Okay, I disagree, a few reasons why:

-The pacing / intensity has always been slow with this show. I didn’t find the dialogue off at all. This episode was a bit slow, compared to other shows I watch, but that ALWAYS applies to Mad Men. Maybe with the hiatus you’ve begun to expect a faster episode of TV? Which isn’t a bad expectation at all, really, since arguably this show is always a little too languid, but it certainly hasn’t dropped off at all since last season, or ever. The casual pace is just part of Mad Men.

-Peggy didn’t have an abortion, she had her baby adopted. And her scene with the baby wasn’t just reflecting her reluctance to hold it because of her own past; when Pete entered, both characters were awkwardly looking at a possibility they could’ve had, but didn’t (as Peggy mentioned once in a past episode, one she could’ve shamed Pete into if she had wanted, but chose not to).

And do we really want to see more of Betty right now? Honestly? I mean, for one, she’s terrible. She’s always been terrible, but now not only is she terrible, she’s irrelevant to almost all the other characters, unless it’s in the context of Don’s life in contrast to hers, or her relationship to the kids, which was pretty much the only reason she showed up at all last season, which was very little. And that’s pretty well trodden ground, unless we’re expecting some new way for her to be horrible and abusive to Sally.

However: I agree with the criticism about Don being handsome twice in the episode being too on the nose (in the one Jon Hamm directed no less!). And the baby’s bottom shot was pretty darn weird. So that was that.

But overall, really, and I say this as not one of the crazy ardent defenders of this show, I thought this was a pretty decent episode. I think the balance between dark comedy and drama was on point – I laughed out loud a few times. I think this show has struggled the most when the comedy has lapsed and it has leaned entirely on the drama.