Custody fights occur between parents–or possibly other relatives. Not between a father & an ex-stepfather.
The children’s home will be disrupted–because the mother who spent most of her time raising them (with the help of servants) has died.
Of course it can happen and does. Henry has been in loco parentis for years. If he dies for custody, his claim will be heard.
I think the ‘Don becomes Dick again and returns to his roots’ idea was blasted to smithereens in this penultimate episode (7.13). We were shown in the clearest possible manner exactly what Weiner thinks of The Heartland: they may glad-hand you and clap you on the back when they meet you, but they’re quick to take advantage of you and to resort to violence against you. The xenophobia is never far beneath the surface.
Don will end up in New York. If those who guess that the finale will leap ahead by some years are correct, we may learn that Don spent some time living in California–but he’ll end up in New York.
I think we’ll see a future in which Don is part of his children’s lives; we’ll find out that he largely raised the two boys. (Though it’s true that Henry has been the only ‘father’ in Gene’s life, it’s also true, as several have pointed out, that Henry hasn’t been shown to have any deep emotional connection with any of the kids.) I suspect we’ll find out that Peggy has been part of this child-rearing. I’d be surprised if she and Don were to marry, but unsurprised if they were shown to be close friends, maybe even living in adjacent apartments.
Before this (7.13) episode aired, I was certain that the end of the *Mad Men *story would include some sort of return to Don’s military past. But I think that part of his life was resolved in this episode: we had the moments of suspense at the veteran’s function–will they find out that Don is really Dick? That suspense was resolved and so was that storyline, I think. Don’s dream of being Discovered when his car was stopped showed that this is just something he will have to live with for the rest of his days. (And it’s not as if this secret hasn’t already been shared with several people in Don’s life.)
I still think that we’ll see Glen again–though only because he’s played by Weiner’s son. He’ll be Sally’s ex-husband in the future, perhaps.
I think Don’s gifts will turn out to flower–and even bring him personal satisfaction and release from his demons–when he tries his hand at writing fiction. Novels or plays or short stories. His novel/play/collection of stories on the theme of Advertising will have brought him some recognition and acclaim. He’ll be on good terms with Sally, who’s now working on Madison Avenue under the wing of Peggy. The boys are still living with Don.
Now that (I believe) the “will Don confess to the world that he’s Dick?” element has been resolved, the major Undropped Shoe is Diana.
In the finale, Don will be presented with a massive temptation to do something that will cause pain to (probably) his kids. Or to Diana. I’m still trying to figure out if she’s been set up as his soul-mate–the only person with whom he can be wholly himself–or as the Lilith figure, tempting and destructive.
But I think the final shot will be Don making the decision to stop being the emotionally-isolated, selfish-pleasure-seeking guy, and instead be the Connected to Others Guy–by dropping something that symbolizes Isolating Temptation. It could be the phone number of the hot babe who urged him to skip Bobby’s graduation ceremony or it could be the plane ticket Diana sent him so he could come shack up with her in New Orleans instead of mentoring Sally through her first big presentation. Or something else.
I do think something’s going to fall, though.
In the scene where Don is asked to fix the Coke machine I wondered if Weiner was trying to throw the audience a curve ball. Since this happened before Don went to the veteran fund raising meeting, (and the audience falling for the “small town folk welcoming this visitor from the big city” bit) I could see Don returning to NY and McCann telling them that he had a great idea for Coke, an advertising campaign showing how Coke unites everyone, no matter where they’re from, “I’d like to teach the world to sing…”
Too bad we can’t have another poll in this thread:
** “How satisfying an ending for Mad Men would be a Big Reveal that it was Don who came up with the Coca-Cola ‘I’d like to teach the world to sing’ campaign?..very satisfying — okay — not satisfying.” **
It certainly is a famous landmark of advertising. But…it’s for a sugar-laden product from a company that has something of a black eye in its international operations (with high levels of pesticide allegedly found in the product as sold in India and other nations).
In other words: is the achievement of having come up with the Coke campaign, an achievement that will resonate for the show’s viewers? Will it provide a resolution to Don’s story?
Yes, I think it would resonate with the viewers. Coca-Cola is still one of the best-known and best-liked brands. Its history spans the whole of the twentieth century and beyond. And that particular campaign was a huge cultural touchstone.
But didn’t Don say something about how he doesn’t know music? I don’t see him coming up with the song, although I could see him coming up with the line and the famous commercial.
BTW, I’m reasonably well informed and I was completely unaware of these stories of pesticides in their products. The big black mark on Coca-Cola in my mind is the excessive amounts of sugar in their beverages at a time when people are more careful about what they consume.
Mad Men has been distinctive in never featuring jingles as the major part of television advertising that they were in the 1960s. That lack has been hugely conspicuous.
Everything in these last few episodes has been directly connected to characters’ pasts. For Weiner to make the last episode about something he has literally never shown before is possible, but so is Don being revealed as a time-traveling alien.
I could see Don developing an anti-smoking campaign, given what his ex-wife is going through. I can’t remember any famous such campaigns though. And Don already publicly spoke out against the tobacco industry, although that was something of a stunt.
There’s a place I like to go, south of Mexico
With the coffee-colored girls wearing just a cup of Joe
Exotic GIRL! Exotic BREW! – Martinson’s, Martinson’s – every day we rendezvous.
They’re not going to suddenly start inserting Don as the innovator of any famous ad campaigns. This is Mad Men, not Forrest Gump.
Lucky Strike: they’re toasted.
Huh? :dubious: 
Lucky Strike really did build their slogan around how their tobacco is toasted, sure as the first episode shows us Don Draper thinking it up at the last minute.
I hope that you’re right about this. The Coke thing that’s been floating around the net for that past few weeks would be way too easy.
I really like the idea of jumping ahead a few years to see how everyone is doing. As was suggested upthread, everyone meeting at Roger’s funeral in 1976 and catching up would be a good way of doing it.
I remember “It’s toasted,” along with “L.S.M.F.T.” “Lucky Strike Green Has Gone to War” was before my time, though. 
I had to look that up. That was written by the dynamic duo of Smith and Smith, forgotten by everybody including trivia buffs. And the client didn’t even like it.
Yep. Conspicuously absent.
I can’t see Henry and Don either of them fighting over those damn kids. Send them off to live with servants and Henry’s mother.
Plotwise one episode is not enough time to do such a story. Maybe Don will return home, buy a house in the suburbs, and become a wonderful father. Maybe he becomes a monk. Possible, but not likely.
The death of their mother makes stability and their friends (I hope less ooky than Sally’s friends) even more important.
BTW, does anyone know what happened to Sally’s friend with the violin. The violin showed up, but she didn’t. There was certainly a hint that she came to a bad end, but I don’t remember if we ever knew for sure.
The client also didn’t like “Bye-Bye, Sugar; hello Patio!”
“Hey, that’s great. By the way, we fired you six weeks ago.”
I feel bad for Meredith. She finally gets an episode where she acts as though her head isn’t filled with spun sugar and then she’s left high and dry. Speaking of, do you suppose Don’s checked in with anyone from the NY crew? I could see someone filing a missing person’s report after Don just doesn’t show up anywhere for weeks. Even a drunken bender shouldn’t keep you away for weeks.