The Season 2 finale of Mad Men certainly delivered: it was an episode full of great conversations and confrontations, some of them very long awaited.  Here are a few of my favorites (slightly spoilery):

Francine (played by the lovely Anne Dudek, who gets many props from me based on last season’s finale of House alone) and Betty visited the local beauty parlor.  Aside from the gratuitous design eye candy this allowed, there was also funny and pointed dialogue about the impending Cuban missile attacks.

It's keeping Francine from chewing off her fingernails.

FRANCINE: Betty, you look wan!  You want a Miltown?

In the Sterling Cooper boardroom, the big confrontation between Duck and Don was ready to go down.  We’d been waiting for this the whole time Don was away.  What would he do about Duck’s shady machinations?

Free to drink since abandoning his dog, Duck is probably drunk RIGHT NOW.

DUCK: La la la, I think I am in charge of this room right now.

Probably also drunk, but in a fashionable way, not a pathetic or despicable way.

DON: Not so fast, fucker. What would CHAUNCEY have to say about all this?!

Suffice it to say the scene was awesome.  I have been forty-seven shades of pissed at Duck ever since this episode, and it was nice to see him finally getting his comeuppance.

We’ve also been waiting for some kind of confrontation between Pete and Peggy for, oh ages now — definitely since the part of Season 1 where it became clear Peggs was pregs and not just fat — and this episode was more than satisfactory in that regard.

Please to note how Pete sits down on the couch, all sidling up to Peggy:

More Smarming in Action!

Peggy is clearly not having any of it.  She is perched on the edge of that cushion, ready to make a break for it should Pete begin his usual smarm tactics.

I’m not sure Pete was really all that smarmy in this scene, though. Sad, lonely, desperate, deluded — maybe.  Annoying — of course.

Stoically Resisting the Urge to Feel Bad for Pete Now

The frustration and chagrin on his face as Peggy leaves the room was just as satisfying a comeuppance as Duck’s.

Finally: Don and Betty:

Betty Stoically Resists the Urge to Plunge Her Fingernail into the Soft Flesh of Don's Palm

What the hell.  I don’t even know if I want them to make it.  At the end of last season, I did.  (I mean, if Don couldn’t be with Rachel Menken, that is.) Now, I just don’t know anymore.  Looks like they don’t, either.

And now no more Mad Men until Season 3. WEEP.