The last time “Mad Men” aired was so long ago, it seems like Bush was in office. To get everyone ready for Sunday’s fifth season premiere on AMC, here’s a recap on where the show left off.
1. JOAN
Joan (Christina Hendricks) sadly realized that her marriage to Greg was a bust. He accepted a position as a military surgeon when his other career prospects did not pan out. With her husband in Vietnam, Joan resumed relations with Roger Sterling and became pregnant. She was set to have an abortion but suddenly changed her mind and allowed her husband to think the baby was his. At Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce, she received a promotion, but no raise.
2. ROGER
Roger (John Slattery) committed the biggest blunder of his career when he lost Lucky Strike, the account that brought in half of the revenue at SCDP. “The account that turned the lights on in the place is gone. Roger managed that account,” Slattery told The Post. Since then, Roger has seen his standing at the agency deteriorate as young turks, such as Pete Campbell, made their ascent. This season he must try to hang on to his position. “That’s what happens this season,” Slattery says. “It’s unpredictable and complicated. Not sensational.”
3. PETE
The ever-striving Pete Campbell (Vincent Kartheiser) outshone his colleagues at SCDP by bringing in the Vicks account, among others. “When we left him last season, 80 or 90 percent of the agency was his business,” says Kartheiser. “His attitude is: ‘You’re on my turf. If you don’t stay late, I’m going to chew you out.’ ” Pete also helped Don out of a disastrous jam when security-clearance issues associated with potential client American Aviation threatened to expose his past. Pete sacrificed the account. Don repaid him when the partners at SCDP were asked to put up their own money to keep things afloat, and he covered Pete’s share.
4. DON
After a bruising divorce from vindictive Barbie doll Betty, Don (Jon Hamm) slept around, drank himself into a catatonic state and dated Faye Miller, a psychologist who accepted him for who he was. In the last episode, Don dumped Faye and stunned his colleagues by proposing to Megan Calvet, a beautiful secretary at SCDP, whom he hired as a nanny when he took his kids on a business trip. Says Hamm on his new life, “Don wants to be happy, I think Don wants to be fulfilled. I don’t know if this is going to do it. Hope springs eternal.”
5. PEGGY
It was a year of professional achievement and personal sacrifice for Peggy (Elisabeth Moss). On the occasion of her birthday, she left her boyfriend and mother waiting for hours in a restaurant to stay at the office with Don to work on the Samsonite account. They pulled an all-nighter, and he confided in her about Anna Draper, who was dying of cancer, and she told him about her affair with creepy Duck Phillips. At the end of the season, Peggy triumphed when she helped to sign Topaz Pantyhose, the first client to join SCDP since Roger lost Lucky Strike.
6. BETTY
After fighting endlessly with her daughter, the precocious Sally, Betty (January Jones, inset right) packed the kid off to therapy, but found herself talking to the child psychologist about her own issues. She also decided to sell the house where she and Don lived and cruelly fired Carla, the nanny who let weird neighbor-kid Glen in the house to say goodbye to Sally against Betty’s wishes. In the season finale, Don and Betty met in the kitchen of their old house, and Betty confessed that her marriage to Henry Francis wasn’t perfect. Don revealed that he was engaged. “It was heartbreaking. A heartbreaking scene to shoot for both of us,” says January Jones. “So emotional.”