protected function _handleDirectCall($methodCalled) {
        // this doesn't actually do anything because _real_toHtml() won't be
        // called in this request context (unless the flash message isn't
        // actually supposed to be ajax/esi'd in)
        $this->_directCall = $methodCalled;
        if ($this->_fixMessages()) {
            $layout = $this->getLayout();
            $layoutUpdate = $layout->getUpdate()->load('default');
            if (Mage::app()->useCache('layout')) {
                // this is skipped in the layout update load() if the "layout"
                // cache is enabled, which seems to cause the esi layout stuff
                // to not load, so we manually do it here
                foreach ($layoutUpdate->getHandles() as $handle) {
                    $layoutUpdate->merge($handle);
                }
            }
            $layout->generateXml();
            $layoutShim = Mage::getSingleton('turpentine/shim_mage_core_layout');
            foreach ($layout->getNode()->xpath(
                    sprintf('//reference[@name=\'%s\']/action',
                        $this->getNameInLayout()) ) as $node) {
                $layoutShim->shim_generateAction($node);
            }
        }
        return $this;
    }