I was surprised it was even up for discussion to be frank. Seemed obvious.
Finally caught up on the DVR and have only read to Page 3 of this thread so maybe this gets mentioned already but an observation I had…
Don’s final medication/ohm scene is clearly after some not insignificant amount of time has passed. A few weeks perhaps, maybe a month. We see in the closing scenes for key characters further evidence of the passage of time. Peggy has a secretary and her home has far more business items within it. Peggy and Stan are obviously closer in their relationship. And Don… is relaxed in the retreat setting. All through the episode you could see the turmoil in Don at the retreat. In the final scene is he truly relaxed and cleaned up physically and mentally. He is actively participating in the meditation.
So I don’t buy that his small smile and the Coke commercial was a cynical “always an ad man” moment per se. I do think Don returned and did write the Coke commercial but it wasn’t the same Don we’ve seen. He was a health and emotionally whole Don and he created his true masterpiece, something the old Don could have never done.
Just my 2 cents. Actual value may vary.
Ahem.
Ahem.
This is seriously disappointing. I thought better of Weiner.
The interview, fascinatingly, appears to show that he didn’t understand how the ending would come across, a powerful demonstration of the truism that there is a gap between the writer putting the words on paper and the audience receiving those words. That’s why deconstruction was such a powerful theory when Derrida introduced it. I like this quote by J. Hillis Miller, “Deconstruction is not a dismantling of the structure of a text, but a demonstration that it has already dismantled itself. Its apparently solid ground is no rock, but thin air.”
I’m not a theorist, and I’ve never liked the way some people use deconstruction as a one-size-fits-all argument by which they can get away with saying anything they want, however nonsensical. But people, here and across the Internet, have always deconstructed Mad Men using their own lives to give shape to the fictions presented. It was not an easy read, and only seldom a readily accessible one. I prefer that Mad Men. I suspect most of you do as well.
Change the word paper to screen and that truism is demonstrated many, many times a day on this very board.
From Rotten Tomatoes, THE 18 BEST MINOR MAD MEN CHARACTERS.
Why do you think this episode is polling so well right here in this very thread?
I imagine Weiner was disappointed that, despite the overwhelming amount of evidence to the contrary, some people were still theorizing that Don Draper didn’t write the damn ad. So he decided to end the speculation once and for all.
I guess I can see someone not being 100% certain Don wrote the ad upon first watch. But if you watched it again, and really thought about the story arc which started with a McCann (which happened to be the company who wrote the real ad) buy-out, and ended with Don meditating at a hippy retreat, before they segued into the Coke ad, the purpose for Don’s journey became clear. Then you have all the clues, from the subtle (Peggy’s referencing the Coke ad and saying that he’d be welcomed back home) to the less subtle (Don changing out of his plaid shirt and jeans and back into his starched white collar… for a yoga session), to the in-your-face obvious (ringing bell signifying inspiration), it was crystal clear for 99% of viewers that we were supposed to believe that Don wrote the ad.
And yet, some people remained unsold. Even after being shown a screen take of the real Coke ad next to the people at the retreat, which IMO left zero doubt as to Weiner’s intention, some people dug in their heels and refused to believe it. And NOTHING that was going to change their minds…unless it came straight from the mouth of the man who wrote it.
If nothing else, this thread has reinforced to me how OJ got away with it. Some people just can’t follow dots. They need a confession. Or they need a scene where Don is actively pitching his ad at to the Coke people.
This has made me like the episode a wee bit more. I didn’t really think it through but you’re right. It felt when I watched it like he hugged the guy then suddenly everything was a-ok but what you say makes perfect sense and makes the final scenes easier to accept and enjoy.
Heck, Roger had time to get married (again) and travel to Paris.
I’m pretty sure that they were in Montreal, Marie’s hometown.
In Hamm’s interview with the New York Times, he says: “No one is suggesting that Stan and Peggy live happily ever after, or that Joan’s business is a rousing success, or that Roger and Marie come back from Paris together.”
So I’m guessing it was Paris (presumably for their honeymoon)
Although, to be fair, you can leave for Paris at the drop of a hat… provided you can find your passport.
Thanks. I stand corrected.
I had assumed Canada as well until I read that interview. Since all we saw was the interior of a cafe/restaurant with them speaking French, it made sense. Not like they plonked the Eiffel Tower in the window shot and decorated the place with tri-colors or something.
I thought it was an extremely weak ending. I was slightly jarred at first by Don’s beatific smile while meditating (how could Don possibly be buying this nonsense?), but then it became clear that his revelation was all about a new advertising campaign, not self-actualization or whatever they were peddling at Esalen in 1970. So that moment was sort of amusing but nothing more than a weak joke IMO.
But then to cut to the actual Coke ad and leave the audience with that schlock wasn’t even remotely clever. It was a cop-out. Perhaps if they had followed the typical pattern of ending with the credits rolling and a song playing over the credits (in this case, the Coke commercial song), it would have been more effective and less annoying. But here the ad provided not only a song but also the episode’s (and the series’) final images. It would be like a novelist quoting someone else’s words to conclude his/her last chapter.
Regarding Paris, they were smoking French cigarettes as well. I’m blanking on the name of them now.
I’m with you. (I may be the only one.) Apparently Weiner finds a career in advertising far more fulfilling than one might think he would. If Don were a heart surgeon, the smile and then a guy with a new heart would be quite uplifting. But the Coke ad? Maybe Weiner bought into the industry after all these years of writing about it.
But at least I was right about Don getting redeemed, which happened whichever way you interpret the ending.
Among the many odd things about that ending is that Weiner took pains over every season to show that advertising was not a fit occupation for an adult. Why Peggy got such fulfillment from it was never explored. Stan’s attitude - it’s just a job - seemed the healthiest of anyone.