Mad Men - The Gypsy and the Hobo, S03E11

This was the episode that we have all been waiting for since we first watched the series premiere of Mad Men.

Sterling Cooper had business as usual, with an old friend of Roger (John Slattery)'s shopping for a new advertising firm. Or should I say old flame. Still Roger resisted letting the spark catch fire after so many years, for Jane. Or at least, that was the implication. He then spent the rest of the episode thinking about Joan (Christina Hendricks) who requested his aide in finding employment again.

Joan and Greg (Sam Page) also had their issues. Greg continued to be unable to find a job as a psychiatrist. Likely because he really didn't want to become one - he wanted to be a surgeon. When he came home, complaining of how Joan had no idea what it was like to have wanted something all your life and to have done everything right and then still not have it. She whacked him over the head with a vase. Should have done that a long time ago. Still, when he came home the next day, all apologetic, bringing her a bouquet of roses for which he promise a new vase, I could not help but be reminded that the last time he'd brought her roses was when he raped her. And yet, when he made his announcement that he'd figured it out, that he had joined the army, and that they were taken care of, I still cringed. When he said it was unlikely he'd have to go anywhere - "maybe Vietnam, if that's still going on" - I just felt to horrified for Joan. I guess that's something we'll have to look forward to.

But we had not awaited either of those things since day one. What we wanted to see was what would happen when Betty (January Jones) and Don (Jon Hamm) had the Dick Whitman conversation. Let me just say that Jon Hamm portrayed his part with such believability. His shaking hands, dropping his cigarette, the panic and tension coursing through his body. WOW.

Betty was angry, furious, particularly about Anna Draper, but as she watched him, as she realized he meant it when he told her that he had seen Anna last year and she had reminded him that he loved Betty, she began to lose the edge. Then baby Gene interrupted. She left the room, and Don, instead of going out to his car and leaving with Miss Farrell, who was waiting in the passenger seat to go on a getaway, he took the box of photos to the bedroom. Betty returned and he told her about his father, his wife, his mother the prostitute, and his uncle. When Betty prompted him about Adam, he dissolved into tears about the brother he had rejected and who had killed himself.

Though shaken, Betty and Don have found themselves back on equal footing. The bond, the love, the desire to be together that each has will not easily be dissolved, and I don't want it to be.

With only 2 episodes left in the season, what other disasters will occur before season 4 begins?