Callback?
In the pilot, wasn't it Riggin's fireside dream to be the groundskeeper for a plot of land that Street would buy with his NFL paycheck?

Roberto Bolano
Last Evenings on Earth is an extraordinary short story collection. Bolano's prose is always on the verge of erupting into flames.

Funny detail
Right after Guy gets his foot mowed, Mr. Hooker runs out. His hair is all mussed and so is the secretary's standing next to him. Looks like his British decorum doesn't extend to mid-party office sex.

Funny detail
Right after Guy gets his foot mowed, Mr. Hooker runs out. His hair is all mussed and so is the secretary's standing next to him. Looks like his British decorum doesn't extend to mid-party office sex.

And on and on sir
I like that the last appearance of the assembled theater troupe is them being on the receiving end of a hard glare from Langrishe that seemed to say "my character deserves a better plotline than you jokers!".

And on and on sir
I like that the last appearance of the assembled theater troupe is them being on the receiving end of a hard glare from Langrishe that seemed to say "my character deserves a better plotline than you jokers!".

Aint Con the nuts fatso?
Cy's wasted potential as a character is almost redeemed by his reaction to Ellsworth's murder. It fills him with a rage he can't understand or articulate. Really there's no reason he should care that Ellsworth's murdered, he barely knew the man. Yet he can't help but be effected because…

Don's genuine affection for Sal
It was nice to see it on display. Since the pilot it's always seemed these two get along but since Don learned Sal's secret, that seems to have turned into real warmth between them. Don was happy to throw him the extra work and quick to console him when that fell through. Draper…

Peter Campbell's Reaction to Sterling in Blackface
Wouldn't Pete have been raised by a black nanny, just like Betty? It seems unlikely but could this be a possible source of his discomfort at Roger's antics.

How to defeat Maryann
Smash her statue?

"Know that we are in the world as much in our pain as in our happiness."
That quotation was Alma's, not Bullock's. Bullock did have a great line to his wife, repeating something she said to him at the beginning of the season in a much different context: "Whatever will let us live as we are now."

This moment meant a lot to me upon original viewing because, among other things, it's the first time Alma explicitly refers to herself as Sophia's mother. One of the things this show does best is demonstrate how tragedy awkwardly, unexpectedly, and truly bonds humans one to another.

The first time I watched this episode I thought he was referring to the five thousand he was paying her. Quite the wit that Swearengen.

In the DVD commentary for 'E.B. Was Left Out', Garret Dillahunt says he asked David Milch why Walcott made no effort to defend himself from Charlie. Milch's response: "Walcott thinks Charlie might just be an angel from God." Walcott takes/invites all the punishment that comes his way because he knows he deserves it,…

Walcott and Mose
I love how Mose's guilt over his brother-murder increasingly serves as a shadow of Walcott's own feelings of shame and self-disgust. Walcott can't abide Mose because really he can't abide himself. It's a great character moment when, failing to expunge Mose's regret with the supposedly absolvent…