MYNDI – This episode felt like a lot of set-up to me for some fireworks to come. The battle lines have been drawn between Roger and his ex, Mona. Daughter Margaret doesn’t want Roger’s new wife Jane in attendance at her nuptials, though Mona was at least willing to concede Roger and “June” a table of their own. Too bad the wedding is scheduled for the day after JFK’s assassination. All I know is that the nation was in a state of profound mourning that November weekend, so I have to imagine these plans might be derailed, and Margaret and Mona might find a way to blame Roger for it. We see Don and Roger at a client lunch, and the onetime drinking buddies are not exactly laughing it up. Roger is defeated, and now just “wants to win” in the “land grab” he categorizes the wedding as, while Don, that paragon of virtue, seems appalled at what he’s hearing. For all he’s done to Betty, Don is unable to fathom how Roger got divorced and remarried so quickly, all the while seeming to take no responsibility for the wedge it’s driving. It doesn’t really add up; but maybe Don’s seething with jealously that Roger actually made the one move that he never could, even when he had the chance. And if that’s it, should we feel admiration for Don since he’s so dedicated to his family? Loathing because he’s full of crap? Or, sympathy because he’s miserable? The fact that all these questions exist is a testament to the character.
