One of the older actresses in this film said that she was so excited to finally get to do something other than play characters in nursing homes, women coping with dementia, or being someone's grandmother. And she did her own stunts. My mom told me once that, one thing that she's really noticed as she's gotten older,…

Agreed on Don finally looking around at the times and joining them. He's been living in the past (all the flashbacks to his childhood and to the war, etc.) and fiercely resisting the NOW. He ran as far as he could run, ran out of continent, sat in the grass and took a deep breath. He is present.

Canceled? Excellent news!

Helix SPOILER:

I think that Don being alone was absolutely required at this point in his life. Not just him going on the road like a hobo, but finding a way to be the "Don Draper" he could live with by not hinging it on forging yet another false family to support him and his need to "save" people whether they want it or not. The…

I would imagine that "not getting along" is par for the course in Betty's family. Hopefully, Bobby will shake things up in his own inimitable way ("Are we Negroes?"). I see him turning that family into something out of "Malcolm in the Middle."

Weirdly, it's Pete's voice in my head every time I ever crave that particular snack. Also, I fight the urge to scour through antique marts looking for that classic 1960s hostessing accessory from which to eat said snack.

She's possibly also just keeping Cooper in the game - especially as he's made several ghostly appearances since his demise. She had to save something from SCDP.

I see where you're coming from, wishing to have him face-to-face with those three women. I felt the same way but the more I think about it, the more I realize that the phone calls that Don has with Sally, Betty, and Peggy are more honest and real than many of his encounters with them have tended to be in person.

And Sal directs the commercials.

Truly. What a baby - whining because Joan's business venture would take her attention off him. Seriously, dude? Such a fragile ego that you would throw away the magnificence, competence, compassion, and loveliness that is Joan, you don't deserve her.

Yep, it's a bit ambiguous. I can't remember what Betty's brother was like (we must've seen him when Grandpa Gene died), but I would imagine that no one raised by Betty's parents would be all that warm and fuzzy. I prefer Sally's option of having them stay in the same house with the only father that's really been…

Not sure about the "motif" angle. It just struck me that one room with cats on the wall, even for Halloween decorations, became a bit more noteworthy when a second room showed up with the same.

Ah, yes, you are correct.

OK, the cats: cats obscured the naughty bits on Burt's old art print hanging on Peggy's office wall. The same cats are in the background in Joan's apartment, on her kitchen wall, visible through the doorway.

Roger saying the French beer tasted like "le shit." Never change, buddy.

I've been rooting for those crazy kids ever since they worked naked in "Waldorf Stories."

Yes, I'm really bummed by that last scene with Sally and Betty. Betty told her last week, "I watched my mother die and I don't want to do that to you." And yet there they are, clearly Sally is going to have to witness that slow death every day. Henry, as Betty predicted, is spending days and nights at work, unable to…

But Don's smile to M-E was pure performance, he was pitching the idea of the Company Man. He was their piece of horseflesh jumping through a hoop. But in California, his eyes are closed and so are everyone else's - no one's looking, he doesn't have to put on a show.

But I would argue that Joan did change. In the pilot episode, she extolled to Peggy the goal of marrying rich and quitting working. Dr. Rapey for SURE cured her of marriage (in spite of her half-hearted offer to Richard). She ended up rich and unmarried - and choosing her own autonomous professional goals over…