It's late in the same year as last season and Betty has married Henry (whoa, wait, what?), although they're living in the Draper house in Ossining. Which is like living in a gutter, since so much has gone down in that house. You’d think she’d move, but Henry reveals that she’s “not even looking.” Don is faced with paying the mortgage on the house, plus on his sweet bachelor digs in Manhattan, so he’s starting to push Betty out…or at least force her and Henry to pay rent. And surprisingly enough, Henry tells Betty that Don "has a point." Meanwhile, the children are still miserable, and Henry’s bitchy WASP of a mother tells him so, in between jabs at Betty, whom she calls “that other man’s garbage.” Out of the frying pan…

Elsewhere, Sterling Cooper Draper Price (from now on referred to as SCDP because I’m not interested in developing carpal tunnel) has a wonderfully mod new office space, however small. There’s only one floor and no conference table. This irks Don in a way that I can only explain by assuming he was hoping to screw secretaries on it. Otherwise, I got nothin'.

Anyhow, SCDP is doing well enough to arouse trade publication Ad Age. They request an interview with Don, where his modest, stoic demeanor means the story lacks any real depth. And since Don literally gave the man, a one-legged Korean vet, nothing to work with, the article casts Don as a total asshole. To which Roger quips, “Well, how cheap is Ad Age? They can’t even afford to send over a whole reporter.” Funny, but now who’s the prick?

So now, dogged by this perceived reputation flaw, Don is extra-sensitive about the agency's image. And naturally, this is where Peggy zigs when she should zag. Sugarbear, a canned ham account (ah, the glamorous life of a gal in advertising) has sales nosediving, but they won’t spend any additional money to advertise. Our girl comes up with an ingenious little ruse to plant two women in the store the day before Thanksgiving to fight over the last Sugarbear ham. Since it's supposed to be a spontaneous event, they won't charge the client for it, and won’t tell a soul that the agency staged the stunt. It goes off like gangbusters. Papers are reporting about it on the front page (must be a slow news day in Manhattan) and Sugarbear gets a boost in sales. Only problem is: the women never stop fighting and one decided to press charges on the other.

Don's pissed about this. Not only is he worried about his own image, but now this little stunt could really set shit off. Plus, Roger set him up with Jane's friend, who looks like a younger version of Betty. And even though things went swimmingly on the date, she's wise to his horndog ways and sends him off with blue balls. So when Peggy rings him on the holiday weekend for bail money for the two Sugarbear Ham Battlers (as I now lovingly refer to them), he’s reached a boiling point and snaps at her. Later on, he keeps up the shitty attitude by pushing her out of the meeting with the client: “I don’t think it’s a good idea to have a girl there.” Why, Don? Because she might end up saying something smarter than you?

Further into the episode, Don struggles with a mindboggling client conundrum: a bikini company that insists they don’t sell bikinis, but "two-piece swimwear" because they’re a “family company.” So of course, Don gives them some risqué creative and tells them to sell bikinis or…die. When they disagree, he straight-up kicks them out. “Out! Get out!” he barks, and Pete follows behind, kissing ass the entire way to the elevators.

You can see that Don’s clearly starting to lose his fine veneer of professional distance and creative cavalier that got him this far in the first place. That is, until, he has a sip of Canadian Club, which is to Don what spinach is to Popeye, and then gets a reporter from Adweek to interview him. This time, he gives him the whole juicy story about how he, Roger, Bert and Price ransacked Sterling Cooper and started anew.

And that's when we see that Don Draper is back. OH YES.

Miz J blogs at Ask MizJ.