Four episodes into Season 6 of "Mad Men" and AMC's beloved drama is just as buzzed-about as ever.
Don (Jon Hamm) is cheating on Megan (Jessica Paré), Trudy (Allison Brie) finally put Pete Campbell (Vincent Kartheiser) in his place, Roger Sterling (John Slattery) is in therapy and Betty (January Jones) still appears to be eating a few too many bugles.
"Mad Men" creator Matthew Weiner and the some of the cast gathered at the Paley Center in New York on Tuesday for a panel moderated by Brian Williams to discuss their characters, the vibe on set and what's to come.
Find out what they had to say during the panel and to The Huffington Post on the red carpet below.
Megan's naiveté: Real or feigned?
"As viewers, obviously we have way more of an insight into that than Megan does, and he's really still quite good to her as far she knows. She hesitated to tell him about the miscarriage in Episode 3, and obviously, they fought in Episode 4 as all couples do," Paré told The Huffington Post about how much she thinks Megan knows about Don's affair with Sylvia (Linda Cardellini). "But ultimately, at the end of Episode 3, when she does tell him about the miscarriage, he's very receptive and supportive, and he says everything she wants him to say. So while Megan may not feel like everything is perfect, she thinks it's kind of normal."
But could Megan be too caught up in the mentality that she "has it all" to notice the warning signs? It's possible.
"She has her career -- it's going well -- and she's got this wonderful husband, this great family and beautiful apartment," Paré told Williams during the panel. "As far as she's concerned, everything is quite lovely."
About that rape joke ...
When Betty "jokingly" suggested that her husband Henry rape Sally's 15-year-old friend in the Season 6 premiere, it stirred up quite a bit of controversy. But according to Jones, Betty's words shouldn't be taken too seriously.
"I think she's just messing around with her husband. I don't think it needed to be taken too seriously," Jones told The Huffington Post. "She has a sick sense of humor maybe, but I don't think that it was that shocking."
In fact, the actress thinks Betty is doing better than ever. "I think, in the recent episodes, she's about as happy as we've ever seen her," Jones told the crowd. "She loves her husband. She's happy. I think the weight gain is a result of emotional depression or something ... I think she's as happy as we've seen her because she's getting to eat," Jones joked.
Will Roger and Joan ever speak?
"Can't tell you," Slattery said in true "Mad Men" fashion when The Huffington Post asked about the future of the Joan-Roger saga. "[The writers] are good at not giving the audience what they want because it keeps people hoping that'll happen," he added. "If it happens, then where do they go?"
More Don is around the corner ...
If Hamm's hints are any indication, this season, we might finally understand why Don just can't quit that whole cheating thing.
"Without getting into specifics, we find out a lot more about why Don does what he does, why Don is what he is," Hamm said during the panel. "These circumstances don't just come out of nowhere. We're all people, and we're all products of our environment growing up. And Don, as we've seen in the previous five seasons, has had a very unique childhood ... I think, the example that I've used before, is that I think his house is built on a very shaky foundation. You can plaster over the cracks of the house, but if the foundation is flawed they're gonna keep returning."
On the commenters ...
Despite being a TV favorite, not every "Mad Men" review is positive. For his mental health, Weiner told the crowd that he stays as far away from "Mad Men" commentary as possible.
"I swore off it a couple years ago ... I was off of it for about a year or so because you can't respond to it, and you're kind of on trial for a crime you didn't commit," Weiner said.
"I read a couple reviewers that do recaps of the show usually ever week and stay away from the comments section, because that's a nightmare," Hamm added. "But I do like hearing intelligent people and reading writers who write about the show. I find it helpful to me often, because there's a lot of stuff that I don't get."
SCDP just wants to have fun.
As serious as the show is, the cast manages to have a blast at "base camp."
"We have the most fun base camp, I think. I don't know about other shows, but we have a table, trees, a fire place and decorations," Jones said during the panel. "Very rarely would you see us in our trailers. We all like to kind of congregate at this base camp and have fun. "
"We've always had this communal sense of wanting to be together ... we have taken steps over the season to make this base camp we all share fun, supportive and interesting," Hamm told Williams. Weiner added, "People come in when they're not working ... it all comes from Jon. That's his part of our operation. They spend a lot of time playing cards and behaving like writers used to."
"Lizzie [Elisabeth Moss] has a lot of say, actually. She's base camp president!" Pare joked.
"Mad Men" airs on Sundays at 10 p.m. ET on AMC.
