SHUT THE DOOR, HAVE A GLASS: So who is Don Draper? Jim Poniewozik says he chose between two versions of himself while Alan Sepinwall keys on Henry Francis' line about the impossibility of "fresh starts."
I'd rather talk about Peggy's place in all this.
For Peggy Olson, this was a season in which so much of the hard work and the sacrifice seems to have paid off. She's confident, she's exploring New Bohemia and she has earned Don's respect and trust at work, leading to landing the Topaz account ... and then that moment when she finds about about Don's engagement, and the respect she had for him slowly drains away. Really, the secretary, Don? And she admires ... what? Because Peggy knows what it took to get her here, and Megan has no idea. (Don, of course, does.) Yes, we needed that scene with Joan and Peggy commiserating (and smoking), because it's a boy's world after all.
Oh, the boys. Don looking happy and boyish for the first time in ages cannonballing into the pool and seeming to genuinely enjoy parenting. Ken putting family ahead of work, Roger being befuddled (again) by the change all around, and Glen, perhaps, the most grown-up one of all -- other than Henry Francis, who understands what he's chosen, and isn't so sure anymore.
So look at how the women around them deal with it all: Betty throws shitfits and assumes that the men around her will deal; Peggy and Faye fight it as best they can and get disappointed (Faye worse, of course); Joan accepts the world as it is and makes the choices which feel best for her; and Megan, well, Megan makes sure you see that dress before she hits the Whiskey-A-Go-Go, and that seemed to work out just fine for her, even sooner than she expected.
