up, Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce!

The shot heard ’round the world!  Oh boy.  Last night’s Mad Men concerned itself with an event the writers have been building up to over the past season: the assassination of President John F. Kennedy!

The episode starts with Roger Sterling’s daughter Margaret throwing a hissy fit over an extravagant wedding gift Roger’s wife Jane had given her.  That, plus wedding jitters have got the girl thisclose to shutting down the wedding. Roger and ex-wife Mona are able to talk her down and the wedding will go on - on November 22, 1963!

At Sterling Cooper, Pete Campbell gets called in to speak with Lane Pryce, who informs him that Ken Cosgrove, not Pete, has been promoted to SVP of Account Services.  Pete, however, has been bumped up to Head of Account Management, which doesn’t pacify him in the least.  He goes home and is ready to call Duck Phillips about the Grey job, only to be stopped by wife Trudy, who convinces him to wait it out at Sterling Cooper, to see how everything goes.

Duck Phillips, meanwhile, is busy getting sexy with our girl Peggy Olson on a regular basis.  They’re in the midst of one such lunchtime rendezvous when they get the big news: JFK has been shot and killed!

Everyone at Sterling Cooper has already heard in the meantime.  The phones are ringing off the hook, people are starting prayer circles, the office is general  havoc.  Back home, Betty Draper and housekeeper Carla sit in front of the TV in tears, shaken.

Don Draper?  Cool as a cucumber!

But Margaret’s wedding must go on.  The next day, we see Don and Betty questioning whether it’s still on, and realizing they must attend.  Pete, on the other hand, is on an anti-Sterling Cooper high horse, and decides to pointedly not go, because no one at Sterling Cooper is upset enough about JFK’s death.  He needs to make a stand!  Wife Trudy follows suit.

Everything at the wedding is a bit of a mess.  Only half the guests were in attendance, a handful were in the back room watching TV, the servers hadn’t shown up, nor had the cake… Oy. 

Betty spots lover Henry Francis across the way and is relieved to find the woman on his arm is his daughter.  Roger gives a charming speech, the bride and groom begin dancing and couples join them on the floor.  Betty can’t take her eyes off Henry, and husband Don, perhaps moved by the moment, gives her a big fat smooch on the dance floor.

The wedding ends satisfactorily.  Roger and Jane are back at home and he’s annoyed with her.  It seems to me as though the generational gap is starting to take its toll on their relationship - Roger is treating Jane a bit more like a whiny teenager than a wife.  Even further, he relieves the stress of the long day by calling up former lover Joan Holloway.  She’s the only one who’ll say the right thing, he feels.  Uh oh!  Between Baby Jane and Dr. Greg, will we be witnessing a Roger/Joan reunion?  I can’t say I’d be disappointed.

Back at the Draper residence, Betty is still uncontrollably shaken by the murder of JFK…. which takes a turn for the worse when she watches the live murder of Lee Harvey Oswald on TV.  Betty decides to go for a drive and meet Henry, who has a shocking proposition: if she leaves Don, he’ll marry her.  She doesn’t have to decide right away; they kiss and part ways.

Betty’s emotions are running high!   She goes home and freaks out at Don, telling him she doesn’t love him anymore, the kiss at the Sterling wedding was passionless for her, that she can’t get past the lies.  Don responds with a calm “Everything will be fine,”  a phrase that is repeated over and over by characters in the episode.  He thinks Betty’s reacting to JFK’s murder alone and will snap out of it - though he’s clearly broken by her admissions.  Sigh.

The next day, Don shows up at the office to find a lone Peggy Olson there.  He declines her invitation to watch the state funeral, instead opting to drink alone in his office.  This is the weakest we’ve ever seen Don Draper; as he sits in his office with a drink, it immediately becomes apparent that his Oliver fantasy has crumbled.  Despite all his efforts, he has ended up truly alone.

A melancholy episode for sure.  I was stirred by not only Betty’s lack of feelings for Don, but the state of the Mad Men nation as they collectively mourned the death of their president.  I couldn’t help drawing the inevitable and uncomfortably eerie comparison between JFK and President Obama, as I believe the response would be quite similar to what we saw on the screen last night.  A feeling of hopelessness, of unfulfilled promises, of extinguished youth, a fear for the future.

In fact, the entire episode was nothing if not a slow chipping away of anything we ever had to hope for: the death of a promising leader, a disappointing career flop, the deterioration of a relationship in their early stages, the slow killing-off of a seemingly perfect marriage… the list goes on.  The Death of Hope episode ends with a fitting song: “End of the World” by Skeeter Davis.  Give this sucker a listen to further bum yourself out.

WOW!  Interesting, I thought, to have the JFK assassination fall in the second-to-last episode rather than the Season 3 finale.  What could they possibly have in store for us next week?  I’m shaking with excitement over here!

Last night’s Mad Men - what a doozy!  Again, nothing and everything happened at the same time… but mostly everything, this time.

The episode begins with Betty Draper taking the kids to dead Grandpa Gene’s house for Halloween, where Betty gets into a disagreement with her brother William over what to do with the house.  But Betty’s mind is elsewhere - she just discovered husband Don Draper’s big secrets!  She pulls the family lawyer aside and confides in him (”He’s been married before… It’s a lie so big”).  He basically waves her away and tells her to stay in the marriage unless she feels physically threatened. Ugh.

Meanwhile, Don takes Betty’s absence as an opportunity to get some more time with lover Suzanne Farrell.  However, Miss Farrell thinks something’s up - regardless of their nights of bliss, “I see a man who is not happy,” which he denies.  She goes on to admit to him that she wants more from him and their relationship than she thought she would.  He seems somehow alright with that, and proposes that they go on a trip out of town together for the week that Betty’s out of town.  They settle on Norwich, Connecticut, for some reason.

Across town, Sterling Cooper’s got a new PR emergency to solve. Annabelle Mathis of dog food company Caldecott Farms comes to the agency, hoping to fix her company’s image.  It seems yes, dogs love the food but no, owners aren’t really into the fact that it’s made out of horse meat (think of the ponies!).

It turns out, however, that newly-widowed Annabelle’s visit to Sterling Cooper might have some ulterior motives.  It’s apparent right away that she and Roger Sterling have a romantic past and, when they go out to dinner later that night, we find out that she’d left him years ago for her husband.  She tries to get sexy with him, but he turns her down.

Joan Holloway is practicing with her man Dr. Greg for upcoming interviews as he prepares to make the medical switch into psychiatry.  She gets him to open up a bit about his father’s nervous breakdown and why he might be interested in pursuing psychiatry, and all seems fine.

The next day, at a Caldecott Farms dog food focus group, the gang watch a handful of test subjects and their dogs interact with the dog food.  It looks like the dogs are loving it - but when the owners find out that the food is Caldecott, they freak (ponies!!!).  Don Draper gives it to Annabelle straight: she needs to rename the product STAT and free herself from all negative connotation.  Annabelle takes offense to this and runs out, with Roger following - he knows there’s more to it.  Annabelle confesses that he was “the one,” that she never got over him and always regretted letting him go.  Roger responds by basically telling her that he got over it long ago.  She wasn’t his “one.”

Later that night, Don and Miss Farrell are all packed up and ready to go on their romantic getaway. Don pulls the car up to his house to quickly run in and grab something for the trip, and is met with the icy gaze of wife Betty, who is unexpectedly home from her trip to Grandpa Gene’s.  She takes him to his drawer o’ secrets and shows him that she’s got the keys and knows its contents.  Betty knows he changed his name, he’s divorced, he purchase a home for a woman in Long Beach.  “I respected your privacy too long,” she tells him.  What gives?

Don Draper / Dick Whitman is knocked off his ass and responds unexpectedly: with the truth!  Don breaks down and tells her everything; he opens the box and tells her about his mother the prostitute, the real Don Draper, his relationship with Anna Draper, and even the part about his half-brother Adam Whitman, who killed himself after coming to Don / Dick for help and being turned away.  Don bursts into tears and Betty, never wavering from her steely demeanor, lends him a comforting hand on the shoulder.

Outside, Miss Farrell realizes Don isn’t coming back to the car and starts walking home dejectedly, suitcase in hand.

The next morning, Don gives all three of his children kisses on the head and exchanges a warm look in his stone-faced wife before leaving for work.  At Sterling Cooper, he shuts himself into his office and immediately calls Miss Farrell to apologize for ditching.  “Did you get caught?” she asks him. “It’s more complicated than that,” he answers.  I think it’s safe to say their affair is over for the time being.

Meanwhile, our Joanie finds Dr. Greg wallowing in his own filth in front of the TV, all boozed up - he’s clearly botched up the interview, just like he did that surgery!  Obv, he takes it out on her: “Stop acting like you know everything,” he tells Joan. “You don’t know what it’s like to want something your whole life, and to plan for it, and count on it, and not get it.”  EXCCUUUUUSE ME?!  I believe Joan had always dreamed leaving the degrading working world (a man’s world!) and marrying a doctor who could provide for her - not a pathetic whiny baby.  Joan’s next move?  To smash a flower vase against his head.  Suck it, Dr. Greg!

What does Joan do next?  Calls up old buddy Roger Sterling back at Sterling Cooper and asks him to get the word out that she’s looking for new work - something above office management and department store work.  He seems more than happy to track down a role for her (”She’s expensive,” he boastfully tells a lead).

However, in the end, a new job may not be needed. Dr. Greg apologizes to Joan and tells her he’s joined the Army to become a surgeon again and support her as planned.  Seems like a pretty decent idea - however, since I’m writing this blog post from the future, I know that things might not work out so well for Dr. Greg.  I think we all know where he’s headed: Vietnam!

“The Gypsy and the Hobo” ends with Don and Betty taking the kids out trick-or-treating.  Little lisping Sally is dressed as a gypsy and Bobby, a hobo. The clan walks up to a neighboring house, and the man at the door immediately identifies them as such. “And who are you supposed to be?” neighbor man lightheartedly asks Don and Betty.  Don responds with a wry smile - is he Dick or is he Don? End scene, cue the song “Where is Love?” from the musical Oliver!

Ah yes, and furthermore!  Don is Dick, but Don, too, is the gypsy and the hobo. A hobo is a tramp, a wandering worker. A gypsy is a traveler with the reputation of swindling folks out of their money. The distinction is perhaps negligible, but marked; it can be said that Don, himself, climbed from poor vagrant (farmer’s son / salesman) to wandering swindler (advertising wiz / adulterer) over the years.  And yet, though they are different, they are essentially the same.  Don can’t really escape his true essence…  Dick Whitman will always come back to haunt!

And Don is Oliver! The musical (based on Charles Dickens‘ Oliver Twist) is one I know well; it follows orphan Oliver as he dares ask for more porridge at the orphanage, as he falls into a group of pickpockets, as he wants nothing more than a family, a place to be, a sense of belonging.

HELLO!  What is Don Draper if not an orphan who asked for more?  What is advertising if not picking the pockets of the common man?  What is all the adultery if not a chance to feel as if he belongs to someone/something significant for a moment?

Has Don Draper turned over a new leaf with all this honesty?  Will he find a place to belong within the structure of his family?  Or is it too late for Betty?  Oh, how that woman has suffered!

Leave your thoughts.  So curious to find out more.

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?

Hey!  Did you know Mad Men star January Jones (Betty Draper on the show) used to date Ashton Kutcher?  Gross, right?

And apparently, he was a real crappy boyfriend. Here’s what JJ has to say about the guy in an interview with GQ:

“The guy I was dating when I first got to L.A. was not supportive of my acting.. He was like, I don’t think you’re going to be good at this. So— f- you! He only has nice things to say now—if anything, I should thank him. Because the minute you tell me I can’t do something, that’s when I’m most motivated.”

The interviewer later revealed that the douche in question was none other than Kutcher.

Now, I think we can all agree that the man who not only brought us Dude, Where’s My Car? but helped shape the psyche of That ’70s Show’s Michael Kelso has more than enough authority as a thespian to criticize a budding young actress such as Jones.

Jk jk jk jk hate that guy!  Babe’s got a hit series and a Golden Globe nomination so she’s not really sweatin’ it either.

What does Demi think of all this? Duuump him!!!