'Mad Men' recap: 'Signal 30' and fisticuffs

OK, let's talk last night's "Mad Men" -- titled "Signal 30." There's plenty to talk about, and I'm going to let my fingers do the thinking -- as the saying goes -- which means a rambling blog post with bulleted points. What was this thing -- directed incidentally by John Slattery -- all about? Oh, plenty. Let 'er rip:

It's a bit unfair, perhaps, but the Ninth to a certain degree established that rep. Two instances this occurred last night. The first, with Pete and his new record player. What does he play for his guests when they arrive? Not the latest top 40, not something from Frankie Laine. Oh, he plays the Ninth! And not the Fifth -- that would’ve been just sadly pretentious -- or the Seventh (the more difficult, interesting of the symphonies), or the Third -- Eroica, or so on. But the Ninth! The very symphony that Hitler was apparently listening to as flames consumed the bunker. (How would anyone even know this?)

And then, in the end, Ken is listening as restarts his strangely purple overblown sci-fi fantasy fiction career -- a closeted career. I'm just spitballing here, dear reader, but the Ninth had a starring role in last night's creepy episode.

Of course, we know another Whitman, by the name of Dick. Witness Don's almost sheepish horror when he mentions this other "Whitman." And for the second week in a row, "Mad Men" has played with murderous impulses in our hero -- the name, and last week, that nightmare. What is going on here? I dunno.

And then, moments later, a manned-up Lane plants a kiss on Joan, who gets up, opens the door, sits down, and says (after he apologizes) something to the effect that nothing happened. Another classic moment, and a foreshadow as well. OK, that's it for now friends. Sorry for the ramble, and any disputatious reader is free to weigh in at comments, to tell me exactly how off base I am here ... or provide further illumination.