JUST when you think a great thing can’t get better, it does.
The season finale last night of “Mad Men” was so good that it’s going to haunt me for a long while or at least until the show returns and gives us some relief.
Until then, we’ll all be left to wonder:
Will Betty have an illegal abortion? Can Duck the drunk remain at the helm now that Draper’s packed it in? Will Peggy, the pit bull in a petticoat, really choose career over love with the awful Pete?
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Will Betty turn into Don and have meaningless sex as often as possible with as many partners as possible? Will Sal come out? Will Freddy come back?
Will Joan still be alive when the Miracle Bra is invented?
Will I go postal and buy a high-powered rifle if the show doesn’t return next season?
You’ve got to hand it to creator Matt Weiner for being such a classy guy and weaving real life into reel life in the finale – because the episode mirrors the tenuous renewal situation. The episode was all about choice, baby, choice.
From a woman’s right to choose to the choice of staying in a traditional, if bad, marriage. From choosing to stand up and walk out when creativity turns corporate to choosing work over love, the finale told the story of how it was back then and, more importantly, how it often is today.
And unlike, say, “The Sopranos” – where for every Pine Barrens episode we had to endure three about Carmela’s insurance agent cousin – “Mad Men” each week has consistently delivered shock and awe we are so not used to in a series.
Did I expect Don Draper to choose to return to Mad Ave. and become again the buttoned-up, blue serge Draper instead of buttoned-down, blue collar Dick Whitman? Hell no. Does it make sense? Hell yeah.
Did I expect him to walk out after being gracious to the Duck on his ascendancy to the presidency? Absolutely not. Amazing that the show took the hard way out.
Then, there was the Mrs. Don Draper’s dilemma. After try ing to ride out (liter ally) an unwanted pregnancy, did I expect Betty to find an abortionist? Of course. That’s what soaps were made for – near-death abortion episodes.
At least Betty broke out with some nasty sex with a stranger in a men’s room.
The finale flew from the men’s room to the boy’s room as Roger and Bert chose to merge instead of remaining the frisky indie on the block. Did I expect them to hold out? You bet.
Awful Pete Campbell? He chose to play it two ways by confiding Duck’s secret to Draper and then confiding his secret love to Peggy without really first telling his wife it was over.
Peggy, on the other hand, made the unorthodox choice of career over love with a now-contrite Pete. She even told him that she’d had his baby and had given it away!
No, I never saw that coming.