For, the record my prediction foe Necessary Roughness is that Nico is undercover be ause V3 is into something shady. Dani is going to find ou and do something stupid.

I'm glad we're getting some of the Ravens stuff still, even if we've lost Riley. I like TK the most out of everyone, although he can't sustain too much of a plot. Nice to see the QB stuck around on the show.

Both Nico and Sark just looked like they would be doing battling shadiness, but I also think Uncle Jesse is too good to be true.

I remembered what happened to her son when they were cleaning house, but there was a daughter, right? What did she do? Move in with dad?

How much good can the pure-hearted Santino do while the men around her are more fiscally and shadily motivated? STAY TUNED TO FIND OUT.

But in the meantime, killing time with Sinqua? EXCELLENT CALL.

Well, instead of running away to California, Don does a favor for Ted, and is honest (and incredibly unprofessional) in a client meeting about his horrible upbringing. For which he gets a forced leave of absence and possibly the end of his marriage. Partners have had enough of his shenanigans. (Apparently Joan got Avon too.)

But instead of crawling back into the bottle he moves into the honesty and takes his children to the whorehouse where he was raised. So Sally (at least) will know who he really is.

He's done a lot of shitty things this year (in particular). I don't think he's redeemed himself by any means. I don't know if he even cares about redemption. But he does seem to have made a decision to change. To be honest. To take the consequences.

He's tried to change before. This felt a little different. Not choosing a new set of circumstances, but confronting his past.

I'm going to miss Pete's Mom!

A theory on how Mad Men ends: [link]

So, I liked where the season ended. I'm still kind of tired of Matt Weiner making excuses for Don, but whatever, it's TV. (I actually think Jon Hamm has been brilliant this season in making Don truly pathetic, but in Q&As, Weiner always seems surprised when people ask why Don is so unlikeable this season, and I think it shows in the choices he's made, hitting us over the head with flashbacks, etc.)

Peggy's "Well isn't that nice for you, to have decisions" was dead-on. Fuck you, Ted.

Pete's "NOT GREAT BOB" in the elevator killed me. We rewound the Tivo to watch it again, it was so perfect. Holy crap. And then Pete and his brother deciding not to even pursue Manolo, because it would cost too much! Campbell family, what the hell is wrong with all of you. You are THE WORST.

I would like to state for the record right now that I would watch the hell out of a Pete Campbell spin-off, in LA, in the 1970s. AMC MAKE THAT HAPPEN.

Peggy in Don's office because that's where all the work she had to do already was was also pretty good. But the decisions line was stellar.

Man, the Campbells. I love that they have an almost unspoken understanding when they hear "sparing no expense". When we first met Pete all he had going for him were his family connections and now his family is all gone.

I loved Don telling Hershey that they shouldn't advertise, and I think all of his great moments where he works his Don Draper magic have come from that same place, just channeled in a more controlled way to, you know, bring money into the agency.

Peggy in Don's office because that's where all the work she had to do already was was also pretty good.

And did you notice the last shot of her in that office was this sillhouette? Aw, yeah.

I did not. That's awesome.

My biggest disappoint this season was that Joan didn't have much of a storyline or much screen time. But I am hoping that the fact that she is still spending time with Bob and the fact that she is letting Roger into her son's life means that she will have a bigger role next season.

And did you notice the last shot of her in that office was this sillhouette? Aw, yeah.

I did not notice, but that is awesome.

I loved Don last night, but I am skeptical of his ability to really change.

A theory on how Mad Men ends: [link]

I love this theory.

Ooh, an intriguing insight for the previous episode ganked from the Guardian Blog:

Is it too obvious to point out that Don plays the part of Rosemary's satanic baby here? It's not just in Peggy and Ted's breakdown of the ad. He starts the episode in the foetal position in Sally's bed, then plays the baby in the ad and then is in the foetal position again on his office sofa when Peggy calls him 'a monster'.

Furthermore, in the ad runthrough, Peggy plays the mother.

This is my rather Freudian take: Don always, as here, has a plausible reason for the things he does regarding Peggy, but the result is insistently the same: Peggy gets sidelined and denied recognition. It's becoming impossible not to see this as a pattern. I think Don is quite unconsciously punishing Peggy for giving up her baby, because it's what his mother did to him.

All babies are monsters. Either they get what they want from their mothers or they protest furiously. It's appropriate for a baby, but not for an adult, who is able to understand the complicating factors that prevent mothers being perfect lady bountifuls. Don is depicted as a demonic baby here because he's never got beyond this monstrously egotistical infant worldview.