A break in the routine: as this episode straddles Halloween and Election Day, we're celebrating both, by taking a look at a few select episodes of The X-Files ("Never Again" and "The Post-Modern Prometheus") and The West Wing ("The Lame Duck Congress" and "The US Poet Laureate").

Next week, the show gets turned up to 11, with a weapons-grade collection of Deep Space Nine episodes ("In the Pale Moonlight," "His Way," and "The Reckoning" -- holy shit there's a lot to discuss there), another first season Mad Men episode ("Shoot"), and the long-awaited return of Elementary to our televisions. Get ready.

And now we're only one episode behind! In this episode, we tackle some more Deep Space Nine, with "Far Beyond the Stars," "One Little Ship," and "Honor Among Thieves." One of those episodes is a bold experiment, one is silly, and one is utterly forgettable. Then, we move on to Mad Men.

We get closer and closer to catching up with this episode from three weeks ago, as we discuss Veronica Mars and another episode of Mad Men.