A Great Episode...

[oselle]

...or THE GREATEST episode?

The fandom hysteria over "The End" goes on, as ariadnes_string pointed out that that one episode now has it's own LJ comm. I've never been part of a TV fandom before but I think it must be pretty rare for one episode to inspire this much excitement. Me, I practically feel like I've fallen into a whole new fandom. It's so exciting. I even dreamt about it last night, some awful angsty thing where Dean was hurt and Castiel was running around some bombed-out city trying to get help for him and Stephen Williams (not playing Rufus) was in it and Castiel was chasing him down this concrete staircase, the sort that all office buildings have, because Stephen Williams knew where there was help but SW turns around and says, "We're being watched," in other words "Back off," and it was SO GREAT.

This segued way into a vivid dream in which Sam and Dean were guest characters on The Simpsons. I mean they were animated. Simpsonized Dean? Still hot.

In other news of great things, last night's episode of Mad Men was one of the most devastating things I've ever seen on television. Jon Hamm deserves whatever awards they can possibly pile on him.



Correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't weaselly Pete reveal the truth about Don's identity to Roger Sterling in Season One? And wasn't Don completely unfazed by that? I realize that coming clean to his wife may have hit Don on a far deeper level, but his work is as much a part of his carefully manufactured masquerade as his family life, and being found out as a fraud at work would have been just as, if not even more, destructive to what he's built...so why did this crush him so badly when the earlier incident didn't even make him break a sweat?Is it because he knew weaselly Pete was so clearly out of his depth with the whole thing? Because he knew Sterling wouldn't give a damn?

In still more news, I finally finished Twilight and if I feel ambitious I'll do a longer post about that later. Suffice to say I'm mystified by its success and at the same time, strangely unsurprised.

FINALLY, baylorsr has gone ahead and written a much-needed SPN/Dark Angel crossover, Prodigal. There is simply not enough of this sort of thing, which I blame on the sad truth that Dark Angel kinda sucked. Okay, it really sucked. But damnit, Jensen Ackles was 23 years old and lithe and baby-faced and frequently shirtless so really...what's not to love? Kudos to baylorsr for stepping up to the plate.

Comments

[sizequeen.livejournal.com]

Don told Burt Cooper, not Roger Sterling, about his past. Pre-contract, Don had a lot of power at work, and Don knows that Cooper cares about his talent, not his background.

With Betty, Don says, he was surprised that she could love him. Don still feels like Dick inside, and he secretly doesn't think he's worth much without the Don facade.

Keeping his secret from her was essential to maintaining the Don Draper identity. Without her belief in the Draper identity, she may not love him, she may leave him or feel contempt for him, and the whole house of cards falls apart.

[i-o-r-h-a-e-l.livejournal.com]

the end the end the end the end the end the end the end the end the end the end the end the end the end the end the end the end the end the end the end the end the end the end the end the end the end the end the end

[ariadnes-string.livejournal.com]

Can I have your dreams? All I remember dreaming about last night (and it's rare enough I remember my dreams at all), was that I had gotten an enormous bill for some unspecified repairs to my car that I simply could not pay (read it symbolically or non-symbolically, it's no fun either way).

"The End" stuff continues to be extraordinary (Smith/Wesson got their own com last year, but it was sillier, I think). I would be into a sixth season of SPN if they just did a whole season of that (with Lucifer!Sam too). It would a kind of spin-off, right?

Mad Men sounds amazing...I'm so far behind on it, I haven't even gotten through S2...Should I skip ahead? will I be totally lost if I don't take it in sequence?

[sistermagpie.livejournal.com]

LOL! I had no idea that ep spawned a whole comm. I guess I shouldn't be surprised. It's like a whole universe in itself.

Mad Men was FABULOUS last night! (I hope this is the last time we see that horrible teacher--I can't satnd her.) Iirc, Pete threatened Don to reveal the information and Don called his bluff. They walked into Bert Cooper's office (with a hilarious pause to take off their shoes). Don was actually pretty scared, but he couldn't bear for Pete to keep holding it over his head. He told Cooper and Cooper, to everyone's surprise, said "Who cares?" Though all Pete said or knew was that Don's real name was Dick Whitman.

Except then a few weeks ago Cooper used the information to blackmail Don into signing his contract.

I guess in the first case Don was ready to explode the bomb himself rather than live under Pete's thumb. Here he was confronted himself. Loved his inability to actually open the drawer even though Betty pointed out that a) She already saw it and b) he clearly wanted her to find out because he kept it in the house.

[oselle.livejournal.com]

That schoolteacher has been giving me the creeps since she first turned up. She's got a total Fatal Attraction vibe about her and I don't know why Don is acting so smitten with her -- completely different from how he's acted with any of his other flings. Part of me is convinced that she is going to turn up and announce that she's pregnant, but that would be kind of predictable and MM has always been totally unpredictable.

I watched the whole scene between Don and Betty through my fingers, like a horror movie, it was that painful. I don't think I breathed. Don just seemed to age 20 years in about 10 seconds. His face, my God.

Question: that man, Archie, was his real father? I got the impression that the midwife or whoever that was just turned the baby over to them because they'd lost their own. And I don't know if you caught how "Dick" got his name in the season premiere but OMG.

[oselle.livejournal.com]

The Simpsons dream in particular was so vivid. I'm gonna be kind of creeped out if it comes true.

I found S2 of Mad Men kind of draggy and missed most of the latter half of that season. Picked it right up at the beginning of S3 and had almost no trouble getting caught up. There are only 2 episodes of S3 left (it's now October 1963 on the show and I predict they'll end the season with Kennedy's assasination, considering that was officially The Moment That Changed Everything) -- you might feel kind of lost if you jumped in now. But the eps are still worth watching just for the writing and the acting, even if you're not fully up to speed.

[oselle.livejournal.com]

Exactly.

[oselle.livejournal.com]

Right, and as sistermagpie pointed out below, weaselly Pete didn't even know the whole story.

As long as Betty sticks around, and Don doesn't flip out, I almost feel like Don will be better off in the long run now that everything's out in the open. But I think somehow he won't be able to live with knowing that she knows. He seems to have been feeling increasingly cornered all season and I think psychologically everything's going to come crashing down on him.

Re: yes baylorsr story was good

[oselle.livejournal.com]

I think Dark Angel was doomed by a lack of focus -- they could never seem to decide what kind of show they wanted it to be. Did they want it to be dark and gritty or fun and campy or some weird mashup of all that? Plus it always just looked cheap. Dreadful makeup, costumes, sets, special effects. It's always reminded me of the mid-80s series Max Headroom, which was considered new and exciting um...20 years ago.

Season One (despite being almost entirely Jensenless) was actually better than Season 2 -- by S2, Jensen was pretty much the only watchable thing about it.

[sistermagpie.livejournal.com]

I've always wondered how they were supposed to know that Archie was his father since she was a prostitute--maybe she knew he was the one somehow? Because everybody does seem to agree that Archie is his biological father.

Have to wonder where Don got the scoop on that story behind his name, though...

The teacher made no sense to me. Why on earth would Don like her so much? Some people seem to feel like it's unfair that people get that bunny boiler vibe from her but it's very widespread. She's creepy.

[oselle.livejournal.com]

I don't think Don has the scoop on his name, I think that was a little behind-the-scenes tidbit for us. There's no way anyone besides the midwife could know that...although she said something to to Archie's wife after she handed over the baby that I could never quite catch. Right after she says, "His name is Dick."

The school teacher has been creepy all along. I even got a weird vibe off her when she was skipping barefoot through the grass. Then that whole bizarro parent-teacher conference about Sally and her calling the Drapers' house that night and then her confronting Don about "philandering" dads and her little surprise pop-in act on the Metro North (which I guess was still Conrail back then)...creepy, creepy, creepy. I do give her credit for figuring out something was wrong and NOT ringing Don's doorbell when he never came back out. Nevertheless, lock up yer bunnies.

[ariadnes-string.livejournal.com]

Good to know it wasn't just me who couldn't get through S2--maybe I'll start from the beginning of S3 on iTunes--

[oxer12.livejournal.com]

I think it's great that an episode so late in the series run can sort of rejuvenate a fandom like this. The only other show I can think of where that happened was on Buffy, with "Once More, With Feeling." That was S6, and it sure has spawned a lot of stand-alone love.

I blame "The End's" success on the THIGH HOLSTER.

[baylorsr.livejournal.com]

Foooooour-nine-four!