I don't know if "of the time" is required here. Ask the guy playing Joffrey what complete strangers are like.

True. But would it have been a new phenomenon of the time, with more and more people having TVs and soaps becoming a little edgier? I think soap actors my have experienced this phenomenon more often with it being on 5 days a week.

As to this being a boring episode - doesn't Madmen always start out slow?

As to this being a boring episode - doesn't Madmen always start out slow?

Yes, but I always complain about it anyway.

I really liked it.

"What the hell, Betty?!" Indeed. Though I do remember collections of one-panel comics from the pre-feminist era and how casually they treated rape as a punchline. (One I remember: Busty woman comes back to office with her clothes all disheveled and dazed. Quote: "Is it rape if I liked it?" Creepy! But not uncommon.) Betty was just being spicy. And insane.

But still, it was the best arc Betty's character has had in a while. And while I didn't think the brunette was particularly flattering, at least she's changing something.

I was also reminded of all those Ross MacDonald mysteries about finding runaway family members. Such a big anxiety in the sixties.

Kiernan's voice has dropped so much she sounded like Chloe Sevigny!

Loved the odd detail that Stan and Peggy are now good friends that stay in touch. They earned it in the trenches, and the most sexist asshole ever has more than a little respect and affection for her.

He also got my biggest laugh.

Don: Did you see death in this picture?
Stan: That's why I thought it was so great!

Peggy was a BOSS. Literally. But her sharp tongued excision of her underlings was so on point and well said. She's just on top of her shit. And Ted knows it. Which is cool.

The whole thing with the lighter - that goes way back to Dick becoming Don. I think Don felt like he was stealing that guy's life when he saw he had his lighter.

Another callback with the vacation slide show - going back to Don's first great pitch (that we see) on the show.

First Rory Gilmore and now Lindsey Weir. Mad Men's just going to go rummaging through our pop cultural souls for cheap thrills.

Wasn't the least bit surprised that Don was cheating. Like Roger, and Betty, he wants to change but he doesn't know how. He's the only one who didn't change their hair as 1968 dawns.

I was there, man! Even military guys were growing sideburns.

I love Roger's scenes with his ex-wife, Mona. (Played by John Slattery's real wife.) A lot of parallels with Pete for Roger here. No matter what he has (or doesn't have) he feels empty.

Callback also to Don tricking Roger into puking all over the office back in S1.

Another callback with the vacation slide show - going back to Don's first great pitch (that we see) on the show.

Yeah, that was interesting. The business with the lighter was complicated, I've got to think about it a little more, I think.

The business with the lighter was complicated, I've got to think about it a little more, I think.

I'd have to go back and see those original episodes. But as when he originally stole Don Draper's identity, by taking the lighter he changed names with the private. (Who will probably die.)

There's a bit of the sense that this guy is going to die in his place, which literally was happening in Vietnam. As happens when older men send younger men off to war.

Something about going down to the storage room pinged me as a callback too. Something about his half brother who hanged himself.

I loved the Roger/Mona scene. So much ruefulness and understanding and affection.

I loved the Roger/Mona scene. So much ruefulness and understanding and affection.

She's such a good actress. (Martin Balsam's daughter!)

She had a scene last year that was so good I looked her up - I had totally forgotten that she was John Slattery's wife.

I didn't think Peggy was boss at all. She is mimicking what she learned from Don, but she doesn't have any confidence to back it up. I can't picture Don ever calling his boss that many times before going with his back up idea, or really ever asking for permission at all.

I do love Mona.