I stayed up waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay too late again last night, watching tv.  I had to watch Desperate Housewives, which I’m getting quite sick of – to be honest.  Then I watched the season finale of Mad Men.  And it did NOT disappoint!  It was probably the best episode of the season!! My Sunday’s are going to be far less enjoyable now that I won’t be getting my weekly fix of Jon Hamm.

I don’t want to spoil it for anyone who hasn’t seen it yet – so I’ll put the rest after the jump.  Let’s talk Mad Men!

1st:  Betty is pregnant!  After a brief encounter with Don, Betty becomes pregnant.  And this is not welcome news.  She tells the doctor she cannot keep the baby, hinting at an abortion.  The doctor laughs her off, telling her to rest, and let her “riding boots gather dust.”  So naturally, the next scene is Betty riding her horse, no doubt trying to induce a miscarriage.

2nd:  Don returns!  As Betty slides off her horse, Don walks up!  And finally – after two seasons – says “I was not respectful to you.” And in a sense, I think this is all Betty really needed to hear in the first place!  This was my favorite interaction between Betty and Don from the whole season.

“Must be nice. Needing time and just taking it,” comments Betty when Don reappears at the stables, wishing he could “undo what happened.” His admission that something did happen helps her realize she’s “not crazy” but, she notes, life without Don wasn’t all that different from life with him.

Don wants Betty back.  Wants to be with his kids again.  In the first time in a while, Don is extremely affectionate with his kids, and realizes the weight of what he’s done.

Don also learns, when returning to work, that Sterling Cooper has been sold – and would be merging with a larger firm in London.  While Don seems shocked, he also stands to gain over $500K from the merge.

3rd: Duck takes over! Duck breaks out his Tanqueray while telling Pete his plans of becoming the president of the newly merged Sterling Cooper.  Duck tells Pete that he will be handing his old job over to Pete – and while Pete seems excited, I believe his loyalty to Sterling Cooper and Don Draper is showing.  He is uncomfortable with the new position – and Duck being named president.

4th: Betty cheats!  In an attempt to see what it feels like to be Don, Betty strolls into a bar, alone, and drinks a gimlet at the bar.  A gorgeous loner comes up to her, and begins making small talk.  While she announces that she’s married, she obviously is wanting more – and the man follows her into a back room in the bar, where the two – well, you know.  I found the most profound moment came when she strolled back into her kitchen after the hookup, and was eating the chicken leg.  She looked completely vacant – no emotion at all.  I wonder what was going through her head!  Maybe she was feeling that now she and Don were finally even?

5th: I love Pete!  I almost wanted to jump out of my couch when Pete walked into Don’s office near the end.

The next day Don was reading about Kennedy’s planned retaliation when Pete bounded into his office. Pete had something to share with his boss, sacred information that only he was privy to. How far these two have come. Last season Pete threatened to use a secret to take down Don but now he was bringing him invaluable scoop. Armed with the advance warning that Duck would soon be named president, Don played it super-agent cool in the conference room in front of the Brits. When Duck, spiraling toward the end of his rope, announced the end of creative’s rule, preaching that the future was advertising as opposed to clients, Don pounced. “I don’t have a contract,” he said, after Duck shouted about non-compete clauses. Bested, Duck banged on the desk, furious that Don once again shamed him with his unflappable cool. It was an amped-up version of the showdown between Don and Pete last season, but this time he was saved by Pete tipping his hand. After ditching the meeting, where Duck sealed his dastardly fate, Don finally heard the news he’d been waiting for. “Mr. Draper, your wife called,” said Joan. “She wants you to come home.”

6th: Peggy finally comes clean to Pete!  Peggy finally needed to unburden herself to Pete. Pete, after having refused to flee with Trudy to her family’s beach house, lingered late at the office, smiling at Peggy with drunken googly eyes. He invited her to have a drink on his office sofa and started unloading. “You never let me talk about what I want to talk about,” he play pouted. With the world on the brink of destruction, he finally told her that she was perfect, and that he loved her and wished he’d chosen her all those years ago over Trudy.

And then Elisabeth Moss made the final case that it was the women who ruled this season and should be commended appropriately come Emmy season. With sublime restraint, and such honest, desperate sorrow, she told Pete that she’d had his baby and that she’d given it away. As he stuttered out bleats of disbelief, she explained herself (”I wanted other things”) and gave powerful voice to her private grief. “One day you’re there and then all of the sudden there’s less of you. And you wonder where that part went — if it’s living somewhere outside of you — and you keep thinking maybe you’ll get it back and then you realize it’s just gone.”

My favorite line of the night – came in Don’s letter to Betty.   “I understand why you feel it’s better to go on without me and I know that you won’t be alone for very long. But without you, I’ll be alone forever.”

SO GOOD!! I’ve probably missed a lot, but these were the major points.

What did you think of the finale!?

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