Bobby was ostensibly born in 1957, so that would make him about 11 in 1968. The thing is that he was recast multiple times and Jared Gilmore, who played him in seasons 4-5 is 2 years older than Mason Vale Cotton.

Bobby Draper is becoming an actual character this year. After the last three Bobbies were basically glorified background extras, Bobby Four/Five is a real boy. I guess now that he's reaching Sally's season 3 age, the writers are comfortable with giving him more material.

I totally agree with you there. I feel I'm on a different wavelength from Mr. Vanderwerff in terms of how this season is structured and how thematically connected things are.

Also, I'm kind-of wondering if the tonal differences have to do with the show trying its best to emulate "Twin Peaks", which could shift from screwball comedy to dead serious horror in the span of a single scene.

I'm confused - was the Chinese girl actually killed off screen or not? It's like they decided to drop that character and move on.

Much like in the case of "Lord Snow", I'm hoping you bump the grade up to an A- in the future. This episode totally deserves it.

I think I pretty much figured it out last week that Norman killed his father. Something about the whole Norma cover-up thing made me think that the opening mystery could've been read in such a way. And voila, the show reveals it midseason.

To be more precise, the agency that got the account was J. Walter Thompson.

Title confusion - is the final title of the episode "Has Ended" or "Is Ended"?

I'm thinking Mance would've been closer to the books Mance, had Jimmy McNulty not decided the trip to Iceland wasn't worth the role.

I would've given it a B+.

The grades are all relative, but yeah - the series has been firing on all cylinders this year. And it's telling that Todd Haynes would direct an episode of this show.

Or maybe you're the guy with a twisted sense? How do two series count as 'every mediocre' show exactly? If you haven't actually been reading, there are very precise rationales listed in the articles that compare both of those shows to 'The Wire'.

Mr. Vanderwerff, assuming you've seen the finale, how would you grade it? Is it an 'A' (+) winner like  "All I've Ever Wanted"? (That would be my favorite episode of the series so far, followed by "Consider Helen").

No, the Roman Catholic priest: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bérenger_Saunière

Thank you for sharing. I was worried that this would never see the light of day, and I am glad you had that back-up. It must've been a nightmare to work with all of that trouble .

This show was a flawed, but masterful travel narrative. It wanted to do too much, yes, but it figured itself out in season two and heralded the arrival of many modern, more successful programs.

Mr. Vanderwerff, thank you for taking all the fan questions into account.We've been waiting for this interview for a while, and were starting to get restless. But it's all worth it in the end.

I have a theory that the decision to change the title of this episode has to do with Dexter S712 being called "Surprise, Motherfucker!"

I have a theory that the decision to change the title of this episode has to do with Dexter S712 being called "Surprise, Motherfucker!"