I guess the only thing was that they were giving us an external representation of how rootless Don must feel internally.

I think you've got that exactly right. Why else would he call someone who knows him as Dick Whitman? Because that is where his roots are.

Yes! That's exactly what I'm thinking. He's feeling rootless and going to California only made that feeling stronger. And I can't believe he's just staying.

Wow.

Also - who knew that Duck was so duplicitous.

At the end was that Don's luggage being returned to his house?

At the end was that Don's luggage being returned to his house?

I think so.

Did you catch that Don's pose after he made the call as Dick Whitman was exactly the logo pose, but he was naked?

Excellent use of music in this episode with the exotica and bossa nova. Peggy's makeover was overdue - her ponytail was bugging me and apparently it bugged Kurt too. Interesting that they went back to Dylan again. The cultural reference points are so interesting to me: La Note, Frank O'Hara, Faulkner. And this episode was very La Dolce Vita.

That Palm Beach place could not have been a better example of International Style architecture. Which is the point, I guess.

Cosgrove's reaction to Kurt's outing himself made me think of John Cheever's closeted bisexuality.

Yes - I totally noticed Don in Logo pose - only naked.

Very interesting.

That house was beautiful.

Well - someone pointed this out over on twop - his pose was the mirror image of the logo pose. Logo - fully dressed, right arm stretched across the back of the chair - Don's pose - naked with his left arm stretched across the back of the chair.

Can't be a coincidence.

Don's pose - naked with his left arm stretched across the back of the chair.

And no cigarette.

So, Don's reinventing himself? He's stripped himself of his costume, naked and referring to himself as Dick Whitman. Do you think he's going to disappear for the season ender and when next season comes back it's mid-1963? Will he come back to Madison Ave. and what will bring him back?

I suspect that either Roger or Burt's going to die. Which, if Mona makes out well in the divorce-- or if the divorce hasn't gone through yet-- would put her in a very interesting position.

I was also ruminating on that scene between Jane and Roger-- a few things that she said and how she said them. Saying that he'd been with Mona for forty years, and her response when he said that he'd lose her if he didn't keep her in line was interesting in that she didn't say "you might" or have any sort of teasing rejoinder, but rather, it was a very serious, "Yes, you would."

Lot of interesting subtext in that one scene.

What episode are we on?

Are we near the end of the season?

It was the eleventh. So, two left.