Joan visits her gynecologist. She and Greg are planning to have children. Alluding to two abortions, Joan asks, "Should I be worried?" "Everything looks fine," the doctor assures her.
At the office, Don readies for a New Year's trip. He plans to stop for a day in Los Angeles before continuing to Acapulco.Lane, meanwhile, intends to join his family in London.
Joan asks Lane for time off in early-January because Greg has hospital duty during the holidays. "I understand that all men are dizzy and powerless to refuse you," Lane says, "but consider me the incorruptible exception." "Don't go and cry about it," he adds.
In Los Angeles, Don visits Anna Draper. She greets him limping because of a broken leg. Anna's sister Patty is helping with chores, along with her college-age daughter Stephanie. Anna invites her niece to stay for dinner. She wants Stephanie to meet Dick, she says, "and I know you've got grass."
Back in New York, Greg tells Joan that she should take time off anyway. "We'll make it," he says, even if she loses her job. Joan broaches the subject of his deployment to Vietnam. They don't know that will happen, he tells her. "Just keep marking off the days on the calendar while we keep planning for our future," she snaps.
At a restaurant, Don tells Anna the relief he felt after admitting his past to Betty. But, he says, "I could tell the minute she saw who I really was, she never wanted to look at me again." "I'm sorry she broke your heart," says Anna. "I had it coming," Don replies.
Don drives Stephanie home. He flirts with her, but they end up discussing his feelings for Anna. Stephanie reveals that her aunt has terminal cancer, though she hasn't been told. "I didn't want you to leave here and not know," says Stephanie.
In the morning, wearing boxers and a T-shirt, Don paints Anna’s water-stained wall. When Anna wakes up, he says that he'll be staying longer. The two smoke a joint. "I know everything about you," Anna says, "and I still love you."
Patty arrives with groceries. Don, furious that Patty and Stephanie have not told Anna about her cancer, says privately to Patty, "I'm going to assume you've done everything in your limited means" to help Anna, "but I'm here now. She's going to see some real doctors, and she's not going to live in the dark."
Patty has shown Anna’s scans to specialists, she says, and they all concur. "You have no say in the affairs of this family," Patty says. "You're just a man in a room with a checkbook." Patty asks Don to "do the decent thing" and leave before he says something to Anna.
Back with Anna, Don tells her he has to leave.
At the agency, Joan receives flowers. She storms into Lane's office and recites the accompanying note: "Darling, I've been an ass. Kisses, Lane." Hurling the bouquet at him, she complains that he consistently makes her "feel like a helpless, stupid little girl." Lane explains that a secretarial error resulted in Joan receiving flowers meant for his wife, and vice versa.
Don, about to leave Los Angeles, signs "Dick + Anna '64" on the wall he painted. "You know you can call me if you need anything," he says as they hug goodbye.
Greg returns from the hospital on New Year's morning. While preparing him a meal, Joan cuts her hand. She wants to go to the emergency room, but he insists on stitching her up himself, charming her with his bedside manner. "I can't fix anything else," he says, "but I can fix this."
Instead of flying to Acapulco, Don returns to New York. At the office he finds Lane, who canceled his London trip. "Too much to do," he says. In reviewing the agency's books, Lane continues, he discovered that "although things are precarious financially, it's been a magnificent year."
Armed with a flask of liquor that evening, Don and Lane head to a movie theater. The two receive glares for laughing and spouting pseudo-Japanese gibberish during the film.
Over dinner, Lane admits that he loves New York, even now that his wife left him.
Don declines to give advice on Lane’s marital situation, but offers to have a "lady friend" he was going to meet downtown arrange a date for Lane. Lane agrees somberly, then jumps up: "Look at me!" he shouts, slapping a huge steak on his crotch. "I got a big, Texas belt buckle. Yee haw!"
At a nightclub, a comedian pegs Don and Lane as homosexuals, but corrects himself when Candace -- the call girl who visited Don on Thanksgiving Day -- arrives with her friend Janine. "You're not queers," the comedian quips. "You're rich."
At Don's apartment, Lane and Janine head to his bedroom and start kissing. Don and Candace remain in the living room.
Don is in the kitchen the next morning when Lane stumbles out. "I should pay for the girl," he says, leaving money on the counter. "Thank you for the welcome distraction."
On Monday, Lane arrives late to the office for a conference with the executive staff. Joan sits at the head of the table.
"Gentlemen," she intones, "Shall we begin 1965?"
Source: AMC.com
Written by MichaelDeBoey on Oct 29, 2015