An even more emotionally brutal, powerful Mad Men 3.9 tonight, which gave us the worst side of Don this season...

Sal rebuffs the advance of the head Lucky Strike man, Lee Garner, Jr., who consequently calls upon hapless Harry Crane to fire Sal. It all comes to Don, who ... fires Sal. Don says something about "you people," and assures Sal he'll land on his feet. Garner, after all, represents a lot of business, and indeed was on the very first show in July 2007.

What goes around come around, and Don soon incurs the wrath of an important client himself - Conrad Hilton. Connie wants Don to bring Hilton to the world, and beyond, literally, with a campaign that will include a notion that Hilton hotels will someday be on the Moon. I got it - I'm a big advocate of space travel (see Realspace) - but Don doesn't take the Moon seriously enough, and shows Hilton a great campaign plan, sans Moon. Hilton expresses his vivid disappointment.

The two incidents open the door for Roger to walk into Don's office, and tell Don the company can't afford to have two huge clients so angry, and it's all Don's fault.

Don confines his response to his personal life by finally sleeping with Sally's former teacher. It's a hot, sexy, early September scene, but Don's playing with worse fire than the last two years...

Betty's almost doing this, too. Her Rome sense of mastery is gone, and she all but throws herself into Rockefeller's assistant's arms, pulling away at the last instant. Will we see Henry again? I'd say yes. And the political repartee among Betty's friends that accompanies this part of the story is good.

About the only outrightly funny line of the night comes from Harry Crane, who says his mother-in-law says he looks like Perry Mason. Well, I've been saying for years - two - that Harry looks like science fiction writer Isaac Asimov. (We talked about this in our interview.) Look at the photos below - judge for yourself.

Isaac                        Harry                    Perry

See also: Mad Men Back for 3 and 3.2: Carvel, Penn Station, and Diet Soda and 3.3: Gibbon, Blackface, and Eliot and 3.4: Caned Seats and a Multiple Choice about Sal's Patio Furniture and 3.5: Admiral TV, MLK, and a Baby Boy and 3.6: A Saving John Deere and 3.7: Brutal Edges ... August Flights in 3.8

And from Season Two: Mad Men Returns with a Xerox and a Call Girl ... 2.2: The Advertising Devil and the Deep Blue Sea ... 2.3 Double-Barreled Power ... 2.4: Betty and Don's Son ... 2.5: Best Montage Since Hitchcock ... 2.6: Jackie, Marilyn, and Liberty Valance ... 2.7: Double Dons ... 2.8: Did Don Get What He Deserved? ... 2.9: Don and Roger ... 2.10: Between Ray Bradbury and Telstar ... 2.11: Welcome to the Hotel California ... 2.12 The Day the Earth Stood Still on Mad Men ... 2.13 Saving the Best for Last on Mad Men

And from Season One: Mad Men Debuts on AMC: Cigarette Companies and Nixon ... Mad Men 2: Smoke and Television ... Mad Men 3: Hot 1960 Kiss ... Mad Men 4 and 5: Double Mad Men ... Mad Men 6: The Medium is the Message! ... Mad Men 7: Revenge of the Mollusk ... Mad Men 8: Weed, Twist, Hobo ... Mad Man 9: Betty Grace Kelly ... Mad men 10: Life, Death, and Politics ... Mad Men 11: Heat! ... Mad Men 12: Admirable Don ... Mad 13: Double-Endings, Lascaux, and Holes

20-minute interview with Rich Sommer (Harry Crane) at Light On Light Through