Oathkeeper - Game of Thrones - 4x04

The Book Was Better!
Don't be that guy.  The one who read the book of the movie and proudly proclaims immediately while walking out of a theatre that the book was better.  Often this same person will claim "I don't own a television."  Game of Thrones has its own version of that.

There's nothing more pedantic or pedestrian than the simple lists that excuse themselves for writing, documenting the differences between the shows and the books.  There is, amazingly, still an enormous amount of shock that the show is not a 1:1 transcription of these five, 1,000 page books.  It's even more surprising considering that the scenes spun of whole cloth are among the best in the show.  I'd rather simply talk about those scenes and what they add.

Grey Worm *   gets to show Daenareys' liberation mission from the perspective of current and former slaves.  Daenareys freeing of slaves has largely existed in the abstract until recently.  We get to actually see the slaves talking to each other, debating whether or not to take up arms against the masters.  With some urging from Grey Worm, Mereen falls from the inside thanks to a slightly more successful John Brown uprising.  It helps her story resonate a bit more while we wait for her dragons to grow and to finally get on a ship and head to Westeros.

* Of the Summer Isles, which means he has no imagination, which is a hilarious regional stereotype, because it makes no sense.  It's like saying "People from the Reach are all left handed!"

In that vein, the episode ends with another group that we haven't seen operate in a private moment yet.  Surprisingly, the White Walkers appear to be an organized society, with procedures, if not rituals.  They think and respond to things consciously, rather than simply out of instinct as previously appeared to be the case.  Taking the baby to the Stonehenge-esque and transforming him into a White Walker was a moment to be marked.  Craster had 100 sons so that means there's at least 100 of those buggers out there.  If the Realm falls because of Craster's sperm then it deserves to fall though.

There was talk of conversations between Benioff&Weiss and GRRM about "broad strokes" and "laying groundwork" so I'm betting this will come into play significantly. 

But guess what?  The big thing is, from this point on, you know nothing, Jon Sn-, er, book readers.

The Queen of Thorns
Besides making the funniest remark of the episode, commenting on the Betrayl Garden, which makes me thing Benioff and Weiss are fans of South Park.  I'm hoping she sticks around because in a single breath she talks about the old days, admits to murdering the king, and tells Margarey how to make sure she gets her claws into Tommen while keeping an eye out for Cersei.

Jaime and Cersei and Tyrion
Cersei's in pretty much the same bad mood she's been in since Jaime returned.   Only now it's compounded because her psycho little bastard son is dead.  She makes a request is Jaime to which Jaime thinks "Okay I will do the opposite of that" and her formal addressing of him as "Lord Commander" is both in response to his saying "Your Grace" and a way to dismiss their former bond.

Ends and Odds

• Stop hitting yourself, Jaime, stop hitting yourself
• Horrible Bosses continues at The Wall, only now Alistair wants to murder Snow.
• Snow is getting a reputation.  First hanging with the Wildlings, killing the Halfhand.  Now heading to Craster's to kill former Crows
• Surprised that Locke is willing to go as far as saying his vows at The Wall.  I guess  the Warden of the North can pardon that?
• Please don't kill Ghost and Summer.  After Lady and Grey Wind, no more Michael Vick-ing these pets. 
• Sansa, someone too naive to live much longer in Kings Landing, quickly comes to grips with what happened in the Purple Wedding

Field Trip - Mad Men - 7-03

When Are We?
Could not peg a date just yet.  I thought I could connect the television show in the Francis' bedroom to an airdate, but it appears to be "My Favorite Martian" which would've been a repeat and not on the air in 1969.  It's warm enough to go out without a jacket and the kids are still in school so, April/May 1969?

Either way, it's been nine years in show time since the premiere set in March 1960.

The Return
A byproduct of Lou not liking Peggy apparently means that Ginsberg is getting more of his work though, apparently including a Mountain Dew piece that Don was not a fan of.  This shortly after much of the work that went out in 1968 was from Ginsberg due to Peggy being tied up on Heinz, and then not getting any pay off for it.  Even the seating arrangement in Lou's office makes it seem that Peggy is less important than Ginsberg, despite their titles.

The creative at SC&P is continuing to be marginalized.  Roger acknowledges this in the partners meeting.  Cutler speaks for Ted but in the same breath undercuts creative.  Earlier in the episode, for the first time, we see an internal pitch get chastised for not being cost effective, when Lou wants Stan's time to be accounted for.  It's part of the larger strategy that counts on accounts and scale rather than unique creative.

There's so little creative that they are both proud of, and that Lou won't block, that the agency does not get any nominations for the Clios.  While the importance of the actual awards is still pooh-poohed, it's apparent it's still important to the individual members of the creative team.  Jim and Lou pulled most of the nominations so there's little creative reputation being sowed for the agency.

This is part of Roger's pitch when the partnership meet to decide on Don.  I can't tell if Roger is actually employing his business chops (which we know he has, the few times he actually tries) or if he accidentally stumbled into a plan to get Don back.  Ultimately, Don comes back by coming back, employing Casey McCall's version of Napolean's plan.  He does so unwittingly.  But it gets the same result, with Don returning and things happening at CSC*.  However, perhaps Roger's argument doesn't has as much impact as the pocketbook argument.

* "Napolean's Battle Plan" ends with Dan remarking to Casey, "Hey look it's your plan!"

Apparently part of the reason Don's leave is so ambiguous to him is because there were as many different understandings of what the partners were doing as there were partners doing it. No one was on the same page so of course the message to Don was unclear leaving him in limbo.  If that's not a metaphor for the creativeless, messageless state the agency is without it's creative driving force, I don't know what is.

Not only that, but Lane Pryce's presence is felt twice in the episode.  The first time is that none of the partners seem to have the buy-out consequence figured out, and what that would mean to their wallets.  The second is that Lane's office is the only place they can put Don.  It's obviously still vacant and it means they can use some of the unused space, because Don cannot say no.

Don slowly went about alienating everyone in the agency, one by one, last season.  No one is happy to see him.  Not even Joan, who threw a fit when Don fired Jaguar, is pleased to see him.  I had assume she was going along to get along with the partners.  But she seems as opposed as Cutler is to Don's return.  Her tune changes when she comes to grips with what separating Don from the company means, and what that means  in terms of her financial standing.  Her body language ("That's a big hit") both when first meeting Don and then later understanding the cost of buying him out speak volumes.

If Joan's 5% of a smaller company was $1 million a few years ago, then Don's much larger share of a much larger company is going to significantly impact the partners and the company.  They could probably borrow against the company to pay it off, but as Roger points out it will take until at least 1973 to come out ahead.

Ultimately the decision is made for them ("This is a financial decision!"), albeit they put Don in a position where they can more easily fire him *.  I would've expected more of a "creative partner at large" type of role.  He could float about in partner status without really interacting, supervising, or reporting to any one person (like Roger in the PPL re-org).  Don can agree to curb the drinking.  And can avoid being alone with clients.  He probably welcomes that last part actually being how Don hates everyone**.  But him reporting to Lou is the ultimate insult. Even Cutler damns him with faint praise, calling him "adequate".

* Does Don actually have to agree to these terms?  Apparently.  But I'm unclear on how they are able to dictate terms of his return that go so far as to result in possible termination.  Could Don have accepted the other offer if he actually wanted to?

** Oh darn, I can't have dinner anymore with the Herbs of Jaguar?  Bummer.

The other factor that led to them agreeing to Don's return is the thought of him going elsewhere if he were to be fired.  Competing against Don in their current poorly creative state could be hard to overcome.  They need to keep his brain in a jar. 

Pulled an Oblique Muscle
Some things I could not figure out....

Could not understand the idea of the field trip scenes, but Betty is back and not fat.  Sometimes there are scenes that are simply too oblique for me to even start to get.

Was Ginsberg delaying Don, feeding him "garbage" so as to not give anything away?  At first I thought he was being sincere but that became less apparent.

Did Roger actually send a message as "Judas" (that would be his humor) or is Don just calling him that?

Ends and Odds

• I like this guy, Dave Wooster, the man who's been courting Don
• There's a lot of background happenings where the girls are able to show their boots and dresses
• Roger throws a little fit about his name being on the door and it being his birthday party and his special day
• Harry is demanding respect, using his full name when answering the phone.  Probably the most/one time I've ever liked him
• Betty and Francine are back to one-upping and backhanded compliments.  This is her best friend. 
• Cutler is as severely detached to the business as Ted is attached to it.  Now he's reading about funeral homes?
• As I just learned in a cursory search, this book is about how funeral homes exploit death to make money.  It was an expose.  Cutler's take away though is not with the people being exploited but that they could learn something from the exploiters.
• Don greets Cutler with the same contemptuous deep voice that he used to greet Henry with. 
• Did anyone else think "Emily Arnett" was Anna Draper's niece, Stephanie?
• Mad Men almost exists without a plot sometimes, but this is one of the more strongly, cause > effect > effect etc... episodes 

Music
"If 6 was 9"
Jimi Hendrix

White collared conservative flashing down the street
Pointing their plastic finger at me
They're hoping soon my kind will drop and die
But I'm gonna wave my freak flag high, high

Next Week on Incongruous Mad Men Clips
"What?" - Peggy Olson

A Day's Work - Mad Men

Episode 7-02
"A Day's Work"

They don't come right out and talk about equal pay, appropriate subject for the recent "Equal Pay Day", but it's fingerprints are all over the episode, perhaps as much for racial reasons than gender.

When Are We?
February 14, 1969.  About a month after last week's episode, following the usual formula.

Kent State series finale?

Cutler
We don't know much about Cutler except he's an account man and founding partner of CGC.  His name went first and I believe he was the president (based on one of their partner meetings).  He was most featured in "The Crash" when he calls in Dr. Feelgood, mocks Ted for being sad his friend died, and perves out on the deceased's daughter hooking up with Stan.

It sounds like he's running the show though.  Roger notes that they aren't in the conference room for their partner's meeting, and it looks like they're in Cutler's office.  Not only that but the decision goes the way Cutler wants, with Roger trying to save face when he calls Pete, like it was a consensus.

Roger even seems a bit resigned to it when he passes Joan on her way out, "Does it even matter?"  Then when they meet in the elevator, Cutler says he doesnt' want to think of Roger as an adversary.  But I think the subtext is not that he wants to be friends with Roger, or even respects him, but because of what Cutler would be forced to do to an enemy.

The one time we saw Cutler come up short was his conflict with Ginsberg about the war.  It seems Cutler uses his time in the Air Force as carte blanche to believe whatever he wants about the war without empathy.  He wants to fire Ginsberg until Ted stops him.  His encounter with Ginsberg is a microcosm of Don's probing GM at dinner about the war, and we know what happened to Don (with Cutler the most vocally opposed to his return). 

I assume Cutler is not only a Republican but an active one.  He even looks like Goldwater, and had tickets to the '69 inauguration, so I could see that endearing him to Cooper. 

Pete calls him "Machiavelli" and it will be interesting to see those characteristics play out.  I can't help but think he's trying to enlist Joan as an ally with his offer of the account position (something Roger never did, ingratiating her to Cutler even more).   I can't imagine he's doing it for unselfish reasons.

Cutler's gone from merely the initial C in CGC, to an unseen partner, to a guy who is around Ted sometimes, to partner, to the most likely person to take control of SC & P.  We still don't know much about him and I think the ceiling is high with what they can do with this character.  In the meantime, here's what Harry Hamlin says about developing Cutler.

I wrote little biographies for him, but I had to keep updating them because every week I found out something else about the character. I didn’t know, for example, that I was in the Air Force. I didn’t know that I had a wife. I kept re-writing my interpretation of the character. He kept evolving. I did always perceive the character as being at not exactly right angles, but maybe 30 degree angles to reality, and I crafted the character that way.

Pete
You can't blame Pete for his nihilistic view of his work.  Why bother, indeed?

Odds & Ends

• Michael not bothering with the elevator for Peggy speaks volumes about the dynamic of the creative team right now.
• "Hard to believe your cat has the money."
• If Peggy does have a cat now then it sounds like she's taking her mother's advice
• Things have changed but Roger is still able to yell "kike" across the office without anyone batting an eye
• The only on the job drinking was Pete and his Cutty Sark 12
•   Don is marking his bottles to see how much he's drank.  Megan is not there as his wife or secretary to keep count. Plus he's home all day with nothing to do and no one to talk to, so I imagine it's even easier to
• Don is taking meetings.  Imagine if he went away (I imagine Cutler is eager to cut a deal to that effect, and Cooper would support it) then came back storming SC&P.
• When he's not taking meetings he's doing what most of us would probably do.  Sleep in, snack and watch television.  Been there.  
• Don asks Sally what the note should say, and it comes off to Sally like he wants to lie even when it's not necessary.  
• Lou Avery is a real piece of work, bringing Dawn into his office and then talking about her as though she's not there.  Not to mention he really could not have been less helpful with Sally.  When it comes down to it, she's a child looking for her father and he simply could not be bothered.  It was even Sally who thought to ask Joan.
• Lou would've loved having that dumb girl on his desk
• Dawn hilariously has no faith in the former receptionist, continuing to take Don's calls herself
• Reception is a demotion from the creative director's desk, but that doesn't even get a mention
• There was a question in an earlier episode, more of a statement, that they couldn't have a black girl out front in reception.  Cooper, the oldest one there, seems to be the only one with a problem with it now. 
• "Aborted" appears twice, once on Don's magazine and once from Cutler("the meeting was aborted")
• The length, or lack thereof, on some of these dresses would get you sent to the principal's and then home if they didn't have an extra pair of athletic department sweatpants to make you wear
• At least Dawn and Shirley can make light of the fact that no one can tell them apart 
• Kid actors.  There are good ones out there.  The entire fourth season of The Wire hung on them.  Game of Thrones has Sansa, Arya, Bran and Rickon.   Mad Men has Sally (and seventeen Bobbies).  Why do we waste time with the kids on The Americans?  It's awful.
• In Season Two Joan introduced the copy machine that she said would make the secretaries lives so much easier.  It made it so easy, the secretaries have nearly disappeared from the office.  In the early seasons, even hack copy writer Paul Kinsey had his own secretary to blame for when he lost an idea.  Ginsberg, who by all accounts is much better at his job, doesn't even consider the possibility of having 'a girl'.  Secretaries are mainly limited to the higher ups, and even they share sometimes.     
• In another time, perhaps Season Two and earlier, Joan would have wrung out and possibly fired a secretary who said anything but nothing in response to their boss' reprimand.  Season Two was also when we saw Joan be not so nice to Paul's girlfriend, though that was more directed at Paul than her.  Here she's standing with Dawn and even promoting her.  Peggy and Joan also switch roles in relation to the MLK assassination and the respective secretaries, when Peggy was very empathetic and Joan was super awkward.
• I looked away from a second and when Joan asked "Was that necessary?!" I assumed it was to Dawn, but it was in fact directed at Lou
• A motif throughout the shows run has been characters either wanting things go back to how they were, or only grudgingly moving into the future.  There are exceptions (usually Pete, of all people) but this is another example of pining for reactionary-ism (probably not a word, but whatevs) where Peggy and Lou don't want to deal with their problems and instead have them brushed away
• Edit 4/23
• Don and Dawn were never close like Don and Peggy, but they still got along very well and very profressionally.  She's being very loyal to him in how she reports back the happenings.  Wondering why she is particularly loyal (also based on how she speaks about him) I saw one post say it's because Don gave her a chance, when he really didn't have to.  I can picture that meeting when they are trying to figure out who the new black secretary is assigned to, with everyone being hesitant and Don piping up out of frustration and contempt for them all, "Oh Jesus, just give her my desk."
• Lou's statement to Peggy, "Maybe I'm just immune to your charms" is so loaded and it carries over to this episode.  Peggy's been passed over and marginalized.  Lou's statement there implies she is like a cute mascot rather than a professional, and certainly one more talented than him.  It also implies she's not there on merit, when it's probably the reverse (she is, and he isn't). 
• The larger SC&P becomes the less the creative matters, which means the less the creative personnel matter which means Don's exile is more likely to continue and Peggy is more likely to continue to be marginalized.  Also, the more it becomes an accounts game (rather than creative) the more control Cutler can seize.

 Music
"Elenore"
The Turtles
Elenore was a parody of "Happy Together." It was never intended to be a straight-forward song. It was meant as an anti-love letter to White Whale [Records], who were constantly on our backs to bring them another "Happy Together." So I gave them a very skewed version. Not only with the chords changed, but with all these bizarre words. It was my feeling that they would listen to how strange and stupid the song was and leave us alone. But they didn't get the joke. They thought it sounded good. Truthfully, though, the production on "Elenore" WAS so damn good. Lyrically or not, the sound of the thing was so positive that it worked. It certainly surprised me.^[4]

"This Will Be Our Year"
The Zombies

don't let go of my hand
now darkness has gone
and this will be our year
took a long time to come

Optimism?  Borne of a flicker of hope between Don and Sally?  Or is it a fake out?

Next Week on Incongruous Mad Men Clips
Don hangs up the phone slowly.  Cordless phones still not invented.

Breaker of Chains - Game of Thrones

Episode 4-03
"Breaker of Chains"

Taking a page from True Blood or Alias, the episode picks up on the same frame from last week, Joffrey's beautiful purple dead face.  And boy is Tywin mad!  Sansa makes a break for it, doing her best Melisandre impresssion of a redhead wearing a hooded cloak at night.

The Reign of King Tommen I (i.e. Tywin's in charge)
Tommen is already thirty steps ahead of Joffrey in terms of being a king.  It's been a day and he hasn't chopped anyone's head off, so that's quite a good start.  Tywin reminds me of Ganondorf from Ocarina of Time.   He gives a professorial talk to Tommen about what it is to be king asking him what it takes to be a good king.  And Tommen even names a few good qualities (holiness, justice, strength) that it takes.  He leaves out being a psychopath and sadist.  While Tywin doesn't lead him all through the Triforce (courage, power, wisdom) it is close.  He gets to wisdom and it's apparent that his entire talk is framed to make it so Tommen does whatever Tywin says.  It is like when Don Draper gives advice and his advice always boils down to "Be more like Don Draper."  Basically, listen to Tywin when you are young, and then you may as well listen to Tywin when you are old as well.

Interestingly, he refers to "King Robert" rather than "your father" as though Robert was some sort of abstract figure who he never met.  I imagine that's not far off from the truth, but still...there are times when the Lannisters aren't even pretending like they have a legitimate claim.  Tywin ends the talk doing something all sides can agree is a good thing, he pulls Tommen away from his mother.

Later, Tywin also acknowledges the real threat of Wildlings in the North and the dragons in the East, as well as the Greyjoys who are probably the least of their worries at the moment, as he'll allow Roose Bolton to deal with that as his reward for betraying the Starks.  

The Faith of the Seven
This episode more than any other in the series has a religious overtone, and maybe that's not by accident this Easter Sunday (also Orthodox Easter).  Tywin and Tommen discuss Baelor's holiness.  The Sept provides a setting.  The Riverlands family that takes in the Hound and Arya are devout and say an excruciatingly long grace before chow.  There's talk of the gods and their vengeance.  Besides the Faith, there's more talk of the Red God and even Davos is acknowledging its power.

Braavos
Braavos got a mention earlier this season.  This episode saw a few more.  There's talk of the Iron Bank again.  And Arya and the Hound both discuss going there.  Perhaps to make it a little more real in our minds, and bring back some memory of it, Davos mentions he was almost beheaded by the First Sword of Braavos...our friend from Season One, Syrio Forel (who I refuse to believe is dead despite Meryn Trant still talking about).  Most significantly, Davos sends a letter to the Bank on behalf of Stannis after his boss rings him out for not rallying enough people to his cause.

"The Iron Bank will have it's due" is kind of a relation to "A Lannister always pays his debts" (no mention of a female Lannister paying back debts though).  The Bank gets paid one way or the other, either from the loan recipient, for by funding the enemies of the deadbeat debtor.

Oberyn
If Oberyn didn't already hate the Lannisters, he sure would now after they keep barging in on his whorehouse time.  Ellaria is discussed for a third week in a row.  One of the things that makes Oberyn so awesome/dangerous are the zero shits he gives about everything coupled with the restraint he's able convey.  It is so much more dangerous than someone like the Mountain who Robb Stark described as "a mad dog without a strategic thought in his head" as Oberyn is probably one of the few people in the Seven Kingdoms who could hang with the intrigue of Kings Landing and fight as a warrior.


Daario
The New Daario is a sellsword much closer to Bronn, fighting dirty, than whatever they were going for last season.  The wink was a bit much, but that seems more of a directing choice than an acting one.  Anytime you can win a duel in the vein of Indiana Jones though, you have something working.

Sir Not Appearing in this Film

• Brandon Stark, righful Lord of Winterfell (and company)
• Brienne 
• Ironmen, still not found in Season Four which is quite all right
• Roose & Bastard

Come to think of it, this episode packs quite a lot of characters and settings in.  Hound/Arya, Jaime/Cersei, Tywin, Tyrion, Oberyn, Stannis (and Davos) making his first appearance, the Wildlings and the Wall, all punctuated by the East.

Heads chopped off this week: 1

Time Zones - Mad Men

Episode 7-01
"Time Zones"


Ken is spread pretty thin at this point.  If Ken's journey lately is an allegory for Vietnam, then he's suffering from PTSD at this point, yelling at his office and popping an aspirin, or something.  He's normally the calmest person around, like when Lane promoted him to co-heads of accounts and he coolly lights a cigarette and asks what it pays (in contrast to Pete).  Ken's never wanted a partnership and prefers time at home to his writing than all night boozing with clients, so it's unsettling to see him so rattled.  He's also showing us how thin SC & P is spread and how he's fighting a losing battle.

Lou Avery seems like a total hack who not only doesn't pick up on the best idea available but can't communicate his own thoughts clearly.  Very helpful for someone in advertising.  Not only that but he's the type who makes lame jokes and expects you to laugh at them.  Or thinks there's something wrong with you or your sense of humor if you don't.  His mediocrity seems to be seeping into the creative and art department, which Peggy puts out.  Can you blame them?  Why fight it?  The larger the agency becomes the less important any individual becomes, and the less important the quality of work becomes, as scale outweighs skill.

Edit 4/17
Using the rough approximation of one episode covering one month, which as been the practice so far, the series would end in 15 months, which would put it right around the Kent State shootings in May 1970 (assuming there's no time jump between these eight and next year's eight).

While last season, 1968, conveyed the bloodiest year of the War in Vietnam, it was not until December 1969 that the first draft lottery was held.  This was in contrast to a general belief that the war was winding down when in fact it lasted until 1974.  The draft would come on the heals of the exposure of the May Lai Massacre. 

I wrote a lot about Don/Matt Weiner/Tony Soprano and how the end of that series may influence the end of this series.  Toward the end of The Sopranos, there was a much larger focus on the Iraq War.  Notably, the finale's title "Made in America" is an allusion to the Iraq War as being made in America, that is wholly a product of the Bush administration*. 


*“The theme of that episode was “Made in America.” I used that title not only because Tony’s a made guy, and all these guys are made guys, but also because it was about the extreme amount of comfort Americans have, especially people with money. And specifically, it was about the war in Iraq—it was made in America, and as you saw in the show, Tony and Carmela just didn’t want their son to go, and they could afford to see that their son didn’t go. Like some of our leaders.”
“…Not to get too didactic about it, but it was really sort of about how we are going about our amply fed, luxury-car life here, and the world is going to hell and we’re under tremendous threat. And people don’t want to see it”. - David Chase in GQ

On that note, with the Iraq War having been out of sight and out of mind for so many Americans, Mad Men is about to enter a time where the War in Vietnam is about to be put front and center due to the draft, including the elimination of many deferments.  

• We don't see Don until ten minutes into the episode.
• Alan Silver, who I guess is Megan's agent or something, is a weird cross between Fredo Corleone and Jonah Hill's character in The Wolf of Wall Street.
• Don thinks that Pete looks and talks like a hippie.  What, with his polo Lacoste polo and sweater tied around this shoulders.  I mean just go to Woodstock and be done with it Pete.
• Peggy's all alone, except for the yelling match with the child tenant.  So is Don for that matter.  Interesting considering at the end of last season they seemed to be diverging, but their in the same spot more than ever
• Roger, like his fellow white-haired actor Malcolm McDowell, is leading some sort of Caligula-type life
• Are decreasing shoe sales really a sign of the times?
• Everything was modest and drab when the show began, in 1960.  Come 1964 and the new offices of SCDP, everything was incredibly bright.  The costumes and scenery seemed to have like a dark accent around everything, like it was outlined.  Maybe it's the way it was shot and maybe it's something else.
• Still no women wearing pants but look out for when that bomb gets dropped.
• Don and Megan seem to both know that it's over but neither want to acknowledge it, see the Vanilla Fudge below
• Poor Joan immediately has to think the worst when the college professor wants to "trade" for information, bringing up PTSD of Herb the Slimey Jag Dealer.
• I'm pretty sure the only on-the-job drinking we saw was Joan having a sip before her call with Butler's head of marketing.
• Don's open balcony door means...what, exactly
• Depth perception jokes don't stop being funny
• Pete only recently learned to drive, having been a lifelong New Yorker.  Now he's in the car town of all car towns, where he could walk to lunch, but doesn't.

The episode begins and ends with a single character looking head on into the camera.  In a way it's the same character as Freddy is only Don's mouthpiece.  It's odd that Freddy's pitch is so good, and Peggy is as surprised as we are.  It probably should have been more obvious that it was Don Cyrano-ing for him but for some reason, it wasn't.  And it paid off beautifully.

When Are We?
Nixon's inauguration was January 20, 1969.  Don took leave of SC & Partners at Thanksgiving 1968 so two months have passed in Mad Men world (as Freddy points out), the shortest time jump we've seen between seasons

Music
"I'm a Man"
Recorded by The Spencer Davis Group in 1967
Re-recorded by Chicago in 1969

 Well if I had my choice of matter
I would rather be with cats
All engrossed in mental chatter
Moving where our minds are at
And relating to each other
Just how strong our wills can be
I'm resisting all involvement
With each groovy chick we see

"You Keep Me Hanging On"
Vanilla Fudge
Recorded by The Supremes originally in 1966
Re-recorded by Vanilla Fudge in 1967

You really don't want me
You just keep me hangin' on
You really don't need me
You just keep me hangin' on

Is there a better way to track the change of the show from March 1960 to almost the 1970s than with psychedelic cover versions of classic Motown hits?
 
TV and movies
Lost Horizon
Themes of Utopia

Next Week on Incongruous Mad Men Clips
Don puts on a jacket, in profile, and shrugs his shoulders

The Lion and the Rose - Game of Thrones

Episode 4-02
"The Lion and the Rose"

Written by GRRM

Directed by Alex Graves

Scenes Made for Television
I want to talk about what the medium of television adds to the show beyond the books. While we don't get the same background, from characters or geopolitically, that we do from the books, we do get a lot of scenese that are either occurred "off screen" in the book or are added out of whole cloth.  Often they are speechless scenes, as in "Walk of Punishment" with the Small Council scene or that episode's opening scene with the Tully funeral and the Edmure/Blackfish dynamic.  The thing these scenes have in common is that they use the screen to add depth to the characters involved. 

Tyrion and Jamie
Tyrion and Jamie have the most healthy relationship in the entire Lannister family.  They are much closer than one would expect considering their relationships with other family members. Jamie is understandably insecure about his fighting ability and confides this in Tyrion.  This despite his bravado and bluster when speaking about it last episode with Tywin, Cersei and nephewson Joffrey.  And it's Tyrion who counsels him on further training, as well as finds a sparring partner who is both ably skilled and compelled to keep his mouth shut.  Bronn has also been a great aspect of the show with his role expanded to that of the City Watch commander and Addam Marbrand, one of the more honorable Westerland knights.  Even better that Bronn smacks the sword out of his hand, like Syrio would.

Edit 4/17:
Adding to their already established relationship is that Tyrion and Jamie both share a handicap now.  Oddly enough, Tyrion is the one with experience in this area and can help Jamie through it.  Connecting him with Bronn in training his left hand not only helps with discretion, but with the manner in which he's going to have to train.  Jamie needs to get up to speed as fast as possible, and he needs to do that any way he can.  Bronn's not someone who was trained by a master of arms in a castle, or got private swordfighting lessons.  He is probably largely self taught and with that comes a manner of fighting that would not be described as "classic".  We saw this in Bronn's fight at the Eyrie, where he employs the old adage "speed kills" and while he does not fight with honor, according to Lysa, he is still the one standing there at the end.  And this is why he's the one to get Jamie up to speed, quick and dirty.

Lady Oleanna

• Mace Tyrell appears, only to be shooed away immediately by his mother.  Another thing that says so much in a quick second.
• "The Iron Bank with have its due"  With the crown's debts looming, perhaps this is some foreshadowing?  Perhaps Mycroft Holmes will pay a visit?
• "Killing a man at a wedding...horrid."

Tywin also seems to have some sort of old money/new money rivalry with the Tyrells, as though he doesn't respect them (despite them saving Kings Landing against Stannis) because of how they spend their money (due to them being 'new' to having it).  The Lannisters are an ancient family of Westeros and the Tyrells are the overlords of the Reach for "only" the last 300 years, so I suppose that qualifies them as "new money" in Tywin's eyes.

 Storms & Swords

• Roose Bolton has the North but does not hold it.  It's like a car with no gas
• For just a moment, we think Joffrey may have grown up, taking a cue from Tywin at his side when Tyrion presents his gift.  His human reaction to Tyrion's book is clearly suspicious to everyone there and it only takes another 60 seconds for Joffrey to revert back and hack the book to pieces.
• Last week, seeing Ice melted down was like watching Ned die all over again.  This week Joffrey mentioned every time he uses the new sword it will be like cuttiing off Ned's head again...as if Joffrey had done it himself.  His view of himself was completely encapsulated in that hilarious statute last week.
• On that note I wonder how they are going to incorporate Kevan Lannister or a composite equivalent
• Tyrion has to "White Fang" Shae, something Arya had to do to her actual wolf in Season One
• The wedding is a mix of Naboo from Star Wars, the Castle from Ocarina of Time, and EPCOT.
• Margarey would make both Pippa and Kate stop in their tracks.
• Cersei's new title is Tattletale Reagent
• Oberyn loves to dig into the Lannisters.  Unsure who else can speak to them that way and get away with it.  Probably him and Lady Oleanna.  Just keep driving in that knife though.  We have no Stark army, but we can root for the frenemies of their enemies.  Especially if they are super cool
• Joffrey cannot watch anything for more than a second before he wants to inflict pain on someone.
• Varys got bopped on the head by one of the dwarves during the performance
• The cultural differences between different kingdoms of Westeros have been slight, save for the North which largely operated as a separate entity and was set apart more by their different religion.  The direct interaction between Northerners and Southerners only took place for a limited period of time.  Now we have another geographic outlier, Dorne from the South, with cultural differences highlighted in every interaction.
• We know how many people gave a fluff about Joffrey by the number of people who rushed to help him.  The little pyscho couldn't even open the cake without killing things.
• Tywin, in a grandfatherly moment, holds Tommen, having him look away from his brother. 
• We finally get a good moment.  After Ned, Robb, Cat.  After Arya being imprisoned  and Sansa held hostage and Bran and Rickon forced to flee and Winterfell being burned to the ground.  And it's tainted by Tyrion being arrested. 
• The GOP needs a new standard bearer.  

Bran's vision, which appears to be a mix of a flash back and flash forward includes Ned in the dungeons, his execution, Dany's walk through the throne room via the House of the Undying, the Three Eyed Raven who actually seems to speak to him and a shadow of a dragon.  A quite large dragon.

One of the things about the Theon//Reek scenes with the Bastard of Bolton is that we, like those being hunted/tortured/psychologically abused have no idea what is going on or why it is happening, which makes it all the more unsettling.

Cersei's battle with Margarey continues.  Anything Margarey is in favor of, she is against.  Rather than pull the people of Kings Landing into the fold per Lady Di of Westeros, she feeds the leftovers to the dogs out of spite.  This does a few things.  1) Undermine Margarey.  2) Shows she can still threaten members of the small council 3) Continue her contempt for the small folk

"Lannister" is always inserted more with Joffrey, who it is easy to forget is a Baratheon in name.  He has to keep that name so they keep their claim to the throne, but the Baratheon's have zero presence in Kings Landing.   For example, behind Joffrey and Margarey, there are stags and lions (no roses) but also a big "L" pattern.  This despite that if Joffrey actually only has Lannister heritage, which he does, he has no claim to the throne.  That truth seems widely acknowledged and ignored. 

Imagine the most awkward toast, father of the bride or best man speech you've heard at a wedding.  Multiply that by a thousand for the reactions to Joffrey scolding Tyrion.  So everyone is sitting there listening to the child who they know is not the rightful king make everyting super awkward and tantrumy, all the way until he is made dead.

Restitution - Justified

No small thing, taking a life.
 
I think Season Five is going to be best viewed after we've seen Season Six.  For the first time, the overall storylines of this entire season will inform the storylines of next year.  There have been aspects in the past that carried over, such as Raylan/Augustine/Art or Mag's money or the immediate chase of the Miami crew at the end of Season One.  But this felt more like The Wire Season Four, which ended without much resolution, besides finding the bodies.

Season Five also spent an enormous amount of effort culling the herd, to the point where it was almost perfunctory when Picker got blowed up, leaving a head and a gigantic concave piece of his torso.  All the killing simplifies the cast to where it is largely only Raylan and Boyd left standing, with a few supporting players directly connected to them.  It leaves a less complicated version of Justfied to finish the story next year, which will be a nice change of pace after the multiple cities, countries and new characters we had this year. 

Justified did a lot in Season Five.  It spanned three countries and the weird world that is Florida.  Plus Tennesee and Detroit.  There was a lot going on, and while the season felt strung along in some places like "Ava's One Thing" each week, it needed the time to connect all the other business that was happening.  At the same time, much of the need to address that business was self imposed just this year.

The end result?  Boyd's not one to strike out on his own, dealing with large outside criminal organizations.  He's a medium fish in a small pond who nontheless is really really good at a few things, like blowing things up which appears to be the route he's taking next year.  So he's going to rob banks.  Raylan on the other hand is finally going to get the chance to serve justice to Boyd now that Boyd has no further use to the marshals, and has also connected himself to a crime boss who AUSA Vasquez has no love for.  Thus, the showdown.

It really did all have to come down to Raylan versus Boyd in the end, didn't it?  And this is the way to do it.

Ava's gone from self made widow to Raylan's girl to solo operation to Boyd's girl to informant.  I really thought she was going to bite it in prison, but this makes even more sense.  Placed in a holding pattern, or cell, for the entire season, she needed to be in a place where she truly, finally, absolutely had run out of options.

Raylan's running up against the cop cliche of "one last job" making plans go to Florida but putting them on hold at the last moment for Boyd's case, which he doesn't hesitate for a moment to do.

I've always viewed the "Never Leave Harlan Alive" song as more appropriate for Ava than Raylan, but it was nice to hear it come on as both Raylan and Ava leave the bridge.

Things that make it Justified

• Late night bridge meeting
• Marshals and outlaws being astonishingly upfront with each other, per Tim and Daryl's tete-a-tete
• The crux of the show is that Raylan became a lawman because he hates his father and his father is a criminal and therefore Raylan hates criminals, and it was never better said than his time with Kendall in this episode. 

Mad Men: Season Seven

Over the last two months I rewatched the entire series anticipating the new season and hoping to have a better grasp on it when it airs. 

Coming off a season mostly set in 1968, the bloodiest year in Vietnam, and a bloody year at home for that matter, it will be interesting to see what the general tone of the show will be.

The advertisements have often given us a clue into what's coming, last season's ads featuring aspects of duality, as did the show.  There's been a pyschedelic aspect to this year's ads, and Matt Weiner touched on the meaning: 

“There is a dreamlike quality to it, and believe it or not, it is related to the show, and not because it’s psychedelic,” said Mr. Weiner, dressed appropriately for the period, with a buttoned-up suit vest but also a bright pink patterned tie. “That’s not what it’s about. What it’s about is the material and the immaterial world, and that’s what I loved.”

Did the imagery hold any clues to the season, beyond Don Draper’s affection for women and drink? Mr. Weiner, known for being unforthcoming with plot details, said, “This is related to the late ’60s, which is all I will say about it.” He added, “It maintains the idea that this is somehow going on in Don Draper’s mind, which is what the story is always about — and what the back of his head is about, on some level.”

In talking about the "dreamlike quality" I can't help but go back to the Sopranos, a show well known for its dream sequences.  And if the show is going to be anything like where Weiner made his bones, maybe dreams sequences will play a larger part this season.  

• We can play the fun game of guessing what historical events will be observed or at least name checked.  The biggest one in 1969 (I'm assuming we're spending time in 1969) is obviously the moon landing.  
• Even more than that, I'm always excited to hear the music they pick.  More than a few of my favorites like "Crimson and Clover"
• On the re-watch, it's really apparent what a hack Paul Kinsey is
• I feel confident in saying the most recent season is the best of the show and one of the finest in contemporary television

For my previous posts on the end of Mad Men, see parts one, two and three

And here for posts on last season's episodes

Two Swords - Game of Thrones

"Two Swords"
Episode 4-01

Written by showrunners Benioff & Weiss.

Directed by Weiss.

Lots to do kids, and there's one less worthwhile voice out there to talk about it, so let's get to it.

• The first episode is good for one scene for each character, maybe two.  We're spending a week, maybe two, establishing where everyone is a mere several weeks after the Red Wedding, both physically and their state of mind.
• HBO, particularly Game of Thrones, does great "previouslies" and there are a lot of chickens coming home to roots, some things you may not have thought about in quite a while.
• Ruthlessly pragmatic Tywin thinks Ice is big to a silly extent, so he makes the titular "Two Swords".  It's a bit like killing Ned all over again seeing the Stark family Great Sword melted down and turned into, of all things, a new Lannister heirloom.  Actually, it's more like Sansa becoming a Lannister via marriage.
• Though, what did Tywin throw on there at the end?  A pig?
• I love Tywin because everything he does is grounded in pragmatism, and he has no aspirations or pretension of his actions being anything other than effective. 
• As much as Tywin talks about his/the Lannister legacy and name (starting a war for the "least of" them), when he kicks it one day, he essentially has no heir.  He won't give Casterly Rock to Tyrion (but pragmatically gives him Winterfell), Jamie still forsakes his claim, and he has no faith in Cersei who also happens to be a girl.  Maybe Tommen can get it (even though he's technically a bastard) with Myrcella, also a girl, enjoying Dorne.  But they are short on options.  
• On second thought, maybe the two swords are "Ice" and "Needle" rather than the two Lannister swords.  The Stark swords bookend the episode after all.  Maybe I am just refusing to pick the obvious choice here though.
• Dreadfort is added to the always epic credits, as is Mereen.
• "Can you read the sigils?" "Yellow balls?"
• Jamie's wave...perfect.
• Oberyn steals the show, as expected.  With all the Starks dead, there's a lot fewer people to root for.  So we're pretty much reduced to rooting for enemies of their enemies.  Probably not ideal foreign policy
• Passing his hand over the candle says more in a half second than the rest of it combined 
• Tyrion's indifference to Oberyn stabbing the Lannister soldier is quite hilarious
• Doran Martell gets a mention and I ponder who they will cast for him next year 
• The best way to describe Oberyn is as a honey badger, giving zero shits. 
• It is somewhat impressively how quickly and seamlessly they integrate the exposition of the Martells beef 
• Funny how everyone screamed bloody murder at this casting.  Turns out its going to be okay
• Alisair Thorne ascending to acting commander is just the ultimate version of getting stuck with a horrible boss following a good boss.  It is basically Jason Sudeikis' part in Horrible Bosses
• The Gold Cloaks commander showing up at the Wall is one of those chickens coming home to roost.  It appears he's weaseled himself into some sort of leadership position, despite goldbricking it and not actually going north of the Wall yet
• Was that a statue of Joffrey?  It looks like something Calvin would imagine
• "Reigns of Castamere" times heard: 2
• Sansa Lannister gets a bird to roost as well via Ser Dontos
• Looking forward to seeing the result of Pedro Pascal's Wushu master training
• The Hound quotes Omar "A man's got to have a code"
• Arya's scene at the inn mirrors the new, just published chapter of The Winds of Winter
• Chickens roosting!
• It's impressive that the first episode of a season actually has many payoffs, rather than the traditional structure of building over the season and having payoffs towards the season end
  
• I didn't think the old Daario was particularly bad, but the new one is obviously better and living up to more of the potential
• "The king is safe"
• Three seeds planted.  The dragons can't be tamed, Oberyn is looking for trouble, and the jig is up on Tyrion and Shae 
• Sir-Not-Appearing-In-This-Episode
• Stannis (and Melisandre and Davos), Roose Bolton, Bran & Co., the Ironmen.  Was Varys in there?
• Still dead: Most of the Starks.  Most of the Targaryens. Robert. Renley.

The War of Two of the Five Kings

I wonder how things would've played out between Stannis and Robb, had he lived.  Robb went from rescue mission, to vengeance to war for independence.  Stannis had no love for him and would've fought into the North just to be ornery if one or both of them had taken Kings Landing.

Pragmatically, Robb could've accepted his terms and gone back to being Lord of Winterfell under Stannis as Ned was under Robert.  Not sure his lords would've been keen on it though, spilling that blood to not rescue Ned and not be independent.  It may work if they did get the chance to kill all the Lannisters and Joffrey though.  I feel like a good compromise may have been something like a semi-autonomous republic, like Crimea.  But Stannis, being "iron" would probably not bend to that.

The two kingdoms at the peripheries of Westeros are both a bit like that, looking at themselves as their own deal.  Dorne even calls its lords "princes".

Two Characters

Sansa Lannister nee Stark
The episode spent an impressive amount of time  showing her grieving and hitting a lot of the right notes.  Sansa's never been one for actively taking out her anger, unless she is mad at her father or sister.  And she is still as polite as ever to her husband whose family murdered her whole family.  Not wanting to eat or sleep, Sansa's only retreat is the Godswood. 

Just like I was thinking about how Robb-Stannis would play out, it's interesting to think what would've happened with Sansa if Joffrey had been even the least bit not sociopathic.  Her ability to play along with everything is impressive and takes a certain temperment.  She also showed how she could handle queen-ly duties when they hid in the Red Keep as Stannis stood siege, while the actual queen drank and exuded contempt for everyone there.

Part of her grieving is her saying what she's heard about the Red Wedding, including how deep the cut was to her mother's throat.  

Arya Stark aka Arry aka Boy aka Girl
Without giving anything away, I'll say very generally that the show has deviated from the exact scenes that take place.  This of course causes some people to scream bloody murder over the Internets.  However, the one thing the they've stuck very closesly to is conveying the ideas in each of those scenes, as well as Arya's state of mind.  Simply put, there is more than one way to skin a cat and the way some things have been handled, while deviating from the original material, make the show all the more impressive.

For example, the scenes between Arya and Tywin are some of the best in the show.  However, they do not exist in book land.  It gave a lot of insight to both characters, as well as allowed us to spend time with two favorites. 

Arya's story so far is her trying to go somewhere and then being interrupted and taken somewhere else.  Yoren tries to take her to Winterfell via the Night's Watch route, she's interrupted and taken to Harrenhall.  She escapes and tries to go to Riverrun, but is taken to the Brotherhood Without Banners.  She's supposed to go to the Twins, but can't.  Now the Hound is taking her to Eyrie...
 

Game of Thrones Season Four

The past three seasons of Game of Thrones have followed a pattern of a semi-major event around the halfway point, followed by building to a major climax in episode nine, with ends tied off and led into the next season in episode ten.  This made sense with the first three books following sequentially, and they are through around two thirds of book three.

However, with Feast for Crows and Dance with Dragons taking place largely simultaneously, and a large portion of A Storm of Swords still to occur, there will likely be elements of three different books this season.  Considering the source material, the pattern will not follow for Season Four.  Instead expect more major events consistently throughout the season.

Kings Landing
Marriage of Joffrey and Margerie, Joffrey's death, probably in the second episode "The Rose and the Lion" with Joffrey being so kind as to finally die
Trial of Tyrion
Escape of Sansa
Trial by combat between Oberyn and the Mountain
Murder of Tywin 
Escape of Tyrion
Cersei ruling by default.  defaulting on debts to the Iron Bank, eproving a Lannister may not pay their debts, encountering probably a cominbation of Noho and Tyco

The Wall and Beyond
Battle at the Wall
Jon Snow elected Lord Commander

The Riverlands
Lady Stoneheart emerges


The Iron Islands
Hoping this is where we cut some time.   But I think they could get it down to 3-4 scenes if they really felt like they had to do it. 

The East
I think we are maybe a season or a season and a half away (episode 5-09, max) before Dany rides Drogon out of the pit, possibly signaling the beginning of the end of our time in the East.

Once that happens we are, sadly, likely to pass GRRM's published material.  If this happens, it means he has until the end of 2015 or the early months of 2016 to get The Winds of Winter out, assuming he's not providing pages to Benioff and Weiss on the down low.  We do know he's shared the broad strokes ending with them.  
Unfortunately, it sounds like Oberyn is the only Dornishmen cast, meaning next season will likely be the season of Dorne.

Predicting the season ends with Lady Stoneheart

How He Met Their Mother and Other Answers

Best read after viewing the finale, but spoiler tagging items related to the episode just in case.

I quit this show.

Toward the end of Season 7, I stopped watching.  I met to watch the final five or eight episodes that built up on my DVR at the end of the season, but after hearing how the last episode ended, I decided to not bother.  Until that point I had gradually lost interest in all the "live" episodes I watched after viewing the first two seasons on DVD in about a day or two.  But being the Lost devotee I was, I decided to stay strong.

Season Seven was bookended by flashfowards at a wedding where we know the groom to be Barney, and at the end learn the bride to be Robin, provoking an eye roll and a "delete all episodes".  So I went about two years without watching any new episodes.  The show had also been extended for a few years so I knew I wasn't going to miss anything, and always knowing I was going to tune in for the series finale. 

I tuned in for "How Your Mother Met Me"* which showed the path Tracy took to meeting Ted, filling in the negative spaces in scenes where Ted narrowly missed the mother throughout the shows run, such as the St. Patrick's Day party, or being in her apartment as a guest of her roommate.  It showed the origins and emphasized the significance of the yellow umbrella.

* The HIMYM version of "The Other 48 Days"

The yellow umbrella became an object that they both were attached to and could claim ownership, so when one eventually saw the other with it, it would make sense to be the subject of their first conversation, getting the ball rolling.

The show posed two main questions, and a third as a sub question.  I actually view 2 and 2-1 as more important.  Question 1 is a vehicle but Question 2 and 2-1, though unstated, are actually the crux of the mystery.

1. How did Ted meet their mother?
2. Why is Ted telling their kids at this particular moment?
1. And why is he telling them in this incredibly long and drawn out way that actually is 98 percent about his friends, Barney, Marshal, Lily and Robin?

Immediate reactions to finales are mostly a product of their expectations and I think it takes time and perspective to take it in.  Having quit the show, my expectations were low, so the ceiling was high.

Probably the biggest reason I gave up on the show was not that I was frustrated with the indirect route they were taking to solving the titular mystery, but how they seemed to bastardize the characters, particularly Robin, Ted and Barney, who bore little resemblance to the people we first met, and whose differences were not a result of carefully charted growth, but what I perceived to be a lack of ideas and respect for the characters.

Not only that, but despite the innumerable prospects that rotated in and out of the three unmarried characters' lives, the show also failed to develop any additional characters of interest or depth, or that catalyzed change or growth from the gang.  My favorite non-gang character was James, but daytime television is a busy time and we saw him once in a blue moon.  Victoria was a close second simply for being so dern likeable (and cuter than a sleeping dormouse), though it always seemed more of a product of the actress than the writing.  

Not only that but seeing Robin and Barney together, and knowing much of the show would be dedicated to their path to the alter was grating at best.  It seemed like a poor attempt to make them the Chandler and Monica to Lily and Marshall's Ross and Rachel*.  In particularly, seeing them both move up and down and back and forth from the independence that definied their characters early on was disappointing, especially when Robin was infatuated with her bland co-anchor, Dud.

* One could argue Ted and Robin were Ross and Rachel.  After the finale, I would say that is spot on

My opinion of the characters falling so far is similar to people's expectations of a finale.  It was so high after two seasons of the show there was little opportunity to move but for moving down.  So now looking back after quitting this show for two years* I saw let us not bury the gang but praise them.

* For example, after two seasons of relate-able experiences, the show kept trying to invent "a thing".   Which is when one character references some phenomenon by its proper name, another character asks what that is, the first character (probably Barney) explains and then spends the rest of the episode involved in hijinks pertaining to the phenomenon, involving other members of the gang as needed.  The League does this as well (often via Taco).

I think because the gang was so darn likeable and relateable is why I wanted them to continue to succeed so much, and to do so as the people I knew.  So when in my opinion the show turned away from being about those people, my tv friends, then I turned from the show.  One of the reasons I liked the finale was because it combated this.  Barney pleaded with his friends to let him be himself as he chased tail in the bar.  Sometimes people don't change.  Like Ron Swanson not taking the city manager job on Parks & Rec for a plausible reason that is actually rooted in his character, Barney wasn't going to change.  Unless there was a reason.  They probably could have gotten a lot of good episodes out of his arc squeezed into the finale, and it was the some of the best character development the show has done.  Ultimately though, may we just take what they gave us.  A baby storyline is usually a lemo or even a death knell for a shown, unless the baby is largely ignore once it arrivesd.  But in Barney's case, giving one to a character like his can result in something interesting.

One of the things everyone wants to know in a finale is simply "What happens to....?"  The show that answered this best was Six Feet Under, which is probably part of the reason it is so universally acclaimed.* HIMYM uses a similar device as the end of "Everyone's Waiting", jumping ahead in the years but also using bits of the flash forwards we saw throughout the series' run.
 
* I/everyone marveled at both its concept and execution, and it forever changed how I/everyone listens to "Breathe Me".  I think though, the reason the audience reacts so positively to this closing was because it tied off ends as much as a show can, and that seems to be what audiences want, and that number of stories closed off seems to directly relate to how good or bad a finale is received.  Which is a terrible metric.  Additionally, I think unsatisfied viewers are more likely to be louder about their dissatisfaction than satisfied viewers will be about their satisfaction.  Reading forums, I've learned the first several pages of posts are generally from these unsatisfied viewers, regardless of any circumstance, and are written from an emotional and reactive state.  These being the first reactions are both the starting point and driver of the conversation.  Which is a terrible way to do it.  See Sopranos, The.  It's all part of a terrible version of the squeaky wheel getting the grease and makes my introverted brain a-splode.

"Last Forever" quickly answers question 1.  Now that we've answered the title, why is there more show?  Because HIMYM questions 2 and 2-1 lying there, posed in a more indirect, almost meta, way.

Sure enough Ted and his kids speak directly to the audience as the show wraps.  And the three of them provide the answers to the remaining questions.  It's significant because it shows us the window for Ted's dream, to be married and with kids in the house he fixed up, making a living as an architect designing skyscrapers in New York, was actually quite small, meaning that he lived his dream but not for long.  So what else is there?  The whole point of the show was Ted answering these questions and realizing that dream.  At this point the show, passes into "present" time,  it's caught up.  It's zero hour.  So for the first time in the show, he doesn't know what's going to happen and the clock is moving forward.  Ted spent his life trying to achieve something, and he did so briefly.  But with that gone, the thing that defined his existence, what does he do?  So he goes to Robin.  And while his life doesn't have "the" ending he planned for, it's actually somewhat comforting and satisfying to see one that is deserved.