Mad Men - "Time Zones"

Despair. That's the word that comes to mind whenever I think about Mad Men's 7th (and final, sort of, not really) season premiere. Complete and utter despair.

Of course, the truth is that despair has been creeping underneath the glossy surface of Mad Men since the very beginning. The entire show, after all, is a study of people who time is about to leave behind. But as the series has progressed, the despair has slowly crept up from underneath the surface to hanging out on top of it. And now, at the start of the 7th season, it's front and center, towering right over the eerie Hollywood hills like Charles Manson is just waiting around the corner. Yes, it's 1969, the year of the Manson murders and Woodstock and the moon landing, events that Mad Men will surely cover sometime between now and its swan song in 2015, but most importantly, it's the end. The end of what? Who knows. Don and Megan's marriage? Probably! Peggy's time at Sterling Cooper & Partners? Maybe! Lou Avery's life? We can only hope! But all through "Time Zones", it's hard to shake the feeling that something is about to come crashing down any minute.

Things were unsettling from the very start, when the season began with Freddy Rumsen - Freddy fucking Rumsen! - addressing the camera directly (an uncharacteristically fourth wall breaking choice for Mad Men) for a special pitch to Peggy. For a split second, we wonder if all has been righted with the world and Peggy has finally been made creative director of SC&P, but our hopes are quickly shattered when we're introduced to the sad, sad man that goes by the name of Lou Avery - SC&P's new Don Draper, except without the charm and talent and creativity and anything that makes Draper who he is. But he also comes without all of that pesky "mental instability due to his stolen identity and traumatic past" baggage that got Draper placed on leave at the end of last season. Quite honestly, watching Peggy play subservient to Lou Goddamn Avery was probably the most upsetting part of a very upsetting hour of television for me. The entire series has led me to believe that it would allow Peggy to be triumphant in the end, and when the end of Season 6 suggested Peggy might be Don's replacement, it seemed like all of those years of feminist struggle and marijuana experimentation and Duck Phillips might finally be paying off. But no. Peggy is right back where she's always been, trapped by the decisions of the many men in her life. I truly hope that Peggy hasn't missed the boat for the next generation and that she gets the hell out of SC&P and into a firm or even a line of work that respects her by seasons' end. I need Peggy Olson to win, guys. I need it. And watching her end the episode sobbing over how little she's progressed in the past few years despite all of her hard work...well, it was tough.

Still, her darkness will have to compete with the darkness of Don Draper, who is still sort of married to Megan even though they're bi-coastal and both pretty much realize that this thing isn't going to last for much longer. The scenes between Don and Megan were tough to watch, especially given that I recently went through Season 5 and was reminded of how much hope there was in their marriage back then. Sure, we all kind of knew it was doomed from the start, but there was a time when we all really thought Don could maybe be a better man and could make things work with Megan, who was pretty much the opposite of Betty and everything she represented. Now? Don and Megan's marriage is nauseatingly similar to Don and Betty's circa Season 3. Don is lying to Megan, yet to reveal that he's not currently working for SC&P and therefore is living across the country from her simply because, well, he doesn't really want to live with her. There's been a ton of speculation that Megan is going to meet a Manson-like fate, given her creepy apartment in the hills and minor television fame. I'd like to believe that Mad Men wouldn't be that cutesy with its history references (it never has been before), and I also would be kind of bummed if Megan met that fate. I'd much prefer seeing Megan taking control of her life in the way Betty mostly but didn't quite do, either by meeting her own Henry Francis or just kicking it on her own. Anyway, we know Don is off his game when he meets a cute airplane passenger played by yet another '90s teen star and doesn't even do anything with her other than let her rest her widowed head on his shoulder. This act of resistance is notably different than the ones Don exerted in Season 5, when he was trying his best to be A Good Husband. This one is more because Don Draper was the one who cheated on his wife, and he's not sure if Don Draper is even here anymore. The revelation that Don was writing his pitches through Freddy was both surprising and a little depressing, knowing that he's been reduced to being a mouthpiece for an infamously alcoholic freelancer. It's no wonder Don ends the episode freezing on his balcony after unsuccessfully trying to fix an unstuck door, and that shot is one of the episodes' most unsettling, as we wonder for a moment whether Weiner actually has what it takes to kill off his protagonist at the start of his shows' final season. He doesn't, because he's not dumb, but he's smart enough to make us think he's going to.

I wish I could say things were looking up for our other friends (and enemies) at SC&P, but then I'd have to ignore an overworked and still eyepatched Ken going off on Joan. Poor Ken. It's obvious that his latest title as Head of Accounts is keeping him from his love of sci-fi writing, and he's taking it out on Joan, who continues to try to prove herself in a company that's kind of tired of people proving themselves. Joan's meeting with Travis from Cougar Town (who, yes, is the new marketing manager of an important client) is another way of showing us how Joan is trying her best to prove that she has what it takes to be a full partner - and doing pretty well at it, too! But pretty much no one - except for maybe Ken - seems to care one way or another. Much like Peggy, Joan is trapped by the men of Sterling Cooper. They need an out. (And maybe they can take poor Ken with them).

The last person I have to get to is, of course, Roger Sterling, who is taking the new sexual revolution up on all of its promises, but doing so in the saddest way possible. Roger might think that his newfound orgy cult is a sign that he's finally free, but the contrast between his time there and brunch with his daughter brings to center just how sad of a man Roger really has become. Brunch is awkward and painful - especially since Margaret seems almost brainwashed when she weirdly tells him that "she forgives him" before going on a laundry list of things that he did wrong - and it's only made moreso when we see Roger returning home to a sweaty-looking threesome. Roger is living his dream, but there's something so damn depressing about it.

Really, the only person who seems content is Pete Campbell. Of all people! This is Pete Campbell we're talking about, so I'm sure he'll wind up complaining that it's too hot before knocking down an elephant or something in the next episode, but it seems significant that the only character who appears to be better off than where we left off last season is the one who is never happy about anything. It also ups the "Pete Campbell is Don Draper" mindset - California used to be Don's happy place. It was the home of Anna and the start of his relationship with Megan. But now even California can't save Don. Maybe it's too soon to tell if it'll save Pete. (Can anyone who cheats on Alison Brie truly be saved?)

So what does this all mean? This is Mad Men, so we might not be sure until the season is said and done. But more than many other Mad Men premieres, "Time Zones" suggests things are in a state of unrest. This is a show about people who find themselves trapped in cycles because they're not ready for real change, but "Time Zones" looks to find many of these characters in their final orbits. Where they'll go next is the question from here on out.