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The Season 2 finale of Mad Men certainly delivered: it was an episode full of great conversations and confrontations, some of them very long awaited.  Here are a few of my favorites (slightly spoilery):

Francine (played by the lovely Anne Dudek, who gets many props from me based on last season’s finale of House alone) and Betty visited the local beauty parlor.  Aside from the gratuitous design eye candy this allowed, there was also funny and pointed dialogue about the impending Cuban missile attacks.

It's keeping Francine from chewing off her fingernails.

FRANCINE: Betty, you look wan!  You want a Miltown?

In the Sterling Cooper boardroom, the big confrontation between Duck and Don was ready to go down.  We’d been waiting for this the whole time Don was away.  What would he do about Duck’s shady machinations?

Free to drink since abandoning his dog, Duck is probably drunk RIGHT NOW.

DUCK: La la la, I think I am in charge of this room right now.

Probably also drunk, but in a fashionable way, not a pathetic or despicable way.

DON: Not so fast, fucker. What would CHAUNCEY have to say about all this?!

Suffice it to say the scene was awesome.  I have been forty-seven shades of pissed at Duck ever since this episode, and it was nice to see him finally getting his comeuppance.

We’ve also been waiting for some kind of confrontation between Pete and Peggy for, oh ages now — definitely since the part of Season 1 where it became clear Peggs was pregs and not just fat — and this episode was more than satisfactory in that regard.

Please to note how Pete sits down on the couch, all sidling up to Peggy:

More Smarming in Action!

Peggy is clearly not having any of it.  She is perched on the edge of that cushion, ready to make a break for it should Pete begin his usual smarm tactics.

I’m not sure Pete was really all that smarmy in this scene, though. Sad, lonely, desperate, deluded — maybe.  Annoying — of course.

Stoically Resisting the Urge to Feel Bad for Pete Now

The frustration and chagrin on his face as Peggy leaves the room was just as satisfying a comeuppance as Duck’s.

Finally: Don and Betty:

Betty Stoically Resists the Urge to Plunge Her Fingernail into the Soft Flesh of Don's Palm

What the hell.  I don’t even know if I want them to make it.  At the end of last season, I did.  (I mean, if Don couldn’t be with Rachel Menken, that is.) Now, I just don’t know anymore.  Looks like they don’t, either.

And now no more Mad Men until Season 3. WEEP.

Last week’s episode of Mad Men was chock full of awkward moments!  Without further commentary, let’s just appreciate a few of them:

Shiela will not truck with Paul's selfishness.

Betty had had it up to HERE.

Pete tries to smarm Peggy, but she remains unmoved.

Neighbor Kid is about to get his creepy neighbor heart STOMPED.

Paul pontificates about advertising and Marxism.

And , as usual, there were plenty of scenes that were just plain pretty.  Because I can never resist Mad Men’s sets, props, and wardrobe, here are a few pretty things from last week:

Betty contemplates a portrait of her mother.

Betty’s contemplation of this portrait of her mother, coming just after we were shown the crass, gauche, unattractive stepmother, was quietly telling.

And here’s Don getting undressed (OH YES INDEED):

Secret Red Lining!

Did you know his gray flannel jacket had a secret red lining?  I never noticed that before.  What a lovely surprise.

Finally, I spent quite a while admiring the cups in use at this baby shower for Harry Crane, held in the Sterling Cooper offices:

I would like to serve cocktails out of these at my next party.

Are they paper cups? Plastic? Glass?  I do not even know, but I can tell you that I WANT SOME.  I bet Joan knows where to get them.  Damn it all, why are Joan and I not friends in real life?