I try and I try and I try

Oh Don. I'm not sure how long (semi) teetotaler Don will last, but I'm glad to see he's making an effort. I'm still not totally sold on New Don. I want to believe we're now heading for some sort of redemption arc, but I'm extremely suspicious that we're all being misled and the season is going to end poorly for our anti-hero. Although, if New Don wants to walk around in his sunglasses all the time and pose in doorways, I would be okay with that. How did we feel about the voice-over narration? I'm not sure I buy Don as a journaller. He seems like the type that'd try it and give up after three sentences. It seemed a bit "tell and not show" for Mad Men. And that zoom-in on the alcohol during the SCDP meeting seemed overly-stylistic and cheesy to me.

I hope we're done with Bethany Van Nuys. We've already got one Betty, let's not add another. Her name even sounds like Betty's! I did like Don's voiceover here though: "She wants me to know her, but I already do." I would have thought girls like Bethany wouldn't have participated in, er, oral activities of the type we saw in the back of the cab, but I guess she was threatened by the appearance of Don's icy-cold ex-wife. By the way, I had to laugh at Don's rather blasé reaction. I mean, he seemed to enjoy it but he looked about as pleased as if he'd found a dollar bill on the sidewalk. Like, oh, that's nice. And was the cab driver just chilling out in the front seat?! Really?

Speaking of Betty, I know we tend to rag on Betty/January Jones, but I thought she was pretty good in this episode. I loved her petulant sulking in the car with Henry after getting drunk at dinner. She's obviously got ~unfinished business~ with Don, judging by her bathroom breakdown. And I loved it at the end when she picked up Gene like a sack of potatoes and plopped him in Don's arms with her very best faux smile plastered on her face, all while her eyes were saying, "RAAAAAAAAAAAGE." And did Don just decide to show up at Gene's birthday party or did Betty invite him to prove her maturity to Henry? I was so glad when Don sauntered in (holding a giant elephant, no less!). Don + baby Gene + smiling = PRESH! Was anyone else totally laughing at how completely uninterested the baby was in Jon Hamm? LOL.

As for Henry, the jury's still out on him. Half the time I like him for when he calls Betty out on her childish behavior, but then he takes it out on Don. Why should Don have to move his stuff from his own house? If Henry's so rich why are they still living there? I get that he's paying rent but honestly, man up and make Betty move out!

I'm still pretty unimpressed by Dr. Faye. I feel like I'm supposed to like her because she's more of a "modern woman" yet she leaves me rather cold. I don't know if it's the actress herself or the fact that I don't really think she and Jon Hamm have very much chemistry, but the most I could muster up when she and Don went on their date and made out in the cab was a shrug. Certainly it was a big step for Don Draper, serial womanizer, but I don't really have much invested in their relationship personally. I certainly think Don needs someone LIKE Dr. Faye but I find her as engaging as wallpaper. Who knows, maybe some backstory on her mob family will make her more interesting. And let's face it, I love me some Don Draper, but honestly, does this guy have pheremones shooting out of every pore or something? LOL, one brief makeout session and the formerly restrained Dr. Faye was all LETSGOBACKTOYOURPLACEHOTANDBOTHERED! Although I suppose it helps that Don looks like Jon.

Actually, none of Don's extra- and post-marital love interests have ever really appealed to me. I hate to admit this, but I kind of can't really picture Don without Betty, not because they're well-suited for each other or anything, but because they do have good chemistry and their dysfunction is highly entertaining. It's like how we all really root for Don to get his shit together but, let's face it, one-step-away-from-a-mental-breakdown-Don is exponentially more interesting.

Moving on to Joan. I spent the majority of this episode feeling awfully sorry for her. She has no friends at work. She's disrespected and harassed by three glorified frat boys. Her husband is leaving for Vietnam (by the way, I still don't get their relationship. Remember when he raped her? And when she smashed a vase over his head? Not that these two things are in any way equivalent, but their dynamic is messed up.) Then Peggy fired Asshole Joey, who TOTALLY DESERVED IT. And Joan is a total b about it. I know Joan is generally beloved by most Mad Men watchers, and I like her too, but she was wrong. 1965 or 2010, Peggy did the right thing, even if she was being a bit self-congratulatory about it. Joan's proposal was to use her sexuality to get rid of Joey, Peggy used her authority. I know Joan was just lashing out, probably partly due to the fact that Peggy was the one who had the clout to fire Joey, but if she continues like this, she is going to be one bitter lady. Anyway it'll be interesting to see the dynamic between Peggy and Joan as the feminist movement gets more relevant.

Odds and ends:
-I do give credit to Dr. Faye for making me laugh when she told her now ex-boyfriend to "go shit in the ocean."
-I'm so glad to see the return of Francine (a.k.a. Cutthroat Bitch a.k.a. Ted's Krav Maga gf).
-Sally (a.k.a. Patron Saint of this blog) looked so subdued when Don came in. I want to know what's going on with her therapy.
-Fashion police: Don can burn that jacket he wore on his date with Faye. His plaid shirts can stay.
-Apparently they blew the music budget on the Rolling Stones, because the lack of music over the end credits was conspicuous.
-So glad Don and Peggy's relationship is still going strong after last week. I liked how he nonchalantly told her to just fire Joey, and then it turned into some Major Drama.

Line of the night:
-I'm torn, do I go with Pete's one throwaway line of the episode, "When did we get a vending machine?" or Henry's hilarious yet not-inaccurate, "I hate Nazis?" Oh wait, there was also Francine's contribution: "You always have terrible luck with entertaining." I'm gonna give it to Francine this week, because we haven't seen her in a while and because her delivery was top-notch.

Questions to ponder:
How long will Don 2.0, new and improved, last? Will Don marry blonde #1 Bethany, blonde #2 Faye, or blonde #3 (wildcard!) Betty? Will Harry become less annoying? Will Stan ever admit his raging crush on Peggy? (You know it's tearing him up inside!)

Okay, I know this recap/review/word vomit was really late this week (although not as late as the Best Week Ever people--we're still waiting!) so I'm ending with a gift, this little gem of an interview with Jon Hamm and Jennifer Westfeldt in which they appear to be well on the way to drunktown. Special guest appearance by Ted Mosby, Architect.