“I saw one at the Met. It’s perfect in every way. Except it couldn’t make music.” – Ken Cosgrove

Salvatore and Kitty are the model of a modern couple. Sharing common interests and household chores in their boldly decorated apartment, on the surface they’re everything Pete and Trudy, for example, are not. But we know who Salvatore is, and no matter how hard the mama’s boy from Baltimore tries, his interests lie elsewhere. Seeing in Ken the soul of an artist, it’s no wonder his interests are drawn that way.

Like Ken’s gold violin, Salvatore’s marriage is perfect in every way. Except it can’t make music. Just like Don’s happy family – picnicking in the woods, music playing from the Caddy, kids at play – is a sham built on a dead man’s identity and nostalgic ideas culled from magazines and movies. Neither man knows how, nor wants, to live as himself in the world, so they have built simulacra based on observation.

Ken finally tunes in that something is amiss at the Romano’s and gets out; Kitty doesn’t have the same luxury. Her love for Salvatore blinds her to the reality of the situation and sadly she’ll likely remain that way until ’69, assuming her husband can even then accept who he is. Ken doesn’t get out before an extremely sensuous/uncomfortable moment as he lights a cigarette under Salvatore’s amorous eyes.

Don, provided entree to the halls of the powerful, should remember the lessons of his past. A fuzzy photo in a newspaper led Adam Whitman to his office last year; a used car circular led our mysterious blond to his door in 1952. The more people see his face and hear his name, the more skeletons will rattle free from his closet.

And of course every new secret he tries to add to the collection increases the pressure and increases the chance of being caught. As he is by Jimmy Barrett.

Jimmy got everything he wanted: his show, his contract with Utz, and a wedge between Don and Betty. It was obvious from the moment he called Betty at home that he knew about Don and Bobbie; less obvious were his intentions. His reveal to Betty was suitably subtle. Her distrust of Don will verify Jimmy’s innuendo, but Jimmy can almost plead ignorance with her. Even the ugly anti-semitism of her reaction can be smoothed over by Jimmy if he wants to pursue Betty out of spite and lust.

In contrast, his comments to Don were clear and concise, leaving no room for interpretation. He got everything he wanted.

“You know what I like about you? Nothing. But it’s okay. You got me everything I wanted. What did you get? Bobbie? Lots of people have had that…Please. I laugh at you. I go home at night and I laugh at you…You. You want to step out, fine. Go to a whore. You don’t screw another man’s wife. You’re garbage, and you know it.”

After the Stork Club revelations, after too much champagne and too much truth, Betty does what the children couldn’t do. She messes up the new seats of the Caddy.

Amongst the stellar performances, to tonight really stood out for me. Bryan Batt plumbed depths we haven’t seen since last year’s “The Hobo Code” when his sexuality was again front and center. He consistently walks the line between cariacature and real live boy without missing a step, but on a night when he needed to demonstrate his desires plainly to us while still keeping them (mostly) hidden, he walked on the narrowest of paths as if strolling in the park.

Patrick Fischler, meanwhile mixed menace with humor to show us Jimmy Barrett at his finest. To anyone who’s seen Goodfellas or The Dark Knight or just been to a low-rent circus, it comes as no surprise that clowns and comedians can be scary. I had no doubt that Jimmy could have beaten Don down without breaking a sweat had it come to that. But he knows he doesn’t have to. Don’s a coward as well as a mimbo.

I hope (though don’t expect) that next week we’ll learn more about the woman from the real Don Draper‘s past. I imagine Matt Weiner will sit on that for a little while to let it steep. If I had to guess, I’d assume that’s the real Don’s wife and mother to his children, giving us several possibilities for the recipient of the copy of “Meditations in an Emergency” in the season premiere.

What did everyone else think?