Here's Where We Last Left The Women And Men Of <em>Mad Men</em>

Mad Men is returning tonight, with season seven continuing after a one year break (thanks to AMC squeezing all it can out of one of its last critical darlings). There are now seven episodes left in the series, before the screen goes black and we hear a Journey song. Where were all the main players when we last saw them last April? Here's what went down in the mid-season finale, titled "Waterloo."

DON
"I'm deeply unimpressed, Don, you're just a bully and a drunk. A football player in a suit. The most eloquent I've ever heard you is when you were blubbering like a little girl about your impoverished childhood." This is what Jim Cutler tells Don in the beginning of the episode, after sending out a memo that the once golden boy of advertising is being ousted for "breach of contract."

Since the season started, Don has been working his way back into the agency from his "mandatory leave of absence."

The agency's partners take a vote (even though it's questionable how much power that has in this scenario), and Cutler only has "Benedict Joan," as Roger calls her, backing him. Joan is upset that Don cost her a million dollars when the company didn't go public.

Don moves forward with an upcoming pitch to Burger Chef, but preps Peggy as the lead, becoming the cheerleader and mentor in a way we haven't seen before. He tells her, acknowledging he may be out, "If I win this business and then I go, you'll be left with nothing. You win this business, and it will be yours." Throughout her home run pitch, he beams confidence right alongside her, sharing a sly smile that Alan Sepinwall determined to be a "powerful denouement for their relationship."

In the end, Don is safe, as Roger takes the lead and devises a plan to keep the old guard together.

But meanwhile, Don's second marriage has ended—not with a bang, but with a long distance phone call...

MEGAN

Megan looks happy in Los Angeles, where we see her sunbathing on her Laurel Canyon porch. Don calls to tell her he may have lost his job, and her response seems to speak to their relationship more than his career: "Maybe you should [move on]. Aren't you tired of fighting?" In a quick series of single sentences and longer silences, it becomes clear Megan has decided to move on for the both of them. Don tells her, "I'll always take care of you... whatever you need, I owe you that." Megan has found her freedom from Don's world, one she never fully fit into despite her love for him, and tells him she is fine—"You don't owe me anything. Goodbye Don."

When Pete finds out about this, he delivers one of his classic Pete one-liners: "Marriage is a racket!"

PETE
There's not a whole lot to say about Pete. In the episode prior to this he comes to New York with his California girlfriend, has an explosive visit with Trudy, and continues to be Pete... albeit a less Sneaky Pete version of Pete... although he seems to experience pure joy when massive amounts of money are brought up (see: Roger's plan). Mostly, he's been fighting for Don ("That is a very sensitive piece of horseflesh!"), and keeping things together in LA as Ted Chaough falls apart.

ROGER

Bert dies during this episode, and Roger is most immediately changed by that—"I know what he meant to you. You know he was very proud of you," Don consoles him. (As an aside: in the final shot of this episode we see Don tearing up as he sees a vision of Bert singing "The Best Things in Life Are Free.")

Roger decides to take the lead to keep the company together and save Don's job, something he undoubtedly believes Bert would be proud of him for. He meets with McCann-Erickson, and suggests, "You should buy the whole company... because I have a vision." Roger's vision is to become an Independent subsidiary of McCann, keeping SC&P intact, but cutting out Cutler and other "baggage."

That's one small step for McCann, one giant leap for Sterling (who hasn't given the company this much attention since the last casting call). Did we mention this episode takes place with Apollo 11 looming ever presently in the background?

PEGGY
We first see Peggy in her brownstone, which she has horrifyingly decided to fit with drop ceilings. Here we see Julio, the 10-year-old neighbor boy that she has been bonding with this season. He's something between a piece of furniture in her life, and a real son who she has all but abandoned. The two embrace and tear up as Julio tells her that he has to move to Newark.

Meanwhile, Peggy focuses on work. When Don tells her she needs to lead the presentation to Burger Chef, a day after the moon landing, she worries—"I have to talk to people who just touched the face of God... about hamburgers" (a Reagan/Challenger reference). She nails it, and any empty holes in her life seem to be filled with this accomplishment for now.

It's important to point out that Peggy and Don were both at the lowest points we've ever seen them when season 7 began—just rewatch the end of "Time Zones," which ends with them both, separately, collapsing behind closed doors (as Vanilla Fudge's "Keep Me Hangin' On" plays).

TED
Ted Chaough is a wild card. He hasn't been happy since he moved to LA, which was his way of ending things with Peggy. This episode begins with him taking Pete and their Sunkist client out for a ride in his plane, where he cuts the engine while still in air—a move made only more disturbing for those on board by hid talk of death and suicide. He's unstable, and Pete tells Cutler he's "going to run that place into the ground... he's off the deep end."

When the McCann idea comes during the partners meeting, he says he's out of the ad game, and wants to be bought out. Don (who knows McCann wants Ted) may have convinced him to stay, however, telling him from his own experience that Ted doesn't want to see what happens when this part of his life is really gone.

JOAN
Outside of the office, Joan's life seems to be filled with her mother, baby Kevin, and her pal Bob Benson, who in the episode prior to this proposed marriage as a way of looking like a family man to a potential new employer. Her focus, however, is on the agency. Her payout from the McCann acquisition would, in modern day money, come to about $10 million. Consider her and Don friends again.

BETTY
Meanwhile, Betty Francis & Family are still living their suburban life, where sometimes things feel a bit Hood family. Betty and Sally (a lifeguard now) only appeared in three of the seven episodes last season, though Sally got in a very heartfelt moment of understanding with her father.

Here's Matthew Weiner discussing "Waterloo," but you can also just watch the full episode on Netflix:

As for tonight? Here were our predictions as the show was put on pause last year, assuming we are returning in 1969:

• There's still time for Megan to be murdered by the Manson family, fulfilling the Sharon Tate conspiracy theory that's still alive in certain dark corners of the internet. Tate was murdered on August 9th, 1969.
• On August 8th, The Beatles will be famously photographed crossing on Abbey Road. Is Paul dead? Is Paul Don? Is Don the Walrus?
• Woodstock is about to happen, will Roger eat the brown acid?
• The first Gap is about to open, will Don become a khakis man?
• The Miracle Mets win the World Series in October. Lane would have enjoyed that.
• Sesame Street is about to air for the first time... will Harry and his giant computer try to sell them on some commercial spots?
• Maybe Megan dies at Altamont? RIP 1960s.