AMC's Mad Men Season 3 Finale
'Shut the Door. Have a Seat.' Start a New Agency.
“You’re not good at relationships because you don’t value them,” Roger Sterling said to Don Draper. While that was certainly true of Don in the past, he seemed to be a transformed man by the end of Mad Men’s third season. He may have lost his family, but he brought together the people whose relationships he values to form an alliance from the ashes of Sterling Cooper.
Betty Bails Out
Betty and Henry went to see a divorce lawyer, who advised them to flee to Nevada for six weeks to end the Draper marriage efficiently. At first, Don seemed intent on fighting Betty and keeping their family together, but everything changed when Roger inadvertently informed Don that Betty was leaving him for Henry. After a tense and ugly confrontation with Betty in the bedroom, Don admitted defeat and moved out of the house.
Sally and Bobby were heartbroken to hear that their father was leaving — “You said you’d always come home,” Sally whimpered — and both of their parents seemed saddened as well. However, that didn’t stop Betty from hopping on a plane to Reno with Henry and baby Gene, leaving Carla at home with the other two children and supporting Don’s statement that they would be better off with him.
Don Takes Action
Don also ended his relationship with Connie after the news that a rival agency was buying up Putnam, Powell & Lowe (including Don and his contract) finally made him see that the old man was simply playing with him. Unwilling to go down without a fight, Don rounded up Cooper and Roger and then Pryce, who joined up with them after he found out his bosses had been keeping him in the dark.
Pryce used his authority to fire the other three, freeing them from their contracts and allowing them to spend the weekend stealing supplies and clients for their own new agency. When they realized that they had no idea how to run that agency, Roger called in Joan, who returned to her manager’s role with even more authority and poise than before. And hapless Harry Crane was drafted too, agreeing to join after Cooper threatened to lock him in a closet.
Pete and Peggy Get Recruited
Roger brought Lucky Strike with him, but he and Don had to recruit Pete in order to secure the rest of the accounts they needed. They ambushed him at home, where he was pretending to be sick so he could interview with another agency. He expressed reluctance to join them at first, but some encouragement from Trudy and long-awaited praise from Don sealed the deal.
Peggy was more difficult to convince. Don’s first approach was to tell her she would be coming with them, not ask her if she would, but she finally stood up to her boss, refusing to follow him “like some nervous poodle.” Later, Don visited her at her apartment, where he finally admitted that he had taken her for granted and convinced her to come with him.
Sterling, Cooper, Draper & Pryce
On Monday, the remaining Sterling Cooper staff was shocked to find that their leaders had fled, and Ken and Paul were especially chagrined to discover that Pete and Peggy had been chosen instead of them. Pryce merrily accepted his firing and headed over to the hotel office of Sterling, Cooper, Draper & Pryce, where Don seems to have found a place to escape from his loneliness.
Whatever Happened to Salvatore Romano?
One noticeably absent character was poor Sal, who hasn’t appeared since he was fired earlier in the season. The new agency will need an art director, but the Lucky Strike account will likely prevent Don from reaching out to Sal. It looks like viewers will have to wait until next year to find out what happened to him, but this season finale offered enough payoff to make up for it.
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