Editor's Note: This story contains spoilers for anyone who hasn't yet watched the season four finale of Mad Men.

One of the things that has always set AMC's Mad Men apart from other dramatic series is the fact that several of its writers are women. This has allowed the show to put women's experiences and viewpoints into sharper relief; indeed, season four seemed especially focused on the women in the Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce universe.

Though the business is financed by and named for the men, it's the women who make the office run - and who run the lives of those men.

Toward the end of the season four finale, titled "Tomorrowland," Peggy Olson remarks, "A pretty face comes along, and everything goes out the window."

In the end, Don Draper's choice came down to two pretty faces: Megan Calvet and Dr. Faye Miller, whom he surreptitiously dated for much of the season.

During episode nine, "All The Beautiful Girls," Don asks Faye to watch his daughter, Sally, for a few hours and, later, to talk her out of some obstinate behavior. Faye later becomes upset, telling Don that she's not good with kids. "I chose to be where I am," she says. "I don't view it as a failure."

Megan, on the other hand, handled the bad kid behavior better than did Faye, meeting Sally at her level without being patronizing.

Fast forward four episodes, and we see Don making what seems like  a split-second decision in asking Megan to accompany him to California to watch his children - but was it?

In a meeting with the American Cancer Society, Don explains his controversial actions in the previous episode, saying "In my heart it was an impulse. I did what I had to do to move forward." Did this also apply to his personal life? Is this his new motto, and one that will shape future seasons?

At the conclusion of the episode, I was asking myself about these two women. If Dr. Faye had been better with kids, would she have been the one coming along to Disneyland and being swept off her feet with heirloom diamonds? Would Don have even realized he cared about Megan beyond the boss-secretary-fling dynamic without having been forced into an odd situation?

For Don Draper, at least, it seems that serendipity is the mother of decision. Though it's Dr. Faye who predicts Don will "be married within a year," it is the life-altering cocktail of Betty's impulsive firing of Carla, combined with Megan's chance prior encounter with Sally and Anna's bequest of her engagement ring that laid out enough pieces for Don to put the puzzle together.

Of course, we here at Savvy Auntie think it was Megan's admission that sealed the deal:

"I have four nieces and six nephews!"

Melanie Linn Gutowski, Savvy Auntie's Associate Editor, is a proud Godmother and ABC.

Photo:AMCTV.com
Published: October 18, 2010