[Baby Lee]

Mother of ****ing God!

Has any one checked the newswire? I fear G.R.R. Martin might be dead and Matthew Weiner killed him.

****ing out Red Weddinged the ****ing Red Wedding.

That might have been the most perfect hour of television. You wanted it over immediately, and to go back and time and unsee what you saw, and yet never wanted it to end.. Keep going. . . Keep pushing. . . Rip off ALL bandages. . . Burn this ****er down!!

And it came from so many fronts, all presaged by Roger's invocation 'not all surprises are bad.' Slow burn, signs of progress, breakthroughs, reveals, then one rug, then the wrecking ball, then the twin towers fall.

Peggy's little misunderstanding with Pete's doddering mom, thawing the ice with Pete. Ted realizing Peggy still has options. Sally's budding adolescence, with a crush on a new guy marked for slaughter. The war hits home, Don handles it with grace, then oversteps, bringing on Ted's righteous anger, leading to detante and a new understanding and appreciation. Don delivers a genuine life changing blessing to a friend . . . and a lover, and saves his daughter heartache. Through this, Ted endures his wife's dissatisfaction.

Then Pete receives confirmation of his worst fears and fears he didn't even know to fear in one fell swoop. Sally's crush becomes distressingly real. Her father is unambiguously unmasked. The realities of all Don's life's choices hit home at once [and to paraphrase the words of Barry Zuckercorn, 'those were balls.' Balls presaged IRL in the gossip pages before the season started]. Pete is alone, without sustenance, with a lot of knowledge he never wanted. Sally is crushed and unmoored, unaware of the good surrounding the bad she's witnessed. Don faces the admiration and gratitude of all except the only female that matters in the end, in her presence no less.

And in the end, Ted proves to be everything his wife desires while she sleeps feet away with a novel on her chest.

That is Shakespearean shit, people. That is not TV, it's not HBO, it's Matthew ****ing Weiner.

Hallelujah!! And Holy Shit!! Where's the scotch?

EDIT: And another stinger, last time we heard "not all surprises are bad?" When Don told Sally that, when Betty was pregnant with her, they thought she'd be a boy.