‘Mad Men’ season 7, episode 13 review: Betty’s medical shocker, Pete takes a risk

We only have two episodes left folks as next week is the series finale of “Mad Men”. The writers have done a great job giving us some final stories for some of the characters, but we really want to see more on Roger before this is all over. More then anything we just want to know what Don’s plan is now that he’s left his job and is on the road. How many times can this guy run away from his past?

Don: Remember Dick Whitman? Don does too and he’s starting to have nightmares about being found out. Seems that fate has brought Don to a motel with a husband and wife that love Don and want him to stick around… partially because he served in the army and so did the husband. He’s invited to a legion meeting and after some apprehension, he goes. He finds some people that understand him and after drinking too much he admits that he killed his officer and was sent home. Things take a a bad turn when later the legion members think that he stole money from them and hold his car hostage until he comes up with the cash. After he finds the kid that stole the money, Don gives him his car and waits at a bus stop for the next part of his adventure.

Pete: With Don leaving his job and Joan being let go, Pete’s in a  pretty sweet position at McCann, but when Duck comes in to help replace Don, he asks Pete for a favor – to work exclusively as an Ad man for a private airline, but they don’t want McCann, they just want Pete. He reminds Duck that he still has a million dollars left on his contract with McCann and while he’s not willing to give that up, he agrees to meet with the client again. So he asks Trudy to come along and play wife and that he will pay her back by taking Tammy for a weekend, but she refuses. Pete decides to stand up the client and although he’s upset, Duck smooths it over and the client is willing to match what McCann is offering. After Pete starts leaning towards taking the new job and moving away, so he decides to take this opportunity to start anew with Trudy asking her and Tammy to move away with him and she says yes.

Betty: She’s back in college and is having some anxiety about it, but when she faints and cracks a rib at school, Henry comes to pick her up and learns about another medical issue she has. What’s wrong with her? It seems that she has advanced lung cancer and she has less then a year to live. Henry finds a way that could help her, but she won’t listen, so he goes to Sally and asks her to talk to her mother. When Henry brings Sally home, Betty isn’t happy to see her involved, because she watched her mother die and she doesn’t want that for Sally. Betty gives Sally a letter with instructions for her death saying that Henry won’t be able to handle it when she dies. Sally decides to read the letter as soon as she gets back to school and it leaves her in tears… and we are too.

With only one episode left we are surprised to see that “Mad Men” would give Betty such a tragic end to her journey. Is anyone going to have a happy ending? We just watched Joan get robbed of half her money and now Betty has cancer. We don’t expect everyone to leave this show with a smile on their face, but we didn’t expect this show to leave us on such a downer right before the finale. Episode grade: B+

What did you think of tonight’s episode of “Mad Men” and what do you want to see happen to Don in the finale next week? Leave us a comment below and tell us your opinion!