Even though the final seven episodes of “Mad Men” intend to document Don Draper’s (Jon Hamm) days as a middle-aged advertising executive with two failed marriages and many regrets behind him, the only character who has aroused both fascination and rage in viewers is a newcomer to the series.
She is Diana (Elizabeth Reaser), nicknamed Di, a hard-boiled diner waitress whom Roger Sterling (John Slattery) nicknames “Mildred Pierce,” after the heroine of the James M. Cain novel and Joan Crawford film.
And for viewers expecting a wrap-up of the show’s major characters, her prominence is a shock.
“Do I know you?” Don asks when she brings the check to a booth he is sharing with Roger and three women in the season premiere. He doesn’t, but Don goes back to the diner alone, inexplicably drawn to this stranger who reminds him of someone he once knew, maybe an old lover.
He tests out that theory in the alley behind the diner, where he and Diana have stand-up sex among the garbage cans.
“The relationship moved so fast. The meeting. The alley. He wants to start anew,” actress Reaser tells The Post of Don’s date with destiny.
“He’s in a deep crisis and he’s beginning to process his life. When you fall in love with someone like [Diana], it seems like it could be the answer.”
Diana is a stark contrast to some of Don’s other lovers — unimpressive, even, compared to Upper East Side surgeon’s wife Sylvia Rosen (Linda Cardellini) or accomplished career women Faye Miller (Cara Buono) and Rachel Katz (Maggie Siff).
“Diana’s invisible to people. Roger Sterling would never give her a second thought,” adds Reaser, a huge fan of the show.
But Don is curiously attracted to her, and Diana receives much more screen time in Episode 2, in which Don tracks her down at another waitressing job and asks her out. Their date doesn’t start until 3 a.m. Diana knocks on Don’s door in her waitress uniform and he answers it in a suit and tie.
For Reaser, the scenes in which Diana tells Don of the family she left behind in Wisconsin were tough stuff, and Hamm made sure she filmed them at the beginning of the day.
“This is a woman who lost a child and has left her life,” Reaser says. “She’s trying to make some sort of a life in New York. I take her at face value on that. She’s abandoned her other child, which is the bigger tragedy. In [1970], it’s so shocking.”
The actress notes that Diana’s attitude about emotions echoes Don’s, and was encouraged by creator Matthew Weiner. “He wanted me to be unsentimental and show a toughness. She’s not indulgent,” she says. “She’s removed herself from life. She’s also falling in love with Don. She doesn’t want to at all. It’s really confusing for her.”
Some “Mad Men” fans have drawn parallels between Diana and Don: They’re both from the Midwest and they both reinvented themselves, but Reaser thinks the connection runs even deeper. “The way she relates to Don reminds me of the way he relates to women,” she says. “The heartbreak she carries around and how she manages it.”
But even though their connection is instantaneous, on some level she remains a stranger to him, and with that comes an element of danger. That wine stain on the rug in Don’s bedroom, art-directed to look like a bloodstain and seen in two consecutive episodes, is no accident.
“Diana’s got nothing left to lose. In some ways, she’s a killer,” says 39-year-old Reaser, who was born in Milford, Mich., grew up in the Detroit suburbs and is best known for her work in the “Twilight” film series and on “Grey’s Anatomy,” for which she won an Emmy. “She can take down Don Draper and not think twice about it. To play her, I had to convince myself that I could take down Don Draper. The character does not give a f - - k.”
And her heightened presence on the show has alienated some fans, who have complained on Twitter that Diana has overshadowed series favorites such as Pete Campbell, and Sally and Betty Draper.
Reaser sympathizes but adds, “I get being a fan and wanting to see what you want to see. Matthew Weiner says the show is not about giving people what they want. He’s just committed to the story he’s telling. If he were to cater to all the things we want, then he wouldn’t have an authentic story. I really trust him.”
Reaser is prohibited from spilling any of the show’s secrets, including how many of the remaining episodes she will appear in. Even her audition was top-secret, using a phony name for the male character she was playing against on the page.
But she always knew it was Don.
“They didn’t tell me anything about my character, but I could tell instinctively from the language where it was going. I didn’t know it was Don Draper, but I could tell.”
And when the show’s over, fans can measure Diana against Don’s other women, but Reaser thinks there’s a reason why she came last.
“I always loved him with Betty. And I loved what Megan represented for him. How human that all feels. But I think he dominated a lot of these women. Diana sees through everything the way Don sees through everything. There’s a nakedness to that kind of connection.”
Who is she? Theories about the new mystery woman of ‘Mad Men’
♦ She’s a ghost
♦ She’s a mother figure
Don’s prostitute mother died while giving birth to him — a scene he imagines in Season 2. His first dalliance with Diana, a waitress, also has a transactional quality — was it in exchange for Roger’s $100 tip?
♦ She’s a female Don Draper/Dick Whitman
♦ She’s an angel of death
There’s a sad aura about Diana — who’s introduced to viewers as “Di” by a fellow waitress. Then there’s that ominous red wine stain in Don’s bedroom that appears in two episodes. Could it be foreshadowing bloodshed?
♦ She’s Mildred Pierce
♦ She’s a red herring
Creator Matthew Weiner loves leaving breadcrumbs that lead nowhere. Could this just be a distraction, when in fact the end will revolve around one of the characters we’ve been following for the last eight years?