I thought lung cancer made sense as an end to the entire arc of the ad business in a "you reap what you sow" way. SC&P pushed tobacco despite knowing about the early reports about the link between smoking and cancer. It wasn't about Betty - it was about "this could happen to anyone because ad agencies like SC&P…

To me, it was telling that accidentally killing his CO was what he most felt like he needed to confess. Has he ever confessed that detail to anyone? I feel like he's always glossed it over as "another guy died and I took his identity". I don't recall him ever explaining his role in original Don dying. It seems…

This has to end up with Don reconnecting with Megan, right? He's fully out of advertising, which basically what broke them up to begin with (his need to "fix" the business). He's probably going to get his kids back - Henry being a good guy, I think he'll want them to be with their father when Betty's gone. Giving…

Well, Nicola Peltz is pretty easy on the eyes, so there's that.

Hobart isn't a spoiled brat, he just doesn't really know Don. It's like anything else in life. We want things for so long, thinking they'll be one thing, and they're another. Anyone would be disappointed if they they got something they coveted and it turned out to be not at all what they thought it was.

I liked the Joan storyline best in this episode - not that it's what she deserved, but it (mostly) wrapped up her storyline the way it had to end. Even had she stayed at McCann, she'd never be respected or treated equally. I felt like it was sweet of Roger to counsel her to take Hobart's offer, like he's still…

You know, something you said actually landed with me, but in the opposite way. Yes, it was something new, but it felt like it was bad performance art where you're supposed to like it for being "bold enough to be different" in an Emperor's New Clothes sort of way. That's exactly what has been bothering me about this…

I thought this episode was painfully unfunny. For me, it peaked at the cold open and went rapidly downhill, so much so that I almost turned it off out of boredom. Chang's the only one delivering laughs this season, at least for me. The concept of making the bad film the crux of the episode didn't work for me. It…

Speaking of names, look at the last three episode titles:

Why would they want to force him out? Jim Hobart's been trying to lure Don to McCann since season 1. He's not going to want to fire his prize now that he's finally got him. And if they tear up his contract, the non-compete clause goes away and he can work at any competing agency he wants (or even start up his own…

I didn't get the feeling Hobart sold Don on McCann, although maybe I'm wrong. Didn't Don say something first and then pass the baton to Roger, and everyone walked out after what Roger said, and Don jumped back in to try and salvage the situation? I felt like it meant Don was trying to find some way to be OK with…

I didn't get that vibe. If you're suicidal, are you really going to be together enough to call up and cancel your suicidal messages, then off yourself? And if she were going to commit suicide, isn't it likely it would have been in her apartment and she'd have been found there? Also, we don't know the exact…

#1 was a great callback to the pilot.

I would attribute it to the fact that Roger was desperate to make a deal to head off Jim Cutler taking over the company. Roger wasn't in a position to demand terms. He needed McCann more than McCann needed him. They had all the leverage to get the terms exactly as they wanted them. Don, in particular, was in no…

Great point. I feel like being a reviewer of these episodes is impossible because inevitably the crowd of intelligent viewers is going to point out something you missed.

I can see that for the guy in the apartment, but I didn't think the guy who answered the door was very stereotypical. He seemed like any other dude in his bathrobe who's annoyed at being disturbed by a stranger. It was kind of a point/counterpoint thing. The one guy flamboyantly invites Don in for a drink, but…

I think we can read it as Ted not being happy in his marriage at the time. Now that we know he ended up divorcing Nan, in retrospect perhaps him chasing Peggy was a product of being unhappy in his marriage. I think it's telling that this new woman in his life sounds like she's his age (they knew each other in…

I felt like this was Mad Men's Ozymandius. This is the end, and the final three episodes are the epilogue. Sterling Cooper = Hank.

The way I can see the show going more than another year is for this season to end with Norman being locked up in a mental institution after going off the deep end. He severely injures and almost kills someone (Romero, maybe, in a rage that he's become Norma's lover) and gets institutionalized as a result. We end…

I think it has to be when Norma dies. That's really the story they're telling: how we get to the corpse in the chair seen at the end of the movie.