Anyone have a bold prediction for this season? I think we'll see Don reinvented again.

Rewatching the season finale and man does Peggy have the WORST taste in men.

I really hope we're done with Megan this season.

Looking forward to it.

I'm hoping Don finds peace in this final season. One of the most tortured souls in tv history.

Anybody know when episodes appear on itunes?

Don out in the cold as usual

I do love Neve Campbell's smile. It's not beautiful but there is something about it.

Good start

Freddy fronting Don was kind of neat, I thought. No wonder that idea blew Peggy away. New boss guy is a dick.

Don calling Pete a hippie, as he strolls in with a sweater tied around his neck... LOL!

Nice (slow, as usual) start.

My first thought was damn Neve is showing her age....and then I remembered we are close in age. Dammit.

Great first episode in my opinion. Still think splitting the season in half isn't the best idea for a show like Mad Men, but I look forward to see how this season plays out.

Who was the guy in Peggy's apartment at the end?

They aged up Lindsey Weir a lot last season too - definitely aged up Neve with the heavy eye makeup.

Love love love Joan's storyline. Really interested to see how that develops - is she an account rep for Avon?

Poor Peggy. It's only been 2 months so I can see why she's so torn up. Personal life is a mess and she doesn't have the refuge of doing good creative work to immerse herself. I wish they'd have let her run the NYC office rather than bring in this new schmuck.

That was depressing though...the scenes with don and Megan were tense and awkward. Even Nixon's speech was depressing.

That was her brother in law - he came over to help fix the tenants' toilet with the plumber.

I see hints of Manson all over the Megan apartment in the canyon.....

Great episode to kick off the new season. Don's still Don, but it seems like he's working on being a better person. He does things to subordinate to Megan (coming to LA, allowing her to drive him, caring for her when she's drunk) and he seems supportive of her career (dinner with agent, buying the TV). In the end, he's tempted by a beautiful woman, admits his faults and passes on her in invitation. He's even bathed in the light of the rising sun after turning her down.

But then, when he's left alone, he turns back to booze and winds up drunk and alone out in the cold (literally). It's the alcohol that is his real demon.

AgLaw - I think he left the bottle full there at the end. With the lady saying her husband died an alcoholic I think he's reevaluating his drinking too.

Did Cosgrove lose his eye for good? looks like it.

Damn it, I missed this show so much. Great first episode back.

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I think he left the bottle full there at the end. With the lady saying her husband died an alcoholic I think he's reevaluating his drinking too.

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I think Freddy's comment about being damaged goods has a lot to do with this as well.

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AgLaw - I think he left the bottle full there at the end. With the lady saying her husband died an alcoholic I think he's reevaluating his drinking too.

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Wow. Totally missed that. I thought he gave in to his drinking.

Check out the dress in the Season 6 promo (saw this on reddit)

One more note about his drinking. Four times we see Don around alcohol: (1) Don has a celebratory dinner with Megan/agent where she drinks heavily, (2) he comes home while Megan is cooking and asks her about wine, (3) he accepts a glass of wine/champagne on the flight back to NYC, and (4) he ends the show with a bottle of booze. Not once did we see him actually take a drink.

I wouldn't be surprised if we see Don overcome his demons first, then pull everyone else up with him. Maybe that's too optimistic, but I still think this show is a redemption story.

He wasn't drunk at the end, when he went out to the balcony all despondent?

Really hate the new creative director. But it was almost jarring to hear Dawn call him "Lou" after SC protocol never allowed secretaries to use first names

I think he's done. Previews for next week(I never watch but this time I left it on-AMC's are especially bad) show him drawing a line on his bottle where the liquor level was. So we can assume he's going to attempt to make the transition to dry out.

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I wouldn't be surprised if we see Don overcome his demons first, then pull everyone else up with him. Maybe that's too optimistic, but I still think this show is a redemption story.

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This is an interesting concept considering how dark this show has been over its entire run. It would surprise me to see this show end happily, which will make this half season very interesting as it sets up for the end of the show next year.

If this season is going to be about the struggle for redemption, Episode 1 was about setting the baseline. And that baseline is that our characters are deeply flawed and hitting rock bottom. The question is whether they are too flawed to come back. I agree with the post above, though, if there’s redemption to be had, it’s Don who is going to take them there.

So, where are our characters as we start the final arc?

Pete – Of all the main characters from Episode 1, Pete seems the happiest. He’s traded in his three-piece suits for shorts, pastel shirts and a sweater, fully-embracing the California lifestyle. The question is whether it’s real.

Ken – Physically damaged. He’s lost an eye, and the career he never even wanted has overtaken his life to the point he’s yelling at staff. This from the guy who was easily once the nicest guy in the office.

Roger – Lost in self-absorption. He wakes up after a drug-infused orgy, has brunch with a daughter who, to a certain extent, is equally self-absorbed and winds up in bed with his girlfriend and her lover. Roger is the only character in this episode who we don’t see working. He has fully embraced the bacchanalian lifestyle. He doesn’t care what his daughter as to say, so long as they can have a Bloody Mary, and he doesn’t care who his woman beds, so long as he can get some sleep.

Joan – Joan has been scarred by here climb up the ladder. Joan has been sexualized all of her life to the point that she thinks that’s all any man wants from her. The scene with the college professor was brutal. When he asks her what she has to trade for his help, she immediately thinks he wants her body, not her mind.

Peggy – Fighting a losing battle for respect. After years of climbing the ladder based on her talent in a field dominated by men, she’s been abandoned by her mentor (Don) and dumped by his replacement (Ted). She finds herself pitching to a new boss who has no respect for her or her work. She lives alone in a dump and may have been hitting on – and rebuffed by - her old, overweight brother-in-law who has been fixing toilets all day. That last point is debatable, but, again, if this is rock bottom, what could be worse than that?

Don – Don is an alcoholic. The show presented him in a new, positive light, saving his depth for the last scene. Throughout the episode, we’re giving glimpses that maybe – just maybe – Don has turned the corner. He’s flown all the way across the country to work on his relationship with Megan. He cares for her when she gets drunk, as opposed to the opposite typically being the case. He buys her an expensive gift. He even turns down the advances of a beautiful woman. By all appearances, Don is a new man. Then we see him in the last scene. He’s an alcoholic attempting to dry out. He’s alone, tempted by the bottle, and he’s got the shakes. For a guy who has been in control of everything for so long, he’s shown fighting a losing battle. Alcohol may be the one thing he can’t shake. By the end of the episode, he is, in every sense of the word, out in the cold.

Don and Megan's relationship seems like its over. He tells the lady on the plane that he really thought it would work this time and that she knows he's a terrible husband. And Megan still thinks he is going into work every day, so obviously they aren't talking about that.

I think Peggy is just completely alone. She lost the boyfriend and she lost Don and Teddy at work. I think she just wanted company at the apartment because she's feeling very alone.

Peggy felt utterly alone; she just wanted company, and her BIL's comment that he didn't like his wife alone in the house just struck Peggy hard. Especially since she's never felt safe in that UWS building and her sister is safe in Brooklyn. She rebelled against her sister's life and built her career, but she's alone and her career isn't fulfilling her the way it did. That scene was really honest and tough to watch.

http://www.vulture.com/2014/04/mad-men-video-game-thirsty-don-draper.html

http://www.ew.com/ew/gallery/0,,20395708_20805580_30134510,00.html

[This message has been edited by DonaldFDraper (edited 4/14/2014 1:21p).]

Also, this is the most I've ever liked Pete. California made him less of an annoying little b****.

The depth of these characters is truly what makes Mad Men so great. God, I love this show!

http://www.avclub.com/article/mad-men-had-its-lowest-rated-premiere-2008-203432

I'll bet more people are DVR'ing it and going up against Game of Thrones is a nightmare scenario.

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I see hints of Manson all over the Megan apartment in the canyon.....

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yeah that entered my mind as well. They definitely have set up a Manson subplot here if they want it:

-last season Megan wore the Sharon Tate shirt, now she's actually an actress in LA
-creepy isolated cabin home
-Don brings strangers into the house delivering a big TV, and Megan remarks that no one around here has expensive TVs

Either they'll use this setup for some Manson fueled terror or they're really driving the point that Don isn't comfortable at this place since it's away from the beach. Not saying Megan is getting murdered, but at least she'll freak out over being alone in that cabin

[This message has been edited by Internetfan02 (edited 4/14/2014 4:38p).]