Mad Men: Season 7 (Part 2) 'The End of an Era' - April 5th

Food Mane

Food Mane

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Going in to the finale, I think most of us assumed that there were three possible outcomes for Don. He would symbolically kill Don Draper and revert to dikk Whitman, he would adopt a new persona to embody in the next stage of his life, or he would end it all, likely in a similar manner to the opening credits. What we saw during the last ten minutes initially seemed maudlin and offensive. Don finds redemption through new-age therapy. He apologizes for his wrongs, absolves himself of guilt and rebuilds his true self through transcendental meditation. Then we get hit with the Coke commercial and all fears of a sentimental, tone-deaf ending go out the window.

His existential crisis during the final episodes wasn’t about his guilt; it was about his fear of not being relevant. He left his first meeting at McCann because he realized that Don Draper was no longer unique. At that meeting he is surrounded by Dons. Charmers in suits selling people nostalgic dreams of worlds that never existed. So Don goes on the road and tries to recapture that nostalgic magic. He knows he needs to find something no one else has to keep existing as Don Draper.
He visits the America he sold people for years and can’t find it because it doesn’t exist. He visits a picture perfect suburb and finds a man almost destroyed by infidelity. He visits a legion hall and finds the true after effects of war. When he’s asked to choose between veterans and a con-man in he picks the con-man. Don starts to realize who he really is and what archetype he truly identifies with.

He fully realizes that archetype in California when he finally comes across an idea as powerful as nostalgia he can use to sell people things. Utopia. Nostalgia looks back and imagines a perfect past, Utopia looks forward and imagines a perfect future. Neither are real, neither are possible. Both are very effective sales tools.

The smile Don flashes during the last shot isn’t self-acceptance or inner peace. It is the relief of a man who was on the brink of irrelevance and found an angle he could use to continue being exceptional. It isn’t a happy, optimistic ending. It’s a dark cynical ending. This man’s ego has destroyed a lot on a micro and macro level and now he has a new tool to keep on doing it. He can’t use images of cowboys to give people cancer but he can use world peace to give people diabetes. Don didn’t change, Don didn’t apologize, and Don didn’t learn anything except how to exist as a salesmen in the coming decade.

The prophecy of title credits did come true. He killed the ad man in the black suit and white shirt, but he didn’t kill Don Draper - he made him relevant for 1970 and on. He found a new skin to drape himself and in doing so anticipates all the great salesman of today. All the tech utopians who happen to make billions as they struggle to give us a perfect world. The man who perfected nostalgic advertising stopped looking backwards and started looking forwards.
 
Brozay

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Food Mane said:
Going in to the finale, I think most of us assumed that there were three possible outcomes for Don. He would symbolically kill Don Draper and revert to dikk Whitman, he would adopt a new persona to embody in the next stage of his life, or he would end it all, likely in a similar manner to the opening credits. What we saw during the last ten minutes initially seemed maudlin and offensive. Don finds redemption through new-age therapy. He apologizes for his wrongs, absolves himself of guilt and rebuilds his true self through transcendental meditation. Then we get hit with the Coke commercial and all fears of a sentimental, tone-deaf ending go out the window.

His existential crisis during the final episodes wasn’t about his guilt; it was about his fear of not being relevant. He left his first meeting at McCann because he realized that Don Draper was no longer unique. At that meeting he is surrounded by Dons. Charmers in suits selling people nostalgic dreams of worlds that never existed. So Don goes on the road and tries to recapture that nostalgic magic. He knows he needs to find something no one else has to keep existing as Don Draper.
He visits the America he sold people for years and can’t find it because it doesn’t exist. He visits a picture perfect suburb and finds a man almost destroyed by infidelity. He visits a legion hall and finds the true after effects of war. When he’s asked to choose between veterans and a con-man in he picks the con-man. Don starts to realize who he really is and what archetype he truly identifies with.

He fully realizes that archetype in California when he finally comes across an idea as powerful as nostalgia he can use to sell people things. Utopia. Nostalgia looks back and imagines a perfect past, Utopia looks forward and imagines a perfect future. Neither are real, neither are possible. Both are very effective sales tools.

The smile Don flashes during the last shot isn’t self-acceptance or inner peace. It is the relief of a man who was on the brink of irrelevance and found an angle he could use to continue being exceptional. It isn’t a happy, optimistic ending. It’s a dark cynical ending. This man’s ego has destroyed a lot on a micro and macro level and now he has a new tool to keep on doing it. He can’t use images of cowboys to give people cancer but he can use world peace to give people diabetes. Don didn’t change, Don didn’t apologize, and Don didn’t learn anything except how to exist as a salesmen in the coming decade.

The prophecy of title credits did come true. He killed the ad man in the black suit and white shirt, but he didn’t kill Don Draper - he made him relevant for 1970 and on. He found a new skin to drape himself and in doing so anticipates all the great salesman of today. All the tech utopians who happen to make billions as they struggle to give us a perfect world. The man who perfected nostalgic advertising stopped looking backwards and started looking forwards.
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:ehh:
 
We Major

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Food Mane said:
Going in to the finale, I think most of us assumed that there were three possible outcomes for Don. He would symbolically kill Don Draper and revert to dikk Whitman, he would adopt a new persona to embody in the next stage of his life, or he would end it all, likely in a similar manner to the opening credits. What we saw during the last ten minutes initially seemed maudlin and offensive. Don finds redemption through new-age therapy. He apologizes for his wrongs, absolves himself of guilt and rebuilds his true self through transcendental meditation. Then we get hit with the Coke commercial and all fears of a sentimental, tone-deaf ending go out the window.

His existential crisis during the final episodes wasn’t about his guilt; it was about his fear of not being relevant. He left his first meeting at McCann because he realized that Don Draper was no longer unique. At that meeting he is surrounded by Dons. Charmers in suits selling people nostalgic dreams of worlds that never existed. So Don goes on the road and tries to recapture that nostalgic magic. He knows he needs to find something no one else has to keep existing as Don Draper.
He visits the America he sold people for years and can’t find it because it doesn’t exist. He visits a picture perfect suburb and finds a man almost destroyed by infidelity. He visits a legion hall and finds the true after effects of war. When he’s asked to choose between veterans and a con-man in he picks the con-man. Don starts to realize who he really is and what archetype he truly identifies with.

He fully realizes that archetype in California when he finally comes across an idea as powerful as nostalgia he can use to sell people things. Utopia. Nostalgia looks back and imagines a perfect past, Utopia looks forward and imagines a perfect future. Neither are real, neither are possible. Both are very effective sales tools.

The smile Don flashes during the last shot isn’t self-acceptance or inner peace. It is the relief of a man who was on the brink of irrelevance and found an angle he could use to continue being exceptional. It isn’t a happy, optimistic ending. It’s a dark cynical ending. This man’s ego has destroyed a lot on a micro and macro level and now he has a new tool to keep on doing it. He can’t use images of cowboys to give people cancer but he can use world peace to give people diabetes. Don didn’t change, Don didn’t apologize, and Don didn’t learn anything except how to exist as a salesmen in the coming decade.

The prophecy of title credits did come true. He killed the ad man in the black suit and white shirt, but he didn’t kill Don Draper - he made him relevant for 1970 and on. He found a new skin to drape himself and in doing so anticipates all the great salesman of today. All the tech utopians who happen to make billions as they struggle to give us a perfect world. The man who perfected nostalgic advertising stopped looking backwards and started looking forwards.
Click to expand...

Posts and discussions like this are why this show is the GOAT :wow:
 
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Food Mane said:
Going in to the finale, I think most of us assumed that there were three possible outcomes for Don. He would symbolically kill Don Draper and revert to dikk Whitman, he would adopt a new persona to embody in the next stage of his life, or he would end it all, likely in a similar manner to the opening credits. What we saw during the last ten minutes initially seemed maudlin and offensive. Don finds redemption through new-age therapy. He apologizes for his wrongs, absolves himself of guilt and rebuilds his true self through transcendental meditation. Then we get hit with the Coke commercial and all fears of a sentimental, tone-deaf ending go out the window.

His existential crisis during the final episodes wasn’t about his guilt; it was about his fear of not being relevant. He left his first meeting at McCann because he realized that Don Draper was no longer unique. At that meeting he is surrounded by Dons. Charmers in suits selling people nostalgic dreams of worlds that never existed. So Don goes on the road and tries to recapture that nostalgic magic. He knows he needs to find something no one else has to keep existing as Don Draper.
He visits the America he sold people for years and can’t find it because it doesn’t exist. He visits a picture perfect suburb and finds a man almost destroyed by infidelity. He visits a legion hall and finds the true after effects of war. When he’s asked to choose between veterans and a con-man in he picks the con-man. Don starts to realize who he really is and what archetype he truly identifies with.

He fully realizes that archetype in California when he finally comes across an idea as powerful as nostalgia he can use to sell people things. Utopia. Nostalgia looks back and imagines a perfect past, Utopia looks forward and imagines a perfect future. Neither are real, neither are possible. Both are very effective sales tools.

The smile Don flashes during the last shot isn’t self-acceptance or inner peace. It is the relief of a man who was on the brink of irrelevance and found an angle he could use to continue being exceptional. It isn’t a happy, optimistic ending. It’s a dark cynical ending. This man’s ego has destroyed a lot on a micro and macro level and now he has a new tool to keep on doing it. He can’t use images of cowboys to give people cancer but he can use world peace to give people diabetes. Don didn’t change, Don didn’t apologize, and Don didn’t learn anything except how to exist as a salesmen in the coming decade.

The prophecy of title credits did come true. He killed the ad man in the black suit and white shirt, but he didn’t kill Don Draper - he made him relevant for 1970 and on. He found a new skin to drape himself and in doing so anticipates all the great salesman of today. All the tech utopians who happen to make billions as they struggle to give us a perfect world. The man who perfected nostalgic advertising stopped looking backwards and started looking forwards.
Click to expand...

this is an excellent post and I totally agree with your points.

Its why I mentioned somewhere earlier in this thread that his emotions when hearing the "invisible man's story" was more so a realization that he (Don) found his solution, his "out" from his current irrelevant state vs him having the :mjcry: moment that someone else feels the way he does; using the invisible man's experience and transforming that into something that will make Don matter again (ie. coke ad). Invisible man, in a group of most likely strangers, fully opens himself up and lets everyone know about his doubts/uncertainties/lack of confidence/not feeling relevant, and dikk/Don is like :ohhh: "I'll use that to my advantage" :smugdraper:

dikk has always capitalized on others' vulnerability and circumstance - fukk, "Don Draper" is built on the most vulnerable of circumstances for an individual (the real Don's death)

this show :wow:

bout to binge watch over the next month :smugdraper:
 
AkaDemiK

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just finished the final episode...

Barack-Obama-Crying.gif


the end of an era...another one of the goats has finished...

salute to SCDP
 
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Food Mane said:
Going in to the finale, I think most of us assumed that there were three possible outcomes for Don. He would symbolically kill Don Draper and revert to dikk Whitman, he would adopt a new persona to embody in the next stage of his life, or he would end it all, likely in a similar manner to the opening credits. What we saw during the last ten minutes initially seemed maudlin and offensive. Don finds redemption through new-age therapy. He apologizes for his wrongs, absolves himself of guilt and rebuilds his true self through transcendental meditation. Then we get hit with the Coke commercial and all fears of a sentimental, tone-deaf ending go out the window.

His existential crisis during the final episodes wasn’t about his guilt; it was about his fear of not being relevant. He left his first meeting at McCann because he realized that Don Draper was no longer unique. At that meeting he is surrounded by Dons. Charmers in suits selling people nostalgic dreams of worlds that never existed. So Don goes on the road and tries to recapture that nostalgic magic. He knows he needs to find something no one else has to keep existing as Don Draper.
He visits the America he sold people for years and can’t find it because it doesn’t exist. He visits a picture perfect suburb and finds a man almost destroyed by infidelity. He visits a legion hall and finds the true after effects of war. When he’s asked to choose between veterans and a con-man in he picks the con-man. Don starts to realize who he really is and what archetype he truly identifies with.

He fully realizes that archetype in California when he finally comes across an idea as powerful as nostalgia he can use to sell people things. Utopia. Nostalgia looks back and imagines a perfect past, Utopia looks forward and imagines a perfect future. Neither are real, neither are possible. Both are very effective sales tools.

The smile Don flashes during the last shot isn’t self-acceptance or inner peace. It is the relief of a man who was on the brink of irrelevance and found an angle he could use to continue being exceptional. It isn’t a happy, optimistic ending. It’s a dark cynical ending. This man’s ego has destroyed a lot on a micro and macro level and now he has a new tool to keep on doing it. He can’t use images of cowboys to give people cancer but he can use world peace to give people diabetes. Don didn’t change, Don didn’t apologize, and Don didn’t learn anything except how to exist as a salesmen in the coming decade.

The prophecy of title credits did come true. He killed the ad man in the black suit and white shirt, but he didn’t kill Don Draper - he made him relevant for 1970 and on. He found a new skin to drape himself and in doing so anticipates all the great salesman of today. All the tech utopians who happen to make billions as they struggle to give us a perfect world. The man who perfected nostalgic advertising stopped looking backwards and started looking forwards.
Click to expand...
no way in hell a n*gga named "Food Mane" wrote this

drop a link to where you found this

but if you did....5 star f*cking post

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It was bitter-sweet for me, as I felt as though Don needed to die; literally, not figuratively. He was never a good husband or even a decent father, and we're forced to accept this due to his upbringing, so while I do enjoy that he's permanently damage ala House (M.D), his "finish line" was far too pleasant for a man who is the biggest piece of shyt on the show. Hen ultimately ended with a "Get out of Jail" free card, it being spiritual was a letdown, as like House, Don believed more in the pitch than how much he believed in anything.

As for Peggy, her entire story-arc was just far too forced for me to accept. She got everything she wanted and her love interest reveal was a huge ball drop on behalf of the writers. Campbell's story of redemption was far more interesting, as he turned out to be a better man than everyone at the office. I never cared much for Joan as her breasts had more weight than anything she did on the show...I did however enjoy how she and Don got along together (Bar Scene). I'd honestly love to see a spin-off of Pete ala Sal Goodman, an unlikely show for an unlikely pawn.
 
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