‘Mad Men’ season 6 finale review: Is Don Draper over, with Megan and SC&P?

What has always made Don Draper one of TV’s paramount characters is that he’s not just a man with flaws; he’s also about when he chooses to expose them. This became the central issue of Sunday night’s “Mad Men” season 6 finale, as we finally started to see this man get so in over his head that he finally started to unravel at the most inopportune time.

It was also rather interesting to see the sort of man that Don became in the process: A kinder one, at least sort of. After telling Megan that he wanted to move to Los Angeles, she quit her job; however, he then decided to defer it to Ted in order to ensure that he could move on without destroying his family after spending the night in Peggy’s bed.

Unfortunately, Don’s switch around caused all sorts of conflict when it came to Megan, who stormed out the moment that he announced the news to her. To make matters worse, his erratic behavior in the meeting with Hershey’s led to him being forced out of the company by his partners for at least several months (why is Pete never included in these partner’s meetings?)

As for some other characters, Roger Sterling finally decided that he was going to be a bit of a better father to Kevin, which meant in turn trying to be nice to Bob Benson, otherwise known as the number 1 enemy to everyone. Pete has to deal with the news that his mother is presumably dead, which ends the weirdest storyline that we still don’t quite understand. Oh, and Peggy is none too pleased about Ted sleeping with her, promising to leave his wife for her and then doing a complete 180 in the morning. These stories all breezed by, but it ultimately feels like so many of them are going to have the opportunity to start over in the new year.

As angry as we were with the Pete storyline, and some of the random moments of this season, we still somehow choked up in the closing scene as Don, now possibly liberated from everything, showed his children the first real glimpse at his life … and he and Sally shared a moment. He may not have Megan anymore, and he may not even have his job at the moment, but somehow it feels like we are seeing more of the real Don Draper than we ever have before. This one moment alone made this entire finale worthwhile, and it has us pleading to know what Matthew Weiner is going to do next.

What is your take on the “Mad Men” finale? As always, we welcome your thoughts below. If you want to read some more news about what we could see on season 7, all you have to do is head on over to the link here.

Photo: AMC