# Mad-Men: 7.10 "The Forecast" (open spoilers) **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 20, 2015, 12:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mad-men-7-10-the-forecast-open-spoilers/718080 "2015-04-20T00:31:44Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2015, 7:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mad-men-7-10-the-forecast-open-spoilers/718080/101 "2015-04-23T19:06:20Z")
It’s hard to know how seriously people have taken the image. They do go on and on about it, and speculate endlessly about suicide, and comment whenever an elevator or a balcony or a window is part of a scene. As a joke it went into “Hi, Opal” status years ago. After eight years it’s harder and harder to believe they’re just joking. You can say that the entire series has shown Don in free-fall through his life. When he became Don Draper he stepped off a metaphorical edge. He’s tried to escape that life many times, by wanting to run away to California, by leaving his wives, by sabotaging clients. Each previous attempt left him sitting on that bench, as at the opener close. The series is really ending this time. It’s not life, it doesn’t has to conclude with death. It needs to conclude, though. The Sopranos taught Weiner that. This episode comes closest to the feeling of the opener of any so far. I think that’s deliberate. All the side stories are window dressing. Don’t take your eye off of Don. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2015, 7:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mad-men-7-10-the-forecast-open-spoilers/718080/102 "2015-04-23T19:18:44Z")
Maybe in the last scene he’ll be _thinking_ about committing suicide while he’s actually leaning back on a couch casually smoking a cigarette. ---
**Author:** ![hajario](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hajario/32/171_2.png) [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2015, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mad-men-7-10-the-forecast-open-spoilers/718080/103 "2015-04-23T19:29:40Z")
I am sure that they will do a call out of some kind, maybe a dream sequence, but I can’t imagine he will kill himself. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2015, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mad-men-7-10-the-forecast-open-spoilers/718080/104 "2015-04-23T19:46:50Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > Wow. I saw the same show and came away with opinions 180 degrees from yours. > > We’ve seen Don failing as a human being for six and a half seasons. As Mathis said, he’s been skating by on his looks and charisma. Now we’re seeing that as he ages and his beauty fades, they no longer get him out of sticky situations. Really? He said that last year he was worried about the company going under and/or he being fired. He’s bounced back quite a bit from that. And he did fail as a human being - no doubt about that. But looking into the future he is trying to find a different path. And pushing back on those whose goals are to follow his old path. > [@](#): > > The real estate agent was obviously right. His empty apartment smelled of failure. Don was being defensive in telling her that she had failed, a tactic that always worked in the past. She brushed him off like the bad crumb he is. He can’t read the public any more. He got lucky in selling it - to a pregnant couple, a pair with a future that is not, unlike his, completely written out. The apartment was crap. But Don’s brilliance as an adman was not in selling great products, it was finding a way to sell crap products. He gave the real estate agent a hook that she could use to sell his crap apartment, and it apparently worked. And quickly. If Wiener is trying to show Don as a continued failure, being stuck in that place - which is trashed due to things he has done - would be a symbol of his failure. Him escaping it is a symbol of him moving beyond his failure. > [@](#): > > Don was always awful in handling employees. He even managed to drive Peggy away and she worshiped him. The scene with Mathis was a disaster. Is this the first time they’ve spoken? Don clearly thinks that everybody ought to take care of their own problems - even though he has failed repeatedly by not getting help. He took a minor incident and though his ineptness with his employee hurt his firm. He told the creative guy to find his own solution, and gave him an example. The Creative guy instead of solving the problem copied what Don did - the old Don. And failed. If someone with a mentor does exactly what the mentor did to succeed, that person is guaranteed to fail. A mentor who says do exactly as I did is a bad mentor. Don didn’t do that, he even suggested a less intense solution. He might become a good mentor - too early to know. > [@](#): > > But all that pales before the future fiasco. Everybody else has it exactly right. McCann wants to hear that they would be going after a big client. Period. They don’t want the Gettysburg Address. They want to know that their investment will make them money. Everybody Don talks to is doing their jobs. And he doesn’t care. He doesn’t even get how alienating he’s being. His head is somewhere else. He’s failing them and himself. We’ll see how it goes. But Don was working harder at this assignment (despite being interrupted) since the stuff he did the first season. No booze. No women. And an assignment which he realizes is harder than coming up with a good selling point. He might be alienating - but in the sense of “don’t limit your hopes to within these walls. I did, and it was terrible.” He pushed Peggy into having a real dream, something creative, not just a higher level job. > [@](#): > > Don’s life started at zero because he was a nothing going nowhere when he lucked into taking someone else’s identity. It’s now returning to zero, a life of nothingness going nowhere. That’s the arc of the series. How can anybody believe there’ll be a happy ending? Don has been at zero already. Drunk. Forced out of his job. Divorced again. If this story has a normal arc, he should be heading up from here. And this episode makes me think he is, and realizes how bad it was. Finally. And is doing something about it, like rejecting the booze. One more thing. Sally of course still sees Don as he used to be, not as he has become. But Don tells her that though she is beautiful, she needs to be more than that. (Remember - he just got told he is nothing but a handsome empty shell - which is not even close to being correct.) Betty is pretty much a beautiful empty shell, though maybe she is about to change also. Don doesn’t want Sally to be like that. Don is flawed but not evil. Weiner on Fresh Air sounded kind of surprised that Don is hated so much. Maybe he is fooling up, but it is certainly possible that Don is going to be redeemed by the end of the show. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2015, 8:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mad-men-7-10-the-forecast-open-spoilers/718080/105 "2015-04-23T20:04:45Z")
> [@hajario](#): > > I am sure that they will do a call out of some kind, maybe a dream sequence, but I can’t imagine he will kill himself. Let’s hope he doesn’t step out on a balcony, and then it fades to black. ---
**Author:** ![alphaboi867](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alphaboi867/32/3898_2.png) [@alphaboi867](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alphaboi867)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2015, 12:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mad-men-7-10-the-forecast-open-spoilers/718080/106 "2015-04-24T00:58:08Z")
> [@Green\_Bean](#): > > HA! Tom and Lorenzo referenced Mr. Furley! > > [Mad Style: The Forecast - Tom + Lorenzo](http://tomandlorenzo.com/2015/04/mad-style-the-forecast/) > > I win the internet! That sure is quite a contrast between how Joan & Peggy dress for business trips. 😛 > [@Jophiel](#): > > …No idea what the real estate philosophy in 1970 was but isn’t it the common wisdom today to have your place as sparsely furnished as possible when trying to sell for exactly the reason Don stated? You want people to imagine their own stuff in there, plus it makes the place look larger. There’s sparsely furnished and there’s completely empty (or worse, patio furniture in the living room is pure white trash), and hug wine stain _in the bedroom_ is sad in any decade. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2015, 7:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mad-men-7-10-the-forecast-open-spoilers/718080/107 "2015-04-24T07:35:37Z")
> [@alphaboi867](#): > > That sure is quite a contrast between how Joan & Peggy dress for business trips. 😛 > > There’s sparsely furnished and there’s completely empty (or worse, patio furniture in the living room is pure white trash), and hug wine stain _in the bedroom_ is sad in any decade. When we were looking at houses here, we saw worse. Holes in the wall, a room totally filled with clutter. As for staging, you need the right amount of furniture, and no clutter. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2015, 2:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mad-men-7-10-the-forecast-open-spoilers/718080/108 "2015-04-24T14:50:55Z")
> [@Voyager](#): > > Maybe he is fooling up, but it is certainly possible that Don is going to be redeemed by the end of the show. You are putting the best possible interpretation on Don’s actions. I’m asking people to look at it another way. I can’t believe that Don will be redeemed. What could that possibly mean? Redeemed with Betty and Sally? Redeemed with Peggy? Get the Nobel Peace Prize? Discover a cure for lung cancer that can be administered by chain-smoking cigarettes? ---
**Author:** ![ThelmaLou](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thelmalou/32/390_2.png) [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2015, 4:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mad-men-7-10-the-forecast-open-spoilers/718080/109 "2015-04-24T16:41:15Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > You are putting the best possible interpretation on Don’s actions. I’m asking people to look at it another way. > > I can’t believe that Don will be redeemed. What could that possibly mean? Redeemed with Betty and Sally? Redeemed with Peggy? Get the Nobel Peace Prize? Discover a cure for lung cancer that can be administered by chain-smoking cigarettes? \*Redeemed \*might mean something as simple as curbing some of his tendencies toward self-destruction. Nothing earth-shaking or complicated. Taking his role as a parent seriously. Taking his role as a mentor seriously. Refraining from bedding \*every \*willing woman who crosses his path. Cutting back on drinking (don’t see him ever being abstinent). He has already taken some baby steps when he sort of stopped running from his past. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2015, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mad-men-7-10-the-forecast-open-spoilers/718080/110 "2015-04-24T16:42:00Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > You are putting the best possible interpretation on Don’s actions. I’m asking people to look at it another way. > > I can’t believe that Don will be redeemed. What could that possibly mean? Redeemed with Betty and Sally? Redeemed with Peggy? Get the Nobel Peace Prize? Discover a cure for lung cancer that can be administered by chain-smoking cigarettes? \ There is good in him. I can feel it. \ Being redeemed does not mean that everyone he has wronged in the past suddenly forgives him. It means that he is on a good and sustainable path going forwards. Don’s sex addiction come from, in part, a deep dissatisfaction with who he is. He seems to have gotten over that. When the real estate agent comes in and finds him naked in the bed, there is no sexual tension at all. I bet that would have been different in a previous season. I’ve already mentioned him rejecting alcohol in this episode. Don’s previous conquests were models, department store magnates, the wives of doctors and famous comics. Last week he chased a waitress, and discovered that she had committed the unpardonable sin of abandoning her child. Maybe that is what turned him around. Redemption for Don is going to be him being happy with himself. We’ve already seen him talking about his real past, so that part is done. He has started to delegate creative to those younger than him. He has no problem with Peggy wanting his job - he just thinks she should want something more than that. Anakin being redeemed doesn’t bring back the people Vader killed. So erasing all the blots on Don’s life is too much to ask for. It won’t happen, but I’d love for the last episode to have Don and Peggy getting together, in a relationship based on creative respect and not lust. That would be awesome. On preview: I agree with **ThelmaLou** also. I wrote too slowly. ---
**Author:** ![amanset](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8dc957/32.png) [@amanset](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amanset)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2015, 2:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mad-men-7-10-the-forecast-open-spoilers/718080/111 "2015-04-25T14:11:19Z")
> [@Chefguy](#): > > It’s probably pronounced “winer”, which is the German pronunciation (actually, “viner” would be more accurate). Sense of humour failure. So very Dope. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2015, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mad-men-7-10-the-forecast-open-spoilers/718080/112 "2015-04-25T19:58:18Z")
> [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](#): > > I didn’t see it that way. Ordinarily I’m all over saying cruel things about Don, but he was pretty clearly just tolerating the kid’s inappropriate behavior so as not to embarrass her. I agree with this. > [@Lightray](#): > > Gah, [lede](http://grammarist.com/usage/lead-lede/), please. This is an inappropriate nitpick. I’ve been a journalist since the late 1980s, when some places were still using actual metal type in printing. “Lede” and “ledd” are industry jargon developed for a particular purpose in the production process. When we are writing content—that is, something that’s meant to be read by people, like a message board post—we spell them both as “lead.” [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mad-men-7-10-the-forecast-open-spoilers/718080.md?page=5)