'Mad Men' makes a soul match of Don Draper and Peggy Olson

Couples are all over "Mad Men," whether real, imagined or on the rocks. Most of them stay in whichever realm is safest, bound by a silent pact of self-repression, the glue that holds together "Mad Men's" pre-hippie set of ethics.

Some pairings aren't romantic at all; instead they share something deeper, a life philosophy. The AMC show's most powerful example, suggested in only a few strokes, is advertising master Don Draper (Jon Hamm) and underling copywriter Peggy Olson (Elisabeth Moss). These two are kindred spirits, professional allies, soldiers marching for a keep-it-to-yourself society in starched collars -- hers Peter Pan, his from Brooks Brothers. Both thrive in the impersonal atmosphere of the ad agency, where imagination helps. But identity, with its myopic, fixed point of view, can get in the way.

The dynamic between Peggy and Don has been one of many fulcrum points for "Mad Men" creator Matthew Weiner. "Don and Peggy are mirror images of each other," Weiner said. "They have a special bond; I always wanted that. Don sees himself in Peggy; he recognizes her talent. I always wanted her to be a shadow of him, for him to reach out to her and say, 'You do it right, don't do it the way I did it.' "

More than any other of the characters in "Mad Men," which ends its second season tonight, Peggy and Don have tried to deposit their former lives and secrets behind them. Peggy, from a lower-middle-class Catholic family in Brooklyn, clearly feels a pull whenever she speaks with Colin Hanks' Father Gill, but she's alienated from the church and her family, which seems at least in part self-imposed, because she's had a baby from an affair with a married man.

Don's past is even murkier. Born Dick Whitman to an abusive father and a prostitute mother who died in childbirth, Whitman saw an opportunity for rebirth and assumed the identity of Don Draper, an officer he served under who died in combat in the Korean War. In a scene from the first season, we saw young Dick's outlook being molded by a hobo who's at peace with a life of no ties.

Trying to break free