Mad Men - Episode 4.03 - The Good News - Recap

“The Good News” was the best episode yet of season four, but the bad news is I won’t be able to write a full review on it today. Luckily enough, however, the episode focused mainly on Don, Joan, and Lane, so I will focus briefly on each individual character.

Joan – The episode begins with her visiting a doctor to discuss her fertility. After two years of marriage, she and Greg are hoping to start a family and want to know when they have the best chance to conceive. The doctor tells her to try again in a few weeks. Before she leaves the office, however, she expresses her concern of whether a couple “procedures” she has had will affect her chances of having a baby, but the doctor assures her everything is fine. Although it is never actually mentioned, she is presumably talking about an abortion.



She goes to see Lane at the SCDP office to ask for a few days off during the second week of January, but he finds this to be a preposterous request so shortly after the New Year’s holiday. When she returns home to her apartment, she catches Greg on his way out. He tells her that he can get a place in the Pocono’s in the middle of January, but she informs him that she can’t get out of work. He tries to convince her to quit her job, but she mentions her concern about the possibility of him being sent to Vietnam; a possibility he doesn’t want to discuss.

Back at the SCDP office, Joan receives a box of flowers that she and Peggy both assume are from her husband. However, as Joan reads the card she immediately becomes upset and rushes to Lane’s office. She expresses her anger to Lane over the card, which read “Darling, I’ve been an ass. Kisses, Lane.” However, these flowers were meant to be delivered to his wife, the flowers he bought for Joan were meant to say “Joan, forgive me. Lane.” Not only is Joan upset by this, but Lane knows that it will not be good for him when his wife receives the flowers meant for Joan. Lane’s secretary was responsible for the mistake, and Joan promptly fires her.

Don – He makes a brief stop at the office before leaving for Acapulco, where we learn through Harry that he has plans to stop in Los Angeles for 24 hours first. When he arrives in L.A. we see that he is there to visit Anna Draper, who greets him on her front porch with a cast on her leg and a cane in her hand. She tells Don that she broke her leg frying eggs as he helps her inside and pours them both a drink. As they discuss a stain on the wall that needs painting, Anna’s sister Patty and niece Stephanie stop by. They have been helping Anna since her injury, and Anna convinces Patty to let Stephanie stay the night.

When Don gets to Los Angeles, we see that he his there to visit Anna Draper. She is standing on the porch when he arrives, and as she comes to greet him he sees that she has broken her leg (she tells him it happened while she was frying eggs). They go inside the house and as Don pours them both a drink he notices that a leak from the ceiling has made a stain on the wall. Anna’s sister Patty and her daughter Stephanie then stop by, as they have been helping Anna since her injury, and Anna convinces Patty to let Stephanie stay for the night. After dinner and drinks at a restaurant, the three return to Anna’s and Don offers to drive Stephanie home. When they get to Stephanie’s house, Stephanie tells Don that the real reason Anna broke her leg is because she has cancer that has spread throughout her body. However, Patty and Anna’s doctor decided not to tell her because she doesn’t have long to live.

Don goes back to Anna’s house, and gets up the next morning to paint her wall for her. She gets up, worried that she may have missed Don before he left, but he tells her that he’s decided to stay a little longer. Patty stops by to drop off some groceries, and Don confronts her about Anna’s condition. He tells her that he’s going to take Anna to doctor’s and do everything he can, but Patty tells him that they’ve shown the x-rays to specialists and they have all said there is nothing they can do and convinces Don not to stay. When Don goes back inside, he begins to tell Anna that she has cancer, but changes his mind and tells her that he has to leave.

After hearing the news of Anna’s cancer, Don decides not to go to Acapulco and instead goes back to New York. When he returns he goes to the SCDP office, and finds that Lane has also decided not to take his vacation. After sitting around the office, drinking some liquor that Lane’s father sent as a gift, Don decides they should go to the movies. They drunkenly enjoy the movie (and annoy a woman sitting in front of them) before heading out to dinner together. There, Lane tells Don about the flower mishap, and how it led his wife to make the decision to stay in London for good. Don tells Lane that he plans on calling a lady friend, and when Don asks if she should invite a friend Lane agrees. They meet the women at a club, but soon decide to head back to Don’s apartment.



The next morning, Lane offers to pay Don for the evening, and thanks him for the “welcome distraction” before he leaves. We then cut to the Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce office, where we see Don, Joan, Pete, Harry, and Roger sitting around a nice, new conference table. Lane soon walks in and apologizes for being late before Joan proclaims: “Alright. Gentleman, shall we begin 1965?”

As I said in the beginning of the recap, I felt this was the best episode yet of Mad Men’s fourth season. However, for an episode titled “The Good News,” there certainly wasn’t much of it to go around. Don has received a lot of bad news in his life, but hearing that Anna is dying of cancer may be the worst news he has ever received, and we can see just how shaken up he is by it. Lane is convinced that his relationship with his wife is over, and although things seem to be going well between Joan and Greg, she still has concerns of starting a family before he is (potentially) sent to Vietnam. One of the reasons this episode worked so well was the stellar performances by Jon Hamm, Christina Hendricks, and Lane Pryce. The first two episodes were pretty light on Joan and Lane, so it was good to have them back in full force here, considering they are two of the best characters on the show. Great episode, and I can’t wait to see what happens in 1965.

Mike