Originally Posted by
MrMet;4086214; Well I'm relieved to know I wasn't the only one who liked this episode. I really enjoyed it, and found myself thinking about it almost instantly when I woke up this morning.
The engagement certainly came out of left field, but it worked for me for a few reasons. First, all season we've been getting hints of a new Don forming - a modern Don. He started dating a woman who was more his equal, and would challenge him. She was also a woman he was honest with about his past. He became more introspective, and started to curb his drinking. While it was nice to see the improvements, it was kind of disheartening because it wasn't Don Draper. In the past couple of episodes, he walked away from the journal (which admit it - most of us complained about as being so non-Mad Men!), and didn't worry as much about his drinking. So it makes sense that he'd complete the return to the Don we know by choosing the traditional woman who would take care of him, be subservient to him, and provide a stable calm home for him to return to each night. It's like Don saw the temptation of modernizing, and ran away from it.
I also thought the storyline was interesting for the way it revealed his connection to Peggy. We've always been led to believe that the Don / Peggy relationship was more of a father / daughter relationship (age aside) than anything romantic. But in her response to the engagement announcement, we saw a hint of a "why not me?" from her. And in his admission that he sees a lot of Peggy in Megan is critical as well. It was the first time that I've seen Peggy to Don as similar to what Joan is to Roger.
That leads me to the third reason why I think this random move makes so much sense. It really solidified the paralells in the Don and Roger characters. It showed them as almost the same man 10 years apart. Roger had a wife who finally said enough, and avoided his true love in the workplace because it would have been to complicated and challenging in place of a subservient secretary. He also rushed right into a second marriage, because a man of that era could not face life alone for too long. And now we're seeing Don with the wife who said "enough", avoiding his true love in the workplace who would be too complicated and challenging (be that Peggy or Faye) in favor of a subservient secretary who will provide stability and help him avoid being alone too long.
Lastly, I loved the interaction between Betty and Don. It bothered me when they split, because I thought both of them - but Betty especially - were assuming different would be better, when it really would not be. I think its evident that Betty has now realized just how good she had it before, and would probably go back to her former life now if only that was an option. It would not surprise me at all if we see Don cheating on Megan with Betty some time down the road.I also have to say that for me, there was plenty of set up for next season. It wasn't really in the "what will happen" kind of way, but I don't think the end of last season was either. But there is plenty to look forward to, which we'll get to see panned out. Joan will have her baby, and we'll get to wait to see how quickly people realize he looks like Roger ... and how Roger response to knowing its his baby and he can't do anything about it. Don and Megan will be married, and we'll get to see how much their life resembles Don and Betty (is it possible he'll tell the real estate agent he's changed his mind, and move Megan into that house?). I also think there's a great rivalrly building now between Pete and Ken, and I look foward to seeing that. On the one hand you've got Pete who is stumbling in business deals suddenly, and willing to sell out anything, including his family, to further himself in business. On the other hand you've got Ken who seems to have golden touch with business, but has drawn definite boundaries between business and family. I'd like to see that play out more.
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