Lust, Caution: Mad Men Recapped

Everybody was in the mood for love Sunday night on Mad Men. Or at least everybody who made an appearance, a group comprising an unusually small number of the show's sprawling cast. But at least Crazy Sally made a new appearance, and viewers got some much-needed (if utterly demoralizing) face time with an old friend. And soundstage Rome has never looked more romantic! Read on and reflect.

It's summer in the city, a humid trap that never fails to spark restlessness among those poor, sticky souls with nowhere to escape to. Despite his claim to "love this time of year," Pete Campbell is one of them. Working late-ish one evening with a copy of Ebony and Trudy having split for the shore, he comes on to his secretary before his colleagues drop by to remind him of the ghost town that awaits outside. You could get away with anything, they seem to tease, and you can bet Pete will, strolling around the apartment shirtless and accosting the sobbing, buxom German au pair from apartment 14C. She's stuffing a stained gown into the trash chute -- a perfect opportunity, of course, for Pete to hit on her. Swinging and missing on the first try (she has a boyfriend), he tries Plan B: Resolve the Dress Crisis and put her (ostensibly) in his debt. That always works.

He could take a few pointers from Henry Francis, the governor's aide and aspiring paramour who supplies Betty with the political support she needs to get that pesky reservoir-draining project stopped. "I saw how happy you were in there," he says. "I thought, 'Dear God, did I have anything to do with that?' Because that would make me happy." Now that's how you earn a kiss, which no doubt comes as the down payment for more elaborate intimacies in future episodes.

See, Betty's restless, too, despite Don being awfully nice these days -- he even invites her on a business trip to Rome, where he's to meet Conrad Hilton. You know it's going to be the highlight of the episode once Betty starts speaking perfect Italian, but it takes a truly thrilling turn when she dolls up for date night -- all eye shadow, Aqua Net and class, tormenting a couple flirty Guidos until Don arrives for a classic bit of "Hey, stranger" role-playing. She's still got it, and by the time she gets home a few days later, she's clearly ready to put it to use. "I hate this place; I hate our friends," she tells Don, who fails to cheer her up with a gold Colosseum charm for her bracelet. "Now I can have something to look at when I tell people about that time we went to Rome."

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