Three Up, Three Down: Mad Men, "To Have and to Hold"

Three Up

1, Harry Crane. A surprisingly positive episode for Harry, who comes up with a solution for Ken's problem with Dow Chemical (a one hour special Dow sponsors of stars singing Broadway tunes, starring Joe Namath), a couple of bold statements about deserving a partnership, and successfully countermanding Joan when she tries to fire his secretary. And while Cooper and Sterling aren't looking likely to add Harry as a partner, his threat of leaving is taken at least semi-seriously. Harry will find a way to screw this up, but it's a good moment for him.

2. Sylvia Rosen. We don't see much of her, and in what we do see she's either planning an assignation with Don or carrying it out, but her statement at the end that she prays for Don so he'll find peace is much more insightful than what we've heard from Don's other side pieces (or either of his wives, truth be told). As much as she wants to be with Don, she sees that it's more important that he calms the turmoil that's causing him to step out.

3. Stan Rizzo. He gets to work on the secret Project K (the firm's secret pitch for Heinz Ketchup), which allows him to work in private in a locked room, which allows him the peace to work and the ability to smoke pot whenever he wants (he even gets to share a toke and a smile with Don). And when both SCDP and CHC get beaten out for the account, he even gets to give Peggy the finger for spilling the secret (though it seems like he wasn't completely pissed at her).

Honorable Mention: the late 1960s. We got spy music for Project K, the Electric Lounge, swingers and Harry's secretary in go-go boots. Groovy.

Three Down

 1. Don Draper. On the personal front, Don's winds up being too traditional to handle his wife kissing as part of her job, and compares it to being a prostitute. He continues to have his affair with Sylvia, but can't handle that she's praying for him. And at work he not only fails to land Heniz Ketchup, he may have lost the beans account. Probably for the best that he doesn't know that his secretary almost got fired.

2.  Megan Draper. The good news is that she's getting a larger role on her soap. The bad news is that she now has love scenes, which means kissing and stuff. Don't not wild about the idea, and is even less happy when he watches a taping. This leads to a fight where Don basically calls her a whore. And in the middle of this, she and Don get hit on by the soap's head writer and his wife, who are swingers. Work has never been so awkward.

3. Dawn Chambers. Speaking of awkward, Dawn gets caught punching out for Scarlett when the latter is out of the office for the afternoon. She tries to make amends for it later, but Joan responds by giving Dawn what appears to be more responsibility, but the additional tasks may very well make Dawn less liked by her colleagues. We also learn that Dawn is a friend's maid of honor, and in their meetings we hear more from Dawn about her work - she likes it and wants to keep her job, but she's troubled by the amount of sadness in the office, and the amount of drinking.  I was happy to see that Dawn was getting a story line, but wish for her sake it had been more positive.

Honorable Mention: Ken Cosgrove.  After a weekend of listening to his father in law complain that no one likes Dow Chemical (and thinking that it's a dig at Ken and the firm), he gets help in that department from Harry of all people. And then he has to put out a fire with Heinz beans because they learn that the firm pitched to the ketchup division, which he'd expressly forbade. Ken's walking a bit of a tightrope with his father in law (having put his fate in the shaky and slightly clammy hands of Harry Crane) and may lose an account because other people at his firm went behind his back. Ken would have ranked higher if any of this was a a surprise.