The end is nigh for Mad Men and fans are all rooting for good – well, suitable – endings for Don Draper, Pete Campbell, Joan Hollway and the rest of the Sterling Cooper crew. Including, of course, the queen of all queens, Peggy Olson. In case you missed Sunday night’s season premiere, let us thoroughly spoil you in recapping what the episode set up.

If you just wanted to know what happeed to Don Draper after his utter fall from grace – and sobriety – last season, then you’re in for a long ride, because we have a lot of other characters to revisit first.

Jon Hamm
Jon Hamm plays Don Draper on the AMC show.

Last season closed on a newly empowered Peggy, literally and metaphorically wearing the pants and apparently on her way out of Sterling Cooper. In the season opening, we see her listening to Freddie Rumsen’s pitch for Accutron watches. Peggy is judging. Peggy is in charge. Except not quite, because she is now under the guidance of crusty ol' Lou Avery and “old-fashioned” doesn’t even begin to describe that guy. He dresses like Mr. Rogers, chuckles at his own corny jokes, and brags about his "peachy" weekend chopping firewood.

Meetings with him are more painful than a root canal to sit through and might be this season’s slowest scenes, but at least we see Peggy display some of that abundant SASS. Which she has plenty of room to do anyway - Pete and Ted are in Los Angeles, Bob Benson is in Detroit, and Don is still in Elba, leaving stressed-out, one-eyed Ken Cosgrove responsible for yelling at underlings.

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