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This weekend, AMC showed the Season Three finale ("Shut the Door. Have a Seat") (writen by Matthew Weiner & Erin Levy) which is my favorite episode of all. Please excuse this terribly long post, but as the new season approaches, I want to recommend giving this episode another viewing to everyone who loves this show. And, I want to explain why.

I remembered this episode as being one of the finest in the entire series (another might be "Guy Walks Into an Advertising Agency" (also from Season 3 and written by "Robin Veith and Matthew Weiner"). But, as I rewatched the finale today, I saw so many wonderful things that I had missed in previous viewings. So, I watched it again and every time I did, I saw more new and wonderful things previously missed.

I know that I have gushed over this episode before and indeed over this entire series. But, IMO, this episode towers above the others and watching it is like getting two episodes in one. Again, this is just my opinion, but this epi contains one hour that was - on its own - perhaps the finest hour of TV drama - ever. But then, it seems like there was another hour that was also present but not shown. Some people call it "subtext". It seemed to me the viewer could easily "imagine" at least another hour worth of embedded scenes. For example, the scene where Don wakes Betty after learning that she has been peparing to leave him for Henry Francis.

There was so much going on with that scene that was left to the viewer's imagination. But it was powerfully present nonetheless. When Don busts in on his sleeping wife and rouses her to (presumably) give her shit for her hypocritcal behavior (hypocritical because she has made his life a living Hell for cheating on her while she has been preparing to do the same thing to him, I don't think he had thought through the consequences. I found it amazingly powerful to see how Betty had him by the nutsack and he didn't even realize it. When she tells him, "Don't threaten me!", I thought it may well have been one of the most powerful moments in the entire series. Betty knows she has him dead to rights. She doesn't need to spell it out for Don that he had deserted from the army and she could very possibly arrange for him to spend some serious time in prison for that. Even though the reality is that it might well have been impossible to find anyone to pursue that after so many years, Don can't afford to take that chance. At the very least, his entire career is over if ever a word of this scandal leaks out. She understand this. But, apparently, Don has not thought it through yet. So many questions about that could make for a whole other one hour show.

As for the viewer's imagination, I found myself wondering what will happen when Don realizes that Betty holds all the cards now. He has to change the way he treats her and we see that later when he calls her and tells her he will co-operate with her. Did he do that because he wanted to take the high road? Or did he do it because he finally realized he had no choice and he is entirely under her thumb? But in the scene where he wakes Betty, we see a very different Don than ever before. He is not suave and cool self-assured. He is drunk and stupid and has not yet thought things through. Betty has him by the short hairs and he just never imagined that would ever be possible. By the way, I believe he was quite fortunate to be rid of her. It's just a shame, however, that the kids had to suffer so badly.

There is so much more to be said about this scene, but this forum just doesn't lend itself to my spending several more pages talking about it. That is what I'd really like to do. But, I have to stop heaping praise on this scene - even though I would really like to continue. For one thing, there is the acting skill of January Jones. I know many people here have said she has no talent as an actor. But, she certainly delivers in this one scene - in spades! I have never seen this Betty Draper before. She delivers a completely different personna here than any other one we've ever seen.

I've heaped praise on JJ's acting talent in the past - usually to much derision. Not only regarding this show but also her appearance on Law & Order. She was fabulous on that episode. But her talent is on full display here. She presents a completely different Betty Draper in this scene than we've ever seen before. As an actor, that is certainly one definition of talent - the ability to present herself as a character the audience can't even recognize as being played by that actor. Wonderful! There is also the scene when she and her husband gather the children into the living room to tell them their father will be moving out. She hides her face from her children as she realizes how much pain and suffering she and Don are imposing on them. What a powerhouse of a scene that was - and once again both actors demonstrate top notch skills. I've just got to say that IMO, this one episode is more powerful and delivers more talent than any other two episdoes combined. And what about the daughter? "You say one thing but you mean another. And you can't just do that!" She has enormous talent too!

Well, I haven't even scratched the surface here and I have many more pages I'd like to post. So, I'm going to have to stop and just highlight some of the other moments from this epi (at least, IMO). When Don and Roger leave Peter's apartment, Peter and Trudy do this little dance as they realize that Peter the flunky has just made an unbelievable transformation into Peter the Partner and they now have to behave in a whole new serious manner. Their lives have just changed and changed in a wonderful way.

The moment that we see the realization sink into Don's brain that he and Roger et all can turn the tables on the British snobs by inviting Lane to become a partner in the new firm and by having Lane fire them all was a glorious thing!

The moment(s) that Peggy transforms herself from a little girl wallflower into a serious business woman and a force to be reckoned with. Once, when Roger tells her to get some coffee and she says "no!". Then again, when she delivers her line that has become more chilling every time I play it as she tells Don, "Beg me? You didn't even ask me!". Wow! What a line! I would imagine that many women in the business world have turned their own corners in this way and have someone like Peggy Olsen to thank for it. But, it really bothered me that Peter spelled out exactly what he wanted and was made a partner while Peggy and Joan never did that. I sure hope they will "step up" soon and demonstrate they are just as capable as the men when it comes to demanding more for themselves in the business world.

OMG! So many more wonderful, powerful scenes and so representative of everything that was going on for many women in and around 1963. And we have this one episode showing how so many changes were foistered upon Peggy Olsen. Those changes happened specifically to Peggy, in her working life. But similar changes also happened to most working women during the time of this episode. An amazingly powerful finale to this season just as this episode was an amazingly powerful finale to the 1960s!

And the icing on the cake? It was when the office staff arrives Monday morning and one lady cries out, "We've been robbed!". How fitting that she doesn't realize the truth. Also, the phone call between Lane and Cyngen/Syngen (sp?) ending with Lane's "Happy Christmas". It is as if someone had been working on this scrpt for several years and found a way to insert a golden nugget of entertainment every day. Wow! What a script!

To close, I feel the need to say something about Sal Romano who is gone but really didn't deserve to get fired. He has been treated very badly by TPTB. But also gone is the asshole Paul Kinsey who is just an ordinary guy but is seen as an asshole when compared to the other men in his peer group. He deserved every thing that happened to him and probably a whole lot more. It took me a long time to realize just what a creep he was due to many nasty incidents. But, I finally caught on. He has an AA gf primarily to make a statement to others. He doesn't care for her. He just wants to appear that way. He's been involved in many nast incidents that brand him as an "asshole". Do you remember his reaction to the break-in on Monday morning. Laughable! Very laughable!

But, we did get a good understanding of Ken Cosgrove's purpose. IMO, he was just present for the development of Peter Campbell's character. Cosgrove did nothing to deserve any promotions while Campbell surely did. Very happy that things worked out so well for Campbell.