"Mad Men:" What is up with Don Draper?

Thankfully, my fear that AMC would become more protective of "Mad Men" episodes has been proven unfounded. The bad news is that, having seen the next two episodes of the show, I've been reduced to the status of a lab rat punching its nose against a button in order to receive a pellet. Having seen these episodes, how can I possibly survive for another two weeks without a "Mad Men" fix? It's the DT's for me.

Sunday, and we'll start once again with AMC's generic description of the episode: "Trouble arises on the set of a commercial while Don plays hooky from the office. Meanwhile, Harry, determined to make improvements in his career, tries to gather support around a controversial sponsorship. Betty joins Don when he attempts to appease his clients with a friendly dinner."

Sunday's episode begins with a comic circa 1962 (patterned after Don Rickles? Jerry Lewis?) shooting a commercial; when the owner of the company the comic's plugging shows up with his, shall we say, rather portly wife, the comic starts in with the fat jokes. Naturally, this threatens to become a disaster for our friends at Sterling Cooper, who wonder why Don (Jon Hamm) wasn't around to tamp down the blow-up. (If you haven't noticed, Don's been going AWOL a lot lately, in an apparent effort to figure something out about himself; he angrily and euphemistically tells his secretary, "You do not 'cover' for me - you manage people's expectations.")

Meanwhile, a subplot involves a controversial episode of "The Defenders" involving abortion. ("Mad Men" has rather quietly become quite the history lesson: CBS did in fact air an abortion-themed episode of "The Defenders" in April 1962; likewise, that Jackie O White House tour really did air on Valentine's Day of that year and, per last week's episode, an American Airlines Flight 1 crashed on March 1; it was the deadliest air crash in history at the time. Here's hoping/guessing that AMC will offer the "Defenders" episode in question on its website the way it did the NBC special on the White House.)

And Betty (January Jones) is forced to try to convince someone who presses her that she's not sad, "it's just that my people are Nordic." And then she must accompany Don to the dinner in which he has to patch things up between the comic and his client: "Is this one where I talk or one where I don't?" she asks. Betty's growing a spine and a sense of humor while she seethes in her brittle bitterness.

The episode is particularly briskly written and, as usual, impeccably performed. And its exploration into Don's psyche is growing addictively unsettling: If something Don does in Sunday's show surprises you, wait 'til next week. I'm, frankly, worried for the guy. And for myself - I keep pressing this button in my cage, but no new "Mad Men" screeners are coming out.