Three Up, Three Down: Mad Men, "The Forecast"

Three Up

 1. Joan Harris. Joan gets sent out to LA to help interview new staff, and manages to meet a nice, older gentleman, a retired developer named Richard Bergoff who got lost while looking for his eye doctor. They hit it off immediately, to the extent that Richard follows Joan back to New York. Their courtship hits a bump when Joan admits to having a young son. Richard, who has grown kids, admits that he doesn't want to start over and be tied down. This leads Joan to decide to send Kevin away so she can choose love. Thankfully, Richard has decides he wants to be in Joan's life, including her son.

2. Betty Francis. Betty has some reasonable parenting moments, between a talk with Sally about a teen tour she's going on and confiscating a toy gun from Bobby in return for letting him watch the Brady Bunch. Her best moments are with the now grown Glen Bishop. They still have their weird energy, and Betty has to rebuff a pass from Glen, but she's very good with him as he admits to why he enlisted in the Army. Even if she might not believe the positive outlook she keeps spinning to Glen.

3. Peggy Olson. There's not a ton of Peggy in the episode, but what she is in she's nicely assertive. She gets to tell Pete off when he tries to get one of her people fired, while she calls Don on his BS when he mocks her answers as to what she wants for herself in the future. She's never been more confident or fun to watch.

Honorable Mention: Melanie. Don's real estate agent is having trouble selling his place - too empty and in need of new carpets - and while Don tries to tell her that she can find a different way to sell the place, she cuts close to the quick when she says the apartment looks like it's home to a sad person. She's more right than she knows. As a bonus to using Don's apartment to describe him, she also manages to sell the place. It's a win-win! Double her commission.

Three Down

1. Glen Bishop. Glen stops by the Francis residence to see Sally (and Betty), and eventually announces that he's shipping out shortly. Betty tries to be supportive, while Sally is pissed at Glen becoming part of the war machine. Turns out his motivation isn't just love for country; Glen failed out of college and enlisted as a way to keep his stepfather from laying into him (he also had some odd hopes for Betty, which she rebuffs). He knows he's screwed up, and is doing his best to get through things.

2.  Don Draper. Don is tasked by Roger to write a speech about the future of the firm. This leads him to ask several SC&Pers about their dreams for the future, all of which he finds lacking. It doesn't help that he's having similar issues personally, now that he's unattached and selling his place. It doesn't help that more than one person accuses him of being sad or empty. He also gets into things with Sally before she leaves for her tour, as she's mad about how he can't turn his masculinity off, even for one of her high school classmates. But the bigger issue is Don seemingly set adrift without a clear vision for his future.

3. Mathis. He gets into a fight with Ed during their pitch for a Peter Pan peanut butter-based cookie and drops an F bomb. Don helps defuse Pete, who wants Mathis gone, and gives Mathis some advice about how to approach their next meeting. Turns out Mathis takes Don's advice too literally, using a line Don once used. He fails miserably, not being Don and not having enough of a sense of the room to know that the line isn't going to work. Mathis gets into it with Don afterwards, and Don fires him. At least Mathis got to tell Don that's he's basically empty inside.

Honorable Mention: Sally Draper.  Sally is unable to apologize to Glen in person about his decision to join the Army, which weighs on her given their long-standing friendship. She also gets into it with Don over his constantly engaged libido, and says her greatest wish is to get on the bus and go somewhere where she can be unlike either of her parents. Don's retort is that she will someday realize she's just like her parents, and that it's up to her to be something more than pretty. There is probably nothing worse to a teenaged girl than being told she's going to be just like her parents. Nice to have Sally in an episode, though.