John, I'm sorry to hear you found Joan's vase-smack over-the-top. New York magazine has posted this amazing animated gif that allows you to watch the crucial moment over and over and over. Try looking at it for a minute straight and tell me it doesn't grow on you.
Patrick, I think the question you pose—Where does the series go from here?—is critical. The stakes for Don will never again be as high as they were last night. But I'm looking forward to the change, because I think it will give us a chance to see both Don and Betty in new modes. We've talked a lot this season about how Don is a competent grownup and Betty a cosseted child. This week, the roles were reversed: Don was incapacitated, and Betty had to take care of him, directing him as he told his story, patting his back and pouring his drink. This take-chargeness does not come naturally for her, but she executes it brilliantly, and I wonder whether part of what keeps her present and tender at the end of the episode is a new sense of pride about what she's pulled off. (Like you, John, I thought January Jones was incredible as usual in this sequence; I think Benjamin Schwarz's critique of her acting is utterly wrong-headed.) Betty has liked being Don's dependent because she's never had the chance to be his equal. Now that she's asserted herself, I'm eager to see how their marriage changes.
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StumbleUponAs for Dick Whitman, Betty's not the only one who must decide whether she likes having him around: Don, too, must figure out how much of his old self to incorporate into his life. Will he continue to keep his secret from his friends and colleagues? Will he start making more references to eating dog food at meetings? I'm eager to see how easily Don slips back into his old Draperian persona now that he's laid himself bare.
Finally, I think it's time to revisit the terms of a wager I offered at the very beginning of our TV Club: I bet you both an old-fashioned that the season would close with the assassination of JFK. John, you let me wriggle out of the offer, citing an interview in which Weiner pledged not to dramatize the event. But come on. Weiner is notoriously cagey. He's planted references to Dallas throughout this season, and last week—as astute Frayster MayanSwimsuitCalendar observed—the Aquanet pitch showed four people seated in a convertible as the guy in the rear right had trouble keeping his hairdo intact. I missed these echoes of the Kennedy motorcade, but they must have been deliberate. Given these cues and the way the season has unfurled, there's no way the assassination doesn't happen—off-screen, perhaps, but still happen—sometime in the next two episodes. Any takers? I'll even raise the stakes to two old-fashioneds and bet you it happens this week.
Sportingly,
Julia
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Series creator Matthew Weiner has stated he leaves nothing for future seasons and puts everything out there each season, like its the last, and this episode could almost double as a series finale. I think when Mad Men eventually ends its run, there will be discussion whether this episode was the proper series finale and should have called it quits right here, or will Weiner have new and interesting places to take us in season 4?
-- guyroy
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"And the way that they saw themselves is gone." Julia, I think this pretty clearly refers to Peggy having her child and giving it away. Until Peggy told Pete about the baby, Don was only person on the show outside of her family and priest that knew her secret. Don was the one that visited Peggy in the hospital after she gave birth and had been out of work for a while.
-- BumblebeeMan
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Who's in charge, Betty or Henry? Something that surprised me was the amount of involvement Henry had in Betty's divorce advice. Does it ring true for the period that Henry went to the lawyer with Betty and apparently also knew the lawyer and may have selected the lawyer for Betty? And, when Betty told Don that she would be consulting with a divorce attorney and Don should too, was she simply parroting Henry's words?
Certainly since Henry's divorced he knows the routine and I can understand him giving Betty the benefit of his experience. Last episode Henry was willing to give Betty the time she needed and he would wait. Now, things are fast-tracked to Reno. I'm sure that it's been hard for Betty to continue to live in the same house with Don who continues to deny Betty's feelings. But, seeing Betty sitting in the lawyer's office on the sofa with Henry, reminded me of Betty sitting on the sofa with Glen last season. Then, when Don confronts Betty about Henry, they seem to be having their first real fight.
Anyway, I wonder if Betty/Henry are the 'lasting love' mentioned in the Roy Orbison song at the end.
-- lkd711
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I think season 4 will include a serious health issue for Don-perhaps lung cancer. Note the cough at the beginning of the last episode. Also the brief scene when Sterling's dog food heiress old flame states that her first husband died of lung cancer, there is a brief cut to Don lighting up another. Thoughts while I write an order for Don to get a screening cat scan.
-- ldbmd
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