The first time we saw him, Don Draper walked into his office
and put on a fresh white shirt after a night of carousing, smoked and drank the
day away, slept with his mistress and ended up in his suburban New York house
with his family. Ten years later, finally broken, he chants Om overlooking the
Pacific Ocean and smiles.
That last shot is reportedly an image Matthew Weiner always
had in mind for the end of Mad Men.
Don’s fate in the series finale was the only one that really surprised me but
makes a certain amount of sense. It would have been cliché for him to rush home
and comfort Betty and Sally. Betty’s wishes have a depressing logic: the kids
need normality and Don being absent is normal so he should stay absent. I liked
how the story was open-ended since Don could very well complete his meditation
and return home healthier and happier and better able to deal with the crisis
in New York.
That phone call between Don and Betty may not have been
their last word ever but it was just devastating. Hearing Don choke out Betty’s
pet name “Birdie” as his face crumpled made me choke up.
The end of the series played out in large part as a series
of conversations between two characters, sometimes over the phone, making the
title “Person to Person” fitting. As with Don and Betty, these people may see
each other again but they still had a chance to express some deep emotion for
one another. This wasn’t entirely what I was expecting (I actually had no idea
what to expect) but I liked how this finale didn’t do anything gimmicky like
jump decades ahead. I also liked how for a series that could be dark and
cynical, it ended with a surprising amount of hope.
I was so happy Joan’s resignation from McCann a few weeks
ago was not the last we saw of her. It was inevitable that she and Richard
would not work out. She is too young to retire with him and do coke in Key
West. She needs a career and he doesn’t want to make plans. Still, on his way
out, Richard offered some great motivation for Joan: “Your life is an
undeveloped property. You can turn it into anything you want.”
Then we get the tantalizing prospect of Harris Olson
starting their own production company and not answering to anyone. It’s not to
be but it’s a thrill that Joan is making her own way and attaining the power
she deserves. I liked her healthy goodbye to Roger. She didn’t seem
disappointed that he’s marrying Marie and finally accepted the one token of
love he can give: inheritance money for Kevin. Joan and Roger have been
star-crossed from the start of the series, never available for one another at
the same time, but this was good closure for their story.
With her dress from two episodes hanging in a garment bag on
the wall, waiting for another strut down the hallway, Peggy turns down a chance
to attain true independence with Joan, opting to keep her head down at McCann
and navigate the brusque treatment of her superiors, maybe becoming creative
director by 1980. She’ll be alright. As Pete sweetly notes, “Someday people are
gonna brag that they used to work with you.”
Maybe the scene with Stan and Peggy confessing their love
was more romantic comedy than this show usually gets, but I don’t care. I was
squealing and applauding with delight when these two finally got together. Stan
has evolved from the jerk who would only work with Peggy after she called his
bluff on stripping in that hotel room into a serious, nurturing man. I loved
Peggy’s repeated “What?” to his love declarations and her final realization
that of course, of course she feels
the same. When Stan hung up the phone, I knew he was on his way to her office
to kiss her and even though I saw it coming, I loved it.
I was glad Peggy and Don had an official goodbye as they’ve
barely had any time together this half-season. That phone call was a
heartbreaker. “I know you get sick of things and you run but you can come home.
Don, come home.” Years ago, Don took Peggy’s hand and silently begged her not
to leave Sterling Cooper. Now she begs him to stay.
“I messed everything up. I’m not the man you think I am,”
Don says. He confesses a litany of sins to his protégé, the most damning of
which is “I took another man’s name and did nothing with it.”
What a devastating summary of a life. This is Don’s final
confession, to a person who was in a sense his soul mate. He is completely
broken now, truly at the bottom and lying limp by a payphone after being
abandoned by Stephanie. He’s in what for him is a sort of hell, a touchy-feely
‘70s retreat where people not only have to say what they feel but also say how
saying it makes them feel. Don’s philosophy is to “move forward” but after
Stephanie’s rejection, he finally seems to get that it won’t work. His
breakthrough comes when another guy at the retreat confesses that he feels like
nobody at home knows he’s gone. Maybe Don’s tears at this mean he identifies
with the guy but I would hope he knows it’s not true. He should know plenty of
people, from Sally to Peggy, know he’s gone and want him back. Maybe he will go
back after he clears his head.
I loved the vignettes at the end showing the main
characters’ status as the series closes. Pete ends up the happiest of all,
finding success in love and career, jetting off to Kansas with the family.
Roger has a little more purpose at work and has found contentment with Marie,
ordering lobsters in French. Joan is still stuck in that old apartment but is
taking professional control and starting Holloway Harris with her mother, her
name finally on the door. Peggy and Stan have the chance to become more than
work spouses. Betty is hanging on and although it looks pretty grim, Sally is
already showing she can take charge of the family in her mother’s absence. She’ll
be OK.
These people haven’t all gotten exactly what they want, and
their successes are elliptical and may not work out in the long run, but they
have enough and they’ll be OK.
Now about that closing Coke commercial. There are a few
different ways to interpret this. We can infer that Don went back to
advertising and used his newfound Om serenity to come up with “I’d Like to
Teach the World to Sing” to sell carbonated beverages. Or maybe Don will always
be tied to advertising and expresses his happiness through tag lines. Whatever
it is, it will be a lot of fun to debate the ambiguity of that ending.
What a staggering brilliant series Mad Men was. As a character study, it was incomparable. I’ve rarely
seen anything that rewards immersive viewing like that, where you can feel the
history of the characters weighting down every scene. It’s primed for repeat
viewing and I think I’ll do just that.
Bravo.
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