It's well known that Mad Men creator and executive producer Mathew Weiner keeps an extremely tight rein on spoilers getting leaked ahead of episode and season premieres. So it's noteworthy when he reveals anything, even if it's a few wee details about the much anticipated Season Four, which premieres Sunday, July 25th at 10PM on AMC.
Here's what Weiner revealed (via TV Squad):
Sally Draper (Kiernan Shipka) will be a regular character, and we'll see her growing up and dealing with the fallout of the Draper's divorce (or not?)
This little tidbit of spoiler-y info is rather significant. It tells us that Betty Draper's (January Jones) departure to Reno to establish residency for divorce (as well as a presumed remarriage to Henry Francis, played by Christopher Stanley) will not end her role in the story. While it seemed inconceivable that Betty and the kids could be out of the story forever, we're dealing with a brand new and clean slate in many ways, with a separated Don Draper (Jon Hamm) working for a new and renegade Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce (for more on this, see Mad Men Season Four: Eight Questions).
Of course, it makes sense that we'll see more of Betty and Sally because this show's bedrock is the drama and reality that comes from decisions and histories staying with people wherever they go. Don is as much a husband and father as he is Dick Whitman as he is the Master of the Universe at the office. It's the tension between those disparate roles that makes Mad Men click.
Trudy Campbell is "cooking up one big surprise for husband Pete"
It's fascinating to think about Pete and Trudy Campbell (played by Vincent Kartheiser and Alison Brie, respectively) as a younger version of Don and Betty. We've seen quite a lot of back-and-forth in the couple's power dynamic over the show's first three seasons. After Pete's continued philandering (including sort of extorting the German au pair in his building for sex!) and the couple's struggles with infertility, they seemed to end the season as a unified front, JFK's assassination, Ken Cosgrove's (Aaron Staton) promotion to Head of Accounts over Pete, and finally the breakaway to the new SCDP unifying them as a young and aggressive power couple. Even Don had to look on at the two during the season's final scene with a touch of envy, it seemed.
It's tempting to think that "cooking up one big surprise" would mean her moving forward on adoption as she attempted to do once already. But I think it would be more fun and interesting if she began to explore her own sense of independence. An affair of her own, perhaps?
The season's not going to start the next day
Okay, this is a very wee detail indeed, so I'll reiterate my thought that I'd like Season Four to begin as soon as possible after the end of the third. There's so much drama hanging in the air with the Draper's separation and the assured struggles in getting the new agency going that surely we won't be bumped ahead overly far.
And that's to say nothing about the rapid social and societal shifts that are just starting to touch the characters on this show. Now that we're heading into 1964 at the least, I'll restate the late Grandpa Gene (Ryan Cutrona) in ending with: "You just wait. All hell's gonna break loose!"
