No, this season wasn't as purely entertaining as the first two seasons, but watching the dissolution of a marriage isn't really the pure entertainment that seeing the skulduggery and infighting of a competitive workplace is. In one sense, I did find it interesting as a dramatic choice to focus more attention on Ossining this season. We rarely if ever get a story about how a marriage breaks up with this kind of depth. And, as with every serious relationship, it wasn't pretty. And no, it wasn't "entertaining."

But I do think it was *necessary*, at least in terms of the story MW seems to want to present: which I believe (particularly this season), is how a man with a fractured personality grows up. I know that that process can happen in two ways (often simultaneously): a slow evolution, with some periods of radical change, usually brought about by a crisis.

The other thing that I haven't seen anyone mention is how this season's finale links so well to the the tarot card reading from last season. I've been reading Tarot for decades, and I was really impressed by the layout of cards they chose for that reading. Anna explained that the key to the reading was The World or, more specifically, Don's belief that he was all alone in the world, and that it was this which was keeping him from being happy.

Well, a man who can say to Peggy, "Will you help me?" is a man who has been stripped of his illusion that he has to do everything on his own. He has begun that integration in the workplace world. It will be interesting to see if/how that continues and if he is also able to do the same kind of growing/healing in his personal life.

(Does that really help? Really?)

Btw, I totally get the phantom limb thing, but it's especially apropos, no?

Here's the other thing about Roger, re Jane–he's gotta be bored. Jane may be intelligent, but I doubt she's interesting to Roger. I know we're all looking at Joan, but also, look at Mona–these are two women who can hold their own when it comes to sharp, witty rapport. We haven't seen much of Jane, but not only is she young, I think she also takes herself too seriously. And I think that when he thought about retiring now, it wasn't the threat of dying in three years, but living–spending all his days with his wife. Roger needs a job!

I loved looking at the group from Dons point of view, I felt like there is hope!

I had no trouble seeing what was happening to Don work-wise: He's in a slump, which may or may not be temporary. At some point, almost every creative person who's been financially successful loses touch with the public's taste, and either gets it back later or doesn't.

Don is coming out of a period where he hardly had to try, pearls just spilled out of his mouth and what he had to offer was exactly what clients wanted. Now they, like everyone else around him (including his kids!), are demanding more of him. Three years ago, he could scarcely have imagined a client grumbling, "But I wanted the moon!" Things are changing at a dizzying speed, and they're not going to change back.

The fact that he reaches out to Peggy and Pete (and I think the Suzanne affair had something to do with this too) means he's aware that he's having trouble keeping up all by himself and doesn't really understand what's going on out there. (Certainly Betty couldn't tell him; she's even more conservative than he is.) You wonder how Mr. Take Your Hat Off In The Elevator is going to deal with hippie rebellion when it takes over the culture (or at least New York) for real, when it becomes more than just an amusing diversion for him. In the 1960s, you couldn't love Sinatra AND the MC5; you had to pick.