Mad Men Roundtable – “The Good News”

Back in our first roundtable for the season, I predicted we’d be seeing Anna Draper again, and here she is.  Of course, this being Mad Men, it can’t be as simple as a visit where Don gets back to feeling good about himself.  No, Anna’s dying of cancer and she doesn’t know it.  It’s weird to think that the doctor told her sister, but not Anna.  We’ve seen this before on Mad Men, though – think Betty’s therapist giving Don regular reports.  Doctor-patient confidentiality was a very different concept then.  And it’s not as if Anna is somehow unfit – she’s an adult who takes care of herself – it’s gross that her sister is hiding this from her.  It almost makes “Dick Whitman” seem puny in comparison.  Don hid something major from his loved ones, but it was something that didn’t actually affect them directly.  Would Don’s kids love him less if they knew he was the son of a whore?  But this, Anna’s sister is hiding a terminal disease from the person suffering from the disease.