That made me think of my mom, actually. One of the things she picked up in mortgage is a talent for forgery. It's good that she's honest.

I don't really get that whole business with Arthur and whats-her-name, why Betty took the role she did.

I'm torn between thinking it was a form of projecting and a demonstration of power. She manipulated her friend into doing what she herself wanted to do-- then, because her friend did do it, Betty was able to get on a moral high horse with the "no one told you to sleep with him."

What was up with Betty getting her period on the couch with Sally? Why did we need that?

Also, Joan really needs to leave that asshole. I can't take it.

What was up with Betty getting her period on the couch with Sally? Why did we need that?

I don't think she did get her period. I think she might be preggers and spotting.

I think Betty was right where she wanted to be on her high horse. She was miserable about her marraige and wanted to make someone else suffer.

Also, I think the period thing might be foreshadowing. Maybe there's something really wrong with her.

Finally, Joan in the rape scene looking at the space under Don's couch was doing exactly what Susan George did in the rape scene in Straw Dogs: looking for escape, a place to hide. It was a hideous scene, but her taking his arm when leaving was worse.

CityWeekly's blog has an analysis of Don Draper's tarot reading.

Ugh. Mad Men nearly broke me this week.

Loved seeing relaxed and more in his element Don.

Loved Cooper's sister. I want to be her when I grow up.

I couldn't love Roger more. (Get it? Roger more? Bus dum dum.)

But the scene with Joan. Joan. My Joanie. When Dr D.R. said, "This is what you wanted." or whatever he said and then, pushed her face to the side because he knew goddamn well what he was doing just broke. my. heart. I hope she hands him his balls through his asshole.

And whoever above said something about Peggy and Joan almost trading places is dead on. How amazing, and yet, there's something so very sad about it.

Poor Don, he married the wrong woman, but it was interesting to see that he seemed to have genuine feelings for Betty at one time.

Nice write up on Mad Men from the Boston Globe's Matthew Gilbert: [link]

One of the master strokes of the season was the way Weiner and his writers revealed Don and Peggy Olson as two peas in a pod. They are the parallel leads of “Mad Men,” different and yet so much alike. They are both frauds, living double lives -- which oddly qualifies both them to be ace advertising executives who can wax with almost spiritual intensity during sales pitches. Don and Peggy intimately understand how to build a convincing artifice, and they struggle against genuine emotion.

Yeah, that was an interesting summary. I love how this show can be continually delved into. How we don't get tired of talking about it through the week because there's so much there there.

Joan's rape was horrendous, and I hadn't quite assessed her situation as the article says, settling into life as an object at work & home. But she does seem to feel she needs to leave it there. I had thought of her as using her status as an object at the office, that she recognized and manipulated it. But seeing it juxtaposed against her personal life at home, it does become deeply worrying.

I also hadn't quite put Peggy as a fraud. Does her child make her a fraud? If she had the baby adopted outside of the family would that make her a fraud? I guess because she feels she is leading a life that she would not be able to if she were raising her son herself.

Which is where the deeply seated gender issues come in, because Pete would not be able to lead the life he is leading either, if he were raising his son. But he doesn't even know.