Quick Take: Mad Men, "The Good News"
"I could tell the minute she saw who I really was… she never wanted to look at me again." – Don Draper
Review: Mad Men, "The Good News"
(S0403) This was an episode of Mad Men operating at its furious full capacity, an episode chock full of killer lines, hilarious lines, devastating lines, with many scenes both supremely funny and bitingly tragic all at once. To anyone who talks about how "there's nothing good on TV" (and there seem to be fewer of those types these days, or is it just me, perhaps?) I would simply submit "The Good News" as evidence, yes, of some form of televised salvation.
So much seemed to happen over a course of an hour, but the more I thought about it, aside from the bombshell about Anna Draper's (Melinda Page) health, it was essentially a tour de force that focused tightly on Don Draper (Jon Hamm) at the end of 1964, with a lot of well deserved screen time for the likes of Lane Pryce (Jared Harris) and Joan Harris (Christina Hendricks) as well.
Where to begin? Dick Whitman, the real name behind the person and persona the world knows as Don Draper, in Long Beach, is a good place to start. Don/Dick travels to California for the ostensible purpose of a 24-hour layover on the way to a New Year's holiday in Acapulco. In reality though, Don was looking for a little respite at Anna's house. And for a spell, it looked like he might get it. Anna uses her charms to ensnare her niece Stephanie to go out for dinner and drinks (the fact that she's carrying grass helps), and the three share a lovely time at a local dive where The Beach Boys (or a similar surf band) provides the musical backdrop. Don gets to reflect out loud for the first time too about the forced revelation of who he really is to Betty and its aftermath: "I could tell the minute she saw who I really was… she never wanted to look at me again."
It's only later, when Don drives Stephanie back to South Pasadena and makes a now typical lame-ish pass, that she halts the proceedings long enough to drop the bombshell that Anna has bone cancer. I knew something about her broken leg didn't quite add up, and the clues have been there dating back to Don's Season Two visit. And incredibly, Anna doesn't know either – Pattie in consultation with the doctor decided that her time was short enough that she shouldn't be bothered with that kind of memo.
Don's instinct is to stay and help Anna – perhaps the person on the planet who knows the most about him. But when Don tells her that he can't stay, consciously choosing not to tell her she's going to die, it's beautiful and heartbreaking, Don's attempt to do the "right thing" for once, and what he failed to do with his family and Adam Draper and Betty and even Miss Farrell's brother in Season Three.
Instead of going to Mexico, Don heads back to New York and the office, perhaps the one remaining place where he feels some sense of control. And he finds solace in the form of an equally lonely Lane Pryce. The two end up playing a drunken odd couple at the office over the holidays, and it's both sad and hilarious. "Lane!" "What?" "C'mere!" And their (very drunken) man date to see Godzilla is even better on both counts. "This movie is very good!" Lane exclaims. And then Don, in what might be the funniest single line in the history of the show: "You know what's going on here, right? Hand jobs." "What percentage, do you think?" Have to lovingly note too that Lane and Don are seated with a chaste empty seat between them. Things get even more raucous over dinner, with the normally buttoned up Lane yelling, "Look at me, I've got a big Texas belt buckle!" while brandishing a full cut of steak about his nether regions.
Don convinces Lane to meet up with a few "lady friends" of his, which ends up with the four of them back at Don's bachelor pad. The next morning, Lane takes a British mid-'60s version of the walk of shame, insisting on paying Don back for the lady's services, and leaves before even Don's first pot of post-hangover coffee is ready. Don slumps down on a sheetless bed, as lonely and lost as ever.
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Video: Mad Men, "The Good News"
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