• Episode 11: The Gypsy and the Hobo
    This episode was the most explosive yet. Again, it was all about the search for identity, love and acceptance. It opens with Don telling Sally that Halloween masks are "plastic" and "crap" that "you wear once." In terms of being able to put together a costume for the long term, Don certainly speaks from experience. <
  • Episode 10: Another Lock Box, Another Troubled Brother, And...
    Weren't the Brits the ones who were supposed to be the wankers? One of my favorite episodes ever, it's called "The Color Blue." Blue robe, blue Caddy, blue headboard, blue princess phone, Miles Davis' blues playing in Paul's office, Miss Farrell's kid asking how we know blue is blue. But it's more like Code Blue for Don and his secrets.
  • Episode 9: To The Moon, By Golly! Sal Gets Trumped! And, Is There A Difference Between Praying On It & Preying On It?
    This week's episode was all about the invasion of space, both personal and planetary, and wanting what you want when you want it, regardless of the consequences. I don't know how Matthew Weiner coordinated it, but there was a march on Washington for gay rights on the very weekend that the episode repeatedly referred to the September 1963 march on Washington for racial equality and Martin Luther King's historic "I Have A Dream " speech. Also, Connie, who seems to be achieving Howard Hughes-level craziness, told Don that he wanted the moon. And last week, WE (as in the USA, …
  • Episode 8: Hate And Kisses. Foreign Affairs. What's That Smell?
    Parts of Souvenir" left me feeling as cranky as Pete and Betty, the two petulant characters it focused on. Once again, it was all about reversals, and power and phalluses (or lack thereof.) With his wife away, Peter behaves like a dick, (or Dick) and was sexually abusive (or at least threatening) to poor Gudrun, the German au pair whose accent I couldn't buy. ("Zank you, Mistah Petah.")
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