FINAL SEASON OF MAD MEN STARTS SUNDAY
The retro drama returns for its seventh season on Sunday. The first seven episodes of the final season will air this spring; the remaining episodes will air in 2015. For 80 episodes, Mad Men has depicted the world of New York advertising circa 1960 with a
Don Draper, né Dick Whitman ( Jon Hamm)
WHERE HE LEFT OFF
On forced leave from Sterling Cooper, Dapper Don faces an uncertain future. He kept his identity a secret until the end of last season, when he revealed his true self to his colleagues during a pitch meeting. Now he faces his restless young wife Megan ( Jessica Paré), his difficult, estranged teenage daughter Sally ( Kiernan Shipka) and an increasingly unstable ex- wife Betty ( January Jones), without the crutch of work to lean on.
Peggy Olson
( Elisabeth Moss)
WHERE SHE LEFT OFF
Rejected by her married paramour Ted Chaough ( Kevin Rahm) and disillusioned by her job, Peggy is determined to prove herself once again. With Don temporarily out of the picture at Sterling Cooper, Peggy throws herself into work as the firm’s “head of creative.” She knows something few others suspect aside from Don: That she has the talent and ability to compete with the best, though she’s not an official member of the boys’ club. Times are definitely changing.
Pete Campbell
( Vincent Kartheiser)
WHERE HE LEFT OFF
Still blinded by ambition but reeling from on- and off- the- job jolts — crashing a client’s car, his wife Trudy ( Alison Brie) fed up with his cheatin’ ways — Pete is no longer the golden boy among his peers at Sterling Cooper. Karma has come back to haunt him. Even though he’s still good at what he does, he’s not the best. And he’s working in an industry — advertising in the heyday of Life magazine, Pan Am and Lucky Strike cigarettes — when only the best will do.
Joan Harris
( Christina Hendricks)
WHERE SHE LEFT OFF
The former office manager parlayed her assets into a position of power at the firm equal to the boys. Whatever residual resentment Joan harboured all these years, she’s now in a position to pay back — provided, that is, she goes that route. She has a renewed sense of purpose, and a new sense of self- worth. She was passed over for promotion once before, by a man, but the new world of the early 1970s is her oyster. She knows the rules, but the rules are now different.
Megan Draper
( Jessica Paré)
WHERE SHE LEFT OFF
Megan looked like the one civilizing influence in Don’s life, self- contained but not needy. Then she developed career ambitions of her own. She quit her acting job in New York for a potentially career- making role in Los Angeles — after Don promised to move there — only to have him renege. The season ended with a seething Megan telling Don, “You want to be alone with your liquor and your ex- wife and your screwed- up kids,” and then walking out on him. Possibly for good.