"Mad Men" star confronts past in dramatic finale

"Mad Men's" most intriguing character, the main Madison Avenue man Don Draper, finally decided to stop running from his past and confront it in Sunday night's finale, reports CBS News correspondent Jamie Wax.

After seven seasons, the show's emotionally tormented Don Draper appeared to come home to a state of inner peace, '70s style. He smiling on a mountaintop before the scene changed to a classic Coca-Cola commercial.

"I loved the fact that they insinuated or implied that Don eventually went back to New York and then created one of the most iconic advertisements, you know, ever," Hollywood Reporter senior reporter Rebecca Sun said.

It was an episode full of self-realizations. Peggy finally balanced her ambitions with romance, finding her true love in the same office. Joan got out from under the thumb of the controlling men in her life by starting her own business.

Despite her fight with lung cancer, Betty found peace with her daughter, Sally, and hit Don with the hard truth about why he shouldn't raise their kids when she's gone.

This ending had long been clear for creator Matthew Wiener.

"I know how the show ends. I just don't know what people will think of it," Wiener said.

"It was just beautiful. We got the every emotional thing that we needed and then we got the resolution plot-wise," viewer Kevin Tomlinson said.

In the finale, the always-guarded Draper broke down and cried, emotionally transformed by another man's confession about his "invisible," meaningless life.

"Mad Men" itself had its own transformative effect on how we saw the '60s.

"I think the '60s are probably the most turbulent decade in our country's history and to see how some of them were able to ride that cultural wave is really fascinating for us now," Sun said.