Mad Men Season 7 Discussion Thread - Final Episodes - SERIES FINALE

[shogun]

I hated the ending.

I feel like when it comes to these finale's writers try to hard to give you the "anti-finale" as I like to call it and not an actual ending as we all would like to se. We all want closure for these characters and these story arc's but the writers feel that it would be too easy to go that route so they come up with the most abstract ways of "closure". Too many shows have done that.

What more did you want to see? You can't get closure because the characters' lives don't end. They continue on even though you can't see it. This was a great ending. We got to see where the characters we cared about were heading into their future(screw Harry). You don't need to see Don pitching the Coke commercial because it doesn't matter. He found what he was looking for on his road trip and the ad at the end very obviously implies he went back to Mckann Ericcson. He continued his brilliance and rekindled his passion for the job that he had lost as the seasons progressed.

Agreed. Plus the only one who had an "abstract", blurry end to the episode was Don but as most have said we think he used the retreat experience to come up with the great ad. This dude seems to always need some sort of vacation, trip to California to get away.

 

[duba169]

I hope weiner doesnt feel like he has to give a definitive answer to what happened. Sometimes i like these type of endings. Especially since almost every character had some type of closure.

someone mentioned girl Don kind of just vanished. I dunno if that was on purpose because she was black or what. Like to show Don didnt really care. I dunno.

 

[infamouserror]

Amazing conclusion to the best tv show of all time.

I think Don used that profound experience to come up with the Coke ad. It makes sense when you consider the references to Coke in the half-season (Hobart giving him the account, the broken Coke machine at the motel, Peggy seemingly trying to talk Don off the ledge: "Don't you want to work on Coke?" Plus the girl with ribbons in her braids is a strong indicator.

Having said that, the end was terrifically bittersweet as I felt disappointment in Don in that he didn't use the epiphany to do something more altruistic. He once again used his retreat from reality to come up with a pitch to push poison onto another generation. His creative process has always involved honing in on his own as well as the collective fears and hopes of the times to fill a void. The void in himself and the void in society. He loves that eureka moment -- breaking through a creative rut which usually originates from his own feelings of worthlessness and inability to give and receive love, while helping people cope with the unknown and uncertainty of life with the false promise of happiness in product form. A win-win.

But then I realized this was the only way the show could've ended because:

>Life is a flat circle.

>Season 1 finale: "The Wheel" which involved a Carousel..

>Season 5 episode 6 "Far Away Places": "I have patients who spend years reasoning out their motivation for a mistake, and when they find it out, they think they’ve found the truth, and they probably have. But then they go out and make the same mistake."

>The intro animation sequence where we see Don fall from the building only to end up on the couch, with a cigarette, looking off into space.


Round and round we go...

.

 

[georgehimself]

^ homie I said that's what I like to believe. In my mind it didn't happen. The happy ending to me is him not making the commercial. Also as I mentioned he could have just mentioned what he saw at the commune or he sent pictures to show his new life. I'm not trying to argue, I'm just saying with open interpretation this is what I like to believe.

^ homie I said that's what I like to believe. In my mind it didn't happen. The happy ending to me is him not making the commercial. Also as I mentioned he could have just mentioned what he saw at the commune or he sent pictures to show his new life. I'm not trying to argue, I'm just saying with open interpretation this is what I like to believe.

I see what you're saying, I'm not trying to argue either. I think they left so many things open that I'm not totally satisfied with the ending and have to make some rationalizations myself.

 

[big j 33]

I hope weiner doesnt feel like he has to give a definitive answer to what happened. Sometimes i like these type of endings. Especially since almost every character had some type of closure.

someone mentioned girl Don kind of just vanished. I dunno if that was on purpose because she was black or what. Like to show Don didnt really care. I dunno.

I think he's going to do an interview on Wednesday and he's said that'll be the only time he'll comment on the finale.

 

[00david00]

I think it was the right move giving everyone else the more traditional ending but leaving Don's open.

 

[Master Zik]

So Don finds peace in a hippie commune?

Wiener wasn't joking when he said people would hate the finale.

He probably stayed for a few weeks then left.

I thought that was pretty obvious

Aint the first time Don has taken a retreat from work cuz of some life crisis only to return the same or better.

Somebody already broke down how his time with the hippies is what gives him the idea for the buy the world a coke commercial and probably the entire campaign.

I was half expecting after the commercial to show Don back in a suit in McCann's after the video finished playing with everybody applauding him.

I see what you're saying but it wasn't needed. We didn't need to see McCann's validation because that ad went on to become a one of the biggest slogans in American history. We know it was approved by McCann because everyone 40 years or older knows that song in real life today. It's the equivalent of showing Steve Jobs and then showing an Apple logo. To spell it out with McCann would only cheapen it, it was bigger than McCann.

It's not so much about McCann but the fact that Don went back to work which we see Peggy kinda begging for in their phone convo. Not validation from McCann.

I mean some ppl actually think he stayed with the hippies or a cult

 

[orsrt8]

What more did you want to see? You can't get closure because the characters' lives don't end. They continue on even though you can't see it. This was a great ending. We got to see where the characters we cared about were heading into their future(screw Harry). You don't need to see Don pitching the Coke commercial because it doesn't matter. He found what he was looking for on his road trip and the ad at the end very obviously implies he went back to Mckann Ericcson. He continued his brilliance and rekindled his passion for the job that he had lost as the seasons progressed.

read my other post

 

[Master Zik]

I've also seen another idea that Don used his life problems as an excuse to mask his writer's block. That when he was at that McCann meeting he was stuck and didn't have any good ideas. A writer's bock he knew wouldn't be fixed by banging new broads and drinking. Everything else began to stuck in his life so he pulled another west coast trip this time by going cross country and that at the end where he's settling in with the hippies he just eventually comes up with a new Coke idea and dips after that. So his whole little travels were just about getting another golden idea.

I want to believe that he didn't create it, or that maybe he told Peggy or someone about what he experienced and they ran with it. Here's what I like to believe:

- Don truly did find inner peace and is no longer interested in advertising and is going to stay in Cali
- The ad is used to show how advertising changed and bought together the lives of all these different characters. They all came from different worlds, all had their trials and tribulations, and all started and ended in different places. Just like coke brought all of those strangers and the world together, their world of advertising brought all of these strangers together and it's the one thing that led to better lives for everyone. All of their lives are drastically different from where they started and every last one of them had a lot of ****** things happen to them, but they are where they are now due to advertising.

Again just my thoughts and what I want to believe.

I can't buy some of this cuz most of the characters weren't from different worlds. The biggest representation of a different world are the women on the show and then you have Don who is passing as normal but has a particularly more ****** up upbringing but that's mainly cuz he's the main character. I'd also say their lives aren't that different in the drastically. They all got richer and better jobs. If anything their progress was just a sign of the times since they're heading to the 80s.

Also I can't believe Don just telling somebody else, even if it's Peggy his experience and they coming up with that idea. Too much of reach. Plus I still feel like Peggy settled.

As far as staying in Cali and inner peace. I really feel the west coast represents his past and most of this show was his struggle to drop that baggage

 

[duba169]

Do you think he dropped his baggage or got a great idea and the cycle repeats itself?

Someone said his cycle basically represents the opening theme. Don sporals out of control about to hit the cement but ends up siiting on the seat in his office. So eveything gets crazy and he winds up back where he started at so to speak.

 

[sunshineblotters]

I thought this was an AMAZING ending. Top 10 for sure for me but I dont watch a lot of TV.

That's exactly what I was thinking when it showed all those people happily singing on a field.

Same

Do you think he dropped his baggage or got a great idea and the cycle repeats itself?

Someone said his cycle basically represents the opening theme. Don sporals out of control about to hit the cement but ends up siiting on the seat in his office. So eveything gets crazy and he winds up back where he started at so to speak.

I thought the cycle repeated itself.

 

[rocman23]

I want it to not repeat himself. Everyone else is capable of change but Don isn't and that's why I want to believe he didnt write the ad. I'm like a girlfriend waiting for change, knowing damn well he wont change.

 

[sunshineblotters]

Also when joan answered the business call at the end she answered "Hello, Harris-Olsen". Does that mean she took Joans offer? Did she quit Mcann?

 

[hybridsoldier23]

Also when joan answered the business call at the end she answered "Hello, Harris-Olsen". Does that mean she took Joans offer? Did she quit Mcann?

She answered the phone Halloway-Harris not Harris-Olsen.

 

[franchise3]

Holloway-Harris. She combined her previous last name with her married last name. Peggy stayed at McCann

 

[sunshineblotters]

My bad. I guess I heard what I wanted to hear

 

[ASE]

Obviously Don going back to McCann and creating the ad is the "best" theory, but there's definitely room for alternate theories.

To me, the best reason to think don goes back is because McCann would never make that ad in the Mad Men universe. It's been a running theme for SEASONS that McCann lacks creativity.

 

[shogun]

I want don to change and be a better dad to his kids. Do I think he changed, hell no. He'll be who he always has been. That episode where sally is about to board the bus and tells him that he and betty are the same was too real. Whenever someone gives them attention they melt and swoon.

Seeing sally helping out at the house was nice to see. betty mentioned wanting the kids to live with her brother because he has a wife and they need a mother figure in their lives. They might have a chance at being close to normal.

 

[Master Zik]

I actually think the way Don is will be a better father figure for when his sons are older. He'll never be an ideal dad for Sally but she's not really the ideal daughter given how she's already grown up. They already have a good connection and I think that'll be enough.

 

[sunshineblotters]

I actually think he's an okay father to sally. It's the boys he's been a deadbeat for.

 

[slighted]

I actually think he's an okay father to sally. It's the boys he's been a deadbeat for.

I fear he may raise his boys to be simps. At his core and weakest, Don was simping throughout the show.

 

[cash money 1999]

Balling .
View media item 1539907

 

[big j 33]

Essential Draper quotes

http://uproxx.com/tv/2015/05/15-don-draper-quotes/

 

[aepps20]

The finale was amazing. So proud of Joan. She finally has something of her own. Peggy made the right decision. She probably will be a creative director by 1980 just like Pete said.

 

[rolaholic]

Here's hoping they can finally give Jon Hamm his Emmy