Are you excited?  Only 9 days left to the launch of season 3 and judging by the number of writers who’ve Mad Men-ized their profile pictures on Facebook and Twitter I’m guessing lots of people are looking forward to August 9.  And so in anticipation, I decided to do a little comparison between the pilot episode and the season 2 finale to find out where the characters started out and where they were when last we saw them.

Don Draper

Remember what a mystery he was in that first episode?  We met him in the bar trying to figure out what would make the waiter switch to Lucky Strikes.  At Midge’s,  he tries out ad copy on her till she seduces him.  And then in the morning, he asks her to marry him.

At the office, his dislike for Pete is clear from word go.  They take a meeting with Rachel Menken and Don storms out of it, a woman can’t talk to him that way.  But he saves the day in the Lucky Strikes meeting with his speech about advertising and happiness.

He resists the awkward advances of his new secretary, Peggy.

He tries to make up with Rachel Menken over drinks and tells her love doesn’t exist, it was just invented by guys like him to sell nylons.

And then, shock oh shock, he goes home to Betty and his kids.

By Episode 212, we know Don a lot better or do we?  Back from California, he shows up at the stable to apologize to Betty.  He wishes he could undo what he’s done.  Back in the Roosevelt hotel, Don watches President Kennedy’s address about the Cuban missile crisis on television.  The threat of the missile crisis looms over the entire episode.

At work, Don makes nice with Pete, telling him he abandoned him in LA because he trusted him.  Then he finds out from Roger that the company has been sold.

He writes a letter to Betty telling her that if they break up, she’ll find someone new, but he’ll be alone forever.  He uses the L word.

At the board meeting, Duck is named president of the new company.  Don storms out (shades of his meeting with Rachel Menken), he sells products, not advertising.

Betty lets him come home and tells him she’s pregnant.  He takes her hand.

Betty

In the pilot, Betty was the surprise wife waiting at home.  We learned little about her.  By the time we left her last, she had a rich storyline and a complex emotional journey.

At the beginning of Episode 212, the doctor tells Betty she’s pregnant.  She says she doesn’t want it and the doctor tells her that her attitude will change when she starts telling people.

When Don just shows up at the stable after his disappearance, she informs him her life wasn’t that different without him.  At the beauty parlour, she and Francine discuss getting rid of the baby, but again there don’t seem to be many options open to Betty.

She drops the kids off with Don at his hotel and goes to a bar where she has sex with a stranger.  That done, she calls the office and tells Joan that she wants Don to come home.  When he gets there, she tells him about the pregnancy.

Peggy

Peggy was the new girl in the pilot.  She was awkward, prudish and uncomfortable.  Sex-bomb Joan is teaching her the ropes; she suggests showing a little leg and seeing a doctor who’ll give out contraception to unmarried women (remember him?).

Pete makes rude and lude remarks about her and Don defends her.  At the end of the workday, she thanks Don and puts her hand on his, but he is not interested.

When Pete shows up at her door late at night, she lets him in without hesitation.

My how Peggy has grown up.  In Episode 212, she’s an executive with her own office with a window.  Pete is asking her advice and she tells him to tell the truth.

Her priest gives a sermon about the Cuban missile crisis, but Peggy will have none of it.  She’s not apologizing for what she’s done or asking God’s forgiveness because she doesn’t believe that God would end the world and send everyone to hell.

She has a drink alone with Pete and he tells her she’s perfect.  She says that she could have had him if she wanted him.  She had his baby and gave it away.

Pete

He was slimy from the start.  I think his first moment might have been on the phone with his fiancée, telling her that of course he loves her, he’s giving up his life to marry her, isn’t he?

He’s crass with Peggy and anti-Semitic with Rachel.   Don barely tolerates him.

He’s getting married Sunday and he has a bachelor party with the guys from the office at a bar.  Afterwards, he shows up drunk at Peggy’s apartment and kisses her.

By episode 212, his edges are softened considerably.  He’s lost the Clearasil account and is looking for Peggy’s advice on how to break it to management.  He’s worried about his future.

On Peggy’s advice, he fesses up to Duck about Clearasil.  Duck isn’t upset.  He’s planning his big power play to take over the agency and Pete is part of his plan.  Pete is concerned about Don, but Duck thinks he has Don all sewn up.

Two things throw Pete for a loop: Don tells him that he left Pete alone in LA because Pete could handle it.  Terrified about Cuba, Trudy plans to flee New York.  Pete refuses to go along.

Back at the office, Pete gives Don a head’s up about Duck’s plan.  Then he confesses to the truth to Peggy: she knows him, he knows her and he thinks she’s perfect.  That’s when he learns that he has a child that she gave up for adoption.

Matt, any clues about what’s coming?