And, has she interacted with Betty for any length of time? I'm not sure I'd wish that on any future Mrs. Draper.

I think they met briefly when Sally ran away, but that may have been their only interaction. (Unless she was there when Don picked up the kids for the LA trip.)

Dr. Faye told Don he'd be married again within the year.

I knew he wouldn't commit to her once he confided in her. And yet...he didn't want to lie outright to Sally about Dick. I think he has to tell Megan about Dick Whitman, but that's something he should have done before he proposed. So, that relationship is already compromised.

I'm certain that "I Got You Babe" was used with exactly the same amount of irony that "Don't Stop Believin'" was used in the Sopranos finale. First of all, Sonny was an older man who controlled Cher's life. Second of all, they got divorced.

I don''t believe this marriage will be a happy ending for Don or Megan. He wasn't honest with her beforehand. It's built on bullshit.

And everybody's WTF reaction was perfect. It was hard watching all the women in Don's life get the news: Joan, Peggy, Faye, Betty. It hurt each of them.

God, I loved that scene with Peggy and Joan.

"What ever is on your mind?"

"I've learned not to take all my satisfaction from work."
"Bullshit!"

That line of Joan's, "Life goes on" after she saw the doctor was just too rich in that context not to be a clue.

Also, I'll note that Megan was very canny and even a bit calculating.

I don't think she's sneaky evil or anything, but she did what she could to align things. The look on her face after he slept with her in California definitely suggested that she knew he was on the hook. She "just had a feeling about it" calling her mom. She stopped by dressed to kill before she went out to the Whisky (I hope she went to see The Doors, or Love). She pushed him to call Dr. Faye, and she was in his office seconds after he made that call.

Again, I like the character and the actress, but she's no naif.

Ouch, a hard but possibly apt assessment of Don from AVClub:

Can you picture an elderly Don Draper proudly showing off his coin collection to visiting grandchildren? I can’t. I can only see him alone, living with regret. I think those flashes of soulfulness, those moments that keep us invested in Don’s happiness and worried about his fate, would only hurt him in his dotage. He’s a man capable of inflicting terrible hurt, but he’s sensitive enough to know what he’s doing and introspective enough to remember the hurt he’s dispensed. I see Don Draper’s golden years as an endless succession of tortured winces.

I don't know--my grandfather was from an abusive and very poor background and was a self-made man. He was unhappy in his first marriage (My grandmother) and was not a great father. A success in business but a failure in relationships. He was alone for some years and then met my step-grandmother. Something in her changed him. He got closer to my dad and to all of us. They retired to a little cabin on Lake Michigan and were very happy. She didn't "save" him, but there was something about her that let him be a caring person.

I'd be bummed to think Mad Men wound up like The Sopranos, that is, nobody really changes.

I don't think Don will wind up as that bitter old guy.

But I can't see quite how this marriage to Megan could possibly work.

Unless it works across/against the narrative that Don thinks he's creating. That he has to deal with shit and grow into it.

But right now both he and Roger look like they'll have two divorces on the books.

Do you think that Betty will have 2 divorces on the books?

Or will she figure out a way to grow up?

truly? I think she is going to kill Henry with stress.

Or will she figure out a way to grow up?

Nope. Because it's all about having someone on her side. Henry's saying that no one is ever on her side is just proof to her that she'll have to find someone else. I found it so telling that she retreated to her daughter's room after that confrontation.

And I'm with Hec in that Megan is no little naif/wallflower. Look at how capably she handled the fact that she knew Don still had some emotional investment in Faye and pushed him to end it. She wasn't hurt that he'd been involved with someone else, but now that it's her he's chosen, she's also not going to let him dangle someone else.

I think the fact that she has French background is also going to come into play with some of the societal/cultural mores playing a part in how she handles Don.

Or will she figure out a way to grow up?

I find myself constantly dating the characters' problems against the societal changes in place by the early seventies (after the sixties upheavals). Like, "Well, by then it's conceivable Betty would be in a feminist consciousness raising situation and therapy will practically be de rigeur."

They all seem so trapped by cultural expectations that won't change for another six or seven years.

But then I think about all the divorced dads in the seventies who went through their disco cocaine leisure suit phase and didn't seem to become any wiser for it.

The finale felt a little disappointing because Don's decision seemed like a big step backward for his character. It seemed in-character, though. I understand not only why Don made that choice but why it seemed like a really good, honest, true, forward-moving choice for him. But it's not.