3x12 - "The Grown-Ups" • peb, filmweb, rapidshare, torrent

After dominating the last two episodes, Don Draper, Dick Whitman and , well, everybody really, take a back seat to the most speculated-about moment of Mad Men's third season: the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. Creator Matthew Weiner put the drama of the event front and center, but still managed to show the changes happening in the lives of those sitting transfixed on their couches, those unable to look away from the situation that kept going from bad to worse. Betty finally realizes that her feelings for Don no longer exist. Pete, after being less than graciously not promoted, convinces himself, then Trudy, that leaving Sterling Cooper might be his only move. And Roger Sterling, unable to crack wise about Kennedy's death like he does everything else, realizes only one person can make him feel better after his daughter's train wreck of a wedding ends.

But how exactly do we cope with tragedy? Do we, like Don, talk it away by focusing on the hope for a brighter tomorrow? Or do we react like Betty by immersing ourselves in it and allow it to break us down? Could we be like Pete and misplace our anger at those around us? Or do we take Roger's approach of just being baffled by it, knowing that with persistence we'll pull through? All of those initial reactions, however, give way to reflection, which gives way to honesty. And it's in those moments of honesty that the realizations listed above are made, for better or worse.