En route for a New Year's getaway to Alcapulco, Don stops in LA to spend time as Dick Whitman. Anna Draper welcomes him into her home, giving him the perfect relationship where he can come and go as he pleases, and always receiving the unconditional love he thinks he never had. She mothers him, saying "I am so damn proud of you" and "I know everything about you and I still love you." Swapping her tailored suits for billowy skirts, she's become the West Coast free love type (especially with a love for grass). Perhaps she's even Mother Nature to Don with her porch covered in plants and flowers, and in her final scene, impulsively painting a flower on the wall.
Anna's crippled leg has served as an allegory of his tenuous connection to his past... and now that leg is broken and attached to a dying body. Despite her attempt to embrace the freedom of a bohemian lifestyle, she is unknowingly trapped in her own body, suffering through rapidly advancing terminal cancer. Don wants to help but, for once, his bottomless bank account is powerless against her family's decision not to tell her about the disease. As Don's only link to his real identity, her sickness is a physical symbol of the death of Dick Whitman. Since his divorce, his identity as husband has dissolved and now his moribund past is about to lose its human connection.
Anna's controlling sister thwarts Don's desire to bring Anna to a doctor, leveling his intentions with 'you're just a man in a room with a checkbook.' Though perhaps she was overly judgmental, I cheered her chastisement of Don's promiscuity. She blurted out, 'you can't keep your pants on, can you?' as hardly anyone else would accuse him of the obvious. Not everyone can be a free spirit and someone's gotta be the responsible one.
To reclaim his masculine power, Don returns to New York, where his wallet is rarely rejected. He paints the town with recently-divorced Lane Pryce, who breaks from the stiff-lipped account executive to jump up and shout 'I want my beef!' and then hold his gut-busting steak on his crotch. Don calls the prostitute from the season premiere, as well as her colleague for Lane, and the whores join them in a comedy/music club. As a folk singer croons 'House of the Rising Sun,' (it's fitting that Lane's girl says she loves this song, which is about a New Orleans brothel), they all return to Don's apartment. Don's quest for sex has been so weighted with rejection and awkward moments with his secretary that he seeks a professional lover -- uncomplicated and fleeting.
Alas, this brings us to my gripe with last night's episode -- it's the third in a row where Don is alone on a holiday. No new territory there. When will we see the dynamics of the firm? I want demanding clients and tormented brain storming sessions to sell their products. More of Freddy and Peggy sparring over Cold Cream. More of the civil rights movement through Carla (always at work in the Draper/Francis house) and Pete's prescient focus on the African American market. Let's tap into the characters' psyches through the work-life parallel. An ad agency is a perfect setting for drama -- creative types are manic, inspiring, self-absorbed pains in the ass... and never boring. Cut the personal exposition and show us the office conflicts!
Where this episode achieves the work-life balance is with Joan, who's getting the camera time we've been craving. The episode begins with her visiting the gynecologist because she's trying to start a family. Meanwhile, Greg's precarious hospital schedule and army recruitment, with the possibility of being shipped to Vietnam, make her desperately try to maintain a stable marriage. For the first time, her curves are futile, both at home with Greg and at work when asking for time off from Lane. She channels this frustration into the office, where she hurls at Lane an accidentally-delivered bouquet of roses. His secretary botched the order and an infuriated Joan spits that her lack of responsibility is 'egregious.'
'I don't know what that means.'
'It means I can't believe I hired you. You're fired.'
That's the assertive Joan we love. While trying her damnedest to be the perfect wife for her doctor husband, Joan cuts herself. Greg reaches for his medical bag and we see Joan's hesitation -- she doesn't trust that he will have the wherewithal to fix her up. Despite her weeping, he distracts her with jokes and sews her right up, telling her it's not that bad and she admits that the tears aren't from the wound. Showing sensitivity for once, he's more capable at his job than at home, admitting that's the extent of him repairing their marital problems.
"I'm happy when I'm working," Lane says in the beginning of the episode. Some people are more competent and confident with their jobs than their personal life. One's occupation has its own set of rules and rewards; it's not always fair but it's less complicated than home. And it's the only place that remains for Don Draper.