Mad Men and Don Draper meet their end

Parents Forum Parent Cafe
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The ad at the end was a statement about how unreal the real thing is, that Coke wraps itself in this banner of world peace and harmony to sell sugared, caffeinated, fizzy water. And it follows this series of events in Don’s life that finally rids him, at least as we can see, from all the urges to rush and help and then turn and run.

The thing with Stephanie: you’re not my family. And then she leaves. It’s the final event in the cascade of giving things up, from the job to the suit to the caddy and all the illusions.

But to me the biggest thing was when he talks to Sally and she says the kids should stay with Henry. With Henry. Because they would at least have their own beds. And then Betty says they need a woman, a regular family and stability. Of course he wants to rush and help because that’s what he does: I’ll always take care of you, etc., etc. Betty is right and Don needs to get his head together before he can be a better presence in those kids’ lives.

The rest was, to me, a wrapping up to satisfy all the good feelings people have, from Roger getting married and Pete boarding a plane with his family to Peggy and Stan declaring their love. Even Meredith will land on her feet because she always does.

I’m not saying Don is a good person, but that his trekking, his restlessness in relationships, his mean and awful streaks come from the conflict within in which he’s never accepted himself. He even says to Peggy on the phone that he’s not the man she thinks he is, something I took as deeper than he’s Dick Whitman because he, at that moment, feels like a complete failure. We can see he’s not because we see Peggy, the person he’s mentored and in some important ways been a father to. We also see Sally and the responsible young woman she’s become. But within himself …

And that is in direct contrast to the world he walked away from, the one in which you sell diet beer to fat Midwestern men who have power tools in their garage they never use and where cologne makes you irresistible to women and where buying a bottle of soda creates world peace.

And my favorite scene is when Bobby asks Sally, “Is it going to happen now?” because kids know, just as Pete tells his brother that wives know when you’re a cheater.

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So the symbolism of the opening credits, after don has fallen “apart” - he has found peace, acceptance of his flaws, and emerges the guy relaxed arm on couch, comfortable in his own skin

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That last scene of the dying Betty smoking in the kitchen and looking bedraggled is as clear a statement about the addictive nature of cigarettes as can be made by this series.

Don always goes back to CA to say goodbye to his wives.

And, throughout Mad Men, CA seems to renew him and he returns to work, though I’m not at all sure that it’s conclusive that Don authors the Coca-Cola commercial in a couple of years. It’s subject to individual viewer’s interpretation. Peggy tells him to come back, but we’ll never know if he does.

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Don always turned to sentiment and heartstrings in his greatest ads. (Remember the slide carousel? The airline commercial with the little girl running to dad with her arms outstretched?) So yes, I think the implication is that Don did that classic Coke ad which, as sappy as it was, remains a classic. (Remember when it was remade a few years ago… using the same actors… and their children?) I think there’s a good chance the kids will stay with Henry - but I think Don will be there for them, and (I hope) develops as close a relationship with the boys as he has with Sally. Peggy/Stan, the possibility of a Harris/Olson agency-- all that was icing on the cake for me.

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the coke ad has that same beach/cliff vibe and scenery with hippies that don experienced. he goes back after he gets better in california. i was so angry at him for not running home immediately – until i saw the ending. although ambiguous, i’m reading a satisfying ending to it.

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Good points, @katliamom ,

Maybe Don calls and gives Peggy the idea and it’s her big commercial. I cannot see Don back at McCann.

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^^ that’s a thought. Although, maybe Don has finally quit running, and has returned to work. After all, he has children to look after now. And maybe take over creative once Peggy leaves to work with Joan. In any case, I relish the idea that Don will be, in the end, OK. And maybe even somewhat at peace with himself.

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I thought Peggy decided against leaving McCann to work with Joan.

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A friend just sent me this link. I found it interesting that I agree with virtually everything this author wrote, down to the part (for me) that Don was the least interesting part of the finale – so I’ll just post it here:

http://communityvoices.post-gazette.com/arts-entertainment-living/tuned-in/item/39055-ending-mad-men

The author noted Sally doing the dishes while Betty continued her smoking. I am heartbroken for Sally if she now has to assume the motherly care of her two younger brothers. It will derail her future to a great extent.

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I felt satisfied by the ending. I loved seeing that commercial and have no idea of whose idea it’s supposed to be. I loved that commercial as a kid. I loved that Peggy found love and support and that there was some resolution for some of the characters. Maybe it’s true that Don needed to find inner peace before he could be there for his kids, but I do feel bad for those kids. No one is helping them process what is happening and it’s Sally who is taking charge as the real parent to those boys.

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Sally has matured, from the arrogant rebellious teen. It’s brought out her better side.

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Sally is becoming a classic parentified child. It looks like maturity, but at too high a cost.

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I thought the little smile that played on Don’s lips after he “om’d” made it very clear that he’d just had a lightbulb moment. Add to that the multiple times characters say “Don always comes back,” the prominence of the Coke machine in the prior episode, the close resemblance of some of the Esalen folks to ones in the commercial, the fact that Don’s essential nature has never changed in 7 years–I think it’s more than obvious that Don comes back to McCann and crafts the famous spot. And since he’s been an awful father for the entire series, I hope he honors Betty’s wishes that he remain just an intermittent visitor in their lives. It was pretty striking that neither Betty nor Sally thought the boys belonged with him. That said, I thought the episode was not a strong one, and the Esalen scenes were interminable.

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I’m still processing the big stuff, but I have one trivial comment. Mary Poppins had nothing on Don’s life in a few bags system. There is no way he could have fit all of his stuff in those few bags in the last two episodes. I was probably one of the few people who found that distracting.

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Speaking of " the close resemblance of some of the Esalen folks to ones in the commercial" –

https://twitter.com/emillersmith/status/600142889058902016

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@2VU0609 I noticed that as well!

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http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/■■■■■■■-machine/tim-goodman-mad-men-series-796469

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Yes! @patsmom! I noticed that immediately and commented to my H—that girl in the ad has the same braids as the desk clerk.

This cemented for me the idea that Don did the commercial.

My H called Don a cultural vampire. “He will absorb this hippie kumbaya stuff and take it back to advertising as the new thing” (he said this before we saw the Coke ad).

Dick/Don may have had a breakthrough, and be ready to leave Don Draper and all the crappy stuff he did as Don behind, but I’m not sure. That smile at the end came off as smarmy to me, not like he was really meditating and happy and peaceful, but more like the wheels were turning–how can I use this? I don’t think he can really change.

Just as in the past we saw him quit drinking and start exercising–didn’t take. With Megan, that he would be a better husband. Nope, cheated again. He will be honest with his kids and be a better dad—nope. Maybe what he realized at the commune was a life changer, but I wouldn’t bet on it lasting too long.

I loved the phone calls between Don and Sally and Don and Betty (the latter was so sad and moving). Betty had not cried at all (as far as I remember) about the cancer but with Don she does. The whole thing about no one wanting him to have the kids reminded me of Terms of Endearment and how Debra Winger didn’t want Flap to have the kids; she knew he didn’t really want them and he admitted it. I think the fact that Don didn’t immediately hop on a plane and go get his kids was a very Flap move.

When Stan and Peggy got together I was glad that she’d found someone to love her and support her. I said to my H that I could see Stan becoming the OG stay-at-home dad (there’s more to life than work). Peggy is the career superstar in that pairing and Stan knows it and is completely cool with giving her back rubs while she turns out brilliant copy.

Loved Joan starting her own company, but ugh, another self-absorbed jerk can’t handle her ambition.

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I know that it is just a tv show but I was so sad for the kids. Betty’s dying, Don’s off finding himself and since Betty decided not to seek treatment, Henry checks out. No one was thinking of the kids.

I’m sure some of this was reflective of the times, but Betty wants to spare the kids! They knew and were lost in that big house of theirs. I know Betty wanted to die alone, but as usual it was about her and not about those kids. They needed someone!

I know Betty wanted her brother to take in the kids, but in the end she won’t have control over that. I never thought that Henry was very invested in Betty’s kids and I know that Sally wanted them to stay with them. But I think she understood that he had checked out also and she had to step in. Because as usual Sally was adult that her parents could never be.

Loved the ending for Joan (loved that she became empowered), Peggy and Roger. And while I see what Matt Weiner was doing in giving us 4 good endings with one sad ending, I couldn’t stop thinking about Sally and Betty in the last scene. So very sad.

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Actually, Don is not fully moved by the scene at the retreat meeting at first. His gut, familiar instinct is to fall back on the us and them argument - people raised to believe in something will judge and you can’t listen to them. But after Stephanie runs out in tears, Don follows and tells her ( in a scene similar to the one where Peggy gave away her son for adoption) “You can put this behind you. It gets easier as you move forward,”

Running away has been his MO his whole life. Stephanie, in an epiphany, tells him “Oh, Dick, I don’t think you’re right about that.” Her realization is you can’t turn your back on your mistakes, especially not on children or family. Don is not family and she doesn’t know what he’s doing there. The message seems to get through to him at last. That it comes from the niece of the real Mrs. Draper makes it that much more compelling.

When a gut wrenched Don calls Peggy, she tells him to come home. She knows the real Don/Dick and asks him what he’s ever done that is so bad. She reassures him that McCann will take him back and that it’s happened before. And “Don’t you want to work on Coke?” Inconsistently, he first says he called because he realized he never said goodbye, but his last words were “I’ll see you soon.”

The theme about responsibility to children and connection to family is echoed throughout the episode - in Roger’s efforts to put Kevin in his will, in Pete’s reconnection with his family, in Peggy’s realization that there is more to life than just work. In the end, it’s all about family.

I’d certainly like to think Don has finally become the responsible man he should and could be. Does that mean coming back east, going back to work and seeing the kids on the weekend, if that, just as before? Does it mean respecting Betty’s wishes or Sally’s, which are partly based on the old Don’s lifestyle, or fully stepping up? As he tells Sally when he learns of Betty’s fate, these things are grown up decisions and Don is finally a grown up. He no longer wants his children to be waiting for him to walk in that door. YMMV.

I don’t think there’s meant to be too much doubt that the commercial is Don’s brainchild. The images of the retreat are fully echoed in the commercial. I do think that the little smile on Don’s face during yoga meditation was supposed to show he’d been struck once again with creative genius. He’d also had a moment with the Coke machine in the last episode.