We may not agree on who the waitress reminds Don of, but Entertainment Weekly pointed out the Dos Passos connection to Roger: "When Roger comments on the book that the waitress is reading—The U.S.A. Trilogy
by John Don Passos—it’s like he’s planting the idea in her head that
she owes him something. In Volume 2 of Dos…

That was a fun watch Good to put faces to reviews too. Maybe Don's wine stain will become it's own character, Don Weinstein, his live-in roommate, and Mad Men will spin off into its own "Odd Couple." First episode - a knock on the apartment door. It's the waitress/Rachael, feeling guilty over taking so much money…

DON DRAPER SIPS CHIVAS, er, SITS SHIVA:
At first I despised this episode, and was ready to hate. Then I took a breath and it began to settle in - the sense of ennui, entropy and inertia was deliberate: Greed and complacency - first for AMC, then for "Mad Men."

I saw it as congressional hubris. Lawmakers from the old world blustering that they have the answers for the new one. In that respect, it might be one of the best lines of the season.

Well, if she was in Congress, she could still be a "master poker player" and completely ineffective, as we have seen.

"Hi, I'm Pete, and I'm an alcoholic." (silence) Pete: "Usually someone says, "Hi, Pete!" (silence). Further silence. The room is empty, save for Pete.

EXCELLENT point. We're so used to giving alcohol a free pass for "unwinding," but it does dull the senses in the ZA world. Of course, it's also a great CRUTCH for denial, so it makes sense almost that they'd need a liquor store in Alexandria.

Livestock, cows, sheep, goats - take a HUGE amount of acreage to feed. Lots of grass outside the fences, but you're also bait.

Yet I still find it interesting that "everyone's a critic" - especially when nitpicking or dissecting an episode. People didn't think this hard back in the day before The Shield, The Sopranos, Mad Men, Breaking Bad…., when episodic TV was crap. In those days we had a few channels, and we thankfully ate what they fed…

OR, Rick could mention that there is a severely dysfunctional bunch of crazies back at the hospital in Atlanta, and they could extract that doctor. Now, with two physicians in Alexandria, they could even start an HMO.

I don't know about your insurance, but think how long you'll be in the waiting room reading old magazines if there's NO doctor in the ZA

Daryl will continue to grow his hair until all peripheral vision is obliterated and his demise will be at a zombie he didn't see at 30 degrees right.

Because it's practiced, secret abuse. Whimpers, not screams.

And what about baby Judith? What's REALLY happening when the baby monitor isn't on?

Nice point about Glen. He seems the most "well adjusted" in this world. Saved Rick in the pilot, and it's interesting how you noticed some "homages." I think because he's such a nice guy, we tend not to think of Glen as "complex." But he is. Moreso, surely, from watching Noah die with only a plate glass window…

Be careful of the Island fantasy. World War Z - they can, and do, walk on the bottom of the ocean, and onto islands!

Bush would be a great solution. When he's "the decider," WMDs mysteriously go away.

Exactly. It sucks that we can't get a "read" on her!

I agree that a little less "burning off" the Alexandria plot would have been really cool. While it was interesting to start the season with the unexpected overturn of Terminus in only one episode (and I WAS saddened that we didn't get to explore that field of human skeletons a little more!), Alexandria deserved more…

I don't think creeped out. Rather, horribly saddened, watching damaged, desperate people deluding themselves that they could heal by falling into each others arms.