Don Draper (Jon Hamm) and Peggy Olson (Elizabeth Moss) share a moment in Draper's office during a fourth season episode of AMC's "Mad Men." (AMC image)
When "Mad Men" signs off for the final time in 2014, it will mark the conclusion of one of the finest chapters in the history of scripted television.
A period piece about the employees of a 1960s advertising agency may not sound like fertile ground for serialized drama, but it's rich soil.
It's been a bleak show as characters pursue the dangling carrot of the American dream of happiness, but instead run in place on life's treadmill.
The rare moments of positivity provide lift and balance, and one of its most crucial boosts has changed since contract disputes conspired to keep the show from the airwaves in 2011.
Regular viewers who want to avoid spoilers should depart here.
The disintegration of the relationship between Jon Hamm's mysterious and complex Don Draper and his trailblazing protege, Elizabeth Moss' Peggy Olson (right), has changed the tone of the program.
Sunday's finale restored some of the show's ever-waning hope and humanity, which Draper and Olson often provide.
Back to that in a bit.
Death symbolism swallowed 2012's season five, resolving with the suicide of an agency partner. This year zigzagged to its resonating conclusion, dripping with gloom in the events of 1968 and the decay of New York City.
Fan-made conspiracy theories both enliven and detract from the proceedings. Wild hypothesizing about Bob Benson's true nature or Megan Draper's supposed impending Sharon Tate-esque murder deafened the dialogue that should've taken place about Draper's vanishing facade. One season five prediction from Salon had Pete Campbell leaping from the agency's Time-Life Building.
While I like that people are so invested, I wonder if we're watching the same show. Such postulating dulls the blunt force of the show.
"Mad Men" builds slow and rewards attentive viewers. Fantastical bait-and-switch plot maneuvers were never show creator Matt Weiner's modus operandi. This is not a show about lunatic plot diversions devoid of emotion, but about character and feeling.
That's why Olson and Draper are so vital to the show.
In the penultimate episode of this season, after Draper embarrasses Olson and Ted Chaough, his rival and the object of Olson's mutual workplace affection, she storms into Draper's office and calls him a monster.
It's disheartening to see a fundamental relationship on the show so shaky.
It wasn't always so.
The finest episode of the series to date is season four's "The Suitcase." On the night of the Muhammad Ali-Sonny Liston fight, Draper and Olson work on an ad campaign for Samsonite while discussing their personal issues.
It showed us a few of "Mad Men's" tightly held secrets. After telling Olson someone close to him the wife of the man whose identity he stole has died, she comforts him:
"Who?" Olson asks.
"The only person in the world who really knew me."
"That's not true," replies Olson. She walks to his desk and puts her hand on his shoulder (left). She doesn't know all his secrets, but in that moment, she knows Draper better than any other character we've seen.
It's the intimacy two close friends share. When Drapper needed help in keeping an affair under wraps after a car accident, he called Olson.
When he needed talent to start a new agency, he begged Olson to join. If she didn't, he vowed to spend his career changing her mind.
Now, during seasons five and six, the pair has grown apart and the show has suffered for it. Unappreciated last season, Olson bolted for a better job at Chaough's agency and flourished. Plot twists conspired to bring both agencies under one roof in season six.
Nonetheless, we've had few heartwarming scenes between them in two straight seasons. "Mad Men" is often bleak, but the Olson/Draper dynamic offers a glimmer of hope.
There's still time in the 13 remaining episodes for reconciliation between Don Draper and Peggy Olson. They aren't lovers, but as the show reminded us this year, the best way to know Draper isn't to love him, which is why Olson is as close to a confidant as he has.
Mending the show's bedrock friendship could provide a satisfying wrap to a series which always was about character and emotion rather than narrative trickery.