For a week, after the cliffhanger ending of "The Color Blue" as Don was showered with applause, I've been imagining the fireworks that were sure to erupt when Betty finally confronted him with all the ammunition she gathered from the desk drawer. I was thinking of mega histrionics, screaming, furniture flying, glass breaking, binge drinking, etc.

I should've known better. When it really matters, this show is rarely predictable. That the showdown in "The Gypsy and the Hobo" between Betty and Don would come in whispers, in dimly lit rooms through gritted teeth -- fantastic. It was not at all what I expected but it was so right; kudos to scribes Marti Noxon, Cathryn Humphris and Matthew Weiner and helmer Jennifer Getzinger.

I've been hard on Betty this season, but she regained her humanity in this seg because she wasn't a screaming banshee. In fact, she was as good as Don could've hoped for -- much better than he deserved, what with his latest lover waiting in the car outside the house. The fact that Suzanne finally crawled away in the cold, dark night was just right too. A confrontation with Betty would've distracted from the real drama unfolding between a wife and husband coming to grips with the fact that she doesn't really know him, nor trust him, at all. "You're a very, very gifted storyteller," Betty tells him. And she knows his predilection for bailing when the going gets rough: "Are you thinking of what to say or are you just looking at that door?"

Betty was obviously considering staying a lot longer than a week in Philadelphia while she sorted out her future and her father's estate. Her exchange with the family lawyer was rough to hear on a human rights level -- the idea that a woman seeking a divorce in those days would basically be up a creek without a paddle -- but again, it rang true. The lawyer did give her sound advice. (Didn't it sound like he called her "Betsy"?)

For Don, I think that after the immediate W-T-F? shock of the confrontation with Betty (loved the scene when he staggers out from his den into the kitchen), he was still trying to work his best Don Draper mojo on her right up until the moment in the bedroom where she asks him about "Adam." Even as he was taking her through the story of his tortured parental experience, he didn't volunteer that he had a half-brother until she pressed him about the "boy in the pictures."

This is good news. It looks like the wheels are in motion on a deal between Warner Bros. TV and NBC on "Southland" that would pave the way for the police drama to move to TNT.

I'm told that NBC was playing hardball in the negotiations to parole the show, insisting on being paid out in full upfront (or very soon thereafter) for the six episodes it had ordered this season but, for reasons that have nothing to do with the pursuit of quality programming, chose not to air. The $$$ owed to NBC would've added huge amounts to the overhead costs on each episode, making it that much harder for John Wells Prods. and WBTV to make economic sense of a new deal for the show on a basic cable license fee.

Hopefully, for the sake of good TV, reason prevailed. I know for a fact "Southland" had high-level champions at the Peacock, and it can't be easy for them to see it go to another net. But if you love something...yada yada.

As my colleague Michael Schneider reports:

The saga of homeless cop drama "Southland" appeared one step closer to resolution on Friday.
According to a report by The Wrap, Warner Bros. TV and NBC had settled their differences on a deal that would end their relationship on the show -- and allow Warner Bros. TV to sell the series to another entity.

That outlet is believed to be TNT, although no pact has been finalized yet. Warner Bros. TV has 13 episodes of "Southland" in the can -- including the six produced for NBC this fall before the Peacock pulled the plug.
NBC informed Warner Bros. TV two weeks ago that it would ax the John Wells Prods. skein, which had been set to bow this Friday, Oct. 23. at 9 p.m. NBC is airing "Dateline" in its place.
"Southland" stars Ben McKenzie and Michael Cudlitz as L.A. beat cops.

"I don't care about your marriage, or your work, or any of that. As long as I know you're with me."

Whoa, Don Draper. You'd better have a flak jacket on underneath that tuxedo because you're about to face incoming missiles from all sides: your wife, your lover and your professional family.

This was the rope-a-dope episode of "Mad Men," one that meandered along with great character bits until just about halfway through when ... wham! Betty hears the keys to Pandora's Desk rattling around in the dryer and she unlocks more of a mystery that she ever bargained for. I love the way this mammoth plot development was played so randomly -- what if she hadn't done laundry that morning? -- and without any hint (at least that I caught) that it was coming.

Leave to Don Draper to engender not one but two psycho femmes with cause to come after him with both guns blazing. I found the scenes between Don and his latest extramarital squeeze, school teacher Suzanne, to be kind of creepy, frankly. She's nuts, folks, and it's only a matter of time before it all spills out of her upstairs apartment and onto the sidewalks of Ossining and the halls of Sterling Cooper, for Betty and the neighbors and the office chipmunks to see.

At first as this episode unfolded I was having a little trouble buying the Suzanne-Don relationship, which we're seeing in full bloom for the first time in this seg, "The Color Blue," penned by Kater Gordon and Matthew Weiner and helmed by Michael Uppendahl. Suzanne's a budding feminist, artsy/craftsy type who's probably headed to Stonybrook or Haight-Ashbury in the next four years or so. What does she want with a married Mr. Establishment type (even one that handsome)? She oughta be dating Ken Cosgrove. But then I saw how they were hinting at her brewing discontent with the relationship and it made more sense.

This just in: It's true. Robin Veith will not be back for season four of "Mad Men." The assistant who was with Matt Weiner nearly a decade ago when he was writing the pilot on spec has decided to leave the nest. Robin's segs include some of "Mad Men's" best, including "The Wheel" (season one finale), "The New Girl," "A Night to Remember" and "The Mountain King." Good luck and godspeed to Robin.

Struggle seems to be the overriding theme of this seg of "Mad Men": The struggles of a changing society, the emotional struggles of men and women, of the powerful and the subservient and the classic id-superego struggle to balance impulse and reason. (As voiced by Harry Crane when he finds himself in a pickle: "I'm not going to panic and do something stupid like I usually do.")

There was a fair amount of plot movement to digest in "Wee Small Hours," even if at first blush it didn't seem so. Betty takes a big step forward with Henry Francis but then turns on a dime and jumps three steps back. (Run, Henry, run!)

Our beloved Salvatore gets battered and bruised, professionally and sexually, and we're left with a big hint that he's heading into the wilds at a moment when he's wounded and vulnerable.

Don's weird power tango with Conrad Hilton continues at a feverish pace, and I think his frustration with that relationship has a whole lot to do with how demanding he becomes of the coltish Miss Farrell later on. And we see that no one at Sterling Cooper is running hotter under the collar these days than Roger Sterling. He's reduced to yelling for recognition of what value he provides to the agency these days. (Roger: "What do you think accounts does besides limit your brilliance?" Don: "I'd tell you but I don't want to hurt your feelings.")

Perhaps most intriguing to me in this episode, penned by Dahvi Waller and Matthew Weiner and helmed by exec producer Scott Hornbacher, was the advancement of the Hilton-as-Don's-father-figure storyline. Where the heck is this going? Beats me, but I don't mind. I love watching Chelcie Ross work. The exchanges between those two after Don delivers his trademark killer sales pitch for the international Hilton campaign, when the batty cowboy is criticizing Don for not giving him "the moon," as he'd asked, was such a father-son encounter that they didn't even try to mask it.

"What do you want from me, love? Fine, your work is good," Connie says in a patronizing, fatherly tone. "But when I say I want the moon I expect the moon!"

Can you identify this Navy man?

Hint: He just gave $3 million to the Intrepid Fallen Heroes Fund, which is building a rehabilitation facility for wounded U.S. military personnel at Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio, Texas.

Bigger hint: Plinko!

It's Bob Barker, who served in the Navy as an aviator during WWII. Kudos to him for such a generous gift.

Two things came to mind while I watched this "Mad Men" episode, "Souvenir," which unfolded at a much more leisurely and subtle pace than the last two installments.

One was "La Dolce Vita," Fellini's seminal romp through Rome with Marcello Mastroianni and Anita Ekberg.

The other was "Summer in the City," that turn-it-up AM radio classic by the Lovin' Spoonful. (Yes, "Summer in the City" is 1966 and thus not strictly of "Mad Men's" mid-1963 moment but "La Dolce Vita" is 1960, so I figure it all evens out.)

This episode, written by Lisa Albert and Matthew Weiner and helmed by Phil Abraham, found Don and Betty unexpectedly winging to Rome at Conrad Hilton's behest for a 48-hour jaunt that seemed to do wonders for their relationship at a pivotal moment for Betty -- at least until they got home. The other major subplot was Pete's struggle to deal with his internal emotional conflicts, his urges and, clearly, his habit of self-medicating with alcohol. And we got an answer to the question "Mad Men" fanatics have been asking since "Guy Walks Into an Advertising Agency" -- where's Joan?

"Souvenir" was a tour de force for January Jones, who was so good in so many moments, big and small, that they are too numerous to mention. Like her leading man, Jon Hamm, Jones can speak volumes without uttering a word. It was also a fabulous showcase for Vincent Kartheiser, who's overdue this season for a great spotlight seg. It starts on the page, for sure, but Kartheiser's talent has done so much to add dimension to Pete.

On paper, he's a character I should loathe -- especially after his inexcusable, border-line criminal behavior with the German au pair down the hall -- but I don't, because Kartheiser has humanized him so much.

But back to Betty. Jones was so good in this episode that I almost stopped hating Betty, at least until her natural petulance got the better of her at the end. We got a little bit of everything from Betty this episode -- past, present and the future she would like to have versus the future that she faces under her present circumstances.