Jake

The End of Mad Men 7 - Person to Person

Recommended Posts

I tried to have as few expectations going into this episode as possible, because I honestly had no idea where it would end. I'm mostly happy with how everything got wrapped up, except for the Peggy and Stan thread (for as cute as their declarations were, I think those characters and their dynamic is much more interesting when they were friends). Joan got the standout send off of the whole cast. Molly Lambert in her Grantland review of this episode made the great point that Joan has had the biggest arc out of anyone on the show; she went from a woman who believed in and worked to uphold patriarchal structures, to the owner of Holloway and Harris. I'm glad her happy ending didn't involve being tied down to that CA real estate guy, and it seems like Joan was pretty happy about that too.

 

Who else was pleased that Harry Crane's last scene was sulking out of the office while holding a tin of cookies?

 

And now for the really big question: how do people interpret the ending? I saw it as cynical juxtaposition of Don's Nirvana with the Nirvana that is being sold through the Coke commercial. The idea being that all emotions, even enlightenment, are manufactured and sold to us. I've seen a lot of interpretations that suggest the ending means Don actually went back and made the Coke commercial and that hippie retreat was his inspiration. That seems too clean for this show and undercuts a lot of the interesting progress Don made over the past few episodes, if in the end all he does is go back for that One Great Pitch. Maybe someone who interprets the ending in that way has an explanation for why it works for them?

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I haven't decided exactly how i feel about this episode, but I did find some parts rather disappointing. I enjoyed the episode up until Peggy and Stan's confessions of love. That scene felt really forced. They made sure Peggy, Roger, Pete and Joan all had neat little happy final scenes, but left Don's ambiguous. Was the coke ad supposed to imply he goes back to Mccan? Side note, that smile looked so odd. I have a hard time believing Pete and Trudy will be able to remain a happy couple, same for Roger and Marie. Overall I liked the show and I know endings are hard, I was just hoping for more. Interested to see what other people thought.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Loved Joan's ending. Her time on the show has been filled with disappointing men and it was incredibly satisfying seeing her dedicate herself to something that she wanted.

 

I didn't like the Peggy and Stan ending. I think her closure works though in the context of defining Peggy as a person who manages to have Don's talent but not his problems. When she asks Stan what he thinks about the partnership, he leaves the room saying something about how there's more to life than work; I think that has been the thrust of her arc this season, so it makes sense that the promise of a fulfilling personal relationship is what we close out on with her.

 

And now for the really big question: how do people interpret the ending? I saw it as cynical juxtaposition of Don's Nirvana with the Nirvana that is being sold through the Coke commercial. The idea being that all emotions, even enlightenment, are manufactured and sold to us. I've seen a lot of interpretations that suggest the ending means Don actually went back and made the Coke commercial and that hippie retreat was his inspiration. That seems too clean for this show and undercuts a lot of the interesting progress Don made over the past few episodes, if in the end all he does is go back for that One Great Pitch. Maybe someone who interprets the ending in that way has an explanation for why it works for them?

 

I think it was Chris who mentioned on the cast recently something about how season 4 was supposed to be the original run and later seasons are sort of a spin off. Looking back at it, Don spends time trying to be a better person. Drinking less. Swimming. Journaling to practice introspection. Starting a relationship with someone he respects. By the end of that season, he is asking Faye to compromise her integrity and impulsively marries Megan. I've met people in my life who know that they're hurting themselves with certain behaviors and even have the self-awareness to know why they do it, but continue to do it anyway. I think Don is this type of person.

 

Without a doubt, something in Don has changed. I think this is evident in how he tries to use a "It will shock you how much it never happened" type speech with Stephanie like he did with Peggy and her baby, but gets shut down because he can't effectively pitch that line of thinking anymore. The depth by which he is affected by the man's fridge dream also reveals that he has had a similar epiphany. That said, Don's most memorable pitches (Kodak, Hershey) were delivered from a place of intense earnestness- it makes complete sense to me that he would take what he learned at the retreat as a 'great idea' for an ad.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Also wanted to point out how good a bookend the fridge dream scene was to the series. In the first episode when Don is having dinner with Rachel Menken, he says 

 

 The reason you haven't felt [love] is because it doesn't exist. What you call love was invented by guys like me to sell nylons. You're born alone and you die alone and this world just drops a bunch of rules on top of you to make you forget those facts. But I never forget. I'm living like there's no tomorrow, because there isn't one.

 

One of the last important monologues in the show being about the importance of feeling loved is a great callback.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

And now for the really big question: how do people interpret the ending? I saw it as cynical juxtaposition of Don's Nirvana with the Nirvana that is being sold through the Coke commercial. The idea being that all emotions, even enlightenment, are manufactured and sold to us. I've seen a lot of interpretations that suggest the ending means Don actually went back and made the Coke commercial and that hippie retreat was his inspiration. That seems too clean for this show and undercuts a lot of the interesting progress Don made over the past few episodes, if in the end all he does is go back for that One Great Pitch. Maybe someone who interprets the ending in that way has an explanation for why it works for them?

I don't see it as undercutting his progress at all. He was at rock bottom and called Peggy, who told him he could come home. Don has finally reconciled the two aspects of himself, so he can be happy and spend his time around people who respect and care about him. There's no one else left in his life but the people he thought didn't care about him at all, but Peggy shows him that they do.

It's an ending that makes sense to me, but I'm still having a hard time articulating it because it's full of opposites and contradictions. It isn't completely neat and clean, and that's kind of the point.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

And now for the really big question: how do people interpret the ending? I saw it as cynical juxtaposition of Don's Nirvana with the Nirvana that is being sold through the Coke commercial. The idea being that all emotions, even enlightenment, are manufactured and sold to us. I've seen a lot of interpretations that suggest the ending means Don actually went back and made the Coke commercial and that hippie retreat was his inspiration. That seems too clean for this show and undercuts a lot of the interesting progress Don made over the past few episodes, if in the end all he does is go back for that One Great Pitch. Maybe someone who interprets the ending in that way has an explanation for why it works for them?

 

I saw it the same, that Don has achieved a moment of personal happiness that was both profound and earned, but no matter how he feels about it, it's still something that can be put on a lunchbox and sold, by someone else if not by him. I especially enjoyed the ambiguous tension over whether the juxtaposition of Don's smile with the Coke commercial was in the episode's editing or in Don's head (that is to say, after years of cynical advertising, is Don's experience of nirvana just that Coke commercial playing in his head), but it never occurred to me for a second that Don smiled and thought of that ad, then flew back to New York to work for McCann again and make his thought a reality. It completely disregards the guru saying that the dawn can make you a new person, unless it is to say that Don can be happy but he can never change, and that's accomplished as effectively whether or not he actually makes the ad.

 

Also, I'm glad everyone else found the scene between Peggy and Stan to be abrupt and forced. I thought Stan's confession was great, but then I watched Peggy go to pieces, which I also loved to watch, and the last place I expected her to end up was agreeing with him. I liked Stan and Peggy because it pointed to something besides romance as a source of personal happiness for a career woman. I guess we got that with Joan, but still... Really, the best interpretation came from Linda Holmes at NPR, where she suggested that Peggy deciding not to do anything about Don and instead choosing to reciprocate Stan's feelings in a way that was honest and real shows her letting go of Don's approval, but I'm not sure the latter was as strong of a motif for her character as Holmes seems to think.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I'm perfectly ok with believing that Don goes back to McCann and does the coke ad, because I don't necessarily believe that advertising in Mad Men was meant to represent something cynical and dehumanizing, even though Don may tout that perception at times (especially early series).

 

Throughout the show we've clearly seen that Don actually puts a lot of himself in advertising. The famous Carousel pitch in season 1 always struck me as proof that Don sees a connection between what we want as human beings and what materialistic things can provide us. I vaguely remember that Don actually explains this to Peggy when he tries to convince her of joining SCDP in season 3 finale. He believes in Peggy because Peggy understands that the essence of advertising is the belief that you have agency in your happiness through consumerism. The Hershey's breakdown also, where Don first tries to spin some flowery thing about his childhood before breaking down and admitting that a chocolate bar was the only thing that made him feel like a normal kid.

 

Does anyone have to believe that there still exists a human core to advertising in real life? Probably not. But watching Don's journey through the half-season, I don't think it undermines his arc at all to say that he went back and put his whole heart into the ad. 

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I definitely didn't read it as Draper going back to McCann and writing the ad, but I do fall into the slightly more cynical read that despite all the things Don has undergone and reflected in did just result in another pitch. There's plenty of times in the show where he has become a self-reflective person who questioned his life, but he kind of just went back to bring who he's been the whole show each time. I want to watch the episode again because my reading of it would probably change

I may be wrong about this but I think I remember Roger saying something about people going off and having experiences that they claim change them and then end up being the same person. Does anyone else have any recollection of this or am I just insane?

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I may be wrong about this but I think I remember Roger saying something about people going off and having experiences that they claim change them and then end up being the same person. Does anyone else have any recollection of this or am I just insane?

 

I think you mean this interchange with his therapist:

 

 

That's totally what I thought about when watching Don's "epiphany."

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I come back and everyone has discussed everything already! Just one thing: Sally's ending. For me, this was the saddest end of any of the characters stories. Her final scene is of her as her mother, although I like to think of it as only temporary.

I'm no Betty hater, but Sally deserves a better future than that.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Talk about callbacks, from an interview with Jon Hamm:

My take is that, the next day, he wakes up in this beautiful place, and has this serene moment of understanding, and realizes who he is. And who he is, is an advertising man. And so, this thing comes to him. There’s a way to see it in a completely cynical way, and say, “Wow, that’s awful.” But I think that for Don, it represents some kind of understanding and comfort in this incredibly unquiet, uncomfortable life that he has led. There was a little bit of a crumb dropped earlier in the season when Ted says there are three women in every man’s life, and Don says, “You’ve been sitting on that for a while, huh?” There are, not coincidentally, three person to person phone calls that Don makes in this episode, to three women who are important to him for different reasons. You see the slow degeneration of his relationships with those women over the course of those phone calls.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Has the show ever had the main characters take credit for a real life ad? I can't remember them doing so, and it would be weird to end on Don suddenly being the one who came up with the actual Hillside Coke ad. I'm going to lean on this being more a symbolic thing for the show rather than Don literally going back to make the Coke ad.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Talk about callbacks, from an interview with Jon Hamm:

Yes, this is exactly how I read it. I loved the kind of ambiguousness, but I think the intent was quite clear.

So, I guess Don took a trip to Ireland afterwards? http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/I%27d_Like_to_Teach_the_World_to_Sing_(In_Perfect_Harmony)

Talking of Don, I also loved that even while embedded in a hippy commune he still had incredibly well pressed shirts.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Has the show ever had the main characters take credit for a real life ad? I can't remember them doing so, and it would be weird to end on Don suddenly being the one who came up with the actual Hillside Coke ad. I'm going to lean on this being more a symbolic thing for the show rather than Don literally going back to make the Coke ad.

It definitely wouldn't be the first time. Don came up with "It's Toasted" for Lucky Strike even though they've been using it since before the 20s in the real world.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

It definitely wouldn't be the first time. Don came up with "It's Toasted" for Lucky Strike even though they've been using it since before the 20s in the real world.

 

Oh, man, right!

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I think you mean this interchange with his therapist:

That was much longer ago than I thought but I was thinking of this yes.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Pretty disappointed we didn't see what Sal was up to...

Pretty much loved all of this apart from the Peggy + Stan stuff. It was sweet and Peggy s initial reaction was funny but I just don't buy her reciprocation. Not enough P Diddly either but there never is. I didn't really know what to make of the ending but the person I watched it with offered a similar explanation to argobot. I like that idea much, much more than a triumphant return from a vision quest with one big idea or whatever.

Also Meredith's reaction to being made redundant was really great and sweet. Go be an interior designer Meredith!

I'm gonna miss this show so much. Off to cry for a bit now.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

The podcast episode is up. Thanks everyone for watching and listening along with us!

Also my favorite simple summary of the Mad Men finale is probably this tweet from Devin Faraci: "Holy fuck the final bit of MAD MEN is a punchline AND a summation AND an amazing question left for you to answer."

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Ahh we forgot to play everyone's favourite game, guess the official episode desorption.

"Joan has lunch with an old friend, Don is back behind the wheel... Pete gives Peggy a cactus..."

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I had forgotten about this scene until I listened the podcast. When Bobby and Sally are talking, oh man it was so cool to see Bobby being an actual human. He has figured out that Betty is sick and is failing at making toast. Considering the only other time he really did anything was that camp episode, it was fun to see that actor get to do something. Totally on team Bobby now :)  

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

The thing that bothered me most about the Peggy/Stan thing was its proximity to her conversation with Don. The conversation with Don seemed real and human, and the Stan thing seemed like subduing that only really happens in Hollywood. It was just jarring. I would have probably felt different about it if there has been more room to breathe between the two. Now that I've had time to think, "Hey, big ole dumb me, it was the finale, they didn't have all the time in the world and they couldn't really do that any earlier," I'm more okay with it, but the bubblegum tone of that interaction still rubs me the wrong way. It's not that it's rom-commy, just that it's a kind of hyperreal scene surrounded by very real and human interactions.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now