‘Mad Men’: The mountain king

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Answers! This episode brought us some answers! That doesn’t mean many — or, really, any — of our main threads are resolved, but we did learn more about Don’s mysterious acts and flashbacks this season, and we did get a glimpse into another side of Don, by which I mean Dick Whitman. And yesterday brought us word that “Mad Men” will be back for a third season on AMC, so while this season appears to be wrapping up with many issues still outstanding, you can at least look forward to some being answered in nine months or so. In the meantime, if you have nothing else to do, you could have a baby. While children are expensive to feed, clothe and educate, you will probably need the extra labor for the subsistence farming we’ll all be doing in Great Depression 2.0.

Before I get to the answers we learned in this episode, let me point out that you presented some excellent interpretations of last week’s show and exhibited some outstanding detail orientation. While “Mad Men” is off the air, I hope you’ll apply these skills to “Lost.” You probably already do.

So let’s get to the tidbits we learned.

Don, still in California, goes to see the mysterious woman we saw earlier this season in flashback at the used-car dealership where Don used to work. It turns out that she’s Anna Draper, widow of the real Don Draper. She bears a strong resemblance to the current Betty Draper, though she’s a bit huskier and has a bad leg. But she’s brimming with genuine vivacity and contentment, and perhaps because she’s the one person in the world who knows Don’s real story — that he took the real Don Draper’s identity in the fog of war and is really the orphaned Dick Whitman — Don is truly comfortable with her. I’m just going to keep calling “our” Don Draper by that name even though he’s really Dick Whitman and Anna calls him Dick — just an FYI on that. Through a combination of flashbacks and present conversations, we find out the following: After she tracked Don to the dealership and found he wasn’t her lost husband (who she assumed had ditched her), Don must have made her an offer she couldn’t refuse. It seems that they were legally married, and Don paid for her house and life in California while he made his way to prominence in New York. Each year, they would get together for Christmas, and they seem to have formed a close, sibling-like relationship. In one flashback, we see a delighted Don telling Anna about Betty — her beauty, her laugh, the way she makes him feel — and how he plans to marry her. Anna is very excited, but Don’s plans require their getting a divorce. He promises to take care of her forever; she says he doesn’t have to. She’s the person to whom he sent the collection of Frank O’Hara poems earlier this season. Don tells Anna that he’s ruined his whole existence in New York, mentioning his messed-up life with his wife and his kids and his brother’s suicide. He says he feels as if he’s been watching his life, trying to scratch his way in.

She reassures him — including through an optimistic Tarot card reading that seems to present him with a second (or third or fiftieth) chance at happiness — but Don doesn’t appear to be leaving for home to try to work things out. Since he has no clothes with him, he wears those belonging to Harold, Anna’s ex. It’s not the Madison Avenue look — maybe more of the Woody Guthrie look. Or maybe Woody Guthrie combined with high school math teacher. Don talks to some guys who are building hot rods, saying he’s looking for work. At the end of the episode, he wades into the ocean, letting the waves beat his chest and roll over him. It doesn’t really look as if he’ll be going home this season — what do you think?

Meanwhile, back at that home, Betty Draper is depositing Don’s paychecks and trying both to manage her fraying life and to ruin other people’s fraying lives. After she catches Sally in the bathroom, smoking, she drags her daughter by the ear to the closet, shuts her in, and tells her she’s taking away Barbie. Not Barbie! When Sally protests, Betty says, “You betcha,” like she was in a vice presidential debate or something. Sally wants to know when her father is coming back since his suitcase is there and he isn’t. Those little pitchers really do have big ears. Betty isn’t sure what to say to that, so in a subsequent scene, she calls up her old pal Sara Beth. You’ll recall that the last time Betty interacted with Sara Beth, it was to set her up on an impromptu and illicit date with the affianced Arthur. Well, Betty calls Sara Beth under the pretense that Sally might need to go to private school, and what does Sara Beth’s daughter think of the local one? Betty then mentions that she read in the paper that Arthur and Tara’s wedding is coming up; she hopes they’ll be very happy. Sara Beth confesses to being sick about the whole thing, that she can’t sleep at night because she’s lovelorn over Arthur. Betty pries a bit and finds out that Sara Beth didn’t just flirt with Arthur, if you catch my drift. Betty is mean, mean, mean about the whole thing. When Sara Beth protests that Betty essentially set the whole thing up and that Betty wanted him too, Betty scornfully says that there’s a difference between “wanting and having.” I suppose she gets a fleeting sense of superiority out of the exchange.

Later in the episode, Betty tries to act more like a parent with Sally by giving her riding boots and revealing that she and Don have had a “disagreement,” and that he’s left — and she’s not sure where he is now. She promises Sally things will be all right, and Sally points out that Betty has blood all over the crotch of her jodhpurs. I’m not really sure what the significance of that is, except that maybe Betty can’t keep up the facade that she wants.

At Sterling Cooper, many machinations are afoot. First, Bert Cooper, Roger Sterling and Bert’s sister Alice need to decide whether to sell the agency to Putnam, Powell & Lowe. Bert doesn’t really want to sell: One, it’s been his life’s work, and, two, he promised the original Sterling that he’d look after Roger. Alice points out that, one, Bert is old, and, two, he should just let Roger do what he wants and die in the arms of a 20-year-old. Bert calls a partners’ meeting. Don doesn’t show up, of course, but at 12.5% ownership, he’s “mathematically insignificant.” Roger is, naturally, happy to sell, given his newly expanded expense base, and Alice wants out too. Bert falls in line in the end, so the agency will be sold. In an interesting exchange, Alice tells Roger that this is a good outcome for him since he has his “children to think of.” He replies, “I just have the one.” Alice says, “Really.” I’m not sure what she means here — a preexisting out-of-wedlock child, or a presumption of future children with young, nubile Jane?

Second, Peggy Olson gets tired of sharing an office with the Xerox machine, and, after she wins the Popsicle account for the firm in Don’s absence, she goes to Roger and asks for Freddy Rumson’s office. Roger gives it to her, resulting in a great deal of jealousy from Harry Crane and others who view themselves as important but who were too afraid to ask for the office. It should be noted as well that we see Peggy sneaking cigarettes late at night in the office and drinking alone at Freddy’s former office bar. Oh, Peggy. Et tu? Peggy is also the only person in the office who seems concerned that Don is totally missing in action.

Third, Pete Campbell is having trouble getting his arms around the whole adoption idea, or maybe he just doesn’t like the fact that Trudy tells his secretary about an upcoming adoption-agency appointment. He goes home, tells Trudy that they are not adopting — end of story — and to punctuate this sentiment, he throws the dinner she’s made over the balcony. Well, his father-in-law calls him in the office and says the Clearasil account is now “under review” despite strong sales for the company since Sterling Cooper took over their ads. Pete, well out of client-service mode, essentially tells him to butt out and that he might as well cancel the whole thing. The father-in-law says to go ahead and cancel it. Toward the end of the episode, Pete visits Peggy in her new office and tells her of the cancellation, which he hasn’t revealed to anyone else yet. Peggy takes this opportunity to ask what the heck happened out in L.A. — like where’s Don? Pete tells her that Don just disappeared, and he didn’t call the police because he knows some things about Don’s past — namely, that he’s done this before. Pete says he might not even be back. Peggy tells him that she’s sure that whatever Don is doing, he’s doing it for a good reason.

Fourth, two words: poor Joan! We saw earlier this season that Joan’s fiancé, Greg, seems to have some old-fashioned views on what a wife ought to be. In this episode, he doesn’t like it when Joan tries to assume a non-missionary position during a romantic interlude: “Where did you pick that up?” he asks. Later in the episode, he visits the office and detects that Roger seems to know Joan well, possibly too well. His response is to date-rape Joan in Don’s empty office. What a keeper! When Peggy compliments Joan on Greg’s handsomeness and asks about the wedding, Joan maintains a positive face, bragging about Greg’s medical specialty and altruistic volunteer work, and says they’ll have a December wedding. I’ll say it again: poor Joan. That is not going to be a happy life.

Finally, Paul Kinsey is back in one piece from Mississippi. Sheila dumped him three days into their mission, but Paul has a lifetime of moral superiority about working in the heart of the civil rights movement to draw upon in future conversations. Maybe Betty should try something more along those lines instead of manipulating her friends into bad decisions for which she can later deride them.

According to the AMC website, it looks as if we’ve got one more week of this season. I encourage you to make bold prognostications on any of the matters — major or minor — that remain in flux.

— Sarah Rogers