“Welcome distractions”: that was the theme of this week’s episode of “Mad Men,” entitled “The Good News.” The title itself is ironic: while the nascent company has done fairly well financially in 1964, the lives of nearly everyone inside of it has gone more or less to complete hell. While tonight met the high quality of this early season so far, in many ways it was the most straightforward of the three episodes to date. While a subtle show, “Mad Men” occasionally hits its thematic concerns squarely on the nose, leaving little real room for actual interpretation. So rather than break things down in broad strokes, here are five takeaways from tonight’s episode.

1) Don, Lane, and Joan stood at the center of the episode, each dealing with a problem staring directly in the face, even if none of them wanted to particular look at it. With Don, he’s dealing with the imminent loss of Anna Draper, the real Don Draper’s wife. Lane, stares into the dissolution of his marriage to Rebecca, a dissolution that started with the introduction of another woman into the relationship last year: the Statue of Liberty. And Joan…ah, poor Joanie, counting down the days until Greg goes to Vietnam, a fruitless task made more maddening by the lack of any information concerning the Army’s plans for him. That lack of certainty makes planning a family all the more difficult. (Having multiple abortions in the past isn’t exactly helping things for her, either.)

The water stain in Anna’s living room links to the box of roses mistakenly sent by Lane’s secretary links to Joan’s hand laceration: all three are elements that need to be covered up, even if the very act of covering up doesn’t actually erase the problems from existence so much as hide them from view. Painting over the stain doesn’t remove Anna’s cancer any more than Lane’s tryst with a prostitute remove the impending divorce any more than Greg’s mending of Joan’s wound remove his impending wartime demise. By the episode’s final scene, we realize that what these three characters all needed distraction from is 1965 itself, a future in which there seems to be very little good news at all. (And certainly no Easter trip in which Anna will meet Sally and Bobby.)

2) In the character of Anna’s niece Stephanie, we saw the show take an even more direct line at the imminent culture/generational war that will pair with the physical one in Vietnam. Anna thinks the younger generation will save the older one, but if anything, it made them feel obsolete, anachronistic, and part of a world that no longer existed. When Don and Stephanie dance to the song “Old Cape Cod,” they might as well be listening to a song that describes the topographical landscape of Middle Earth or Narnia as far as Stephanie is concerned. In the short span of time depicted on the show, Don’s generation has gone from one revered to one mistrusted. Stephanie may not be participating in the protests going on at Berkeley, but she’s not deaf to what they’re shouting, either. “You’re in charge. Trust me, I work in advertising,” Don tells her, unaware that they will not only dictate the economic climate in the following year, but the political one as well.

3) I’m curious what people thought about Greg’s care of Joan. On one level, I can easily see how people could interpret his bedside (or really, tableside) manner as belittling her, inasmuch as he spoke to her as if he would speak to a child. On the other hand, it’s a side of Greg we never really see. I can’t ever get back on Team Greg after his rape of her in Season 2, but kudos to the show for making him much more than that single solitary act. If it weren’t for the layers on display tonight, we wouldn’t see why Joan still stayed with him, which would then make us lose respect for one of the show’s strongest characters.

4) Tonight’s episode finally gave Jared Harris the spotlight he so richly deserved. While tonight’s ep could be a possible Emmy submission for Christina Hendricks, it’s a definite one for Harris. Pairing him with Hendricks and Jon Hamm in new, lengthy, and unexpected ways paid dividends for a character that many have been waiting to fully take his place amongst the partners not only in name, but in impact as well. Lane Pryce watching a Godzilla film may be one of my five favorite “Mad Men” episodes of all time, and easily one of my favorites that didn’t involve a John Deere riding lawnmower.

5) On one level, this episode was about as dour as “Mad Men” gets. After positioning these characters to the edge of the cliff, it repeatedly punched them in the stomach. But amidst all of the darkness were pockets of explosive, dark, cathartic humor. I’ve just mentioned the Godzilla scene, which was top-to-bottom hysterical, but there many other moments as well. The horrific mix-up with the two boxes of roses. The Bob Dylan wannabe playing “The House of the Rising Sun” just as Don’s escorts arrive in the club. “Egregious.” “Consider me the incorruptible exception!” “I’m not gonna fight Dick Whitman painting my living room in his shorts.” “Does Howdy Doody have a wooden dick?” “She does NOT go to Barnard.” Without these moments, “Mad Men” turns into the television equivalent of Paul Thomas Anderson’s film “Magnolia”: suffocatingly bleak with no sunshine, only frogs falling upon the faces of its characters.

If there’s any hope for these characters to find some sense of relief or redemption in 1965, it lies in Anna’s words to Don: “I know everything about you, and I still love you.” That might be the nicest thing anyone has said to Don in a year, and something he desperately needed to hear. That bit of kindness translated into Don’s extended hand to Lane back in New York, and may make another iteration before long. Stephanie tells Don that the world is filled with people blind to the problems that everyone else can see. I’m not sure that’s exactly correct. I think “Mad Men” is filled with people desperately hiding when they are POSITIVE everyone else can see. The real problem is that they are so ashamed of what they are hiding that they deem themselves unable to be loved for whom they are.

If Anna can see into the heart of darkness and find something to love, maybe others can, as well.

What did you think of “The Good News”? Leave your thoughts below!