Peggy's Got Troubles, Troubles, Troubles

After last season’s gripping, dark finale, we’ve all come to recognize that Mad Men is really about one woman: Peggy Olson (played by the brilliant Elisabeth Moss). Though many of us have known that from the start. The quiet secretary turned advertising mastermind is one of the most important female characters on television. She’s a woman who can be as professionally cutthroat as she can be emotionally vulnerable. In short, Peggy Olson is her own woman. Full stop.

When we last left our leading lady, she was easing into Don’s office, quite literally mocking the recline and head tilt of the series’ iconic shadow image, foreshadowing her taking over the firm. She was also reeling from her affair with Ted, who fled to Florida with his family to escape his shame. Peggy, though scorned, wasn’t broken. If anything, it made her hungry to fight back.

There doesn’t seem to be anything holding Peggy back as we careen into part one of Mad Men’s final season. If there was a fork in the road, Peggy forged her own path and she’s not looking back. When we see her at the beginning of tonight's episode, she leads her young (and all-male, I might add) creative team like a total boss. Unlike years past, Peggy doesn't seem to care anymore about being on everyone's good side, she's in charge and she wants to let everyone know it.

However, her new role also forces her to come to terms with selling out her creative voice for the customer. She's also picked up a side gig as a landlord/plumber to a 10-year-old kis who yells at her, so that'll ruin anyone's day.

Jaded by mediocrity, and after having seen Ted earlier (in the most uncomfortable coffee break ever) Peggy returns to her apartment at the end of the episode, where she collapses alone on the floor next to a sad, sad Christmas tree. It looks like she's taking a few notes from her former mentor's playbook by keeping a stiff upper lip in the office and being a puddle of emotions at home.

You got this Peggy, you got this.

Images: AMC