My question for the upcoming season is, who will sleep with the new Negro secretary!

Judging by his Playboy Bunny dalliance, Lane.

Actually, I was getting a Lane/Joan vibe there in the office.

Also, I was getting a sense that they might throw Joan and Don together. Not to please the shippers but because it would be so disastrous all around.

Actually, I was getting a Lane/Joan vibe there in the office.

Me too. I was glad they didn't go there, but I think you may be on to something with Lane/Negro secretary.

Actually, I was getting a Lane/Joan vibe there in the office.

NO NO NO. That relationship is like Cordy/Angel to me. NO SEXYTIMES ALLOWED.

I think Lane prefers to keep his sexytimes away from the office. My money's on Roger.

I loved the vibe between Lane and Joan because it was so friendly and respectful! Like actual colleagues.

My thinking is that they would do Joan/Don because that causes the most narrative havoc (his marriage, their work relationship), but maybe a couple seasons down the line they'd go with Joan/Lane because he respects her so much and she realizes that's what she wants/needs more than sexytimes.

Anyway, I don't want Joan hooking up with any of those guys. I love Working And Respected Joan with her collegial relationships. But it did seem like she was making more noises about Don than I've seen before.

I'm made uncomfortable by our use of the word "Negro" in a way that I'm not made uncomfortable by the show using it. When the show uses that word, it is actually portraying a world in which that word is the only acceptable non-racist term, used even by Malcolm X. When we use it in discussion, we are talking about a contemporary show even if that show is set in the past, and we are not writing fiction set in that show, but discussing in the present day. I will note that we don't refer any of the grown women on the show as "girls".

On a more cheerful note, to what extent is Don's anger at the surprise party, and to what extent is Don's anger directed at the burlesque number because it triggered his Madonna/Whore complex?

I think he was annoyed at the surprise party but angry at the song. I think Megan can be good for Don--he does not know how to have a relationship that isn't all about power games and she has different expectations. The discussion about the rug and how he just wanted her to have what she wanted was very interesting. Megan clearly wanted his input and he didn't even think of giving it. To him, it was a gift he gave her and to her it was a decision they make together. She wants to be his partner and wife, and he does not know how to navigate that.

Okay, it could just be me, but I thought she was showing Don extra affection because it would tick off his new wife, not because there is something there there.

Funny how Roger seems to be having trouble with his wife. Surprise.