Was Pete holding his gun in one of the last shots?

Yes. In fact, in the newspaper recap that I posted the link to, they even mention that in the scene between Pete and Peggy, if you look just over his shoulder, it's there, leaning up against the wall.

It was so beautifully framed, that shot of Pete with the rifle. Very eerie and haunting.

Was I the only one who noticed they ran the credits at 50 minutes into the hour? Maybe because of the limited commercial interruption?

yes, they had limited commercial interruption and then showed the afterparty thing with interviews. What the hell was January Jones wearing on her head?

What the hell was January Jones wearing on her head?

She's notoriously bad at dressing herself. Just misses the boat by a smidge and falls off the pier.

There was a lot of lovely framing.

I liked the shot of Betty, from behind, inclining her head against the wall.

I mean, I know that I have high expectations because the clothes on the show are so fabulous, but those girls needed help! Christina Hendricks, you forgot your bra.

There was a lot of lovely framing.

Indeed, she seems to be almost floating on the OB/GYN table.

Fantastic recap of the ep in the Chicago Tribune: [link]

I was just coming in to post that. Really good recap. And the subtext theater was hilarious.

A good, subtle, interesting writing tip by Matthew Weiner:

And then just stylistically I cannot pretend that working on “The Sopranos” all that time did not influence the series, even though I wrote the (“Mad Men”) pilot first. Making sure everyone has a reason for doing what they’re doing and not letting the characters help each other solve their problems - actually making them impediments.

I saw that too, Hec, although this was the bit that resonated the strongest with me, with respect to writing:

I was like “The show’s over, go home. I’m allowed to do whatever I want” (laughs). By the way, I’m allowed to do whatever I want anyway. Don could pull a cell phone out at some time. I don’t do that stuff because I don’t want the reality broken.

The American Airlines ad, that they were most critical of, had this very famous lettering and it was used by DDB about six months after the crash and we put it in our pitch and I was thinking “I’m sorry, I don’t have the freedom to do that with my fictitious ad agency? To have them get there before DDB did?” (laughs) Maybe American Airlines saw it and told DDB they wanted it. Who knows?

This is something that I've wrestled with, working on my sixties-era story, and it was just so, so striking to see this theory that I understood inherently, laid out so precisely. Taking ownership of your work as long as you understand exactly what you're taking ownership of.

This is something that I've wrestled with, working on my sixties-era story, and it was just so, so striking to see this theory that I understood inherently, laid out so precisely. Taking ownership of your work as long as you understand exactly what you're taking ownership of.

He goes into that point even more explicitly defending his use of non-period music in the show. He wants access to that dimension that those particular songs provide - both musically and lyrically. He's not just presenting the era - he's making plain that he's taking an aesthetic stance outside the era and commenting on it.

At the same time, he kind of earns that by not cheating the narrative or letting history do all the dramatic work for him. It's telling that he'd use Marilyn's death as a major arc turning point and avoid the JKF assassination.