While Don may be able to piece his personal life back together, his covert advertising work is surely going to blow up in someoneвЂ™s face, and Peggy Olson is a likely target. I believe he claims he has work to do, though it was a bit hard to hear over the sounds of hell freezing over. вЂњI really thought I could do it this time,вЂќ he confesses to the mystery brunette, but he, perhaps seeing a little too much of himself in the story of her late husband, ultimately declines to go home with her. Don admits heвЂ™s been a terrible husband and that Megan knows this, too, dissecting their marriage like itвЂ™s already dead. That was never more apparent than on DonвЂ™s flight back to New York, where he finds himself in a familiar situation - tempted by another woman - and opens up to her with such candor that I briefly wondered if they werenвЂ™t strangers, but actually regular, bicoastal commuting buddies with a preference for kinky roleplay. In this episode, the answer is a tentative yes. Mad Men is a show about the changing times, sure, but as TIMEвЂ™s television critic James Poniewozik has written, itвЂ™s also a show about whether people really change with them. After all, he wasnвЂ™t put on leave from SC&P just for being an alcoholic, he was also an arrogant, grade-A asshole with little consideration for other people. But whatвЂ™s even more interesting is that Don actually appears worthy of sympathy in a way he hasnвЂ™t in some time (or, you know, ever). The revelation that heвЂ™s secretly pitching and wowing Peggy Olson by feeding Freddy Rumsen copy unfolded so nonchalantly compared to its relative plot importance that I half-expected HomelandвЂs Carrie Mathison to wander in and whisper, вЂњWe did it, Don - it worked!вЂќ Given that every episode of Mad Men begins with Don free-falling among Manhattan skyscrapers, it makes sense that the final episodes would continue to chronicle his descent - not suddenly turn into How Don Got His Groove Back. Technically, Don is still working, just not in the office, and not under his own name. (But holy sideboob, Batman, they sure do rally). Progress happens slowly, and if SundayвЂ™s episode, which kicks off the first half of Mad MenвЂs final season, were an episode of Friends, it would probably be called вЂњThe One Where Creator Matthew Weiner Put the Brakes On Everyone.вЂќ Or: вЂњThe One Where Everybody Hit a Brick Wall.вЂќ Megan Draper, who committed to moving her acting career to California before Don changed his mind about staying in New York, has no idea the partners at SC&P put her husband on indefinite leave after a quasi-intervention, and all that physical and emotional distance is starting to take a toll on their intimacy during DonвЂ™s West Coast visit. The finaleвЂ™s last scene saw him taking his kids (who, like their mother, donвЂ™t appear in this episode) to see his dilapidated childhood home, a sign that maybe the man with so many secrets was willing to open up for a change. Last season, after a disastrous pitch meeting with Hershey, a growing awareness of his drinking problem, and news of SallyвЂ™s own experimentations with alcohol, Don Draper skipped out on high-tailing it to Sterling Cooper & PartnersвЂ™ California office and decided to face his problems head-on.

The quote, from NixonвЂ™s first inaugural address, doesnвЂ™t just offer a clue about the notoriously secretive timeline of the acclaimed AMC drama - hello, January of 1969! - itвЂ™s also a great summary of where its characters stand after last yearвЂ™s season finale: managing just fine on the outside, but still suffering where no one can see.

вЂњReaching with magnificent precision for the moon, but falling into raucous discord on earth.вЂќ вЂњWe have found ourselves rich in goods, but ragged in spirit,вЂќ Richard Nixon announces from a television screen toward the end of Mad MenвЂs seventh-season premiere.

Mad men free