Jumping the gun a bit, aren’t you, Matthew Weiner? Watching “The Grown-Ups,” the first Mad Men episode directed by Barbet Schroeder (Reversal of Fortune, Murder by Numbers), it’s actually pretty clear why the show didn’t save the Kennedy assassination for its season finale. Unlike the Cuban Missile Crisis, which ended season two and which provided a suitably paranoid backdrop for an episode of secret-spilling, with the Kennedy assassination, you’re essentially limited to having an entire episode of characters glued to their television sets (or in the case of Roger’s daughter’s wedding guests, reluctantly unglued). There are certain marks to hit—the announcement of Kennedy’s death, Ruby shooting Oswald—and since nothing else is going on in the world, it’s not exactly the best week for advancing the series’ drama. Yet it would be weird not to address it at all. Good on Weiner for getting it out of the way and—we hope—saving the season’s biggest fireworks for next week.

There is, of course, the matter of how to show the characters reacting to the news, and by far the most interesting development on that front concerns Pete, who stays home instead of going to the wedding to kiss up to his boss. (Peggy also has a bit of a dilemma: For the rest of her life, when asked where she was when she heard the news, she’ll have to lie about having a lunch-hour fling with Duck.) Meanwhile, Don’s complete lack of interest, though arguably in keeping with a character who can abandon secret lives at a moment’s notice, wasn’t particularly convincing. (The whole country is mourning; you’d think he’d get it, or at least understand that there’s a value in allowing his kids to bear witness to history.) Don’s callousness is basically just a device to drive Betty further into the arms of Henry Francis, which would be a disappointingly conventional way to resolve the questions raised by last week’s stunning installment. All of this makes “The Grown-Ups” sound like a bad episode, but in fact it’s merely—and surprisingly—a quiet one. There’s plenty going on, and the details—particularly the use of archival clips—seem just right. Still, it says something about how powerful the show normally is that the Kennedy assassination feels like an afterthought.