Best episode of Mad Men ever? Quite possibly. This is what went down during it…

A former client returned to Sterling Cooper… and tried to return to Roger’s bed! She was a former flame of the partner, one that actually broke his heart. Showing incredible restraint, along with loyalty to Jane, Roger actually turned down her advances. Out of love for his wife, or bitterness toward this woman, it’s hard to say. But it was certainly a different side to the typically sarcastic Roger Sterling.

He also tried to help Joan find a job, as she called him early in the episode and said Greg was gonna need more time to study to be a psychiatrist and asked Roger for assistance with employment. After turning down his ex-lover, Roger called a friend and asked if he had an opportunity for Joan (another ex-lover, of course).

But, by the end of the episode, it looks as if Joan wouldn’t need this help, after all. Greg told his wife that he had enlisted for the army because it would let him be a surgeon. He’d do a residency in New York and then maybe get shipped off someplace, but maybe not. Greg was excited about this new plan, but Joan was as hesitant about it was any reasonable viewer. Greg joined the army on the heels of Vietnam? This won’t end well for him.

The crux of the episode, however, was all about Don and Betty. They had the talk. Betty confronted him with his shoebox and past as Dick Whitman. It was as gripping as television can get.

Don came clean, telling his wife all about his former life, even the most shameful of details, such as how his half-brother had killed himself because Don turned him away. There were no more lies, no more slick attempts at story-telling. This was Don at his most naked and honest and it resonated with Betty. She didn’t leave him. She actually seemed to finally appreciate some honesty in their lives.

By the end of the house - after Don had ended things with Miss Farrell over the phone - Betty and Don were trick or treating with their kids. They seemed like a happy family. While the symbolism of the kids being dressed like a gypsy and a hobo may have been laying it on a tad too thick, we loved the final line of the episode: a man answered the doorbell with candy in his hand, looked at Don and asked: Who are you supposed to be?

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Sterling Cooper celebrated its 40th anniversary this week, while Betty discovered a major secret about her husband.

The episode kicked off with Don lying to Betty about spending the night in the city, due to the Hilton account. Instead, he went to Ms. Farrell’s house. These two are having an intense affair, as she clearly sees herself as more than just a sex buddy.

At the office, Don seems especially happy about the relationship himself, smiling as he bites into a piece of break Ms. Farrell baked. Kinsey is less happy because Peggy sort of showed him up in a presentation, although she really just thought faster on his feet than he did. This would take place again later in the episode, as Peggy used a saying Kinsey had uttered only moments earlier to pitch Don a great tagline for the Western Union account. Even Kinsey was openly impressed with Peggy’s work. (Or angry that she stole the spotlight again.)

In other office news: the firm was planning a major party for its 40th anniversay. Don was set to give a speech and receive an award at it, much to Roger’s chagrin.

Also, the British bosses informed Pryce that Sterling Cooper was up for sale again. They see an opportunity to make money off the changes they made to it, an interesting development for everyone involved. Will this be an impetus for Don to start his own company?

Back to Don’s personal life: he met Ferrell’s brother, a 25-year old with epilepsy. Don offered to help by driving him to a new job in Bedford, MA, but the young man had other plans. He asked Don to drop him on the side of the road because he didn’t wish to be performing menial jobs his whole life. Clearly seeing a chance to help in this case (as he failed to do with his own brother), Don obeyed, but also gave the kid money and his card, telling him to call any time.

While this was taking place, Betty was finding a key in Don’s pants in the laundry. It opened a drawer in his desk. She used it. Inside that drawer, she found piles of cash, as well as a shoebox. Inside the shoebox? Pictures, dog tags and documents: all from Dick Whitman’s life. The main document Betty focused on what a divorce deed between Don Draper and his wife.

She doesn’t know exactly what this means, but she’s understandably pissed off about it. She doesn’t tell Don what she has found yet, however (it looks like she had planned to, but he never came home that night), and attends the big company party with him. The episode ends with Don about to give his speech, and the camera focused on his wife. She’s staring daggers at him.

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This may have been our favorite Mad Men episode of all-time. All three storylines were exceptionally done, each reflecting something much larger about the show.

Let’s start with Pete. He’s upset because Ken appears to have the best accounts. For now, Pete is focused on Admiral, a television maker whose sales have flattened. Except in one areas: cirites with a large “Negro” population (his word choice, of course).

As part of his market research, Pete speaks with Hollis, the elevator attendant, about what kind of TV he has. As usual, Pete is completely oblivious to how obnoxious his actions and words are, as his questioning implies that Hollis speaks for all African-Americans. Pete doesn’t understand why the conversation is offensive.

Inspired by his data, Pete pitches Admiral on a campaign that will focus on the Negro market, telling the company to advertise in magazines such as Ebony. The response is far from good, as Roger and Burt later tell Pete when they rail him out: Admiral has no interest in integrating its advertising campaign; or, especailly, focusing on just black consumers. Again, Pete cannot reconcile this, as he was just trying to make the best financial deal.

Lane Pryce, who was pinching pennies as best he could throughout the episode, speaks up, however, and says that the firm should think about this demographic because “something is happening” in America with blacks. He’s got that right.

Meanwhile, Pete’s next problem intersects with Peggy. Each is asked to lunch by Duck, who has found work at a competing ad firm, Grey. He wants them both to come aboard, even inviting both to lunch together, unbeknownst to one another. Pete barely stays to hear Duck’s pitch, as he’s offended at being wooed along with the woman that gave away his child.

After Pete leaves the lunch, though, Duck turns to Peggy. He says it’s “her time.” As a result, Peggy enters Don’s office later and asks for a raise. He says there’s no money. She seems unsure what to do, as she wants to take advantage of her time to move up in the world. When Pete sees Peggy leaving Don’s office, he asks if she’s revealed Duck’s job offer (she did not). Peggy says it’s none of his business, but Pete shoots back: “Your decisions affect me.” We somehow doubt he’s talking about just this instance.

Finally, there’s Don and Betty. The latter goes into labor and the couple goes to the hospital. Once there, Don is sent to the waiting room. He bonds with a prison guard named Dennis there, who is nervously awaiting the birth of his first child. His mood is contrasted with Don’s, who is as cool and as relaxed as ever. But Don realizes that he’s too detatched from the moment - and his life, really - as Dennis talks anxiously and excitedly about his first kid.

Once Dennis learns he has a son, he vows to Don that he’ll be a better person going forward. This appears to have an effect on everyone’s favorite advertising exec.

As for Betty, she’s in a haze as she prepares to give birth. She sees visions of her late father and even her late mother in one dream sequence. (She also curses out Don during one exchange with the nurse.) When her son is born, Betty names him Eugene Scott Draper, after her dad. (When she tells Don of the name, he says that decision can wait; he even tells people at work that no name is selected yet.)

Upon getting home, Betty actually smiles! She seems newly inspired with the addition to her family… until Gene cries in the middle of the night. Betty gets up to take care of him, pausing in the hallway to collect herself as the episode fades to black.

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Drugs, tension and secrets are all major focal points of this episode of Mad Men. First, the drugs:

Kinsey, Peggy and Smitty were forced to work all weekend on a new ad campaign for Bacardi. The boredom got to them, so Kinsey called an old friend from Princeton to deliver some marijuna. As the group smoked, we learned that Kinsey is quite insecure about his poor background and goes out of his way to prove how smart he is to everyone.

We also learned that Peggy is hilarious when high. It was her first time trying pot and it seemed to inspire her by the end. She told her secretary not to worry because Peggy would be just fine, she’d accomplish everything the secretary dreamed about for her. First, she needed a glass of water and then she’d come up with some dynamite content.

Meanwhile, Joan hosted a dinner party for her husband, his work colleagues and their wives. Soon, though, it was revealed that Greg had recently messed up a surgery. He never told Joan about that. To change the topic, Greg has Joan perform with her accordian for the group, while she shot death stares at her man for putting her through it. Seriously, Joan. Leave the loser!

Back at the Draper residence, Sally needed some attention, as neither of her parents gave her much. As a result, she stole five dollars from her grandfather, who went around the house in a huff about it. Finally feeling guilty, Sally eventually claimed she found the money and returned it. Her grandfather was clearly on to her, but never let her know. He simply asked her to read to him again at night, showing more of a parental love for Sally than her mom does, certainly.

And where were Don and Betty this whole time? At a party thrown by Roger and Jane. During the evening, Betty sort of flirted with one of the guests there, who dared to put his hand on her pregnant belly.

Also, by the end of the shindig, Roger confronted Don over the cold shoulder he’s been receiving lately. Don said everyone thought Roger was “foolish” for marrying Jane. But Roger being Roger - the guy sang in blackface to his wife in front of the entire party earlier - didn’t care. The episode closed with him dancing slowly with Jane and Don, seemingly inspired by their affection, finding Betty for a major make out session.

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There were two main storylines in this episode. We’ll start with Peggy.

The eagerly, exceedingly confident young copy writer is part of a campaign for Patio, some strange diet soda that is affiliated with Pepsi. The company wants its advertisements to be based on Ann Margaret’s solo song in Bye, Bye Birdie.

This sits very well for all the men, even Don seems to approve. But Peggy doesn’t get it: isn’t diet soda aimed at women? Therefore, shouldn’t the campaign also be aimed at women? Don says an ad that features a beautiful female does give women the message that they wanna look like that (i.e. drink diet soda).

This seems to affect Peggy, who is aware that she isn’t exactly a looker. The camera catches her trying to sing and be sexy at home one evening, following by another evening in which she goes home and picks up a guy!

She doesn’t sleep with him, though, because he doesn’t have a condom (Peggy has learned!), but they do everything else. She then leaves awkwardly in the middle of the night.

Meanwhile, Don has his own problems at home: Betty is unhappy with the situation involving her father. His girlfriend left him and he doesn’t seem right mentally. She has her brother and sister-in-law bring him over for a visit.

After going back forth with her brother about their dad’s future (he wants to place him in an old folks’ home), Don lays down the law; he tells William, in no uncertain terms, that Gene will be living with the Drapers.

That may be settled, but Don’s professional life is not. He must deal with Roger, who is distraught over his daughter - who is getting married - showing great displeasure over Roger’s new, young wife Jane.

He must also deal with a mess: the Brits had asked Don to land a new, big account: Madison Square Garden. He did so. But then word came down from above that the British firm in charge of Sterling Cooper did not think the deal was financially viable after all.

When Don asks Price, the CFO in charge of the NYC office, why they even bought Sterling Cooper, he replies: I don’t know.

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I’m starting to wonder.

By episode four, season one, all the basic plot points that would provide the season’s arc — Rachel Menken, Pete vs. Don, Betty’s shaky hands, Peggy’s misadventures with the pill — had been set in motion. After episode four of season two, another dark and meandering affair like the episode preceding it, we are not quite there yet. Episode four gives us Don’s views on household management and corporal punishment, Peggy’s crush on a man of the cloth, Roger coming out of the old adulterer’s home to sleep with an expensive escort, more of Bobbie’s Lucretia Borgia-meets-Marlene Deitrich routine and a crushing moral lesson for Stirling-Cooper over the American Airlines account.

Of all of these, only the American Airlines plot seems to have any real juice. If you’ll remember back to episode two, Don (Jon Hamm) was vehemently opposed to SC dropping their existing client, Mohawk Airlines, to clear the decks for a pitch to AA. Don smelled the AA pitch for what it was — a long shot, undertaken in desperation by Duck (Mark Moses). Well, the chickens come home to roost in episode four — SC is thrown into overdrive to complete their pitch for the airline’s business on time.

The morning of the presentation, they find that Duck’s buddy at AA who promised them the account has been fired. Demoralization all around. Don goes home, smashes a plastic robot, gets a shove from Betty (January Jones), shoves back and reminisces about his long-dead, dirt farmin’, ass-whoopin’ dad. (Or rather, Dick Whitman’s dad. If you’re reading this and haven’t seen season one yet, it is going to take more than an internet episode recap to make this all make sense for you.)

Peggy (Elisabeth Moss) spends much of this week’s episode back in Brooklyn, avoiding her illegitimate kid and flirting with a visiting priest (Colin Hanks). This does not sit well with her older sister (Audrey Wasilewski), who alerts the Father to the existence of Peggy’s child through a crafty confession. More great pre-Vatican II moments in this episode, from the punishment doled out to adolescents who act up during mass, to the Palm Sunday household decorations.

Pete Campbell (Vincent Kartheiser) is all but MIA again this week. Although he does show up for an impromptu Sunday afternoon work meeting dressed in a tennis outfit I am not even going to try to describe.

Bobbie’s (Melinda McGraw) back. She has a really bad/good idea for a TV show for her insult comic husband Jimmie (Patrick Fischler) and needs Don to help her get some changes made to his Utz contract. She helps Don, right there in his office, with Joan (Christina Hendricks, temporarily Draper’s secretary), on the other side of the door but well within earshot. I think this is going to be an ongoing thing — blackmail?

Again, the aborted American Airlines pitch seems to be setting us up for some sort of multi-episode conflict. So far it was the season’s only big, complex morality play, with Don clearly coming out on top. Next episode: Don goes duck hunting?

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