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I just finished marathoning the show a few months ago and would've loved to follow along to these write-ups! Sometimes the plot in your typical Mad Men episode can be really densely put together and it's easy to miss some key details so I appreciate a good recap It's also nice to read from the perspective of somebody in 2020 as opposed to when it first aired--there are elements to older reviews that themselves didn't age well (I might bring those up later once you get to the relevant episodes  ) can't wait for you to cover it all though. Threads like these are the reason I joined these forums
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Nov 18, 2020 16:27
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I feel like I have to post the scene where Betty walks down the staircase from this episode--it really is one of those times where the music just fits the moment perfectly. It almost feels like an ad itself, kind of selling the idea of their relationship: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=orSVWAXC6Nw
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Nov 24, 2020 07:59
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I feel like it's worth mentioning at this point that Vinylon has also been banned from like two major subforums (GBS and QCS) according to their rapsheet, possibly spanning multiple accounts to avoid said bans. so take that knowledge into any earnest engagement with them  Also I forgot how completely telegraphed the Henry stuff was even from the get-go. That line about Rockefeller marrying a recent divorcee "for love"? How the hell did I miss that the first time lmao
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Mar 5, 2021 21:26
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The Klowner posted:there are some recent shitposts in the cined gen chat thread about his scene with Peter where they fight set to classic fighting game music, it's awesome go check it out. Also Jerusalem if you're reading this from the future, go look em up on YouTube or ask for links. by the time you read this I'll have forgotten about them and I can go crack myself up all over again I came here just to post a link to that for anyone else who can see it because it's the best thing
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Mar 20, 2021 11:21
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The Klowner posted:Is that the right link? I don't see anything. although it might be me that's loving up it's supposed to link directly to a post in the PYF tweets thread. Works for me in browser and app! You know when I first watched this episode it was really hard for me to follow what the hell was going on and I distinctly remember asking myself "who
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Mar 20, 2021 21:34
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I think the main thing that really grabs Betty re: Henry is that he really, really makes her feel desired and wanted in a way that Don clearly hasn't displayed in years and that is very much a "need" for her character. Like even when she's going through her weight issues he's super understanding and doesn't even really view it in the negative like she does. If you go back to the early seasons, where Don is constantly blowing off her (honestly pretty normal!) advances and her ensuing frustration at that, it makes her thing with Henry make a little more sense. Their meeting is a bit creepy but the concept of having that intense of a sexual connection with a stranger isn't exactly out of the ordinary--if nothing else the unrealistic part is that they manage to turn it into a successful relationship. She definitely lucked out in that regard Also I always thought Stan ending up with Peggy made sense but wish they'd had like another season's worth of material to build up to it, definitely felt a bit rushed
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Apr 11, 2021 04:57
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the scene in question is at about 3:56 in this clip, although I recommend watching the whole thing for context The take I had on it was that post-Don Betty has been able to be a lot more open about sex in her marriage and decides to use what happened earlier that day as a really hosed up fantasy to get him in the mood. Like she's going for kinky and takes it twenty steps too far because a) it's rape and b) the girl is Sally's age. Of course it backfires because like Henry says, "What the hell?" edit: also let's not forget this is in the middle of her sudden weight struggles so there's definitely an element of insecurity/jealousy mixed in there too. Looking back and remembering how she goes to hunt down said girl afterwards in the slums when she bails on college makes me wonder if she felt any remorse for those comments and was overcompensating by trying to "rescue" her. I honestly forget what her real intentions were there, it's been so long Blood Nightmaster fucked around with this message at 19:00 on May 5, 2021 |
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May 5, 2021 18:51
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ulvir posted:I recall the OP of every Breaking Bad-thread here even had to put up an explicit warning that calling Skyler a “oval office” would get you banned, because it was just so constant and incessant. As somebody who's never seen Breaking Bad I have to ask, why was this opinion so ubiquitous? I don't mind spoilers if it helps contextualize things. I hear it was a great show so I'll probably watch it someday regardless
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May 6, 2021 07:18
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I had zero context for the John/Marsha exchange the first time I watched it and was very, very confused. Turns out it was actually used for a real television ad a few years after the song's release: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7l4oj5DPBvU
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May 17, 2021 19:34
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My favorite part about that video is the fact that with zero context the "Don and his new wife" bit could easily be written off as just part of the crack fic Please god somebody remember to repost that when Jerusalem is caught up
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May 29, 2021 03:48
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Not sure if it's Spoilers really since it makes zero sense out of context but just in case:  Somebody posted this on imgur saying "Happy Mad Men Day!", thought I would share 
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Jun 2, 2021 02:10
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lmao at that video. It's incredibly, incredibly minor but should it also be under a spoiler tag? I'm torn on the Dawn thing, I thought they did a great job with what they did show us but I also am not sure I have faith they would have done better had they given her more of a subplot. Her actress came out recently as saying that she wasn't even sure how big of a role they wanted to give her, to the point that she didn't know if she'd have job security with it and was worried she'd get written off after basically every episode? so that's not great. Just a snippet from that article: Teyonah Parris posted:“I was a recurring. That did happen. I was really excited. But I never knew I was a recurring because they never told me, ‘You’re a recurring!’ It was literally for the entire time I was there, I would say it was like three years, one episode at a time. They never said, ‘Hey, this season you’ll be in five episodes so I could be like, ‘Yes! Okay! This is great!’ It was always, ‘We’re checking your availability for tomorrow.’ And I’m like, ‘Okay, I didn’t die. They didn’t fire me or kick me out of the office,’ so I always felt like I was holding my breath with that show because they never actually were like, ‘Hey, this is the future we have for you,’ etc. So it was always an inch at a time and never knowing if the door was gonna close that moment.” It kind of sounds like even the writing staff didn't know where they wanted to go with her 
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Jun 16, 2021 20:54
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yeah it's a little jarring to watch Stan's intro episode knowing where he ends up with Peggy. I think that's kind of the beauty of the show though, you get to see a lot of genuine growth between these characters over the years that makes it hard to predict their trajectory. For example, it's interesting to compare his character arc with Joey's--dude gets all this initial screentime that makes him seem outwardly like a "better" person than Stan at first glance, he gets along with Peggy just fine at the outset, but then the Joan conflict just immediately tanks him seemingly out of nowhere. But then, it isn't really out of nowhere, because if you actually pay attention they don't have a great working relationship the whole season leading up to that episode. I definitely hated Stan the first time he shows up but I think the ensuing years/losing his cousin in the war really work to humble his character. I still think their getting together was a bit rushed and could have used more foreshadowing than just frequent late night calls/that one time they kiss while he's on speed but 
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Jun 30, 2021 19:49
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I skipped ahead of the thread a little on my rewatch bc the show is frankly too good not to and I absolutely cannot wait for Jerusalem's reaction to Ginsberg. like just in general
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Aug 16, 2021 02:26
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The Sally/Glen interludes in this episode crack me up, I feel like they really captured that awkward yet earnest period of late elementary/early middle school friendships. The Land o Lakes bit in particular was a great moment, as was Glen peeling the gently caress out at the sight of Betty I also gotta say, I know basically everybody hates him (with good reason) but I always thought his "overcompensating but generally well-meaning big brother" dynamic with Sally was overall pretty genuine. I always appreciated that the show never made their relationship anything but platonic even up til the end. The Betty poo poo will always skeeve me out though, the bit with the two of them later on after he enlists is still very  also in retrospect I think the final nail in the coffin for Don and Faye's relationship was how ready she was to just completely separate business and pleasure. like for Faye I'm sure she was thinking "finally I can get to know this guy on his own merits without our work getting in the way" but for Don it was basically their only common ground. I think it's one of the many reasons Megan ultimately won out (at least temporarily), she didn't separate the two so much as blend them together seamlessly
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Aug 22, 2021 09:46
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The Take did what I thought was a pretty good post-series character study on Megan a while back--spoilers for the rest of the show, of course: https://youtu.be/WdVUocAerQw
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Aug 29, 2021 05:51
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Paper Lion posted:were so dang close to the fireworks factory signal 30 I couldn't remember the episode by name so I looked it up and immediately had to rewatch the fist fight scene. my god. as far as incredible line reads go, "YOU WANT SOME MORE, MR. TOAD??" has gotta be right up there with "NOT GREAT, BOB!"
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Sep 4, 2021 08:19
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Wikipedia says Betty apparently got an A.B. in Anthropology (should I even spoiler this? Lol, can't for the life of me remember what episode that comes up in though. It also says the main character of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel graduated from Bryn Mawr as well, which reminds me that I've always meant to watch that since it's a period piece from a similar time frame. Has anyone here seen it? How does it compare to Mad Men?
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Sep 18, 2021 05:10
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re: the show's handling of race: there was also that article that came out semi recently about how the actress for Dawn literally never knew how long her stint on the show was going to be that kind of gives me pause. I think I've linked it earlier in the thread
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Sep 19, 2021 21:37
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I'm so glad you finally finally got to Ginsberg. It's incredible how in just his debut alone the guy manages to steal the show completely
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Sep 26, 2021 22:11
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The scene with Pete and the sex worker just cracks me up every time, there's just something about her effortlessly going through the motions/that line delivery: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sUJTbLZjDi0 "No. No. ... Okay."
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Oct 10, 2021 21:27
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The LSD scene is definitely one of my favorite sequences in the entire show. I just love the pairing of Roger having a mid-trip existential crisis to one of the darker tracks off of Pet Sounds: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IsPHOfqrOWY If you listen closely (at about 2:30 here), the "Don't look in the mirror" comment is definitely Don's voice too, not the guide's.
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Oct 24, 2021 23:41
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Jerusalem posted:Oh it's definitely Don's voice, I just think it's the "guide's" words, if that makes sense. He's standing there telling Roger not to look in the mirror, that he's okay and everything is okay, and to go be in the truth with his wife, but Roger sees and hears him as Don because Don is somebody whose opinion he actually respects, so his mind replaces the guide with Don instead. Yes, absolutely! All great points, I only brought it up because I think I missed it the first watch. Honestly the Peggy thing doesn't seem that jarring to me, she's definitely had an impulsive rebellious streak in her ("I'm Peggy Olson, and I want to smoke some marijuana,"; her excursions into the proto hipster world with Joyce, that one random bar hookup she had), I think in this particular case it was definitely a reaction to feeling powerless at the Heinz pitch. I also love where Roger's character goes after this episode as a direct result of his trip. I don't personally get the appeal of a May/December romance myself but I like that they kind of juxtapose the end of that relationship with Don and Megan's fight/the end of their honeymoon period. Maybe it was easier to get into a relationship with that big of a gap just due to cultural differences at the time--Jane strikes me as somebody who just got caught up in the idea of "marrying rich and young" and the status it carried that ended up genuinely enjoying Roger's company despite herself. I mean I'm not into older men at all but John Slattery definitely lays on the charm in that role, he's great at playing the guy you know isn't great for you that is simultaneously hard to let go of. In Jane's case you didn't necessarily want to divorce due to differences like that because marriage itself, beyond being a status thing was also a security thing
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Oct 25, 2021 05:02
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Yeah it's funny to like, look that scene up on YouTube and note the amount of comments reading it at face value as one of Don's greatest comebacks. Like it kind of is, but only really from Ginsberg's point of view The parallel of Pete fantasizing over a tragic one night stand compared to their respective actor's reality is also a bit funny in retrospect. I'm pretty sure Vincent Kartheiser and Alexis Bledel literally met through this, dated shortly after and have been married ever since
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Nov 15, 2021 00:03
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I was always worried I was missing something with Lakshmi's weird plotting, good to know it was meant to be confusing/make no sense! this might also be the last episode Harry Crane does "the right thing" and has some sense of decency about him, woof
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Nov 21, 2021 04:57
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kalel posted:[...] the whole conversation is a thinly-veiled discussion about the nature of faithfulness and desire. Not only does it suggest the connection between infidelity and jaguars for the next episode, it's very portentious of the very last scene of the season—Don knows who he is, and he hates himself for it. great post ™ god that scene where he's literally walking away from Megan's big acting break as "You Only Live Twice" starts playing has seriously lived in my head rent-free ever since the first time I saw it. It's too good also I think I just now realized the significance of the song title re: Don 
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Nov 21, 2021 10:17
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Yeah that (next ep spoilers I guess) "It's business at a very high level" line really sticks with a person as far as terrible Pete moments go, lmao
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Nov 28, 2021 03:24
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That silent, lingering look of contempt Lane gives Pete after his impromptu partner's meeting is absolutely incredible; I know it's not meant to be funny but I couldn't help but laugh at it on the rewatch. I forgot just how manipulative Pete was during the whole thing as well It's hard not to tear up at Peggy's resignation for a lot of reasons but the behind the scenes info on that doesn't help, lol: Elisabeth Moss posted:"That scene was a really, really tough scene to do. They didn't tell me they were going to do this, but they told Jon to hold my hand and not let it go. Then he did, and I lost it. Every single one of those tears were absolutely real. She wants to stay with all of her heart. She does not want to leave, but she knows she has to."
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Nov 28, 2021 11:16
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the only thing I didn't really care for in s6 was Sylvia, looking back. Like Don having another affair made sense from a narrative perspective but she had to be one of the least interesting people he'd been with IMO
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Dec 1, 2021 23:23
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I've mentioned it before in spoilered posts but the fact they have "You Only Live Twice" playing juxtaposed with Don, a guy who's literally been two different dudes and is often living two lives, as he is literally walking away from his (second) wife, it just kills me. From both a narrative perspective and a sound perspective; the way the grandiose score comes in as he leaves the set, I get chills every time. It's gotta be one of my all time favorite scenes in the show. I always thought Megan's drunk "that's all I'm good for" bit was pretty heartbreaking too as far as minor moments go. It's clear she doesn't just want to be "the trophy wife", she genuinely wants to make it on her own merits, but she's also having a great internal struggle with whether or not to take advantage of the connections afforded to her through her marriage. Not everybody has that type of privilege (which she's frequently made aware of) and it's cool that she didn't waste it, but you can tell the decision itself is going to have some lasting consequences for both of them
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Dec 6, 2021 11:18
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I like the weird hallucinations personally they don't happen often but they're fun diversions. I think the weakest one I can think of is maybe the one with Don hiding the lady under the bed
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Dec 8, 2021 03:18
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KellHound posted:After the empty elevator shaft scene, I remember seeing an acquaintance tweet "I don't think I'm smart enough to keep watching Mad Men." They just didn't understand why that was there. I think it there was a bunch of people pulled into the show because of the 60s fashion and the surface level stuff. The symbolism frequently goes over those people's heads because they aren't used to TV doing those kinds of things. My mom recently started watching, I had to explain to her why Betty was shooting at the neighbors birds in the episode "The Shoot." It's a skill that has to be developed. I think that's mostly where the divide between Mad Men is subtle or unsubtle comes from. So, one of my college lit/humanities classes in about 2010ish~ comprised of playing different media in an auditorium and having us write mini essays on what we saw each day. For one assignment our instructor just straight up played that exact episode for us, no prior context; it was the first time I'd ever watched Mad Men. Looking back I'm kind of glad my initial exposure to it was in an academic setting like that versus just catching it on TV, that probably helped cement it as something that needed to be "thought about" rather than just be entertained by
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Dec 15, 2021 05:50
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All these Don Draper riffs just made me realize that both "to don" and "to drape" are basically synonyms for wearing or otherwise concealing something. Which is like, so incredibly on the nose I'm mad at myself for not noticing before Don Draper is basically just two kids in a trenchcoat
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Dec 17, 2021 06:57
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Yeah I always felt like Stan was the only character that really benefitted from the evolving trends in facial hair. Dude reads so much better as a bear or a hippie than a jock I also love Bob but his intro with no other context is definitely "early Pete Campbell" levels of schmooze. which now that I'm thinking about it might explain why he was so drawn to him!
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Jan 6, 2022 20:02
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I never thought this episode was particularly bad either but I also don't really think of the two part openers as separate episodes. The back half might be my favorite just for the funeral scene alone, lolKellHound posted:Him hitting on Pete is one of my favorite scenes (the other being Pete falling down the stairs). Because as phoney as he is, it's funny that he thinks Pete is gay because 1.) Pete doesn't live with his wife anymore 2.) he is fussy 3.) he dresses well (I think Pete does a good job of updating his appearance without making it look like a sad attempt to look hip.) and 4.) he has a complicated relationship with his mother. The whole story with them is a trainwreck. I went and looked out of morbid curiosity; apparently somebody wrote a one-off about Pete having Bob take him to a gay bar in order to do "undercover" market research for a fake brand of pomade and now I'm kind of upset that's not an actual episode
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Jan 7, 2022 00:00
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R. Guyovich posted:this is extremely uncharitable. there's plenty of value in having another pair of eyes observing a show you think you've dissected thoroughly Also yes this, for example the first time I watched through the series I had no clue the car Lane's wife bought him was (ironically) an actual Jaguar because I'm loving car blind. I'm not even kidding, until the writeup here I had no clue I used to look up old episode reviews on the AV Club and The Guardian back then because they really helped me contextualize what I just saw so this thread has been pretty cool actually,
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Jan 9, 2022 02:46
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God I totally never realized Linda Cardellini was in Legally Blonde but she was great in that too
Blood Nightmaster fucked around with this message at 03:38 on Jan 13, 2022 |
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Jan 13, 2022 03:35
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Don's hypocrisy this episode was always particularly egregious to me. "I can't believe my wife can just pretend to make out with another MAN  " he thinks to himself, as he goes one floor down from his own home to engage in literal cuckolding. With a devout Catholic, no less!
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Jan 27, 2022 04:51
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You know I can't recall crying at the finale but I know I can't rewatch The Suitcase without tearing up at some point. God that one gets me every time
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Feb 8, 2022 16:44
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I went ahead and rewatched the next ep. Ginsberg amidst the rest of creative on Speed says he's "wasting his sanity with lunatics." Woof Edit: "I believe I'm the only person in the Time-Life building who's not out of his mind." Wooooof Blood Nightmaster fucked around with this message at 09:33 on Feb 20, 2022 |
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Feb 20, 2022 09:28
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