As Mad Men enters the first half of its seventh and final season, a panel of viewers here at Curiata.com will engage in a roundtable discussion following each episode. Check back throughout the week for new entries in the series.

I caught up on the first six seasons of Mad Men over the last year, so this was the first episode I’ve ever watched along with the rest of the world. It’s exciting to finally be on the same page and not have to avoid spoilers. I settled in last night with a glass of Don’s drink of choice, Canadian Club, and realized what a terrible judge of whiskey he is.

It was great to see Freddy Rumsen again. That opening scene was intense, and the implication that he was speaking directly to us, the viewers, about something bigger than the Accutron watch was obvious. It’s also not a coincidence that the writers used a recovering alcoholic to be Don’s mole in the agency. Don’s own alcoholism has always been a simmering issue, but it came to the surface last season and is laid out as the central struggle of this one.

Viewers seem primed to anticipate one of two endgames for Don: he quits the bottle and returns to to form at the top of the advertising game, or he plunges to his death from his penthouse suite or the corner office of SC&P. I think Mad Men has built its reputation on too much subtlety to go either of those routes. I expect Don will enjoy a few sober weeks before crashing harder than he ever has before.

Don’s end will not be miraculous or suddenly tragic. Instead, he will fade into oblivion, the way we all will, as the world moves past him. I expect Peggy’s breakdown at the end of last night’s episode will come to be seen as the point at which she turned ruthless. She’ll find a way to get rid of that new guy (Lou?) before the end of our first set of seven episodes, and 2015 will bring the final showdown, when she seizes creative control of the agency and pushes Don into the role Roger has played for so long.

It was disappointing not to get any of sassy Sally last night, but we also have joint custody of the kids and can only see them in half the episodes. I expect another Don and Betty backslide this season, and I wouldn’t be surprised to see them end up in an uneasy, sunset years resigned-to-fate relationship as the lights finally dim next year.

I’m interested to see what you all thought of last night’s show and where we’re headed for the remaining 13 hours of the series. One final thought: will Megan or any of Roger’s dalliances ever grow nipples?