Monday, October 18, 2010

Mad Men Season 4 Finale: Megan

**Warning this post does contain spoilers about the season finale which aired October 17, 2010**

Before we delve into the Mad Men's season 4 finale (titled "Tomorrowland") and the role of Megan (Jessica Paré) lets talk about an earlier episode from the season...episode 4 "The Rejected."

In episode 4, Don's previous secretary Allison (Alex Alamanni, pictured above at far right) has a breakdown while doing a product study for Ponds.

Allison is one of the single woman on the office staff who are poked and prodded about their singleness. Allison's breakdown comes from the feeling of rejection she has from Don after a one night stand that Don completely wants to push under the rug that apparently means nothing to him.

After 20 episodes, this episode is Allison's last, and instead Don becomes connected to his market researcher, Dr. Faye Miller (Cara Buono) who incidentally is conducting the Pond's Study.

When Allison leaves, Don of course needs a new secretary, and he is given one whom there is no fear of physical relations. He receives Miss Blankenship (Randee Heller) who for her time as Donald Draper's secretary she is really quite the comical element.

Joan's move to bring on Miss Blankenship is appreciated by Don helping him focus.

Of course, Miss Blankenship dies...so another young thing takes her place. Which brings us to Megan who becomes his secretary.

Megan had been included in the Pond's focus group from episode 4. I have circled her in the picture above. Megan is the least emotional wreck of them all, at that time the front desk secretary talks about her French mother's beauty routine is simple getting the water to just the right temperature and patting her face.

So when Megan becomes the secretary in episode 9, who's to guess by the finale (episode 13) Don would be popping the question...not to mention after Dr. Faye Miller has been a love interest the bulk of the season in what seems like a generally stable relationship.

So...is Megan Calvet (soon to be Draper) just the thing of season finale's? Is she here to stay?

I will definitely be paying attention to credit positioning when season 5 premiers to see if Jessica Paré's name gets regular billing. If not, I will assume something extremely wrong occurs early on that breaks off the wedding.

But of course, I feel like the writers have given us a great deal of indication that Don's wants to settle down a little bit, and his promiscuous sex life has waned from a fast-moving 10 to something...not quite zero, but not quiet full steam ahead with any offer that comes his way.

So Megan, I must say, I was curious of your character arch from the moment you became the ambitious secretary, and the invitation to Disneyland got my head spinning early on in the finale, but by the time of the proposal I really wasn't sure what was going on. In fact, we were watching saying "Is Don having a dream?"

But now, we will wait and see what the reality of your character is. Hello, season 5. What will you do!

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

It does seem slightly bizzare that Megan's character has been catapulted in to the Mrs. Draper-to-be role, but as soon as Don was given his dead friend's engagement ring, I was just waiting for the proposal.

Pink 63 said...

I was kind of shocked when he proposed. I thought he was interested in the Dr.

There were a couple of foreshadowings - when the Dr could not handle his kids and had no interest in kids, and when his accountant said "dont' you want to come home and have a steak on the table?" Then when Megan was so good with his kids, he started imagining them all together. He is looking for a warm person to come home to, not a business associate.

Anonymous said...

My first MM was Season 4 and followed by S1 and S2 and is now finishing Season 3. Only started to watch couple of months back. After watching all its seasons with all that creepy affairs/dreadful love making scenes Don had..which really quite bugging me..finally its feels sound to watch the show of someone like Megan that Don wants to be with. It is absurd to say the proposal was a sudden by those unhappy viewers and commenting that Don hardly knew her etc. She did relay some information about herself such as mother is French extraction, a Montrealer, her education background, an artistic person, have 4 nieces and 6 nephews and father is college professor. As such, that information mean something. The proposal shouldn’t be a surprised at all becoz when Don said " I'm in love with you Megan" and "its been quite a while" (he did mention the 2nd phrase to Peggy after the announcement in Tomorrowland)..it was understandable that he already got attracted to her when the first time he laid his eyes on her through the Ponds cream focus group interviews..that was when it all started (S4E4 The Rejected /maybe Feb 65 ) but then he had no idea how could he get near her. However, things happened from time to time until the serious one came (S4E13 Finale/maybe Oct 65) – 9 months period of acquaintance. I would say the marriage proposal is justified.

Unknown said...

I must say that season 4 finale was a terrible let down. To me, Don transitioned from confronting his past to within one rushed episode turning the other way (megan instead of Faye). The audience had established a relationship with Faye and Don while none with Megan. We know practically nothing about Megan and she doesn't come off like able. It was too dramatic of a change when Don is heading in one direction. This was the first time in the show's history that I actually found the main protagonist (Don) unlikeable and didn't want to watch any more episodes. I think if he went with faye and confronted his past, that would have been a new conflict in itself to extend many more seasons. To see more info please visit http://essayswriters.org/academic-writing/.