Three Up
1. Ted Chaough. Ted finally makes the leap with Peggy, showing up at her place after she comes home from a date, confessing his feelings and winding up in bed. Peggy talks him into going home afterwards (he apparently always goes home when he works late), saying she's willing to wait for Ted as he figures out how to best end things at home. But when he gets in bed with Nan you can see the realization that he can't leave. Ted basically begs Don to let Ted go to California, and while Don says he needs the move as badly as Ted does, but Don later relents and says Ted should go (not that Don has much of a choice, as we'll see). Ted gets a lot of anger from Peggy, but in the end he's doing the right thing, getting out of a situation that he knows will hurt more people than help.
2. Peggy Olsen. Peggy forces the issue with Ted by getting dolled up for a date and then making sure he sees her before she leaves (Peggy adjusting her dress to show more cleavage may be the least Peggy Olsen-thing I've ever seen her do). Her protestations to Ted about not wanting to be "that woman" in his marriage belie the fact that she wants him and is willing to wait for him to become free, and her anger towards Ted when he says he's going to California is palpable. But after Don gets the boot, she winds up in his office going over work. It's not officially her office, but Peggy is staking claim to it and a new level of importance in the New York office. Even if the guy Duck brings is becomes her nominal boss, Peggy's going to be an integral part of the firm going forward.
3. Bob Benson. Bob shows he can give as well as he gets by ending Pete's tenure with Chevy almost as soon as it starts. Knowing that the apparent death of Pete's mom will put Bob under even more pressure, Bob uses the Chevy guys' love of their cars against Pete, whose driving acumen is limited at best. With Pete now shuffling off to California, and Ken unlikely to take Chevy back, Bob is in position to be the top guy on Chevy. On the personal front, he's also managing to be the main man in Joan's life, even if she only refers to Bob as a buddy. Bob's the one carving turkey on Thanksgiving, and he's not letting Roger scare him off. Curious to see how all this plays out; will Duck give his info on Bob to other people at SC&P, and is Bob sincerely interested in Joan?
Honorable Mention: Sally Draper. Things are not going well for Sally at Miss Porter's, as she gets suspended after buying beer for classmates and getting drunk. So she'll be home for Thanksgiving, on top of which she has a summons to give a statement over the burglary case (her phone call with Don over this is, at best, frosty). But things might be in for a change when Sally sees the dilapidated house where Don grew up. As the first thing Don has really told Sally (or any of the kids) about his life, you can begin to see the wheels working in Sally's head, as to why her dad is hiding stuff about his past. Not sure if he'll make a full confession, but it's at least an opening for Sally if she wants to rebuild her relationship with Don.
Three Down
1. Pete Campbell. Pete, now on the Chevy account, learns just before a trip out to Detroit that his mother has gone missing at sea, falling overboard during a cruise with Manolo, whom she married on board. Pete and Bud have a chance to pay for an investigation that will almost certainly see Manolo found guilty, though they apparently have a price at which they'll let things lie. Pete uses this to continue his threats towards Bob, which Bob deftly turns around by having Pete try to drive a Camaro in front of the Chevy guys. Pete promptly backs into a display and is off the account. In the end Pete winds up going out to California to set up SC&P's Los Angeles office, either free of his burdens or abandoning his family depending on your point of view.
2. Megan Draper. After an entire season where she tries to get Don back, she finally gives up trying after he tells her they're not moving to California. He doesn't explain it well, and his attempt to soften the blow by trying redefine their union as "bicoastal" doesn't cut it. So she's lost her husband and her job, and is moving to L.A. mostly on the hope of getting work.
3. Roger Sterling. There are some good moments for Roger - he gets invited to Joan's for Thanksgiving, giving him some time with their son, but he's only there because his daughter has frozen him out as he won't put any more money in her husband's trucking business. He also gets to have it out with Bob over Joan, but his attempts to intimidate Bob don't quite work as Bob winds up at Joan's for Thanksgiving as well. And he also has to be in on Don's ouster, choosing the business over friendship (though their friendship has never really fully come back from the falling out a few seasons ago).
Honorable Mention: Dorothy Campbell. She may have loved the sea, but she probably loved being not dead better. Or at least assumed dead; I would love it if she turned up next season after wandering around Martinique for six months or so with no idea of who she is or what happened.
One ?
1. Don Draper. So how is it that you can wind up in the drunk tank, lose your wife, and lose your job, and not have it turn out to be a down episode? It happens when the things that lead to these setbacks may, in the long run, be the best thing for you. Not so much the drunk tank - as much as it gives Don another clue that he needs to cut of the sauce, it also opens him up to being discovered for who he really is - but the rest of it. During a pitch to Hershey's that is going quite well, Don comes clean with them about his personal story (which he wove into his pitch), telling all assembled about his actual childhood. This goes over about as well as you'd expect, and in its immediate aftermath is when Don tells Ted he can go to California (an act that causes him to lose Megan). In some respect, Don sacrifices himself to prevent Ted from going down the same road that Don's traveled.
When Don loses his job, it's ironic that he gets Fred Rumsoned for something he did when not drunk (he had that drink beforehand, but I don't believe he was actually drunk for the pitch). And as mad as Don was for being ousted, it does help give him the freedom that someone like Pete only thinks he's getting.
And when we see Don bring the kids to the house where he grew up, and we see Sally look at Don in a way that's questioning and a little understanding, we begin to see that for all of the trouble opening up has caused Don, it's also starting to give him back his family. It will be interesting to see how far his opening up will take him.
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