"Mad Men" Season 4, Episode 3: Tensions Mount At The Agency In Strange Episode

NEW YORK (CBS) Don Draper takes a trip, tensions mount in the office, and Joan gets some much needed screen time on the Aug. 8 episode of "Mad Men." 

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(Spoiler alert: those "mounting tensions" also involve hookers and plenty of booze for dear old Don, read on, "Mad Men" aficionados...)

California was the setting for half of this strange episode where Don learns of his "friend" Anna's cancer diagnosis -- and then heading back to New York to drink, smoke and get it on with prostitutes. All of these instances suggest the evolving loneliness of Don's life and how he uses sex and alcohol to possibly deal with every life crisis. Of course, the viewer can come away with their own takes on this as well.

The absence of work-life balance at the top levels of Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce has clearly trickled down to the other employees. Allison admits to Don longingly that she is without plans for the holiday and in one of the most exciting exchanges of the episode Joan requests extra time off to spend with Greg who has hospital duty over the break.

Joan is overwhelmed with worry that Greg will be sent off to Vietnam. Lane tells Joan "I understand that all men are dizzy and powerless to refuse you," Lane says," but consider me the incorruptible exception." Adding, "Don't go and cry about it." Despite Joan's seething anger at Lane's pigheaded behavior, she winds up brutally (and funnily) firing the secretary whose error resulted in her receiving a bouquet of "I'm Sorry" flowers intended for Lane's wife.

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