It's probably true that the writers will "screw" with us in some way, but they kinda have to, I guess, as dramatists; otherwise they could just write "and it all worked out for Meg and Don, plus a main character dies," and just hold it up in front of the camera.

Sorry, Rogers Aching Ticker, to reply to the wrong comment, but I'm
rubbish at the internet at the best of times, never mind this Disqus
maze.

I read Peggy's reaction as being just one of those things that the show's great at - appropriate ambiguity, if I may coin a term. (I'm not saying I may, I'm just hoping)

You know, when you put it like that…

Weird celebrity fact: Megan's mom was actually played by the kid who played Bobby in Season 1.

For fuck's sake - are we really doing this?

I actually welcomed super-creepy Glen's return. In one sense I think he might be a bit of hangover from a strand the show chose not to pursue. Way back in the days when Betty was a character in the show rather than a weirdly surprising lightning rod for, IMHO, wildly irrational hate from some of the show's viewers, I…

Don trying to control his drinking was at least a reasonably important strand of the last season. It was the first time we saw Don drunk in a messy, unromantic - ie truthful - way, and Carrie - sorry, Don - made at least an entry or two in his voiceover - sorry, Journal - that he wanted more clarity and control in his…

Don't think he was portrayed as an asshole exactly, to be fair. Don was clearly a bit uncomfortable with his French-speaking father-in-law - I really think Don's "Middle Ages" gag was as genuinely unintentional as it was insulting - but the ep pretty much made him out to be at least a bit victim-y by the end.

Great episode with many, many great moments: I humbly submit a really brief exchange that could be passed over:

I got a real Season 1 echo off that bit, actually, from when Don related to Pete a real truism of office life to the effect that it really, really matters - sometimes regardless of your work or accomplishments - that people like you. I know it doesn't exactly align with the idea that people might mistrust Don and the…

I'm faintly embarrassed to admit I've seen each season three times. The first maybe four, I'm not sure.

I've said this elsewhere, but it's easily forgotten - not least by the show itself, eg the last three seasons - that Bert Cooper was the ultimate arbiter of who "Don Draper" is. It was to Bert that Pete made that desperate dash to outrun and unmask Don/Dick in that crucial first season scene, and it was Bert Cooper…

And redo that fucking Heinz pitch, would you? I wanna FEEL something, Van Der Werff. Jesus!

Actual interior aside, I think we were supposed to make that connection: Megan managing Don's children was a clearly signposted turning point in their relationship, and now she has to address the arguably bigger problem, Don/Dick the child. (Who, as hinted in the scene itself, didn't really have a mother…)

I'm not saying they totally addressed your concerns, but when Ginsberg made his initial "Martian" speech, he did say something like "and that couldn't happen, right?" Later, when Peggy repeated the story to her boyfriend, she included the "couldn't happen" bit, which didn't seem entirely necessary for that…

That's a good conflict you've just outlined there, magnificent brute djf881. I think, maybe, that that's the kind of thing the show is going for this season. Megan wants to be both a sexy, desirable wife and - wait for it! - a professional as well! It's hard to say that without sounding sarcastic, but isn't that the…

Peggy's request to her boyfriend to me just seemed like one of those things Mad Men is really good at: an ambiguous restating of an earlier theme -  Pegs was definitely vulnerable when she asked him to come quickly - ahem - but I'm not sure that their dynamic changed at all. It could've been just reinforced.

Brilliant. I'd forgotten about that.

What a cracker: It's got to be some kind of show where, by the end of it, you've almost forgotten that Peggy jacked a guy off in the cinema.