Jackie Brown does it too! He has never not done it.

I'm impressed that Todd got through the entire review without referring to Tarantino.

Something very interesting about all the Megan/Betty and Megan/Faye contrasts: Megan vs. Betty is always described through the framework of Don's changing behavior, whereas Megan/Faye contrasts are always presented through the framework of Faye's "challenging" careerism and intellectualism. It's like he had to jump…

Anyone else get suddenly, unreasonably frightened during the first Don/Megan driving scene?

That was after like 14 drinks (plus vomiting). Remember him slugging that comedian! A little more pwnage that time.

Agreed. And there's an additional layer of emasculation: in the elevator, when Don says, "What was I going to do? Punch Lane?" the implication is that he couldn't do that because he might genuinely injure Lane, whereas allowing Pete to take a poke at Lane wasn't any kind of real physical threat.

The second time through the episode, I realized that Pete went from saying "I have everything" to "I have nothing," in so many words (each time) and genuinely seemed to mean it (each time). Interesting how prostitute-guilt, botched-jailbait-comeon and getting punched repeatedly in the face can elicit such a complete…

Because science fiction was a shameful backwater in those days. Remember that we're only a few months away from the Star Trek debut, which was a seismic, revolutionary development as far as mainstreaming that genre goes. When he published in The Atlantic he was parading it around the office like a hunting trophy. The…

Director's privilege? Director's "home team advantage?" I definitely noticed that Slattery had an easygoing twinkle in his eye throughout the episode, as if allowing himself to play against the deterministic character arc that's made him act so haunted and petulant this season.

Yeah, what was that all about? Very strange. It's not like he's got any kind of rapport with Dick Whitman that he fell back on "accidentally."

My apologies for stupidly not realizing you were kidding (hence the unnecessary below high-school-english-teacher speech).

Are you kidding? Has there ever been a metaphor with a more clearly-delineated one-to-one correspondence to reality? Robots in Blade Runner and 2001 (and even Westworld) have far more symbolic and philosophical subtlety and nuance. Galactica was a straight-up political satire (not "satire" in the humorous sense) and…

It was Hamm's fault. Those dead, flatfoot setups; the lack of convincing atmosphere backstage at the Stones (it had a Happy Days Leather Tuskadero vibe, visually and aurally); the slack pacing. Whereas Slattery, right out of the gate, was directing with flair; the actors were crackling with energy in a way that made…

(nods gravely)

My God, you may be onto something with the "Pete gets Harry's office"/"Pete's gun is still at the firm" juxtaposition. That's exactly the kind of fiendishly clever thing they'd pull.

Also, why is he such a bad father? He's got an awesome relationship with Sally.

People who critique Mad Men from a "what's the point" angle really confuse me (and I encounter them more often than I'd expect). It's DRAMA. This isn't "Lost" or "Battlestar Galactica." What's the "point" of a John Cheever story? What's the "point" of Glengarry Glenn Ross or a Sam Shepard play?

It's your own fault; you blew it by watching Season 5 episode 4 out of context. It's the same as if you watched Leia tell Han, "He's my brother" on Endor, and then went back to watch her get captured at the beginning of Star Wars, or checked out one of the really dark (in both senses) later scenes in The Godfather…

Slattery should direct many, many more episodes. (Was this his fourth?) Hamm should probably never direct again.

YES! I thought exactly the same thing. It's the husky-yet-deadpan voice and the heart-shaped face. In particular, she was reminiscent of "Ghost World" Scarlett Johansson.