'Mad Men' recap: All in the Family

In the end, she finally, finally allowed someone to peer down with her into her cracking world. Glen's mom, the infamous neighborhood divorcée, came by and Betty pleaded Glen's case. "He depends on you for everything. You're supposed to be taking care of him — you're his mother and he gets nothing," she said, speaking as well of her own loneliness. Helen admitted she was a lousy mom, and that life hadn't gotten any easier with Dan (ha!) out of the picture. When Betty confessed that Don wasn't living at home and she had no idea where the separation was leading, Helen warned her that the hardest part of kicking a husband to the curb is the nauseating realization that you are now in charge. Not Daddy, not Don, not a hero in a red cape. "Sometimes I feel like I'll float away if Don isn't holding me down," Betty said sadly.

And then we ended with a scene of Don up in the air, floating away to La-La land, where fantasies and fables are the stuff of fortune. The sun rose on his face, and he looked like a man who feels free at last, released from the tethers of his real life, like when he rode that train right on past his frantically waving little brother. Damn. I know that rooting for Don and Betty is like rooting for that couple in your life who always fights, whose drama can be tedious and exhausting. And yet somehow you want to believe that they are better together than they are apart, and if they would just cut the crap already — for the sake of the kids, for the sake of each other — they might actually figure out a way to be happy together.

I think in the end that my favorite thing about Mad Men is how the writers are always miles ahead of the viewer, always in masterful control of pacing and revelation. Last week I talked a little about how the black characters on the show are largely invisible to the Dons and Bettys and Rogers, and what must be churning inside their heads as they navigate this slowly shifting world. And boom, we were gifted with the polite smirk on Hollis' face when Kinsey preeningly introduced him to Sheila and then when Sheila gave Kinsey the business about skipping out on the Mississippi voter registration drive. When Kinsey finally made it on the bus, not out of a sense of duty or loyalty but rather because his ticket to the rocket ship fair went to Don instead, he yammered on about the market and the consumer and advertising. He sounded like a foppish blowhard, spouting off market theory to hide his anxiety, while his fellow passengers ignored him, their concerns different and more pressing. There was a noisy fart of a man in the midst who just didn't get it.

Best line of the night: "You want to give me your temper?"

Was Betty dropping dream analysis when she mentioned her dream about a suitcase in her phone conversation with Don? If you could slap one person upside the head this episode, whom would you pick? (I call Mrs. C!) Is Don going to end up a short-sleeved suntanned movie producer in season 3? Did I really get called a "chubbo" by a commenter last week? (Wait, wait, I know the answer to that one!)

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