Mad Men S4E3 "Good News" - B+

Good episode. Some belly laugh moments, some touching and tender scenes, some heart string tugging, and some serious shining by secondary characters Lane, Joan, Greg(!), & Anna. The directing was well-done, as was the editing, with one exceptionally creative and well executed scene I'll touch on later.


"Who Is Don Draper?" was the query to open this 4th season (the 1st I've actually watched week to week) and while we received more responses to the apparent season theme, the episode theme was most definitely reflective of the episode's title "Good News". That title however, is in my opinion meant to be taken sarcastically as any good news delivered in this episode came well after upsetting, and even devastating, news. "Good News" may be all in how you take it in these circumstances. After getting laid low with a serious one-two combination to your emotional being, a well timed and well placed series of jabs, hooks, and gut punches from some 6'6" 250lb. well-chiseled heavyweight champ named Life "Izza" Bitch, is it still "good" news that you're going to survive the round? That you're resilient enough to not get knocked down? That you're resilient enough to stagger back to your corner, getting just enough respite so you're ready and able to come out to another round of soul shattering abuse? I think the episode implies that it must be. I think the episode implies that its all we're going to get so we better make of it what we can. Take, and make, "good" of what news you can because as the final scene, and especially the final shot, seems to imply, the aforementioned heavyweight champ is going to land blow after blow, round after round, year after year.


The good news parade begins this week with the return on the doctor from the pilot episode. Dr. Lech, a medical professional with all of the table-side manner of Leon Phelps, is just wrapping up giving our Joanie some sort of exam done to her feet that somehow lets him know if you can have babies or not.(1) Before Doc Sleazebag rides his slime trail back out of the exam room Joan stops him and wants to be reassured that even though (actually because) she had two previous "procedures", she can still conceive, carry, and deliver a baby. The doc, surprised to learn that there have been two count em two abortions as he's only procedured her once, questions her as to the professionalism of the other one. Joanie, who knows from horrible doctors (more on that later), informs Dr. Iluvtouchinghoohas that it was done by a woman calling herself a "midwife". The doc then delivers her the "good news" that all signs are clear that she can be a mommy. Honestly, for all the shit I give the guy for being a scumbag he does actually seem to be a good doctor by the way he receives and delivers medical information to his patients. I just know that in the future he becomes that doctor that gets busted artificially inseminating his patients with his own baby batter (medically speaking). So...was this good news for Joan? She more than likely can make little Gregorinas and Greg Jrs, born perfectly formed with ten toes and ten fingers with no brains in them, but is that such a great thing? Can the marriage with Greg be as fulfilling as she has hoped and dreamed, as fulfilling as she is apparently working at trying to make it? Will it even last? Will she be pregnant when he inevitably gets FUBARed five clicks from 'the shit' in Da Nang, dinky dow big time with a mama-san dee dee mow?(2)


The uncomfortableness between Don and his secretary is still there, burbling and bubbling just under the surface, and I predict this storyline is going to come to a roiling boil sometime soon. Harry Crane shows up to exposit that Don's headed for LA during the upcoming holiday (what is it with this show and holidays?) and gets his weekly required dose of shit thrown at him. He has to just grin and take it this week however, as it comes from Don and Lane respectively. We also find out the "good news" that Lane is headed to London to visit his wife and children, as they are most certainly not traveling to NY, and I am officially pissed I don't get to look at Embeth Davidtz this episode.(3)


Joan strides, looking bodacious in blue, down to Lane's secretary and sweetly and subtly judges her as she turns directly into Lane's office to deliver "good news". Said good news is asking Lane if he wants some fried chicken cause she's running out for some and-some-oh-hey-by-the-way can I have some time off? Lane denies the request, sees what her offer for some fried chicken was and calls her on it. She rightfully apologizes and acknowledges the tackiness. Lane not so sweetly or subtly does not accept said apology. I love these two so I kinda hope there's no protracted war here...or do I?


Don's leaving, on a jet plan, and we don't know when he'll be back again. I wonder if he got William's luggage in the divorce settlement? We see him making his way up towards his first wife's home and we get a tricky reveal that her limp is not from polio, at least not right now, rather its from a casted broken leg. Now I will just get this out here now: in disagreement with a comment above in this thread, I haven't felt that Don's flashbacks have been the worst part of the show...its been the "Don in LA" scenes. I haven't liked them that much and the first couple of scenes of this "Don in LA" subplot were heading down the same path. Just as my eyes start to glaze over they do the right thing here and bring me some more Christina Hendricks.


Joan and Greg in the House of Shattered Vases, starting things off amicably. It quickly dissolves into a frustrated bickerfest and Greg storms off to work and we get our first glimpse just how scared Joanie is of him never returning. Christina Hendrickson does a great little flinch when the door slams as if it physically hurts, or stuns her, that he has left her. These kids are good together and we're treated to even more of that later.


Back in LALALand Janet, Chrissy, and Jack Draper are all down at the Regal Beagle. Things are par faor the course here being pretty boring and all and so far this whole subplot has seemingly only existed to show us that Anna wants some pot and to cause us all to wonder how long till Don bones a girl who was probably 8 when Sally was born. My first go round of this episode and I was pretty dismissive of this whole scene but on watching ti again I think there's some relevance to the little dialogue delivered by Stephanie (Chrissy) about her kooky college roomie. Lil Miss Sweatershorts gets to deliver the "Live! From New York" line this week while relating a tale about a ex-romie at Cal who flipped out on her, read the bible all night, and asked if she had heard "the Good News". I'm not quite sure, perhaps I'm digging here, but maybe this has something to do with good news being sort of like beauty: in the eye of the beholder? Stephanie sees her roommate having a nervous breakdown, while the roommate would probably define that night as her rebirth and thebest night of her life. Whats good news for one of them becomes just a wacky anecdote for the other.(4) Maybe?


ZZZZZZZZZ What'd I miss?


Okay!! Don and Stephanie drop Anna back off home and Don offers to give Stephanie a ride home as he feels hitchhiking isn't safe for a girl her age. She weighs the odds, deems Don a somewhat safer choice than hitching, and accepts. NASA is alerted and begins a "T-Minus 10 Til Insertion" countdown.


Don's pulling up Stephanie's home and is juuuuuuust about to start sealing the deal and I become thankful for no other reason than I don't have to watch this actress deliver her lines anymore. Its an odd combination of wistful and grandiose, as if everything she says is the mst devastatingly important thing ever uttered, all while she's freezing cold and shivering. No deals are going to be sealed tonight however as the frozen swayrocker drops a bombshell upon Don that gets him out of the mood in a big way. Apparently Anna's broken leg is due to her body being ravaged by the Cancer. DUN DUN DUNNN!!! The poor woman is not only dying but is absolutely clueless to her condition because her doctors have given her a prognosis of "Not now...but RIGHT NOW!" Don knows instantly that this is most definitely not "good news" and gets high(er) and mighty that Anna should be informed about this. The co-ed begs not to be put on blast for blabbing the big secret and takes off with Don's suit coat. Bitch.


Maybe there was a cut scene because Don now enters Annas home and hangs his jacket over the back of a chair. Its not Sonny missing Carlo by a foot with a punch but...ya know.


Don carries the now slumbering Anna from the couch to her bed and while watching her sleep the peaceful sleep of the soon-to-be-written-off, he contemplates losing her forever. Well done scene follows showing Don on the couch contemplating this recent turn of events. The light and shadow guys get to earn some Emmy nom by doing some fancy doo-dads to illustrate and that Don is stuck thinking about this from night til morn. Well done guys.


Anna's up and all in a tizzy because she thinks Don has left for Acapulco without saying "Have a nice dirt nap". But no, Don's still in her home painting her moldy assed wall with Dutch Boy's semi-gloss "Sorry You're Dying Blue" because, just like her sister, he feels guilty that she's dying, he knows it, she doesn't, and he'll do anything he can to help her right now. The Widow Draper relaxes now realizing he's going to stay a bit longer. She decides since its been such a stressful 3 minutes of awake time she's going to really relax now, proceeding to wake and bake and passing the wacky tobaccy to the soon-to-be Widower Draper. They have a bizarre little stoner conversation in which Don hears the good news he so desperately needs to hear. Its really quite touching when Anna clutches his hand and informs him that "[she] knows eveyrthing about him and she still loves him". Such good, even great, news to hear for a man as lonely as Don is this season. Especially after he informed her about how the same information altered the way Betty felt about him. He can't quite consider it a victory though because the deliverer of said news is dying, soon, and doesn't even know it. Thats GOT to destroy Don.


They discourse a bit more about UFOs, suns, moons, stars, quasars, muhfuckin Elroy Jetson, and I guffaw loudly as her bitchy sister bustles through the front door with groceries and greets the odd morning spectacle of these two sharing a J, Don half naked painting a wall, with a well placed "What the Hell is going on here?" HA!! (5) Anna gets off a good shot of her own regarding her sister just barging into her house as well and I HA!! again. Sis huffs out the door and Don hurriedly yanks on his pants and runs after the woman. I bet he's had to do that a grazillion times. He confronts Sister Draper and snits at her about how she should have told poor Anna, and how he's sure he's tried but she's poor but he's rich and he's here now, and how HE's going to tell her, etc. and Don does not behave very kindly here. Big Bitch Sis gets the best of this back and forth however as she reminds him, and all of us, just who is Donald Draper: "[he's] just a man in a room with a checkbook". She begs him to leave soon because she knows, as he does too, that the longer he stays the more likely the truth will be revealed to Anna that she's about to be reunited with the original Lt. Donald Draper ASAP.


Cut to: the blissfully unaware Anna Draper absolutely killing me right here looking for all the world like a sheepish little kid who just got caught with her hand in the marijuana brownie jar. So cute here. Don won't hear her complaining about her naggy sister however, probably because he knows she's going to be almost completely dependent upon her soon and things are going to get difficult enough without some petty bickering. Don braces himself, as I do too, for the big reveal. However as he looks into the eyes of the person who knows him best and a woman who he probably esteems above all others, he melts and cannot bring himself to utter the words. He fumbles out that unfortunately he cannot stay any longer and needs to bounce off to sunny Acapulco like a Price Is Right Grand Showcase winner. If this is the last we see of Anna Draper I'm okay with it, but not because of what I mentioned above and how I've felt about the Don in LA scenes. Rather, its because I'm not sure I can imagine too much more being wrung out of this subplot; not to mention the second half of these were well acted, well done scenes and it'd be cool to see them go out on top.


Joan is pulling pencils out of the acoustic celing tiles because its a Holiday and everyone still in the office bored stupid. Hey its Peggy!! I love me some Peggy. Peggy's only here this week long enough to hand Joan a box of flowers and remind us all about her loser boyfriend. She gives Joan her "good news" present which we all assume is from Greg because of their little tiff. Something's amiss here though because Joan reads the card and storms off leaving Peggy to mentally utter the 1964 equivalent of WTF?(6) Quick cut to Joan bringing that storm right on in to Lane's office, hurling the box of roses at him, and giving is a verbatim of the card that got her so stormy. "Darling, I've been an ass. Kisses, Lane". YIKES!! Looks like FTD "Pick Me Up Bouquet" has a different translation across the pond!! Joan tongue lashes the completely befuddled Lane on the inappropriateness of his apaprent offering and their problems have come to the surface. He is still confused however but informs her that while he did send her some flowers, THOSE weren't them. Shouting for his secretary, Sandy, to come in to the room they three get to the bottom of the mix up. Apparently the soon to be unemployed Snady is so wholly incompetant that she screwed up a very sensitive matter involving Lane's eroding marriage and not only did she know about it, she didn't inform anyone and shirked responsibility for the screw up. Joan fires her on the spot and the two recently embattled enemies unite in destroying a common foe as we watch Sandy head for the unemployment line, stopping first to pick up an OED and look up the word "egregious". Fantastic scene here and like I said above I'm not sure if I want these two liking each other or not. Did anyone else thnk it was significant that Joan didn't apologize this time?


Don's now heading out of LA for good, apparently headed for ACapulco, and as he says good-by he holds Anna a little too long, perhaps a little too tight. Sensing he's having a hard time saying good-bye, she gives him words of encouragement. He heads out the door, stopping to look at her for the last time.


Don celebrates New Year's Eve on a lonely plane ride, offering up a barely audible "Happy New Year" response to the airline stewardess. Hamm plays it well here regarding a party hat as if its a never before seen object from an alien world, as if he can't picture anyone in the world having anything worth celebrating right now.


Greg comes home to a Hawaiin themed dinner Joanie has cooked up because thats the only place left on Earth where it could technically still be 1964 and they can still technically celebrate New Yer's Eve. While I love the ensuing scene, its my favorite of the week, I think they went too far here trying to portray Joan as Superwifey. Cute idea but noone outside of a Martha Stweart Living writer would actually do it. As Greg sits in his chair for dinner, exhausted after a long hard night of malpractice, his doting wife hurries off to fetch him a glass of freshly squeezed orange juice (her idea). While slicing open an orange for her hubby, Joan accidentally slices open her finger. He jumps up to see to it and rushes to get his medical bag all the while she makes comments about going to the hospital. Greg is having none of it however as he sits her down, unrolss his kit, efficiently distracts her, and soothes her jangling nerves witha funny joke while sewing up her owwie. Joan starts to cry here and Greg reassures her thats its not so bad. She's not crying about that however, which he probably knew, causing him to reassure her even further that it'll be all better. "When?" is her lament. Greg looked pretty competent her in his doctoring and my first thought was that Joan was crying because she felt so guilty. I thnk she kept bringing up the hospital because she really wasn't too keen on having Greg see to her wounds. I still think that but I also think Joan's just really dreading lsoing this guy when he gets shipped off to Vietnam. The whole world hates Greg, and rightly so, but Joan sure seems to love him and wants this marriage to work. Great scene and both of them did very well.


Don returns from his devastating LA trip having forgone any sojourn to Acapulco, surprised to find Lane, the lone ihabitant of Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce. Don presses Lane on not being in London with his family and gets a non answer about work needing to be done. Surprising me that its taken as long as it has, Don makes his way towards Lane's mini-bar. Unlike Roger however, Don actually asks first. Lane does Don one better by breaking out the good stuff and gets off a shot at his alcoholic father that I can't quite discern if he says "collecting" or "connecting". Don is impressed with the hooch, and I want to taste it so bad my mouth starts to water, grabbing one for the road as he starts to make his way out before being stopped by Lane. Lane delivers the only actual good news of the episode (if I'm wrong let me know) by revealing that despite the low budget antics SCDP has had quite a good financial year. Maybe this isn't such good news for these two after all. Because if the year's been so good why the Hell are these two feeling so low and currently battling it out for the title of "loneliest male organism in this or any universe"?


Remember earlier when I mentioned that I love how real it feels when these characters interact in the office? That aspect of this splendidly written show reaches its apex here when we see Lane lying on his couch, the depths of his loneliness having robbed of him his will to stand, when he hears Don bellow his name from somewhere in the adjoining rooms. Resignedly getting up from his wallowing, we then cut to Lane, magic bottle of Stratford-upon-Avonshire Joy Juice in his hand, and immediately we see that in his mind this is the only possible reason Don could be summoning him. Its a small touch but it leaves a big bruise, ya know? But no, Don is lunching in the breakroom and informs Lane that they're going to the movies. They run through a list of possibles and I shit you not it took me 3 viewings to catch the gag about Lane so emphatically nixing the "Send Me No Flowers" suggestion.


Funniest moment of the year as Don & Lane drunkenly watch Godzirra and harass people.


This years theme very wlel may be "doing what you want vs. what people expect out of you" and I think is referenced while Dona nd Lane settle in to eat dinner together. Lane exposits a bit about what has gone so wrong in his marriage and flat out informs Don that he should be encouragin Lane to "get ona plane" and go after his wife. "Is that what you want?" Don quizzes and Lane doesn't really seem to want to answer that one. It is the question that NEEDS to be asked in this situation however, and I think Lane already knows the answer to it. Don apparently does as well as he reveals to Lane he had plans with a "lady friend" and asks if Lane wants a "lady friend" for tonight as well. I've decided that Lane knew what he was getting himself into from the get go here and even though he intially demured, it didn't take much coercion for him to accept the offer. Clever audio edit of uproarious laughter and applause after Lane makes an ass of himself in the restaurant and we find they've gone to a comedy club.


The comedian, apparently still shellshocked from his sexual harassment at the hands of Vito Spatafore, makes a string of "lets mock the queers" jokes at the expense of Don and Lane, spurring Lane to loudly proclaim "We're not homosexuals...we're divorced!" That is exactly what lane wanted to do I think. Proclaim loud and proud to the world his own version of "good news". Don's Slap Happy Strumpet and her friend, who actually LOOKS like she would be a hooker, show up and they all quickly flee the House of the Rising Puns.


Back at Don's humble abode Lane's hooker pays a little too much attention to Master of the House, causing her to be summoned to the kitchen. Whatever the hooker equivalent of "cockblocking"is happens in there because she comes right out, hands a drink to Lane, and leads him off to get his first piece of American pie. In the spare bedroom, after a brief bit of awkwardness, Lane goes for it. Don and Whore #1 do the same in the front room.


Next morning and Don's making coffee. What with all the drunken whoring, and occasional work, he must be a pretty tired guy. Lane comes out of the bedroom dying for a glass of water and this show stays true to form, portraying the after effects of the way these people live with all the drinking and smoking. He doesn't ask what the Hell was with all the slapping he kept hearing the night before but he does inquire as to what he owes Don for the night. Don perhaps gets the gist, perhaps not and says its on him. Lane drops all English politeness and gets to the point insisting on paying for "the girl", as his is a fiscal nature you know. He sincerely thanks his host for the "welcome distraction" of the night before. Don looks a bit chagrined here as he realizes that this welcome distraction is the way he's living his life right now. I wonder if he sees it this way, and if its a negative to him at all.


The episode ends with a satff meeting in which Joan asks if everyone's "ready for 1965". Jon Hamm looks about 10 years older here for some reason and itd be awesome if he's just that good at acting he can do that. I think this last scene sums up nicely the idea that Don is kind of on autopilot right now, filling his life with distractions, and is perhaps aware that time is flying by as he's doing this.

Questions:
Whats with this show and Holidays? The 1st 3 eps have been on Thanksgiving, Christmas, & New Years. Don mentions Easter in this one (taking the kids out to see Anna). Maybe this is the way Matt Weiner is doing this season?

Is Acapulco where Don went in the 2nd season when he just disappeared and hung out with those bohemians?

There've been several references to Don not eating and/or not having an appetite this season. Think this is getting towards something?

Does anyone have a different take on the theme of the episode? Does my Good News suggestion hold water?

"Doing what you want vs. what people expect out of you" - how prominent of a theme do you think this will be?

"Who is Don Draper?" How was this question answered this episode?

(1) I know the exam wasn't on her feet but I am willfully and happily ignorant of those procedures.

(2) Sorry, some people have Vietnam flashbacks...I have Vietnam Movie dialogue flashbacks.

(3) I love how this show has people interacting in the office settings. It feels real, subtle. A show has to have exposition of course, and who better than Harry to bring up LA and Lane doesn't come over to wish Don a fond farewell rather he can't find Don's secretary and needs his signature on some things. Well done.

(4) I remember reading, about 10 years ago when Al Gore was first creating the interwebs, one of those old usenet pages which was contained the worst ever "College Roommate From Hell" story I've ever read. Dude's roomie went nuts and basiclaly barricaded himself into his half of the apartment and didn't re-emerge until the end of the semester when he had a complete psychotic episode over the course of a weekend. I wish I could find that again.

(5) The actress playing Anna endears herself to me forever by doing a great bit of business at this point, surreptitiously holding the joint out for Don to take when she hears her sister storming in. And I HA!!! once more.

(6) Elizabeth Moss is my favorite actor on this show and its becaus eof moments like this. She's memorable in, like, 15 seconds of screen time.