What are we doing with all that restless obsessive energy now that Mad Men is over? Talking about Mad Men, endlessly. Message boards are packed with chattering, from fairly baseless historical speculation — “Women didn’t act like that back then” — to gripes about the manipulative ambiguity of Peggy’s child subplot. We picked the best, including a few observations from Matthew Weiner himself.
• Did Don’s visit with Anna Draper remind you of Tony Soprano’s escape to Vegas? [The House Next Door]
• Isn’t Harry kind of a jerk now? (“It’s amazing how much I’ve grown to hate Harry this year.”) And isn’t Peggy becoming a joyless career woman? (“She had to give up her innocence, and some of her compassion, and many of the other qualities that defined her when we met her back in the pilot.”) [Alan Sepinwall]
• If the women “ruled this season,” does Elisabeth Moss deserve the Emmy? Or January Jones? [EW]
• Speaking of which, was Betty trying to abort her kid with horseback riding and rough sex? [AMC Forums]
• Matthew Weiner says the affair helped Betty “put herself on equal footing” with Don. [Alan Sepinwall]
• And did the show play it “a little too safe with her consideration of an abortion”? [Television Without Pity]
• Either way, will Don freak out when he finds out about her affair? [Mad Men Talk/AMC]
• At least one mystery is solved: Peggy’s sister is not taking care of Peggy’s baby. She gave it up for adoption. [Chicago Tribune]
• Maureen Ryan rightly points out that this intentional ambiguity sucks — and it likely frustrated viewers who “would not wait 13 episodes to get an answer to that question.” [Chicago Tribune]
• But Weiner is unrepentant: “I mislead the audience all over the place, and that’s the fun of the show. I give out little bits of information at a time and then play on that.” [Chicago Tribune]
• So, could Pete “somehow manipulate it so that he and Trudy can adopt Peggy’s illegitimate baby”? [Bret H.]
• Not if Pete kills himself with that rifle and isn’t around to see season three. [Show Tracker/LAT]
• Here are a few other predictions: “Don Will Cheat on Betty again.” “Betty will miscarry.” “Pete will not divorce Trudy.” [Television Without Pity]
• And John Hamm says the show won’t skip too far in the future: “I don’t think we need to follow Don into the late ‘70s or ‘80s. His story will have been told by then.” [Mad Men/AMC]
