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" It seems like just yesterday that we switched on our televisions, watched the season-six premiere of Mad Men, and immediately started dissecting all those Dante references and thinly veiled allusions to suicide. Now here we are, 10 weeks later, facing the end of the penultimate chapter in the Don Draper saga. Thus far, with all due respect to Frank Gleason and Roger Sterling&amp;#039;s mother, no major characters have died. But with a single hour remaining, surely something significant could happen to the members of the team now referred to as Sterling Cooper &amp;amp;amp; Partners. Before the season-six finale airs this Sunday, it seems appropriate to pause and reflect on where eight of the show&amp;#039;s key figures have been this season and, perhaps, where things might take them in the season finale. DON DRAPER  Where he&amp;#039;s been this season: The short answer: his own personal inferno. He&amp;#039;s been living in some dark, self-loathing, heavy-drinking abyss from which he can&amp;#039;t find relief at work (because Ted Chaough is there), at home (because Megan is there, and she&amp;#039;s become successful at a career completely separate from Don), or even in the bedroom of his mistress Sylvia (because, unfortunately, Sally peeked in there when she wasn&amp;#039;t supposed to). Okay, theoretically, he did enjoy himself when he took Bobby to see Planet of the Apes. But overall, Don has been trying to assert control over his world and failing massively, over and over again. He tried to get rid of that lighter from Pfc. Dinkins and couldn&amp;#039;t. He tried to assert himself as the master in a weird dominant-submissive sex game with Sylvia, one that she ultimately forfeited. And he pulled a bunch of jerky stunts last week to undermine Ted, making sure Sunkist won out over Ocean Spray and almost outing Ted&amp;#039;s love for Peggy in the middle of a major meeting. The result of all those stunts: Peggy, once his greatest champion, declared him a monster. No wonder the dude&amp;#039;s in the fetal position. Where he might go in the season finale: As frustrating as Don has been this season, I hope he doesn&amp;#039;t die in the finale. I don&amp;#039;t think any of us could take the demise of the fictional Don Draper and the real Tony Soprano in the same week. Fortunately, as I&amp;#039;ve said before, I don&amp;#039;t think that&amp;#039;s going to happen. But I do think he&amp;#039;ll have to make a significant change that may involve finally coming clean about who he really is. According to the episode description listed by my cable provider: &amp;quot;Don begins to feel overwhelmed while dealing with a very serious problem of his own which leads to the agency partner desperately searching for a solution.&amp;quot; What could that serious problem be? As I posed several recaps ago, is it possible the stuff Grandma Ida took from his apartment will out him as Dick Whitman? Or \u2014 given all the baby references in last week&amp;#039;s episode \u2014 will Don find out he has another child on the way, not with Megan, but with Sylvia? Remember, right after Megan&amp;#039;s miscarriage, Sylvia said she could never have an abortion because of her Catholic values. That&amp;#039;s just something to keep in mind. PEGGY OLSON  Where she&amp;#039;s been this season: On the whole, we&amp;#039;ve seen a bolder Peggy than ever before. She took control in the Koss &amp;quot;lend me your ears&amp;quot; crisis. She looked the Heinz ketchup guys right in the eye and, in her most Draperian voice, said, &amp;quot;If you don&amp;#039;t like what they&amp;#039;re saying, change the conversation.&amp;quot; She effing stabbed a guy \u2014 specifically her own boyfriend \u2014 yet emerged from the non-life-threatening injuries she caused and the breakup without suffering from a breakdown. She even got through this whole merger crisis more or less okay, proving that she&amp;#039;s reached a point where she no longer has to put up with Don Draper&amp;#039;s shit. Yep, even given her debilitating fear of rats, I&amp;#039;d be feeling pretty good about Peggy&amp;#039;s prospects, if it weren&amp;#039;t for Ted. Where she might go in the season finale: Peggy has worked very hard to become the smart, respected head copywriter at SC&amp;amp;amp;P. But I fear she&amp;#039;s ruining it by getting involved with Ted, and that we&amp;#039;ll see her confidence shaken again by season&amp;#039;s end. It&amp;#039;s clear the two genuinely make each other happy, but the relationship is undermining her career prospects. In the episode &amp;quot;A Tale of Two Cities,&amp;quot; she assured Joan that she never slept with Don to get ahead. She won&amp;#039;t be able to say the same about Ted. To be clear: Peggy isn&amp;#039;t using Ted to leap up the ad agency ladder. But to others, it already appears that&amp;#039;s what happening. Also, with Ted&amp;#039;s confidence shaken because of Don, he may overcompensate by shutting down Peggy&amp;#039;s pitches and pushing her out, putting her right back at the bottom of the creative food chain. MEGAN DRAPER  Where she&amp;#039;s been this season: She&amp;#039;s become a successful soap star, even though her French accent is laughable, especially considering that she&amp;#039;s part French. She suffered a miscarriage. She&amp;#039;s dealt with Don&amp;#039;s constant moodiness, as well as co-stars trying to have lesbian sex with her. She was even preemptively declared dead by the entire Internet. But Megan Draper has survived. However... Where she might go in the season finale: Megan is fairly observant when it comes to her husband, but has remained oblivious to his affair with Sylvia. I don&amp;#039;t think that&amp;#039;s going to last. If she doesn&amp;#039;t find out about it from Sally, she&amp;#039;s definitely going to figure it out if the aforementioned &amp;quot;Sylvia gets pregnant&amp;quot; theory pans out. And the realization will undoubtedly crush her. PETE CAMPBELL  Where he&amp;#039;s been this season: After his ill-advised affair with a Cos Cob neighbor, Pete has been ousted from his home, isolated from his family, and stuck in a job where, as usual, he gets no respect, no respect at all. Then again, when stuff like this happens, can you blame his colleagues for not holding Pete in high regard?   Where he might go in the season finale: After taking command last week of the Bob Benson situation and the Chevy account, Pete may turn his focus to the personal. With his mother apparently intent on taking some sort of voyage that requires use of her passport, I wouldn&amp;#039;t be surprised if something happens to her health-wise, or if she goes missing. A family crisis would force Pete to reexamine his priorities, and possibly, engender enough sympathy from Trudy to convince her to forgive, forget, and repair their marriage. JOAN HARRIS  Where she&amp;#039;s been this season: Joan \u2014 who, for the record, hasn&amp;#039;t been nearly enough of a presence this season \u2014 has struggled with her role as a partner. Suddenly, she has power in name but not in practice, which is why she snagged that Avon account through less-than-transparent means when the opportunity presented itself. Where she might go in the season finale: I predict a reversal of fortune for Joan. If things start to break down with any of SC&amp;amp;amp;P&amp;#039;s big accounts, Joan&amp;#039;s strong relationship with Avon may become even more of an asset. Also, if Peggy&amp;#039;s stock goes down as implied above, it would make total sense for Joan&amp;#039;s to swing back up, making Peggy the Elaine Benes in this situation and Joan the George Costanza. Really, it sort of fits: &amp;quot;My name is Joan. I&amp;#039;m unappreciated at work and I live with my mother.&amp;quot; ROGER STERLING  Where he&amp;#039;s been this season: Aside from his preoccupation with his own mortality, the loss of his mother, and the truly soul-crushing grief that followed the death of his shoeshine guy, Roger Sterling has sailed through this season doing what he always does: drinking, dropping bon mots, gleefully firing Burt Peterson (again!), and closing things like a total boss. Where he might go in the season finale: Roger will continue his run as the agency&amp;#039;s silver-haired, unshakeable foxiest of the foxes. He also may again mention the fact that he once was forced to hold Lee Garner Jr.&amp;#039;s balls. You know, just for good measure. SALLY DRAPER  Where she&amp;#039;s been this season: Sally has become a little more independent. And, in light of her unfortunate enlightenment regarding her father&amp;#039;s extracurricular sex life, she&amp;#039;s revealed a tendency she inherited from dear old Dad: to run away from a problem. Where she might go in the season finale: It&amp;#039;s clear there&amp;#039;s real pent-up anger in Sally, and it&amp;#039;s all directed at Don. Have you ever seen a sweet young face look more hardened and bitter than Sally&amp;#039;s did last week, when she took that long drag on her cigarette and said, &amp;quot;My father&amp;#039;s never given me anything&amp;quot;? It was like she was suddenly starring in her own film noir. It seems impractical to think she&amp;#039;s going to keep Don&amp;#039;s secret \u2014 the Sylvia-related one, not the other one \u2014 a secret for long, even if she is away at boarding school. BOB BENSON  Where he&amp;#039;s been this season: Getting coffee for people. Helping Joan in distress. Expressing his admiration for Pete Campbell via a suggestive knee nudge. Oh, and also: falsifying the hell out of his entire existence. Where he might go in the season finale: Potentially, nowhere but up. Pete&amp;#039;s the only guy who knows Bob is full of beans (Heinz beans, of course!) and Pete&amp;#039;s promised to say nothing. So Bob can continue to display his cheerfully hard-working, diplomatic fa\u00E7ade, which may really get a chance to shine on the Chevy account. And if Don Draper experiences a major fall in this finale, wouldn&amp;#039;t it make sense to see the other handsome phony at SC&amp;amp;amp;P begin his slow, steady rise to the top? Read Esquire&amp;#039;s Mad Men Recap Every Week on The Culture Blog &amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;gt; PLUS: Stephen Marche on Why We Love Mad Men and What the Show Really Gets Wrong &amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;gt; Follow The Culture Blog on RSS and on Twitter at @ESQCulture. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.esquire.com/entertainment/tv/a23196/mad-men-season-6-finale-predictions/>