# Mad-Men: 7.12 "Lost Horizon" (open spoilers) **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 4, 2015, 12:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mad-men-7-12-lost-horizon-open-spoilers/719190 "2015-05-04T00:21:10Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 8
**Author:** ![Sam\_Lowry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e95f7d/32.png) [@Sam\_Lowry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_Lowry)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2015, 1:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mad-men-7-12-lost-horizon-open-spoilers/719190/141 "2015-05-07T13:34:04Z")
> [@Sherrerd](#): > > I’d be very surprised if Don committed murder. But I could imagine an ending in which someone Don is with–someone with a life Don can see himself living–dies. And when that man dies, he and Don happen to be at the top of a big drop: maybe a canyon rather than a skyscraper. Whatever it is, it just has to be high enough so that the face of the person who falls all that way and crashes at the bottom will be smashed beyond recognition. All the authorities will have to go on will be the wallet and ID in the guy’s pocket. > > Of course that would be a contrived ending. And there is the problem of what life the other guy could have, that Don might plausibly think he could inhabit.\* It made sense for Dick Whitman to take another man’s identity. Dick had a terrible childhood, with a dead prostitute for a mom and a dead alcoholic father, then a home with his abusive stepmother in a bordello. He also never finished high school. And Dick just arrived recently to the war, but the real Don Draper was close to finishing his tour. It made sense for Dick to switch the dog tags to become Don Draper. But now Don doesn’t need to really escape his life, he’s been set free from a lot of it, even if it’s not by choice. He could move to anywhere in the US and stay Don Draper, or change his name to something else, it doesn’t matter. There’s no need for him to take someone’s existing identity. And there’s hardly any time for them to introduce a new character with no family ties that could die and Don could take his place without it being hugely contrived. > [@Sherrerd](#): > > What is it that you question? Do you doubt that Weiner plans to give his son more screen time? Or do you doubt that Weiner is setting up Soul-Sick Don’s doing something other than simply going back to work as an ad man? I don’t know how serious you are about this suggestion, since it sounds so crazy to me, but I seriously doubt we’ll see Glen again. Out of 92 episodes, Glen has been in 12, mostly in the early seasons. He got a good ending with Sally and Betty in the episode two weeks ago. And while the show has shown places other than New York, it would be a stretch for them to show the Vietnam War and have it look good. And I don’t think Don has any real love of the army. He was hardly in the army for very long, since he arrived as Dick Whitman and left as Don Draper a fairly short time after. ---
**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:** [May 7, 2015, 2:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mad-men-7-12-lost-horizon-open-spoilers/719190/142 "2015-05-07T14:44:01Z")
One of the best ideas for an ending I can recall came up during one of [Cracked.com](http://Cracked.com)’s photoplasty contests: an older Don Draper’s career is finally and utterly destroyed when in 1985 he enthusiastically spearheads the campaign for New Coke. ---
**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:** [May 7, 2015, 5:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mad-men-7-12-lost-horizon-open-spoilers/719190/143 "2015-05-07T17:57:35Z")
Are we now before or after McCann’s landmark “I’d like to buy the world a Coke” campaign? ---
**Author:** ![fachverwirrt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/94ad74/32.png) [@fachverwirrt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fachverwirrt)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2015, 6:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mad-men-7-12-lost-horizon-open-spoilers/719190/144 "2015-05-07T18:17:06Z")
Apparently that debuted in 1971. So we’re close. I think it’s still 1970. ---
**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:** [May 7, 2015, 6:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mad-men-7-12-lost-horizon-open-spoilers/719190/145 "2015-05-07T18:24:32Z")
> [@fachverwirrt](#): > > Apparently that debuted in 1971. So we’re close. I think it’s still 1970. If Sally’s going back to school it’s probably September 1970. The Coke campaign debuted on January 28, 1971. That means it’s probably already in development. A campaign that major would need a lead time of six months to a year. The Miller campaign was 1974. ---
**Author:** ![Sherrerd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sherrerd/32/8_2.png) [@Sherrerd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sherrerd)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2015, 7:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mad-men-7-12-lost-horizon-open-spoilers/719190/146 "2015-05-07T19:35:38Z")
> [@Sam\_Lowry](#): > > It made sense for Dick Whitman to take another man’s identity. Dick had a terrible childhood, with a dead prostitute for a mom and a dead alcoholic father, then a home with his abusive stepmother in a bordello. He also never finished high school. And Dick just arrived recently to the war, but the real Don Draper was close to finishing his tour. It made sense for Dick to switch the dog tags to become Don Draper. > But now Don doesn’t need to really escape his life, he’s been set free from a lot of it, even if it’s not by choice. He could move to anywhere in the US and stay Don Draper, or change his name to something else, it doesn’t matter. There’s no need for him to take someone’s existing identity. And there’s hardly any time for them to introduce a new character with no family ties that could die and Don could take his place without it being hugely contrived. I agree with all that (and used the word “contrived” myself, in the post you quoted). But the fact that a particular ending would be contrived or implausible doesn’t mean it won’t be filmed. If there’s any doubt on that point, check out the finale of _Dexter_. > [@Sam\_Lowry](#): > > I don’t know how serious you are about this suggestion, since it sounds so crazy to me, but I seriously doubt we’ll see Glen again. Out of 92 episodes, Glen has been in 12, mostly in the early seasons. He got a good ending with Sally and Betty in the episode two weeks ago. And while the show has shown places other than New York, it would be a stretch for them to show the Vietnam War and have it look good. And I don’t think Don has any real love of the army. He was hardly in the army for very long, since he arrived as Dick Whitman and left as Don Draper a fairly short time after. I agree, too, that Glen is purely a secondary character. It’s only the fact that he’s played by the son of the show’s creator that leads me to suspect we may see him again. As for the US military playing a role in the show’s ending: I’m just guessing. But certainly Weiner is teasing us with the possibility–was it last week’s “previously on _Mad Men_” or the “previously” clips for the week before, that showed Don looking at “his” war medal (the Purple Heart, I think)…? ---
**Author:** ![madmonk28](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madmonk28/32/20811_2.png) [@madmonk28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madmonk28)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2015, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mad-men-7-12-lost-horizon-open-spoilers/719190/147 "2015-05-07T19:50:53Z")
Maybe the last episode will be the FBI showing up to arrest Dick Whitman for desertion and assuming the social security number of a dead man. ---
**Author:** ![Sam\_Lowry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e95f7d/32.png) [@Sam\_Lowry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_Lowry)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2015, 8:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mad-men-7-12-lost-horizon-open-spoilers/719190/148 "2015-05-07T20:20:11Z")
> [@Sherrerd](#): > > I agree with all that (and used the word “contrived” myself, in the post you quoted). > > But the fact that a particular ending would be contrived or implausible doesn’t mean it won’t be filmed. If there’s any doubt on that point, check out the finale of _Dexter_. You said it’d be contrived, but you also said you could imagine it, so I thought you meant that you saw it as a possible ending. I won’t say that it’s impossible, but I’d put the odds at extremely unlikely. I’ve only watched the first season of Dexter, but from what I’ve heard of the last four seasons of it, Dexter and Mad Men can’t at all be compared in writing or overall quality. Just because something crazy happened on a bonkers TV show that it sounds like most people had given up on, doesn’t mean that it’s even remotely plausible for Mad Men. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2015, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mad-men-7-12-lost-horizon-open-spoilers/719190/149 "2015-05-07T20:40:14Z")
> [@madmonk28](#): > > Maybe the last episode will be the FBI showing up to arrest Dick Whitman for desertion and assuming the social security number of a dead man. I’ve been expecting this for the last couple of years now. ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2015, 9:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mad-men-7-12-lost-horizon-open-spoilers/719190/150 "2015-05-07T21:44:48Z")
> [@madmonk28](#): > > Maybe the last episode will be the FBI showing up to arrest Dick Whitman for desertion and assuming the social security number of a dead man. Dick pulls one last identity switch and becomes [Frank Abagnale](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Abagnale). ---
**Author:** ![Sherrerd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sherrerd/32/8_2.png) [@Sherrerd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sherrerd)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2015, 9:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mad-men-7-12-lost-horizon-open-spoilers/719190/151 "2015-05-07T21:50:47Z")
> [@Sam\_Lowry](#): > > You said it’d be contrived, but you also said you could imagine it, so I thought you meant that you saw it as a possible ending. I can imagine many things that I neither advocate nor admire. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2015, 11:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mad-men-7-12-lost-horizon-open-spoilers/719190/152 "2015-05-08T23:11:57Z")
> [@Sam\_Lowry](#): > > And there’s hardly any time for them to introduce a new character with no family ties that could die and Don could take his place Who needs new? Say he meets someone out of the past on the West Coast, who sobs about losing his family and commits suicide; just like that, Dick-Don-Duck. 😉 (Or maybe Sal Romano? But, see, my way, they finally justify naming him ‘Duck’.) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mad-men-7-12-lost-horizon-open-spoilers/719190.md?page=7)