Frank Ockenfels/AMC

Mad Men will return to AMC on April 7th with its second to last season.

The show will boast a two-hour premiere beginning at 9 pm with an episode directed by Jon Hamm.

Series director Matthew Weiner shared a few facts about the upcoming season with curious fans:

Elizebeth Moss will be back

There will be a significant time jump between the seasons.

Vincent Kartheiser will not kill himself.

Last season marked a shift in the series, with fans either embracing the new Don-Megan dynamic or hating the new faithful-as-a-Golden-Retriever Don Draper that emerged.  The last scene of The Phantom showed Don drinking alone at a bar before a young woman approaches him and asks, “are you alone?”  We don’t get to hear his answer, and, according to Weiner, that scene plays a significant part in the upcoming season.

Well, duh. 

I can’t believe how much older everyone looks in these promo shots.  I for one, want to see what happens to Joan this season.  I don’t want her to become a caricature, or become too whore-ish.  Despite Joan’s flaunting of her sexuality, she is still able to maintain an air of self-respect that we thought was shattered during last season’s horrific The Other Woman.  I want a lot for her character – something unexpected and deserving of her.

I’m still rooting for Joan.