History Awesome / MadMen

** Megan gets one in the same episode as well when Sally confronted her with what Betty told her. This troper found it so cool that Megan didn't badmouth Betty directly to Sally or the kids, even though she probably wanted to strangle Betty, yet told Sally "I'm your friend." More later when she stops Don from calling Betty to complain, telling him that it would be giving Betty the attention and drama she was craving.

* Betty finally [[spoiler: shows she has balls and confronts her husband about his past life. "You know I know what's in there".]]
* Pretty much the entirety of "Shut the Door, Have a Seat," with the exception of [[spoiler: the Don and Betty scenes]]

** Don Draper once again proves he does more than act tough by [[spoiler:kicking a door down.]] Badass.
** Lane Pryce [[spoiler:[[HeelFaceTurn going against St. John who has pushed him around endlessly]] to join up with the others]]. Also counts as a SugarWiki/{{Funny Moment|s}}.

** [[spoiler: "Joan. What a good idea."]]
** "[[spoiler: Hello, Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce, how may I help you?]]"

* Joan clocking her [[spoiler: rapist husband]] Greg upside the head with a vase.

* Don's full page letter in the New York Times, [[spoiler:venomously condemning big tobacco for the death merchants they are, followed by listing all the agencies who will still work with them.]] Now that's how you change with the times.

** Don [[spoiler:responding to his subconscious' attempt to get him to cheat on Megan with lethal force.]] It's horrifying in context though.

** Don giving Pete a WhatTheHellHero speech for [[spoiler:cheating on Trudy with a prostitute.]]

* Toward the end of "The Phantom", [[spoiler:Pete calls Howard out for being the horrible person that he is and attempts to beat the crap out of him. The train conductor who breaks up the fight gets one himself for not putting up with Pete's ego and throwing him off the train.]]

* The season finale [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YocBfe1N598 montage]], with a preciously rare cliffhanger, in pure Mad Men style suggesting so many things without actually saying'em. [[spoiler: The implication being that "[[HesBack Don Draper is back]]", a la James Bond, with the music from Film/YouOnlyLiveTwice no less.]]

* Trudy [[spoiler:finally learning about Pete's adultery and finally giving him a TheReasonYouSuckSpeech.]]
-->[[spoiler:'''Trudy:''' We're done, Peter. This is over.]]\\
[[spoiler:'''Pete:''' You want a divorce?]]\\
[[spoiler:'''Trudy:''' I refuse to be a failure. I don't care what you want anymore. This is how it's going to work. You will be here only when I tell you to be here. I'm drawing a 50-mile radius around this house and if you so much as open your fly to urinate, I will destroy you. Do you understand?]]

* Peggy [[spoiler:(temporarily) taking Don's office]] in the Season 6 finale. The apprentice has finally surpassed the master.

* After the shock of seeing the box Ginsberg gave her contains [[spoiler:his nipple that he cut off and that he has clearly gone insane]] Peggy maintains her composure enough to walk out of her office and take a phone one of the secretary's desk to call an ambulance. She's come a long way from fainting when a lawnmower ran over someone's foot.

* Joan gracefully turning down Bob Benson [[spoiler:when he proposes marriage to her so he can stay in the closet.]]

* After all the years where he's stood by letting things just happen, it felt damned good to watch [[spoiler:Roger muster up the backbone and cunning to stop Cutler from exploiting Bert Cooper's death to force Don out.]]

* Peggy gets her chance with the Burger Chef pitch. [[spoiler:She gets it.]]
* Bert Cooper's song and dance number. [[spoiler:Probably the best way to say goodbye to his character.]]

* Ken gets fired because the execs at [=McCann=] Erickson still hold a grudge over his leaving back in season 4. Roger and Pete choose not to fight for him and he seems on the verge of a DespairEventHorizon. Then in the last few minutes of the episode he walks into Roger's office and announces that [[spoiler: he got hired as Head of Advertising at Dow Chemical. Rather then simply firing Sterling Cooper in revenge, he is going to keep them as Dow's ad company and he is going to make Roger's and Pete's lives hell.]]

* Just when Don is about to give a rousing speech on behalf of the partners, due to [[spoiler: the agency being taken over by [=McCann-Erickson=], the whole staff (worried and annoyed over their employment) start off to leave the partners in the dust]]. [[WordOfGod Matthew Weiner even described it as a revolt against being dependent on wealthy and privileged bosses whose future isn't so precarious and makes decisions based on what's best for them]].

* After [[spoiler: finding out she's going to die in less than a year]], Betty still decides to resume her classes at the college and is seen slowly holding on the rail while heading to her classes. This is a long way from the passive and depressed Main Line princess who always expected someone like her husbands or her parents to care for her.
** Also her decision to not have the treatments (which would prolong her but not alleviate her suffering) despite what the grieving and aghast Henry and her Doctor say. After spending most of her life being dependent on what men think of her and of being the passive player in her life, she decides to take control of her own life even [[spoiler: if it means the end of it]].

** [[spoiler:Roger seems to have found true love with a woman his own age in Marie.]]
** [[spoiler:Joan is starting a successful film production company for advertisers. She is now her own boss.]]

** [[spoiler:Pete and Trudy head off to their new glamorous jet-setting life, literally.]]
** [[spoiler:Subverted with Betty, too weak from cancer to do anything but sleep and sit, while Sally has given up her plans to travel to Europe in order to take care of her and her family. Any semblance of happiness is that mother and daughter have in their own way reconciled.]]
** [[spoiler:Peggy turns down Joan's genuinely tempting offer to team up on Joan's production company, preferring instead to stay on at [=McCann=] and follow through on her dream of becoming the next Don Draper. Not only does she keep the job and looks like she'll be doing well at it, but she and Stan realize their love for each other and start a relationship that may finally work out. Peggy gets the job and the guy.]]

** [[spoiler:Topped off by Don. Having spent the past three episodes fleeing his identity, tossing away his worldly goods, reaching a Buddhist retreat at his lowest spiritual moment, he's last seen meditating on a Pacific-side hilltop. In the middle of "ohm"-ing, and with a chime, Don flashes a big shit-eating grin: he's just dreamed up the famous "I'd Like To Buy The World a Coke" ad which promptly plays out to the show's credits.]]

-->'''Henry:''' [[CompletelyMissingThePoint I'm sorry I embarrassed you.]]

* Sally gets a small one in her boarding school. As new meat, she's the target of resident mean girls...the next scene with her at school they're totally in awe of her. Clearly she gets something from [[Don TheCharmer]] after all.

* In true {{Magnificent Bastard}} fashion, Bert Cooper has another CMOA that's a complete reversal of the "Who cares?" moment noted above, when he oh so subtly blackmails Don into signing the contract he'd earlier bragged about not having. "Would you say I know something about you, Don? When it comes down to it, who's really signing this contract?" Just to put that in perspective, it means that Cooper took the information Pete gave him in season one and filed it away for nearly ''three years,'' saving it for when he actually needed to use it. ''This'' is what separates the Magnificent Bastards like Bert from the [[SmugSnake Smug Snakes]] like Pete.

** Also doubles as a CrowningMomentOfFunny when Pete says, "I won't let you down, Don," and Roger immediately replies, horrified, "Jesus, Campbell. Don't ever say that."

** Lane Pryce [[spoiler:[[HeelFaceTurn going against St. John who has pushed him around endlessly]] to join up with the others]]. Also counts as a CrowningMomentOfFunny.

* After being taken for granted by Don again, Peggy quits for a higher paying job at another agency and says goodbye to him ("Don't be a stranger.") She takes one final look at the SDCP offices and smiles before stepping into the elevator as [[CrowningMusicOfAwesome The Kinks' "You Really Got Me" plays on the soundtrack]].

-->'''Betty:''' [[CrowningMomentOfFunny I’m tired of everyone treating me like I’m stupid. I speak Italian.]]

* Betty tells Don that she is working on her Masters in Psychology from Fairfield University. The melancholy Betty, who was the subject of a psychologist that shared her info with Don and saw herself as merely a pretty face and dissatisfied homemaker, has came a long way. Also a CrowningMomentOfFunny when she says that people love to confide in her (considering the irony).

** What's more is that unlike the smarter Dawn and Peggy, she doesn't take a lot of screen time to develop a tougher skin before standing up to him; basically what took half of the whole series for Peggy and 3 seasons for Dawn, she did within a year! Meredith has become the [[HarryPotter Neville Longbottom]] of ''Mad Men''!

* YMMV but Joan making the deal with Herb Rennet for the agency to land Jaguar can fit this. She's using everything she's ever known about attracting men and it will change her life forever; not only that [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lLVTN6Ii7CU but she accepts on the condition she becomes a partner with a 5% stake in the company, no negotiation]]. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L16G3CzRpbQ The scene]], where she spends the night with Herb, was compared in RealLife to the baptism scene in TheGodfather.

* Joan schooling Roger on how it's tacky to dismiss MarilynMonroe and other women like her (esp. Joan), since the world already makes it difficult enough for them to thrive.

* Peggy's smug smile when the ByeByeBirdie inspired Patio commercial fails at capturing the charm of Ann-Margret's solo from the film. She's been telling the men about how shrill the singing was and that women won't respond well to an ad that operates from a straight male fantasy and won't relate to a woman who is unconvincingly playing a teenage girl.

** Joan [[spoiler:telling Greg to leave and never come back, followed by her finally calling him out for raping her.]]

** Don Draper once again proves he does more than act tough by [[spoiler:kicking a door down.]] {{Badass}}.

** What's more is that unlike the smarter Dawn and Peggy, she doesn't take a lot of screen time to develop a tougher skin before standing up to him; basically what took half of the whole series for Peggy and 3 seasons for Dawn, she did within a year! Meredith has become the [[HarryPotter Neville Longbottom]] of MadMen!

* Bert Cooper, [[TwoWordsObviousTrope Four Words]]: "Mr. Campbell, who cares?"

** Not bad for a guy [[spoiler: whose balls were cut off in an unnecessary surgery years before]] as we learn in ''The Suitcase".

---> '''Gail:''' You're not exactly at your fighting weight.

* After quietly observing the rest of the secretaries testing out Belle Jolie's lipsticks, Peggy gives Freddy the wastebasket of the napkins used to wipe off excess lipstick and quips "Here's your basket of kisses", this remark was enough to impress Freddy with her wit and get her on the track to being promoted from secretary.

* Peggy's smug smile when the

* Don's {{Kansas City Shuffle}} to get a rival ad agency to bankrupt themselves and ruin their relationship with Honda.

** And this after Stan made a jab at her physical attractiveness and sexiness, after stripping, he ends up getting a RagingStiffie.

* [[Funny/MadMen Doubles as Funny]]. Peggy finally going to work in [=McCann=]. She's wearing sunglasses, has a cigarette hanging from her mouth, [[http://i.onionstatic.com/avclub/5421/31/original/640.jpg and she's carrying "The Dream of the Fisherman's Wife.]]

* Kiernan Shipka was named one of ''TIME'' magazine's most influential teenagers of 2014 and the only actress on the list primarily known for TV. Keep in mind that it seemed like a shoo-in for Creator/MaisieWilliams to win, yet she got passed over for a lesser-known actress from a show not nearly as popular as ''Series/GameOfThrones.''.