I don't really agree that this is "Dick Whitman" compromising himself to re-become "Don Draper." A person is not a name, and even though "Don Draper" was a sort of costume in the beginning, an aspirational persona with a borrowed name and history, Don became that costume, he changed and became that persona (though…

I honestly felt like the episode was just fucking with us with that back and forth between the two stories. We are (or at least I am) intensely invested in whether and how Don will return to SCP, so the show keeps cutting away to a damn farm with Betty being incredibly oblivious and petty with regard to Bobby's…

He said he was drinking from Jeor Mormont's skull, actually, not Craster's. Who doesn't want to drink wine from their former boss' skull?

I don't really think the White Walkers are actually zombies at all, just withered looking human-ish ice-monster-people. But they can obviously reanimate the dead (people, bears, horses, etc).

Is Jojen actually a Warg in this? I thought he just had prophetic dreams…

Apparently in the show we're not supposed to root for Jaime, now. In the books, Jaime's worst act, ultimately, is his attempt to murder Bran (which he did in order to protect Cersei and his family—and also himself, obviously), and arguably in not taking a stand against Tywin on the Tysha event when he was very young.…

It's fair enough to see this story as separate from the story as told in the books, but I don't think being upset with such a significant departure regarding a character that is well-liked is really out of bounds for a discussion, particularly on the experts threads. This is still an adaptation, and one can…

Spoilers from AFfC/ADwD
I could understand this scene, sort of (but still dislike it), on the terms that combined with Tywin's indirectly ripping Cersei a new b-hole over Joffrey's failures as a king, followed by her brother raping her, synthesizing a moment where all of Cersei's power is stripped away, could build…

ADWD Spoilers

Despite Raylan's general dickishness and slow devolution to villain with a badge, I've always thought he was ultimately heroic, but tonight when he stooped to actually threatening Ava (saying that he would suggest the guards look the other way should something untoward happen to her in prison) simply because she would…

If he wants McShane he should write a part for Michael Ian Black, just like they did for Deadwood.

I don't think being self-aware immunizes a person against psychological trauma, nor in this case the feeling of real meaning in an act of redemption. Rust's nihilism was always tied to his loss, guilt, and failure as a parent, so symbolically dying to slay a child killing dragon provided his psyche with a sense of…

@andrewy:disqus : They did not hack the IRS. Marty stated in the previous episode that he paid for a subscription to the IRS and a few other databases—the same things that the police and many other government agencies have access to (for example, my wife used to work for a state child support recovery agency where…

Evoking Christ isn't necessarily an endorsement of Christianity, though. In terms of storytelling, the Christ story, absent the context of the religions and institutions that have grown and evolved around that story, fits in with the larger umbrella of human mythologizing whereby a redemptive death can lead to a…

It seems like a stretch, but I did kind of wonder just why exactly Maggie had any scenes at all tonight, for as little as they accomplished. The scene with Marty told us that she's moved on to a wealthier, more stable situation with a new husband and that she maybe doesn't hate Marty and has some concern for him, all…

I didn't catch on to the spiral call-back with Lawnmower Man's lawnmowing pattern, because I mow my lawn the exact same way, starting on the outside and working in towards the center so each pass around gets smaller and smaller. Now I know I've clearly been to Carcosa later in my life in a previous iteration of it,…

I don't know if "stalking" is actually illegal (it's somewhat risky for the reason you mentioned), at least where I hunt, but the writers seem to pretty unfamiliar with hunting, because if you try to stalk with a bow it's very difficult to get within range before being scented or heard—it's generally much more…

Wait, is there a rule about "comprised" that says you can't use it in passive voice? You can't say "something is comprised of something else," rather than "something comprises/d something"? I know active voice is generally preferred, but why is the former incorrect?

Or they could mix it up and give us a few glimpses into Saul's post-Walt life every now and again before cutting back to the pre-Walt days.

I don't really see the problem with the "Judeo-Christian" intersection here, although "Abrahamic" would work too, as an acknowledgement of the larger audience.  "Lucifer" might not be particularly Judaic, but the concept of fallen angels does actually come out of pre-Christian Judaic off-shoots (see the Dead Sea…