‘Mad Men’ Recap: The Good News
S4:E3 The scene on Mad Men we’d all been waiting for these past three seasons finally happened last night — we FINALLY saw Joan at the gynecologist! Last night’s episode began in the widely explored but secretive space between Joan’s legs, where many men have ventured but few have emerged the same. After her doctor examined her, Joan explained she and her husband were going to try and have a baby before he left for Vietnam (it seemed like he wasn’t drafted, but was choosing to go). Also, we learned Joan had two abortions in the past. This was not surprising. If Peggy got pregnant, it means Joan Halloway probably invented pregnancy.
At the office, in an attempt to convince Lane she deserved an extra two days off after the new year so she and her husband could try for a baby, Joan waltzed on over to his office and asked if he was interested in fried chicken for lunch. Lane saw right through her brown-nosing technique and denied her the chance to be with her husband.
Don planned to spend New Years in Acapulco but was scheduled to go see Anna, the real Don Draper’s wife, in Los Angeles. Once he arrived at her house, he noticed she had broken her leg… she claimed by making eggs. Her sister Patty and her daughter Stephanie had been helping her with things around the house until her leg healed, but once they saw Don’s surprise visit, they knew things were going to get a little more difficult for them. To pass the time, Don, Anna, and Stephanie went to a bar where they talked politics and drank. Don participated in conversation only occasionally, because he was quite busy staring at the California sun and waves of the ocean in Stephanie’s hair. Don asked if he could bring his kids out to see Anna in the spring, and she said that would be delightful. Then they talked about Betty and how she left Don after she found out he was sleeping with other women, AND that “Don” was not his real name. He said, “I could tell the minute she saw who I was, she never wanted to look at me again.” WOMP WOMP.
Back at Don’s apartment, each man enjoyed their lady’s presence and the next morning, Lane gave Don a whopping $25 ($25! THAT’S ALMOST HOW MUCH SENDING A PICTURE OF THE OSCAR WEINER MOBILE IN A TEXT MESSAGE COSTS!) for hooking him up with someone that looked better in a green dress than his wife did. When both men went to the office that day, their eyes barely met but you could tell the air between them had changed, in a way that that big poster in your office would describe as “unsportsmanlike” or “inappropriate.” But it was the 60s, and the 70s had to have gotten the idea from somewhere.
