“And who are you supposed to be?” Carlton asked Don as the Drapers went trick-or-treating. It was an innocent joke, but Don didn’t look very amused — after all, he had just answered that same question for his wife the day before, and she was quite serious when she asked it.
Betty Reopens the Box
When her whiny brother William took a break from trying to get their father’s house, Betty asked her family lawyer for advice on how to deal with the discovery of Don’s box of secrets. Unsatisfied by his suggestion to simply look the other way, she returned home early to confront Don, catching him off-guard and forcing him to leave Miss Farrell outside hiding in his car, waiting for a trip to Norwich that would never happen.
Don tried to maintain the upper hand but quickly faltered when he realized that Betty had already seen everything he was hiding in his drawer. Suddenly, the “gifted storyteller” was left shaken and speechless, unable to even hold on to a cigarette. The poised, confident Don Draper that Mad Men viewers have come to know disappeared when he was finally forced to tell the truth.
And, cornered by his wife, Don did exactly that, revealing how he transformed from Dick Whitman to Don Draper, explaining his relationship with Anna and talking to Betty about his family for the first time. As she heard her husband’s story, her outrage slowly dimmed, especially as Don broke down when talking about Adam’s suicide. In fact, she almost seemed to feel sorry for him by the end of their confrontation.
Don’s Uncertain Future
The next day, Betty and Don gave the appearance of normalcy, from his breakfast goodbye to their family Halloween outing, but undercurrent of his revelations remained close to the surface. Whether Betty can and will truly forgive her husband remains to be seen. After all, “a lie so big” doesn’t just disappear after one night of honesty.
Meanwhile Miss Farrell, who earlier said she “wanted more than (she) thought” from Don, was left to slink home in the dark, not hearing from him until he called her from the office the next day to let her know that he couldn’t see her anymore. Although she tearfully accepted Don’s brief goodbye, it seems unlikely that this tenacious teacher will give up so easily.
Who is ‘the One’ for Roger?
Roger Sterling received a visit from both an old client and an old flame in the recently widowed Annabelle Mathis, who was trying to save her dog food business after an expose revealed that the company used horse meat. Annabelle, who had broken Roger’s heart many years earlier, tried to reignite their old spark, but he turned her down. “You were the one” Annabelle told Roger, and he simply replied, “You weren’t.”
While he seemed to imply that he had found “the one” in Jane, he seemed very happy to hear from another old flame: Joan, who was calling to see if he could help her find work. “I like that you thought of me,” he said. “You like to be on some people’s minds.” If Joan tried to rekindle their relationship, Roger might not turn her down as quickly as he did Annabelle.
Joan is a Smashing Wife
When she wasn’t calling her old boyfriend, Joan was encouraging her husband to find work, and he was failing miserably. After she knocked him into action by smashing a vase over his head (to the cheers of Mad Men viewers everywhere), Greg decided to join the Army so he could provide for his wife, casually mentioning that he might go to Vietnam“if that’s still going on.” Roger might soon have two widowed ex-girlfriends.
