With only seven episodes to wrap up its final season, “Mad Men” still managed to bring back a number of recurring characters before Sunday’s series finale.
There was the elevator encounter with Don’s (Jon Hamm) one-time mistress, Sylvia Rosen (Linda Cardellini). Glen Bishop (Marten Holden Weiner) came to say goodbye to Sally (Kiernan Shipka) before shipping off to Vietnam. Duck Phillips (Mark Moses) popped in long enough to finagle Pete (Vincent Kartheiser) a new job at Learjet. Don ended his soul-searching in California with the help of Stephanie (Caity Lotz Caity Lotz), Anna Draper’s niece. Even the ghost of Bert Cooper (Robert Morse) made an appearance as Don hallucinates while driving cross-country.
Others’ storylines were wrapped up without the actors appearing. Don learns that another mistress, Rachel Mencken (Maggie Siff), died from cancer. In the finale, Roger (John Slattery) goes to Joan (Christina Hendricks) as he’s making updates to his will and reveals that his daughter never returned from the hippie commune while she relays that her ex-hubby Greg (Sam Page) had twins with a nurse.
But still there were other characters whose fates were left unknown. While we can’t expect “Mad Men” creator Matthew Weiner to bring back all our past favorites with so few episodes to work with, here’s seven we were left yearning for when the final credits rolled.
Sal Romano (Bryan Batt)
His art director is probably “Mad Men” fans’ most-maligned omission because Sal appeared in 39 episodes from Seasons 1-3 — and then never again. The closeted Sal’s downfall came in the third season when he rejects the sexual advances of Lucky Strike exec Lee Garner, Jr., who then demands his removal from the account and forces Roger to fire him. Our last glimpse of Sal is him calling his wife from a pay phone near a gay cruising spot, not telling her he’s been fired but that he will be home late.
Bob Benson (James Wolk)
One of the most talked-about characters in his quick 12-episode run, the eager-to-please, sexually ambiguous (and later definitively gay) account man inspired numerous conspiracy theories in Season 6 after he conned his way into a job at Sterling Cooper with a fake name (remind you of anyone else on “Mad Men?”) His story took a turn for the bizarre when the nurse (also gay) he recommends for Pete’s ailing mother ends up eloping with the elderly woman, who mysteriously falls overboard and is lost at sea. After forming a friendship with Joan and acting as a father figure to her toddler son, Bob reappears in Season 7 to propose a sham marriage after he learns he’s up for a new job at GM. Joan refuses, and sadly we never see what becomes of Bob in Detroit.
Freddy Rumsen (Joel Murray)
Freddy, who lost his job as a Sterling Cooper copywriter in Season 2 after he drunkenly pees his pants and passes out before an important client meeting, resurfaced in the first half of Season 7 as a frontman for Don, pitching his ideas as his own when Don is banned from the office after his own breakdown. With Don spiraling into his own alcoholism, it’s Freddy who convinces him to win back his job. “Are you just going to kill yourself? Give them what they want?” he asks. “Do the work, Don.” By the end of the episode, Don sits down at his typewriter to write — but Freddy is never heard from again.
Mona Sterling (Talia Balsam)
What would Roger’s first wife (and Slattery’s real-life spouse) think about him finally settling down with an age-appropriate woman in Marie Calvet (Julia Ormond)? We didn’t get to find out, but we can assume they’re on good terms. The actress was last seen in the first half of Season 7 watching the moon landing with Roger and their grandson when Roger gets the news of Bert’s death.
Michael Ginsberg (Ben Feldman)
The young Jewish copywriter had the talent to be Don’s heir apparent before becoming mentally unstable after Sterling Cooper gets a computer in the office early in Season 7. His paranoia culminated with a much-talked about episode where he cut off his own nipple and gifted it to Peggy (Elisabeth Moss), and got carted off to the psych ward on a stretcher. Did he ever straighten out or return to advertising? We’ll never know.
Paul Kinsey (Michael Gladis)
After being a regular cast member for the first three seasons, the liberal copywriter left the show when he wasn’t asked to join the new Sterling Cooper agency. He reappeared toward the end of Season 5, however, when he runs into Harry (Rich Sommer) and reveals that he’s joined the Hare Krishna movement. Harry gives him $500 and a ticket to Los Angeles, telling him to go follow his dream of being a TV writer. It would seem the perfect backstory for Don to run into Paul while finding spiritual enlightenment in California in the series finale, but alas, he was absent.
Peggy’s son
Peggy did the most talking about her son in many years in Season 7, revealing the existence of her secret child — and that she gave him up for adoption — to colleague Stan (Jay R. Ferguson), which served to bring the characters closer and eventually initiate a romance in the finale. But Peggy, nor the viewer, ever gets to see the kid again. It seems even she doesn’t quite know where her son is, heartbreakingly telling Stan, “I’m here…and he’s with a family, somewhere. I don’t know, but it’s not because I don’t care. I don’t know because you’re not supposed to know, or you can’t go on with your life.”