Mad Men: Season Finale

Season four of Mad Men ended last week, surprisingly on a happy note. It's been a turbulent season for all concerned, including me. Unusually, it's been an edge-of-the-seat kind of series, will S/C/D/P go under? In reaction to Lucky Strike's departure, Don takes out a full-page ad in the Times in the form of a letter damning the advertising of cigarettes, thus destroying any chance the firm has of obtaining any future tobacco accounts. A risky move that affords them a meeting with the Cancer Association. 'Did you get cancer?' Roger quips on Don and Pete's return.

Elsewhere, the Francis residence is being relocated and Glen pops over to say goodbye to Sally. These two young actors have been brilliant this series playing out complex emotions with excellent maturity. Unfortunately, their goodbye is interrupted by Betty's return. Of course she flips out and yells at him to get out to which he retorts, 'Just because you're sad, doesn't mean everybody else has to be.' Betty seems to think that Glen is only friends with Sally to get to her and poor Sally seems to have given up on standing up to her mother: either she knows it's useless or she's biding her time and will explode spectacularly in a future series. I'm hoping for the latter. Betty's childish temper tantrum continues when she fires Carla, who has been the children's Nanny all their lives, for allowing Glen into her house. In true spoiled-brat style, Betty doesn't allow Carla to say goodbye to the children.

Don is taking the children to California and has to find some help after Carla's untimely dismissal so he enlists the help of his secretary, Megan. She's been an intriguing character ever since she tuned up in one of Dr. Miller's focus groups early on in the series. Since then she's replaced the formidable Miss Blankenship as Don's secretary and slept with Don but she was professional and savvy enough not to let it affect her work and didn't show her feelings, if she had any, for Don. In California Don discovers Anna has left him the engagement ring that the real Don Draper gave to her and Don seems to take it as some kind of sign, using it to propose to Megan.

In sunny California Don sees how she Megan is with his children and becomes beguiled by her. She is pretty amazing, beautiful, bright, artistic and she speaks French, hell, she's my dream woman. The question 'who is Don Draper?' comes up again, to which Megan replies, 'I know who you are now.' Maybe she really wouldn't care about his dark secret, he certainly forgets himself and announces their up-coming nuptials to the whole office on their return. Unlike what he had with Fay Miller, this relationship won't be secret. Fay doesn't react well to the news, understandably ('I hope she knows you only like the beginning of things.') and of course she does know his secret. Will she keep it? Probably, but maybe it's too early to tell.

Peggy and Joan play out a great little scene, reacting to Megan and Don's engagement. They've seen it all before, as Joan says, 'they're all just between marriages.' Joan's been given a promotion with no pay rise and Peggy, along with Ken, has landed the first new account since Lucky Strikes departure, which is overshadowed by Don's good news, so both are prickly about the announcement. In more Joan news we discover that she did not have the abortion and is having the baby, passing it off as Greg's. How will Roger take that?

One of the final scenes sees Betty bumping into Don accidentally/on purpose at their old family home. It's clear she has designs on Don, checking her make-up before he arrives. Then Don drops the bombshell. She seems to take it maturely, wishing them both well. Of course she'll probably take out her jealousy on Henry or the children later.

The episode ends with Don alone in his apartment to the strains of 'I Got You Babe.' For such a negative, tense series, the ending is upbeat and optimistic. Although I now have a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach caused by the Mad Men shaped hole in my life. Come back soon fellas.

A thing like that.

As Mad Men enters the final episodes of season 4 I can't help but be a little relieved. Not that it hasn't been a brilliant season, because it has and then some, but my nerves are shredded and I am exhausted. The difference with this season has been that things have been happening, a lot of things.

Series one, two and three seemed to be carried along on metaphorical imagery, dialogue that is left unsaid and sumptuous aesthetics, with a spartan but intriguing plot. Series four has made great use of all these elements but the world of Stirling/Cooper/Draper/Pryce is dingier and more claustrophobic; the office walls are closer together with walls flimsy enough that you imagine straining to hear slightly raised conversations; Don's apartment is not the hip bachelor pad it could easily have been, it's dark and poky and is only occasionally frequented by his children or the odd conquest.

The characters are all in turmoil and overtly so this time around. I've been personally gripped by the two opposing female characters, Peggy and Joan. Joan's husband Greg has joined the army and her anxiety spills over in a sharp tongued attack on creative's Joey who has done everything to undermine and insult her. She tells Joey and Stan that when they are inevitably deployed to Vietnam to remember that they won't be dying for her as she never liked them anyway. Roger and Joan's relationship is reignited for one night which is all it takes for Joan to become pregnant resulting in a heartbreaking termination she has to go through all alone. Having been through two terminations before, she treats the situation with the same stoic, keep-calm-and-carry-on attitude.

Conversely, Peggy's character is growing and changing, beginning to explore ideas of feminism through her new friend Joyce and a frustration with the limitations her sex puts on her job. Memories of the baby she had with Peter come to the fore again with the news that Peter's wife Trudy is pregnant. While she keeps this very personal hurt to herself her professional frustrations rise to the surface in the season's most talked about episode that sees Peggy and Don finally have it out and unravel in front of each other.

We also discover Lane's father is a violent, manipulative man who still has a hold over his well grown-up son; Roger loses his baby with Joan and the Lucky Strike account all in one week; Sally Draper isn't coping with her parents divorce and arrives at her father's office after travelling across New York from her therapist to be told she has to go back to the 'Francis Residence' she hates so much; even Bert shows his emotions this season when Ida Blankenship (the Joan to his Roger) dies in the office.

Don of course has the most spectacular season yet. Divorced, estranged from his children and most heartbreaking of all losing his best friend, the wife of his name-sake, Anna. He's been so drunk that he's lost days, vomited a lot and generally been a mess physically. The first episode gave an indication of things to come, calling into question his identity, 'Who is Don Draper?' His lies have been slowly unravelling, coming to a head in this weeks episode which showed Don under investigation by the government in order to secure the American Aviation account. In his panic he tells Faye everything about his past, who he seems to be carving out an honest and genuine relationship with. Pete, also privy to Don's big secret, grudgingly saves the day, losing the account and almost losing his job in the process. So Don's secret is safe. For now.

Will SCDP bounce back from the losses and heartaches or is it the beginning of a downward spiral? I hope in the closing episodes we'll see more of Pete Campbell, odious and lovable at the same time, who's been in the background for much of the series. Now I'm off to lie down in a darkened room until the next episode.