Happy New Year.  Usually there is an exclamation point after that sentence, but after all our favorite characters were raked over the coals this year, no exclamation is needed or wanted.  
"We're not homosexuals! We're divorced!"

Don and Lane's world's are not what they imagined them to be at the cusp of 1965.  Lane's marriage is over.  Don's marriage is over.  And for the first part of New Year's they keep each other company.  Lane is far more entertaining than Don gave him credit for.  Lane with too many drinks is something we need to see again, and I especially liked his confession to Don about how he hasn't been welcomed to the states and that Don has always seemed like the big man on campus.  Interesting that Lane's comparitve Don died in a motorcycle accident.  Too many unhealthy risks.  This is alluded to earlier when Stephanie quips to Don about riding home with him being somewhat safer than hitching: "I guess this is safer."  Of course, she's not talking about driving and it's easy to see Don is not handling rejection well.  He's lost and the only time we've seen him confident and comfortable with himself is with Anna and when he was faking his confidence with that reporter in the first episode. It was refreshing, albeit depressing to see him get turned down for a change. 

Poor Lane.  His British accent and upper crust posture set him apart from the American debonair men like Don and Roger, but clearly he's just like them.  Prostitutes and all.  His last line to Don was as smart as any other Mad Men line: "Thank you for the welcome distraction."  Divide the line and you get a thank you to Don for finally welcoming him into the American/Draper fold and a thank you to Don for taking him away from his thoughts of his wife. And by the way, $25?  How much has that changed with inflation? Goodness.

To Tell or Not to Tell

Stephanie shockingly told Don that Anna has cancer.  I loved the change in tone during a scene that we've seen so many times before.  Don seduces and gets what he wants.  Except this time, not only does he not get what he wants, he gets hit with quite possibly the worst news he could receive.  For people new to Mad Men, Anna is the only one who truly knows Don (Dick Whitman), and accepts him for who really is.  She says as much in a line I thought was overkill, especially for a show like Mad Men which makes the moments in between the lines of equal or greater value than the lines themselves. 

So is ignorance bliss? Everyone knows about Anna's Cancer but Anna.  What's better for Anna? To know or not know?  I fully believe she has every right to know and it's her decision if she wants to continue living her life the way she is currently (in 1965).  There are a few possible reasons why Don decided not to disclose her diagnosis.  Perhaps he truly believe he should let the family decide what was best, but I'm leaning towards the idea that he doesn't want Anna to change the way she thinks about him and the delivery of that news and Don leaving might change their dynamic.  If that's too harsh of a way to see Don, it could also be that he thinks she could be happier not knowing.  At any rate, I thought it was dead wrong for everyone around a strong woman like Anna to decide her fate for her. 

"Everyone makes mistakes. But the fact that you're the type of person who cannot accept blame is egregious." 

Accepting blame and coping seemed to be the theme of this New Year's based episode.  And why wouldn't it be?  Who doesn't take stock of their life at New Year's and attempt to figure out where things are going?  This is especially true of Joan in this episode.