TVSquad

Last month, Mad Men was celebrating winning a slew of Emmys. One of them was for Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series, the episode entitled "Meditations In An Emergency." When creator Matthew Weiner went onto the stage to grab the Emmy, with him was Kater Gordon, the co-writer of that episode. Today, Kater Gordon was let go from Mad Men.

Are you shocked? Apparently, the industry press is. Gordon had risen from personal assistant to writer's assistant to member of the writing staff. After the Emmy, you would think that she was in like Flynn.

However, something must have gone awry or why has she been given her walking papers? And if you think it's not a dismissal, listen to this announcement from the show:

"We think [Kater's] done a great job, particularly for someone whose career has progressed so quickly. Now, however, Matt has reluctantly decided that their relationship has reached its full potential. She'll be missed, but the series has consistently benefited from the influx of new writer talent, and there's absolutely no doubt that Kater will continue to have unprecedented success in her career as she spreads her wings. She leaves Mad Men with our love and respect and a well-deserved Emmy."

I don't pretend to know what happened and it would be wrong to speculate something underhanded. It might just be that Weiner has a vision for the future of Mad Men and Gordon didn't fit into his plans for how to bring it to fruition. Ultimately, this is his show and he's got to bring in the writers he thinks can realize his Mad Men. It's as simple as that to me. If something else was going on with Kater Gordon, that's pure speculation at this point.

I've read it spun in a number of ways, painting Weiner as a jerk for letting her go or a prince for giving her the opportunity. People are analyzing their Emmy appearance like the Zapruder film, looking for clues to understand today's action.

Here's one observation, for what it's worth: if they really wished had their love and respect, why didn't they let her spin this so that she left the show on her own terms? That would have been kinder... and might have helped her get whatever her next writing gig will be.

On the other hand, is it possible that once she got her half of the Emmy, she was expecting a big raise to go with it... and the show wasn't ready to comply? Hmm... you gotta wonder.