It is a season about the terrifying passage of time. "Are you alone?" Don asks the ghost of his dead brother in the finale. The answer, for everyone on this show, is yes .
Season 5 asks: What happens after the fairy tale ends? Mad Men - Season 5
After the revolutionary upheaval of Season 4 (the "Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce" era), Season 5 arrives like a hangover you didn't see coming. It is a season of transformation, but not the kind anyone wants. It’s a season about the terrifying gap between who we are and who we are pretending to be. In my humble opinion, it is the single greatest season of television’s greatest drama. Let’s address the man in the room. For four seasons, we watched Don Draper self-destruct. He left Betty. He hit rock bottom. He built a new agency from ashes. By the end of Season 4, he proposed to his secretary, Megan, in a diner—a frantic, impulsive grab at happiness. It is a season about the terrifying passage of time