[Possible spoilers] Did This Woman Predict 'Mad Men's Ending Two Years Ago?

Cafe Society
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Earlier today, The Daily Beast’s Ben Collins summarized an interesting theory about Mad Men and how the series may end (on Sunday, May 18). I’m curious what fellow fans of the show think about this. (Is there already a discussion about this somewhere else here?)

Two years ago, Lindsey Green posted a conspiracy theory that the show is really about a real-life, unsolved historical footnote. With two episodes to go, against all odds, signs point to her being right. The entire piece is at Did This Woman Predict ‘Mad Men’s Ending Two Years Ago?. Naturally, don’t read that if you simply want to watch to the end without any preconceptions.

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I have heard mention of this theory before and there is no way in the world this is how the series will end. It is like the whole “Manson is going to kill Megan” stuff from a few seasons back. It is fans treating the show like it’s a puzzle. I think Don is going to disappear from his old life. But not like that.

3

I agree that it’s pretty unlikely, but I think it would be genius …

… to start with the premise of “who was D.B. Cooper?” and then craft this wonderfully complex show, spanning over a decade, to give us his backstory.But even with all the seeming hints along the way, I just don’t see this going in that direction. Doesn’t seem true to the character.

4

Here’s the problem I have with the theory.

Don Draper is already rich. He sold his apartment for $85,000 and offered Megan a million bucks without hesitation. So why would he hijack a plane for “only” $200,000?

5

Right. It would be incredibly cool, but I just can’t see someone as … pampered?.. as Don strapping on a parachute and flinging himself out of an aircraft into a dark November night over some of the most rugged terrain in the United States. Not unless he was really, really desperate!

Whoever Dan Cooper was, he must have been one hell of a tough soldier in WWII or Korea, not a whiny deserter with perennial personal issues.

6

People have been talking about this on fan forums for years. It’s a standing joke about the silliness of theories that people insist upon projecting onto Mad Men. (See the current thread for equally silly ones.) It has as much chance of being true as Obama suddenly being revealed as a Kenyan.

7

I agree. It does not seem at all true to the show or the character. At best, I could imagine it being a news clip on the TV and Roger or one of the other characters admiring the bravery and cleverness.

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Yep, it’s been a pet theory for years. I never paid much attention to it and honestly only had the vaguest knowledge of who D.B Cooper was .

Looking it up on Wikipedia (don’t click if you don’t want to know, though if you’re a MM fan you probably already do)

I can see some of the things that have lead those with more active imaginations than I to posit such a thing. Especially fun is the guy’s sketch. Quite Draperesque.

9

I don’t think so. Instead…

After watching Don inspecting his new office indows (which were modern, non-opening), I think that Don will become the falling man in the credits.

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I was telling a friend about this and – although he stopped watching Mad Men a couple years ago – he finds this theory quite compelling and he fleshed out a few other things about this possible connection. For example,

[spoiler]Dan/D.B. Cooper highjacked a Northwest Airlines flight.

Northwest Airlines has featured before in Mad Men, Mad Men Flies Northwest | Twin Cities Business.

And remember that Don picked up the hitchhiking hippie at the end of the last episode and the hippie indicates that he’d like to go to St. Paul.

Don says something like, “I can do that.” (And then Bowie’s “Space Oddity” plays as the car drives on.)

Northwest Airlines HQ is centered in the Twin Cities.[/spoiler]So, although this still seems outrageously out of character to me (for Don) and doesn’t make much sense for reasons a few of you have already listed, I’m being drawn in (because it’s fun) and could see the last scene of the series being …

[spoiler]Don walking up to a Northwest gate at some airport terminal, handing the attendant his ticket, and saying “I’m Dan Cooper.”

(And nothing beyond that except perhaps a final shot of Don/Dan putting his sunglasses on, walking towards the plane, with the camera pulling away.)[/spoiler]As my friend pointed out, the ending of The Sopranos left us hanging too, wanting more information, but Weiner was happy to leave it at that, with all our unresolved questions.

Again, if Weiner’s intent …

… had all along been to explore who the heck D.B. Cooper was …… giving us Mad Men certainly would’ve been an intriguing way to do it.

It’s certainly an interesting thing to think about as we get closer to the last two episodes.

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That’s what I think.

Basically, they gave away the ending from very beginning. The silhouette of the man falling, then you see the man with his arm draped over the back of the chair, who is supposed to be Don. So why a silhouette of a falling man if it’s not the same man in the chair?

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I’m not sure why you’re using a spoiler box there. People have speculated about the falling man image in the credits almost since the show started. It’s the obvious ending. But it’s perhaps too obvious.

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It’s also already been dismissed by the writers with the window scene from the last episode. I think the term for this is “lamp shading”.

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Don is the falling man. He’s been the falling man throughout the series. That’s what the series is about.

The falling man doesn’t go splat, though. So why does everybody equate “man sitting comfortably on bench” with death?

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I hadn’t seen that, Uncle. And Dewey, I prefer to be a bit overcautious with the spoiler boxes, just in case. :slight_smile:

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I think it’s the “man falling wildly out of skyscraper” that everybody equates with death. I think that everybody equates the “Man sitting comfortably on bench” with relaxation.

17

Thank you. I was waiting for *somebody *to say this.

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I don’t want to see actual spoilers. Is anything that is spoiler-boxed in your post an actual spoiler?

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On Conan yesterday (May 7) Matthew Weiner said the D. B. Cooper theory was the weirdest fan theory about the ending.

20

Let’s also remember that Dan Cooper boarded Northwest Flight 305 in Portland, not St. Paul. So now the story would have to get Don Draper to St. Paul, then Portland, then become Dan Cooper, then decide to hijack a plane because … profit?

Frankly, I’m more comfortable with the idea that the hitchhiker kills Don.