Yeah, gonna agree with H.I. here. But I agree with you, badideajeans, on your Betty assessment further down this page and catweazle’s comment about Megan epitomizing (somewhat) a generational divide. Sympathy for Betty doesn’t require demonizing Megan. (I speak as someone who totally preferred Fay last season. I also was equally horrified that Don chose the annoying, earnest brunette over her AND that the brunette had to have my name.) For better a better explanation of what I’m about to try to say, please see Film Crit Hulk, who despite a love for Caps Lock (he can’t help it – he’s an angry guy!) and an aversion to the first-person singular pronoun, is actually pretty insightful about these things: http://badassdigest.com/2012/04/02/tv-talk-mad-men-episode-5-03-tea-leaves/ Film Crit Hulk nails it, basically, about the Megan vs Betty dynamic and how great a character Betty is.

I don’t think Megan’s a con artist in the sense that she’s using him for purely selfish reasons. But as a more “modern” woman than Betty, she’s partnering herself with Don while it suits her interests, and she expects that that suits his interests as well (as long as the sex is good and they get along). That sounds crass, but it’s basically the foundation of our modern idea of marriage, right? They’re two trains running in parallel for awhile, as opposed to the Betty-Don marriage, where Betty simply had to hitch her train onto the back of Don’s and forget her own identity (Italy being the exception that proved the rule), trusting that Don was leading them in the direction of domestic bliss and decorum she was raised to expect (and of course he wasn’t leading them there at all, which was the problem). I’m gonna derail that metaphor if I ride it any longer (oof! puns.).

Megan seems more optimistic than all of the other main characters on this show, trusting that humans behaving decently to each other is good for everyone. (But that includes treating yourself well, which requires self-confidence. You don’t feel so compelled to undercut other people if you like yourself.) This kind of makes her a foil for them, right? That’s why she explains to Peggy that she’s disappointed in most of the SCDP employees’ behavior and Don’s. In that sense she’s naive (partly because she’s young) – “Why can’t we all just be generous and get along and have fun singing and dancing to sexy, groovy, ’60s French songs? It’d be better for everyone!” She’s also willing to use (don’t say sexuality) HER SEXUALITY (sorry, had to squeeze in that 30Rock ref) as a tool in arguing with Don in the naked cleaning scene. But what’s amazing is that that scene is in a way the opposite of her scene at the party. She’s not *acting* sexy like she was at the party, she’s just being herself, angry, and naked (in more ways than one!). She’s not putting up a front. Her sexuality is an integral part of who she is in the naked cleaning scene, as opposed to a trounced up performance in the party scene. Somehow this relates to feminism and is a contrast to Betty, but at this point I feel like I’m talking out of my ass and am losing what I’m trying to say so I’ll stop.

TL;DR:
1. Read Hulk’s assessment of Megan and Betty. It’s so great.
http://badassdigest.com/2012/04/02/tv-talk-mad-men-episode-5-03-tea-leaves/

2. I love your defense of Betty’s character further down in the comments.

3. Loving Betty as a character doesn’t require hating Megan. Megan’s role seems to be something about modernism, the optimism of 1968, and a vast generational divide in how women saw themselves and how they expected to be treated. Megan’s role might be to provide an opportunity for Don to grow up/heal into our modern idea of an adult, not as some constrictive, fetishized ideal of a 1950s husband. The drama will come in seeing what he does with that opportunity.

i’d go so far as to call it a “Stone-cold Bummer”

me too! i don’t even watch glee and i miss his recaps. and then every once in a while i’ll go and watch an episode (to see how lea michelle tackled an adele song, for example), and i can’t follow ANYTHING because the plotlines and relationships change so quickly (sam is broke now?), and i don’t have any way to catch up other than to watch the actual show, and i just can’t bring myself to do that. i miss his recaps so badly. the whole world is missing out because they’re not being written.

i think they handled it well, too! i’m actually glad they didn’t show much (see babsgordon’s comment below), but that probs has to do with my boreanaz issues. and i think the, um, role playing required in this case (because of the undercover stuff) helped avoid a lot of awkwardness. so yeah, despite my boreanaz issues, i think this episode in particular was handled VERY well.

and yeah, the product placement is ridiculous. even considering that she has to transport stuff a lot, i cannot imagine angela driving a sienna.

yup, that’s when the show lost me. you could say it had me pretty corked. that’s when i pulled the plug on the show. after that, it went down the drain. really sucked.

PUNS ASIDE: i enjoyed the show up until then, and i had been progressively lowering my expectations for the finale, but when the gigantic plug showed up, i gave up. i still enjoy having watched the show up until then, though! season 4 was among the more ridiculously entertaining things i have ever watched. and i still enjoy imagining a lost spinoff show involving sawyer and miles being detectives in LA though (miles possibly still possessing his crazy ghost powers).

holy crap, he was so pretty! baby adam scott would have made an amazing edward cullen. i wonder whether he could have made that movie worth watching.

(insert joke about how that’s a role i could really see him sinking his teeth into)

THANKS FOR SPOILING YOUR NEXT COMMENT FOR ME, JACKASS.

SERIOUSLY. as a fellow meghan myself, i never thought i could dislike the idea of hearing don whisper sweet nothings to someone called meghan, but goddamn, if mad men didn’t manage to make that totally disgusting to me.

i can’t decide whether to be disappointed in don for going with megan over faye OR to derive grim satisfaction from the fact that he hasn’t changed at all.

here is exactly what made me like russell brand, in decreasing order of importance.

1. aside from the attention seeking behavior, he’s clever, thoughtful, and a surprisingly good writer:

http://www.russellbrand.tv/2009/03/dolphins/
http://www.russellbrand.tv/2009/04/revolution/
http://www.russellbrand.tv/2009/03/for-jade/
http://www.russellbrand.tv/2009/03/controversial-blog/

2. this is improv genius (thanks to years of practice in charm and manipulation, no doubt)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DoQrPsuSlWU

3. granted, part of terry gross’s genius is that she brings out the intelligence and charm in anyone, but still. here’s russell brand on npr’s fresh air:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=102777334

whoooo! proofreading fail.

i’ve never liked maroon 5, and by most accounts adam levine sounds like a douche and should go to douche jail, if i were his jailer, i’d let him out maybe one day a year just in recognition of the fact that he was associated with something as awesome as this, which is still one of my favorite things.

http://www.hulu.com/watch/16771/saturday-night-live-digital-short-iran-so-far

If Spencer Pratt did this, not only would he *not* wait in line like a normal person, but he would go to the front of the line, play the “Don’t you know who I am?” card, and worst of all: he would do it with the intention of making himself look bad, and he would call TMZ ahead of time to capture the incident on video, because he knows that America hating him is basically his raison d’etre as a celeb, and this would only make America hate him more.

How can we win against someone like that?

I think you mean Munich! That movie was so good.