In the scores of Mad Men articles I’ve read that refer to works of literature,

I rarely hear mention of Joseph Heller’s Something Happened, which is odd because Heller wrote the book while he worked at an advertising agency on Madison Avenue in the 1960s.

While the main character, Bob Slocum, does not work in advertising, he is a successful executive who suffers from the same two-pronged existential crisis Don Draper does: He can’t be happy just being happy, and he can’t keep his penis in his pants.  The thing that happens in Something Happened is the main character’s son is run over by a car and killed. While this is at the end of the book, and it certainly doesn’t solve Slocum’s problems, it does shake things up a bit.

No matter how bad things get for Don Draper, he's still Don Draper.

The realities of divorce have shaken Don Draper more than a bit as season four of the Emmy-winning series unfurls. While in the past Draper displayed an enviable ability to bag every dame in Manhattan, divorced-Don has to resort to prostitutes and a clothes-on quickie with his naïve secretary, for which he eventually pays. Contrast this with a scene from “The Jet Set” from season two. Joy, a tan and sublimely beautiful European heiress, lies awake reading Faulkner while Don enjoys a post-coital nap. Upon waking, Don asks her if Faulkner’s masterpiece, The Sound and the Fury, is any good. It’s okay, she replies, but not as good as sex with Don.

So married-Don screws better than Faulkner writes, but divorced-Don pays for sex with his secretary, botches it with the beautiful doctor from the consumer-research company, and can’t get farther than first base with Betty II, aka Bethany.

It’s not just his sexual cunning that’s lagging in season four. Married-Don could master and control every situation.  Divorced-Don bungles a simple interview with a trade magazine, and going back to season three, plays a total boob trying to recruit Peggy Olsen to the new agency, Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce.

Episode three of season four, “The Good News,” continues the trend of divorced-Don the cad. It’s New Year’s Eve, and instead of flying to Acapulco, Don goes to work to find Lane not at home in England but facing a divorce of his own. While Roger Sterling’s heart attack (and Freddy Rumsen’s accident) introduced the non-glamorous side of the smokin’ and drinkin’ lifestyle, it wasn’t until the scenes of Don and Lane getting drunk, Lane, the prim and proper gentleman, playing with his food at a posh restaurant, and the pair getting hassled by a standup comedian while they wait for their whores, do we see how unsexy the high life can be.

There is but one woman in the world, and her name is Joan.

The episode ends with Joan saying, “Shall we begin 1965?” which is very telling. The show’s writers always have an eye on the historical timeline, and the approach of the seventies is imminent. Eight years shy of Roe v. Wade, we find out Joan (played by the angelic Christina Hendricks) has had a couple abortions. Also entering the fray is the other uncomfortable issue from the seventies: Vietnam. Joan’s husband Greg, a wonderfully abusive, eager young surgeon, has enlisted, and that is really infringing on Joan’s baby plans.

Never ignoring the fact the show airs in 2010, the writers also brought the medical marijuana issue into the mix this episode.  Don flies out to California to learn Anna Draper, the real Don Draper’s widow, has terminal cancer. It is so bad her family has decided not to tell her, but she has begun smoking marijuana to ease her pain. Don tries to take charge and become the big, conquering hero, but Anna’s daughter Stephanie shuts him down and lest we forget Don is a playboy no more, divorced-Don muddles another opportunity to have sex with a beautiful woman. Lest we forget this is a literary and not a topical show, Stephanie delivers this line: “Nobody knows what’s wrong with themselves.” A seemingly simple statement of ennui, the line presents the reason dramatic programs like Mad Men exist and drama as an art form has existed for so long. Being a person is a complicated process with no easy answers.

And yet in the midst of all this bad news—abortion, Vietnam, divorce, cancer—we have a few bright spots. Anna offers Don the line that could possibly solve all his problems: “I know everything about you, and I still love you.” Meaning, “You don’t have to hide from everyone because you are afraid they will not find you so amazing if they know all the facts.” And we find out from Lane the new agency’s financial footing is not as shaky as previously thought: “It’s been a magnificent year.”

Next Sunday we have “The Rejected,” which looks to reintroduce Ken Cosgrove, the possibly gay (and now engaged) rival of Pete Campbell. In the meantime, enjoy some Mad Men radio on Pandora or sift through some of the show’s other literary nieces and nephews.