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Mad Men and Halloween-- the masks are off

So, who is Don Draper now?  In The Gypsy and the Hobo, we saw Don Draper lose the one thing that really matters to him; control.  His wife Betsy, in an amazing display of backbone, confronts Don in a surprise attack, as his latest affair sits in his car down the street, waiting for him for their romantic weekend.  Don has tried to keep Betsy as his own relic from the Ozzie & Harriet 1950's, the trophy wife whose only concern is raising the kids and having a warm meal waiting for him when Don decided to actually come home at night.  But when Betsy confronted him about the box that hid Dick Whitman's life- before Korea, before Betsty and Sterling Cooper.  The box that contained Dick Whitman's life before he became Don Draper.

This week's episode of Mad Men is about facing reality.  Specifically, about facing the reality of who and what we are.  Of course, the prime example of this is Don finally having to face Betsy about who he actually is and most of the things he's actually done.  But the Roger Sterling and Joan arcs of this episode also show two characters having to face up to reality.  Roger confronts his past in Annabelle, a girlfriend from his youthful days in Europe when he wanted to be Ernest Hemingway more than an ad man.  Annabelle offers him her business and herself but Roger knows that he's not the young Ernest Hemingway anymore.  Annabelle represents Roger's youth while his own young wife represents Roger today.  Much like Betsy's surprising backbone, Roger chooses the wife of today rather than the dalliances of the past.  Roger hasn't always made the right choices in the past but at least this time he has.

Joan's reality is much more frightening than Roger's is at this moment.  She's trapped with a loser husband who thinks that joining the army in the early 1960s is going to be easy street for him.  He's not making any money and she's trapped behind the counter at a department store.  It isn't too long ago that she had her own little kingdom at Sterling Cooper but now that's all gone and she's just another store clerk.  As if Roger didn't have enough to deal with in Annabelle, Joan reaches out to him for help.  But unlike Annabelle, Roger still cares about Joan.  Maybe it's not the passionate love it once was but you can see the horror on Joan's face as she has to call Roger for help even as you can see the love and concern on Roger's face.  He still loves her even if they can't be together.  She's still his "red head" and his "Joannie."  Even as she loses all of her confidence in her husband, she still knows that Roger is there for her.  That's her present reality.

While Roger and Joan have made up fictions to behind in their lives, none are as big as Don's fiction.  Pete and Cooper know that Don is really Dick Whitman but even with that knowledge, Don still maintains control in their relationship.  At least he does with Pete; Cooper knows enough to know how to use the knowledge of Don's identity and when to pull out that nugget of information.  But Don faced them both, standing defiantly even as he was exposed in his workplace where he has always been "Don Draper."  This time is different; this time he's confronted by Dick Whitman in his home, by his wife, betrayed by a misplaced key and a mysterious desk that contains everything of Dick Whitman. 

At the end, as he's out Trick or Treating with his kids, a neighbor jokingly asks Don "who are you supposed to be?"  That's the question now, isn't it?  Who is Don Draper?  Who is Dick Whitman?  Who's this new man, now that he's been exposed to Betsy?   Alan Sepinwall and Maureen Ryan, both a bit more invested in Mad Men than I am, both comment on how optimistic the end is when Don is asked "who are you supposed to be?"  I read that ending a different way.  This season has been about trapping Don Draper.  He's trapped by Sterling Cooper with his 3 year contract.  He's now trapped by Betsy who suddenly has the control in their marriage.  He's trapped by suburbia and Madison Avenue.   When Don Draper has been trapped, we've seen Dick Whitman run away.  Well, Don is trapped and maybe now Dick Whitman is trapped as well.   Will he man up like Roger is doing or will the old Dick Whitman show up, looking for an out from this charade he has built?