Entertainment

This Is The End For Megan (Sort Of)

by Aly Semigran

There were no screaming matches, no discoveries of recently infidelity (as much as Don's secretary would have wanted that to be the case), and no deaths at the hands of Charles Manson. Just two people who knew they reached the end of their relationship and couldn't pretend anymore. Don (Jon Hamm) and Megan Draper (Jessica Paré) seemed to call it quits for good — very amicably, mind you — during the beautiful, bizarre Mad Men Season 7 mid-season finale "Waterloo."

While packing for his trip to Indianapolis for the Burger Chef meeting, Don takes a break to call Megan out in California. Megan is lounging in a bikini, sipping wine, and making small talk with her long-distance husband about The Wild Bunch. Don reveals that the company is going to fire him, and in a dry, unenthusiastic tone he tells her that it's an "opportunity" for him to "finally move out there." Don is a brilliant ad man, but he can't even sell the idea of living in the same state to his wife, let alone himself. There is a long pause and Megan takes a sip of her wine after Don poses the question, "Is that what you want me to do?"

Megan can only muster his name. She doesn't have the energy to fight for a relationship that began to unravel long before she moved to the west coast. Don and Megan may have been doomed from the start, but their emotional distance grew even wider than the cities between them. There was no animosity, just the mutual realization of that sad fact.

Don knows that her silence over the phone speaks volumes and tells her, "I'll always take care of you....Whatever you need. I owe you that." A teary Megan responds, "You don't owe me anything." And that is that. We don't see Megan again the entire episode (if Bert's fitting last words were "Bravo!" then Megan's fitting last Mad Men words would be "Bye, Don") and it could very well be the last we see of the tremendous, if not underutilized Jessica Paré. Hey, at least she survived all those scary Internet predictions. And we'll always have "Zou Bisou Bisou."

Image: AMC