There was a moment in “The Arrangements” that made my heart sink. It wasn’t the hard-nosed way Gene passed along his last wishes to Betty, and it wasn’t Gene failing to pick up Sally and Bobby from school. No, my heart sank when Gene told Sally that their ice cream was supposed to be chocolate, but instead smelled like oranges.

This third episode of the season is very much about home, or the pale imitations of it that we content ourselves with.

Don Draper is not necessarily a bad guy, but he’s not much of a good guy either. In short, Don Draper has sold his soul, and there’s no getting it back. He’s lost. He’s not the hero.

It is with satisfaction but not surprise that I say unto you that “Out of Town”, the premiere episode of the third season of Mad Men, is a wonderful, fitting start to the new year.