Mad Men - Wee Small Hours, S03E09

This show can be so exhausting and depressing. There are usually moments of delight or happiness hidden amidst all the poor choices, but not in Sunday's episode. Even Pete Campbell (Vincent Kartheiser) choking on cigarette smoke was not enough, only bringing a smile to my face and so close to the beginning of the episode it was all but forgotten.

The political overtones would have been enough, with mentions of the potential re-election of Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr's I have a dream speech on the radio. A perfect, poignant moment found Betty (January Jones) and her friends chatting about how horrid things were for Black people in the South, more 1863 than 1963 one joked, and meanwhile Carla (Deborah Lacey) answered the door. But these seem so removed from the drama going on in our characters' lives.

While Don (Jon Hamm) went on an emotional roller coaster ride trying to give Connie Hilton (Chelcie Ross) exactly what he wanted, and failing since he chose not to give him the moon, and Betty wrote letters to Henry Francis (Christopher Stanley) and then ended the affair when she realized making it physical on his office couch would be cheap, Sal (Bryan Batt) suffered the most. How interesting that an episode so full of the search for equality based on skin tone put the emphasis on the gay character.

Poor Sal was propositioned in the editing room by Lucky Strike's Lee Garner Jr. This repulsive man aggressively began to grope Sal, who refused him. Both were upset, by Lee more so. He called Harry Crane (Rich Sommer) up and told him to fire Sal. Though Harry didn't do this, assuming Lee was drunk, when the next meeting with Lucky Strike occurs, Sal is there and Lee storms out. When Harry confesses, Roger (John Slattery) fires Sal and tells Harry to get Don to fix it.

Don agrees to fix it. Harry leaves his office, leaving Sal to be able to tell the man who knows his inclination the truth. But Don will not hear it. He is appalled, either assuming something did happen that wasn't good for Lee, or that Sal should have given in as Don so often has. After all, he slept with the horrible woman, Bobbie Barrett, last season. It's only sex and apparently that's part of business...Don wishes Sal good luck in the future, since that will not be at Sterling Cooper.

While Betty ends the episode on the right note, not having her affair, Sal is somewhere in a park or the side of the road looking for solace and unable to tell his wife what has happened and Don has finally found his way into the arms of Sally's teacher.

Sal has been fired; Joan has quit; Peggy slept with Duck; Pete is unbearable. And Don is the same as ever. I realize Mad Men is a drama, but you gotta give me something to cling to and be happy about.

What do you think?