Elmore Leonard was also briefly an ad man.(I bet he pictured killing his co-workers quite a lot, in the loving detail and quirky manner we've come to love.) I was doing a meme yesterday and found this Justified promo from last year. Y'all have probably seen it, but I didn't watch FX much between "Rescue Me" and "Justified" but I felt like showing this was my geek duty, if not. [link]

So, Mad Men, wtf?

Basically.

I felt like "What the hell did I just watch?" pretty much the entire time, although I have to say,paradoxically, that having Megan go off on Don about being controlling, kind of made me more sympathetic to Betty. Betty probably used to be fun (or at least more fun) once. I could see how living with Don would make you fairly convinced that your first reaction is never quite the right one...he lives like that, too. Also, I personally love orange sherbet, and, due to the stuff I usually watch, was absolutely primed for them to find bits of Megan in the Dumpster or something, but I guess she just tried to get a ride home. Couldn't quite believe that Peggy would do that, even in the interest of evolving and being awakened, etc. I have been fascinated by that LSD thing my whole life and if there were a safe way to do it, I would, but I don't know what went on there.

there are people who have really bad reactions to LSD. I was wondering which one at the dinner party was going to be in that category. I am *slightly* disappointed that we didn't see that.

I was so convinced that the episode would end with the revelation of Megan dismembered and scattered in a drainage ditch that I gasped out loud with relief when Don was stopped short by the inside chain on the door.

But, damn, I need to stop reading the comments anywhere but here and maybe the AV Club; this, from the very first comment on TLo's post on the episode, is so freaking painfully typical:

I thought his chasing her around the apartment wasn't violent, but because she refused to face him - it seemed more like a parent chasing a child. And I don't think she stands up to Don -- she is VERY passive-aggressive with him. Whereas Betty would have manipulated Don to get what she wanted, Megan makes a statement like "it's ok for you to be obsessed with work but I can't" and then goes back to eating her meal. And when he couldn't believe she didn't like orange sherbet, she acted like a 13 year old and began gulping it down. And then, "the most scathing and hurtful riposte possible: “Why don’t you call your mother?” That was a gasp-worthy line" (and I did, in fact, gasp) -- was said specifically to hurt Don -- but with a clearly unforeseen reaction by Don. Megan did not expect him to storm off the way he did -- she expected him to back down and begin the conversation (argument) about work that she was too immature to begin on her own.

What the fuck? Is this person aware that words mean things? Betty would have manipulated Don to get what she wanted and that's peachy, but Megan telling him outright that she was upset and this was why is passive-aggressive?

Lots of people jumped in to argue fiercely with this poster (including TLo themselves), but a creepy lot also jumped in to agree. And I've seen it in a bunch of other non-Buffista places as well -- this bizarre visceral dislike of Megan that, when they try to explain and defend it, seems so completely alien to anything the writers or actors intend, or to the way earth-type humans actually behave, it's hard to even know where to begin the counterargument.

I did think telling an orphan to call his mother was a bit...gratuitous. But she probably doesn't even know that. The sherbet thing was a little dumb, but seriously? The commenters just jump in and get right to their deeper issues? I think not. I think everyone has done something like that once. And Don must be maddening to argue with because he's consistently so unruffled.

Oh, Megan knows about Don's family. But I don't think she realized what she'd said until it was out of her mouth, and by then she was too angry to apologize.

I did think we were being set up for another round of kinky angry sex (based on the Peggy and Roger storylines) but apparently this time Megan was just plain angry.

I thought it was a great episode. I've complained that they're a little too on the nose with some of their thematic links and parallel stories this season, but I thought this was structured perfectly.

I love how Mad Men creates characters that I've never seen on TV before, and creates stories that I haven't seen either.

I've never seen anyone quite like Pete Campbell. It's like somebody took Frank from M*A*S*H and treated him like a complex human being instead of a caricature.

Certainly there have been some dark and complex leads in HBOs dramas, but nobody quite like Don Draper. No career women like Peggy, no sexy secretaries like Joan. They're very fully realized.

And I've never seen an acid trip portrayed that way and leading to the dissolution of the marriage in a calm, sad, reflective, freeing way.

The last two episodes have both been really, really strong.

I wonder if Don is a Virgo. Most of the Virgos that are known to me are maddeningly sure that they are always right, no matter what the discussion or argument is about.

But that really is My Issue!