Mad Men finale! (Spoilers, of course)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Then what was the point of the Sally/Betty scene at the end? We know Weiner doesn't put things in the show for no reason, but it sounds like most people don't give it any value?

My take on this is different in that I saw it as a bonding moment between them. For all those saying that Sally won't end up with a life of adventure, Betty has a couple of months left. Her daughter was given a free pass to stay at school/ go to Madrid, but she CHOSE to be with her mother. Giving her closure that they have patched up their tense relationship and ending it in a good place. I loved that scene because they were TOGETHER and it was all going to end very soon.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It was interesting that Joan and Peggy reversed at the end. Peggy started out only wanting a career. At the end she has a career and love. Joan started out wanting love and at the end has a career.

I'm not sure that Peggy started out only wanting a career. She got knocked up and had to grieve the loss of the choice she made as a result of the pregnancy. Then she kept going out with these loser guys because I think deep down she felt guilty about her choice and was punishing herself. I think it was intentional that the niece spoke so openly about putting her son up for adoption and her feelings because that's where Peggy was for so long. In a purgatory of punishing herself and feeling that she didn't deserve happiness. I think when she finally told Stan about the child earlier in the season, he helped her come to terms with it and make peace and she was ready for the real thing finally. Joan chose to keep her child and had all the family that she needed with Kevin and her mother. She was content that they were enough for her happiness. I loved the way Peggy and Joan ended up. I think the way that Don ended up was appropriate. Although we all root for Don, he is complex and his call to Peggy showed that he didn't deserve full happiness. Ironically, when he was confessing his sins, he didn't even mention that he was a deadbeat dad to his two sons? That's curious that he is so mad at himself that he stole an identity and cheated, but doesn't think that he's wronged his kids. Typical Don.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This show was always written in carefully crafted haiku.

I always saw the whole show as a metaphor for the U.S. in the 20th century. Don emerges from the depression era, pulls himself up by his own bootstraps, cheats a little, but still very much self made. Gets himself out of the depression (his home of origin) into his new re-invented life of prosperity - in the same time frame as did the U.S. - post-war boom, cigarettes, the automobile, civilian/passenger air travel - all of it. Dawdles a little in the hippie life, but returns to full-throttle thrust ahead american motivation. Just like the U.S., the tawdry past is never far away-- his / our closet full of skeletons. A 20th-century coming-of-age metaphor.

Yes I was an english major.

But does he really come of age, or is it metaphorical of the cyclical nature of humanity? If he did indeed create the Coke commercial (which I believe he does), isn't he just going through the same cycle that we have born witness since the show's creation? Don is brilliant, Don has a crisis, Don goes on the lam, Don gets his shit together, then it starts all over again....

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:But, but...how can he hear that guy go on about the refridgerator and how people loved him all along but just didn't show it exactly the way he wanted - and then NOT go home to his daughter?

He needs to help his daughter. It's crap that he doesn't.

I think that he does. I think that moment shows that he does. He is saying "Om" while wearing a white dress shirt. He is going back. He recognizes that he was loved all along - he just couldn't see it. He's going to go back to Sally and the boys, he goes back to McCann and makes the ad, and he realizes that he's not alone now.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:But, but...how can he hear that guy go on about the refridgerator and how people loved him all along but just didn't show it exactly the way he wanted - and then NOT go home to his daughter?

He needs to help his daughter. It's crap that he doesn't.

I think that he does. I think that moment shows that he does. He is saying "Om" while wearing a white dress shirt. He is going back. He recognizes that he was loved all along - he just couldn't see it. He's going to go back to Sally and the boys, he goes back to McCann and makes the ad, and he realizes that he's not alone now.

I agree. In the moment he embraces that dude, he is having an epiphany that this guy is the antithesis of who Don is. Don will NEVER be NOT missed. He is loved, and he realizes that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:But, but...how can he hear that guy go on about the refridgerator and how people loved him all along but just didn't show it exactly the way he wanted - and then NOT go home to his daughter?

He needs to help his daughter. It's crap that he doesn't.

I think that he does. I think that moment shows that he does. He is saying "Om" while wearing a white dress shirt. He is going back. He recognizes that he was loved all along - he just couldn't see it. He's going to go back to Sally and the boys, he goes back to McCann and makes the ad, and he realizes that he's not alone now.

I read the scene as Don once again tapping into the zeitgeist to reinvent himself and find power and success. He thinks he's having an authentic emotional experience, but he's still a broken man using everyone around him to get ahead. He doesn't go after that girl (can't remember her name) and really try to help her, he doesn't go try to comfort his kids while their mother dies, instead he creates an iconic commercial. Just Don being Don.

[Anonymous]

"I thought it was the perfect way for her to say goodbye to Pete, given how far their relationship has come and what it has been."

It makes me crazy that they continued to work together yet never had a discussion about their child . . .

Sally is home because she's more emotionally mature than her mother (and father) and knows that is where she belongs for the time being, but she's still going to have her life's adventures.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:"I thought it was the perfect way for her to say goodbye to Pete, given how far their relationship has come and what it has been."

It makes me crazy that they continued to work together yet never had a discussion about their child . . .

Sally is home because she's more emotionally mature than her mother (and father) and knows that is where she belongs for the time being, but she's still going to have her life's adventures.

Why? After she revealed it to him, in Season 2, what more could the two of them discuss? Peggy, as she told Stan, had to move on. Pete, at first wouldn't want to dwell on it while he and Trudy had trouble conceiving, and later, by the time he had Tammy he and Peggy were barely working together. He shipped out to California not too long after.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:"I thought it was the perfect way for her to say goodbye to Pete, given how far their relationship has come and what it has been."

It makes me crazy that they continued to work together yet never had a discussion about their child . . .

Sally is home because she's more emotionally mature than her mother (and father) and knows that is where she belongs for the time being, but she's still going to have her life's adventures.

Why? After she revealed it to him, in Season 2, what more could the two of them discuss? Peggy, as she told Stan, had to move on. Pete, at first wouldn't want to dwell on it while he and Trudy had trouble conceiving, and later, by the time he had Tammy he and Peggy were barely working together. He shipped out to California not too long after.

Yeah exactly

"So how's that kid of ours?"
"No idea."
[SCENE]

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This show was always written in carefully crafted haiku.

I always saw the whole show as a metaphor for the U.S. in the 20th century. Don emerges from the depression era, pulls himself up by his own bootstraps, cheats a little, but still very much self made. Gets himself out of the depression (his home of origin) into his new re-invented life of prosperity - in the same time frame as did the U.S. - post-war boom, cigarettes, the automobile, civilian/passenger air travel - all of it. Dawdles a little in the hippie life, but returns to full-throttle thrust ahead american motivation. Just like the U.S., the tawdry past is never far away-- his / our closet full of skeletons. A 20th-century coming-of-age metaphor.

Yes I was an english major.

But does he really come of age, or is it metaphorical of the cyclical nature of humanity? If he did indeed create the Coke commercial (which I believe he does), isn't he just going through the same cycle that we have born witness since the show's creation? Don is brilliant, Don has a crisis, Don goes on the lam, Don gets his shit together, then it starts all over again....

Totally agree with you. I thought the show was at least a season too long. Two or three times through the Don cycle of brilliance and despair was plenty.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:"I thought it was the perfect way for her to say goodbye to Pete, given how far their relationship has come and what it has been."

It makes me crazy that they continued to work together yet never had a discussion about their child . . .

Sally is home because she's more emotionally mature than her mother (and father) and knows that is where she belongs for the time being, but she's still going to have her life's adventures.

Why? After she revealed it to him, in Season 2, what more could the two of them discuss? Peggy, as she told Stan, had to move on. Pete, at first wouldn't want to dwell on it while he and Trudy had trouble conceiving, and later, by the time he had Tammy he and Peggy were barely working together. He shipped out to California not too long after.

Yeah exactly

"So how's that kid of ours?"
"No idea."
[SCENE]

It was also how things were back then. Women weren't supposed to dwell or talk about their feelings and Pete didn't particularly care.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Agree that this is just a blip for Sally. She won't be another Betty.

Agree. She'll be a feminist trailblazer.

[Anonymous]

I agree it was a couple of seasons too long. I did enjoy the final episode though.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I was Sally 35 years ago. She will be okay. This experience will mature her, but she'll have many adventures in adulthood, I'm sure.

Fueled by alcoholism blamed on her father.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This show was always written in carefully crafted haiku.

I always saw the whole show as a metaphor for the U.S. in the 20th century. Don emerges from the depression era, pulls himself up by his own bootstraps, cheats a little, but still very much self made. Gets himself out of the depression (his home of origin) into his new re-invented life of prosperity - in the same time frame as did the U.S. - post-war boom, cigarettes, the automobile, civilian/passenger air travel - all of it. Dawdles a little in the hippie life, but returns to full-throttle thrust ahead american motivation. Just like the U.S., the tawdry past is never far away-- his / our closet full of skeletons. A 20th-century coming-of-age metaphor.

Yes I was an english major.

But does he really come of age, or is it metaphorical of the cyclical nature of humanity? If he did indeed create the Coke commercial (which I believe he does), isn't he just going through the same cycle that we have born witness since the show's creation? Don is brilliant, Don has a crisis, Don goes on the lam, Don gets his shit together, then it starts all over again....

Totally agree with you. I thought the show was at least a season too long. Two or three times through the Don cycle of brilliance and despair was plenty.

Don's future will be periods of wandering and bursts of creativity. PP-- why would people think you are an English major?