Another season of Mad Men is in the books and for my money it was a good one. The finale didn’t disappoint and contained its share of surprises and items to discuss, so let’s get to it.
Faye Miller predicted at the beginning of the season that Don would be married within the year and it looks like she might be right. But while it appeared for a time like she might be the bride, Don instead made the sudden decision to propose to Megan. Mrs. called this as soon as Stephanie gave Anna’s ring to Don (so props to her). And how interesting that the new Mrs. Don Draper will be wearing the ring that the real Don Draper gave to the original Mrs. Don Draper (or something like that). Don has always made rash decisions (see the NY Times ad from the last episode), and we shall see if he'll come to regret this one or if Megan is finally the woman who can keep him faithful.
I do feel bad for Faye though, as she was blindsided by Don’s news. She goes away for a few days and her boyfriend comes back from his trip to California engaged to another woman. I’ll be interested to see if we’ve seen the last of Faye Miller or if she’ll appear next season. If she does come back will the information she knows about Don’s true identity be used against him in some way?
Mrs. was also spot on with her prediction that Joan didn’t have the abortion. She was clearly showing a bit, so it’s interesting that seemingly no one in the office knows, especially Roger. At some point it will be obvious that she’s having a baby and it would be fun to see Roger’s expression.
Peggy continued her rise to become the next Don by working over the holiday weekend with Ken to win the firm’s first new client since losing Lucky Strike. We got to see Peggy at the top of her game coming up with slogans on the spot for the client. Mrs. had a good thought with regards to the pantyhose account that Peggy wins. Peggy explained that the client’s product was good because the one pair can be worn during work and then out at night. Mrs. felt that this might represent Megan. She’s the career woman with Don in the office and also the woman who he can go out with at night and can take care of him and his kids. I'll take it further and say that where Don once had to choose between a homemaker wife (like Betty or presumably what he would have had with Bethany) or an ambitious woman like Faye (who wasn’t good with kids) he might now have his “one pair of pantyhose” in Megan who is both excellent with the kids and driven to learn about the business. It’s also possible (and likely) that we're both reading way too much into this.
Some final thoughts before we begin the nine month wait until Season 5:
What was up with Harry hitting on the model that Joyce brought to meet Peggy? Isn’t Harry married still? Didn’t he already have to sleep in the office after getting kicked out by his wife after his night with Pete’s secretary? The Harry from this season was almost unrecognizable from Season 1 Harry.
No one was pulling any punches with Betty this week. First Glen said that not everyone has to be sad just because she is, then Carla basically told her she’s a bad parent, then Henry yelled at her and said no one’s on her side, and then Don thwarted her attempt at having a moment in the kitchen with his engagement news. I did enjoy that the final scene was Don and Betty in the kitchen of the empty house, sharing a drink and then going their separate ways.
Ken showed he’s not like Pete (and expressly said so) in that he won’t use his father in law to woo a client. We’ve seen several times this season how some characters have trouble separating work and family, but Ken showed that it can be done.
I liked how Don told Sally that Dick is his nickname. We saw Don several times this season seemingly embrace his roots as Dick Whitman.
Peggy’s reaction to Don’s news was amusing. She seemed to be torn between being happy for her friend, a little jealous that he once again hooked up with his secretary, and a little mad that he usurped her news of bringing in a new client.
Great scene towards the end as Peggy and Joan discussed Don’s engagement. Good to see them using each other as sounding boards. Hopefully that will continue next season.
Roger had some great one liners once again, questioning “Who’s that?” when Don announced he was engaged to Miss Calvais (aka Megan) and then “Megan out there?” as he points to the office door. We can never have enough Roger Sterling.
And so now we begin the long wait. Hopefully the Season 4 DVDs come out soon so we can re-watch the whole season whenever we want.
No comments:
Post a Comment