‘Mad Men’ Finale: Bringing It All Back Home
by Michael S. Rulle Jr.Warning: Spoiler alert!
The “Mad Men” finale was a satisfying, although a bit too tidy, end to its 3rd season. When I was 8, my teenage sister introduced me to a card game called “52 Pick-Up.” When I handed her the deck, she tossed cards across the room. As I whined, she said, “What else did you think a card game called ‘52 Pick-Up’ was about?” When writers Weiner and Levy created chaos with all my familiar characters in the opening episode, I should have thought “52 Pick-Up.”
After all, they just had a merger for heaven’s sake. What else to expect? Relationships between and among characters changed as work and economic status changed, and they were reshuffled into new and less pleasing ones. But we became gradually more accustomed to the new “order,” although the dominant “feeling” was a cheerless dreariness. There were some memorable moments. When a drunk Lois amputated the erstwhile new Brit super star Guy MacKendrick’s foot with a John Deere tractor in the office, I laughed out loud for minutes. Taken one show at a time, they were good, but the cumulative gloom and doom became stifling.
The finale begins with the all consuming “Connie” Hilton telling Don that Putnamm, Powell and Lowe is about to be acquired by McCann Erickson. When Draper complains that he has been “used” by Hilton, Hilton pulls an “Ayn Rand” and states that he alone built Hilton. Hilton expresses disappointment with Don for being a whiner and thought he was not like “one of them.” Funny stuff. But Draper gets the joke and is determined to persuade all the key former Sterling Cooper people they should start their own firm. He has some reservations. He recalls his father’s death when he tried to go it alone by leaving his wheat co-op. This represents “risk” (duh), while Ayn Hilton represents “reward.” But Burt Cooper makes Don realize he will have to right past wrongs if he is to create this new firm.
At this point, it begins to feel like an inside-out version of “The Godfather.” There was even the “it’s just business” line uttered by Hilton. Michael Corleone’s business solution was to blow away the other families; Draper-Corleone’s solution was to persuade all those he offended that he now understands their true worth.
He admits to Roger that relationships matter. Draper praises and values Lane Pryce’s financial ability. He prostrates to Pete as long as he can bring $8 million worth of business with him, supplementing Roger’s $24 million American Tobacco account. Burt Cooper is warding off the grim reaper by staying active. A newly svelte Joan (Marilyn Monroe has been dead for 18 months) knows where all the client boxes are buried, as she leads a midnight raid to steal them.
But Peggy and Betz are causing problems with the plan. Draper makes a perfunctory effort at marriage-saving but is relieved that Betty wants to marry the Rockefeller connected and wealthy Harry Francis. Don gets off alimony free with a Reno divorce. Look for Betz to mess with Harry’s head next season. Peggy and Don’s relationship went south this year. She wants his respect. The Draper-Olsen relationship is serious stuff for Weiner/Levy. Draper really does need her and says she is the only one who understands “how everything has now changed” since the Kennedy assassination. He admits even if she says “no,” he “will spend the rest of my life trying to hire you.” Ah, true (business) love. She caves.
The old crowd is back together again, temporarily holed up in the Pierre Hotel. Except for legal questions, the ending of the show was plausible. Weiner/Levy gave the characters and fans what they wanted. But I am getting hip to their tricks. That “old gang of mine” will be soon recalling that old proverb “be careful what you wish for.”
I can’t wait.
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69 Comments
I can't wait either. This is the first season that I watched and tried to watch regualarly, and got hooked. I'll have to get aquainted with the seasons one, & two.
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Kung Fu and Medical Center were the last time I felt that heart tugging connection with a television show. They were like drugs to me. After all these years I'm hooked again.
I thought ilast night and the last 3 episodes were brilliant.
Fastest hour of TV ever.
Am I the only one who thinks this show is totally overrated?
As a dramatic premise to base a TV series on, "People were really repressed back then" seems a little thin.
I watched all three seasons in two weeks. This show is SO not overrated.
I thought they teed up a platform for next season very nicely. Some Godfather overtones in terms of the perfect wrap? . . . perhaps, but it was still riviting to watch how they staged the coup, don't you think? The only thing I might have done differently is juggled scenes around so that the final scene was the one where Roger and Don leave the office and don't bother locking up.
I thought the exact same thing about the final scene. When Roger and Don walked out the door and didn't bother to lock up I thought it was the final scene (wasn't looking at the clock). It was a perfect final scene moment.
I didn't see the coup thing coming so was pleasantly surprised at that.
I'd be happy to not see Betty anymore – she bugged me. She was always mean to her kids.
If you imagine that this show is based on "how repressed" people were back then, you either haven't watched all three seasolns, or you don't know the meaning of the word "REPRESSED".
Good call and I agree.
I don't think that Don was "relieved" about the divorce at all; I think that he just finally gave up.
This season had its ups and downs and the writing was nowhere near as good as the first season and 1/2.
The costume department often gets things dead wrong ( NOT A SINGLE WOMAN, NO MATTER HER SOCIAL CLASS, WOULD HAVE WORN BLACK, RED, OR WHITE TO SOMEONE'S WEDDING BACK THEN ! ), but when they get it right ( which is most of the time ), the REALLY get it right !
I HATE Lane Pryce and wonder why they need him. Anyone have any answers?
I like how Don made peace with the account guys. Hilton had jerked him around and it showed him that accounts and creative are very different professions.
I look forward to next season and the bushel of brunets Don go through each year. Hopefully he can hookup with the Jewish business Women from season one. She was great in that roll.
back then, kids were seen and not heard. Betty and Joanie spawned a huge fashion following…I kinda love that whole thing. The coup was awesome and I can't wait to see how it plays out next season.
A great rally to a season that started off dour even for this show. Loved the finale, and last week's JFK assassination was superbly done as well. Adored Price realizing the way the wind blows and panicking…we'd been seeing him discreetly falling in love with America over the season–his wife sure ain't gonna be too happy he's staying stateside, though. Don's may not be the only divorce next season. Love the new 'agency.' SO glad Joan's back, even if for now she's running a hotel suite, not another office.
I still want to know what happened to poor Chauncey last season, though…Damn you, Duck!!
And, Ruebacca, Maggie Siff (played the businesswoman), is currently bedding the head biker over on "Sons of Anarchy," so I don't think she'll be time traveling back to the 60's soon. To see her in slag gear is quite amazing–on Mad Men she looked so perfectly period. The makeup, hair & wardrobe departments are really unequalled.
It was the day after JFK got shot!! No-ones alterations got done!!
I watched the first two seasons on line and enjoyed it greatly. Then caught all the episodes on the tube this year. I was wondering how they would handle the JFK assassination and I thought they did it well. Realistic I thought. Anyway, even those who rip Mad Men must admit that given the current state of television Mad Men is first rate.
After all how many weight loss and dancing shows can you watch? In my case, none.
I loved the finale and look forward to seeing Don actually work for his money now. I also hope they bring back Sal. They will need a artist.
From now on things really start to change in America, so the next season should be interesting.
Favorite line in the finale:
Roger: Peggy, can you get me some coffee?
Peggy: No.
Hmm…I think we needed to see Don's new 'family' functioning to give him and us hope for the future, considering his perfect life–completely built on lie after lie–has been shattered. Had the show been canceled, a more 'final' ending of a shutting door might have been better, but I think they ended the episode just right.
I hope next season they track Sal down and give him an art director job.
I am extremely happy the Draper marriage is over. Maybe they can both start living their lives instead of being burdened by their spouses.
Alterations? Are you kidding? Back then, these women would have had their their outfits and accessories planned, finished, put together, and ready to slip into for more than a week. There would have been a problem getting their hair done, but hats were still being worn, so no biggie.
The CHARACTER isn't Richard Harris' son. LOL
And no, being someone's son doesn't make the actor cool; but i will say that he is a good actor; which has less than nothing whatsoever to do with the plot.
The coup would have easily gone through without Lane; he added nothing; which is WHY I posed the query.
It's the fall of '63; things don't really change until the summer of '68 !
The BEATS were fringe and radical in the '50s and Don did that scene in the first season.
Don has ALWAYS "worked for his money". I don't understand that comment of yours.
Obviously my tongue was in my cheek re: outfits (your original comment never occurred to me; everyone looked appropriate for all I know). But I think Pryce's presence is essential for dealing with past and future clients–will make the new firm seem more legit, not to mention "classier" to those swayed by his accent. I like the character in spite of myself–he just couldn't win for trying: they hated him at Sterling Cooper, and his British bosses didn't respect him, probably he because he hadn't gone to quite the right school. (He alluded to that in the cab with his wife a few eps ago) That was a pretty great f.u. he gave his British boss, too. It's that other British twit I couldn't stand–'Moneypenny.' And being Richard Harris' son _does_ make him all-around cooler in my eyes–I loved his dad's work (ok maybe not "Orca"), and Jarod sounds exactly like him.
Everyone, and I do mean EVERYONE, knew the rules back then and followed them. One simply never wore red, white, or black to a wedding. Heck, even beige was suspect. Bridesmaids NEVER wore black until the late 1980s; though it was okay for them to wear red before then.
There are quite a few slipups, vis-a-vis the women's costumes and sometimes even with what the Draper kids wear. But most of it is pretty spot on; down to the smallest accessories and fads, though Betty's jewelry for the wedding was all wrong.
Noooooooooooooooooooo…..Pryce was ticked off that nobody asked him what schools he had gone to in America. Obviously he had gone to really prestigious ones, so it rankled him no end.
England was a very class conscious society, it is obvious that Lane just isn't as high on the totem pole as his bosses are, so they look down on him and abuse him. And I still don't see what he adds to the new firm. He's not much more than a "time management" pencil pusher and an ask no questions toady. He cut the expenses to the bone; that's all he did at Sterling-Cooper.
Re the class thing……………….the new, young guy, whose foot got whacked off by the John Deere was fawned over, by the Brit bosses, not only for his acumen, but because he came from minor aristocracy.
Like whom you like; however, Pryce is a nasty character, whom we're supposed to not like and I don't. He's a good actor, he makes you not like him at all.
Exactly the opposite. The show demonstrates again and again that WE, with our political correctness and rigorous enforcement of social norms via class guilt, (i.e., think Britney Spears driving with a baby behind the wheel) are repressed in comparison to how these supposedly buttoned down people lived.
I am a huge Mad Men fan. Total must-see TV. Michael makes a point in his original post, which is rather similar to my own take: The central story of this show is the Draper/Peggy relationship. As we first encounter Don in 1960, he is the most cold and remote man you'll ever meet. Peggy wants desperately to be just like Don–she leaves the outer boroughs in order to re-invent herself, just as Don invented himself, leaving Dick Whitman behind.
By the time the show wraps its series finale, I just know that Peggy will have "become" very Don-like–but where will Don be by that time? Hmmm.. That's what keeps me tuning in each week.
I don't get cable, so I don't watch the show, but…
"When a drunk Lois amputated the erstwhile new Brit super star Guy MacKendrick’s foot with a John Deere tractor in the office, I laughed out loud for minutes. "
I guess I just can't laugh at cruelty and mutilation as everyone else does. Some personal defect, no doubt.
Lionel Chetwynd said, and I agree, that this is Boomer propaganda designed to trash the 50's.
It just occurs to me that the Beatles are about to arrive—you are right, it really will start getting interesting.
Betty is far from gone. While the proximate cause for the show's dreariness (in her defense, why should she put up with any of Don's crap?), she is very necessary. So their relationship will continue through the children. Plus no way the Harry Francis thing works out. That horse will barely break out of the gate. Talk about a "rebound" husband.
In real life I would not laugh at all–at least I sincerely doubt it as I never have and cannot imagine I ever would. But why do we watch Sopranos or Goodfellas or Pulp Fiction? Or any of these shows/movies. These are fantasies, not real life. They are not real. The character "Guy" was a completely self important exaggerated idiot—but a caricature and cartoon. When as children we laugh at Bugs Bunny blasting Yosemite Sam, we do so because we find it funny. Why?
I have no idea. But it does not translate into laughing at real life cruelty. My guess is it is quite the opposite.
Rulle's constant slavering over "Mad Men" simply doesn't belong on Big Hollywood.
I thought the purpose of this site was to point out the ways popular entertaiment denigrates traditional American values. The basic premise of "Mad Men" takes the notion of a father going off to earn the family's bread while the mother stays home to raise the children properly and makes of it a complete mockery. The disengaged "father" uses the arrangement as an opportunity to be a soulless libertine, and being at home with the children is a dank prison for the mother. Gays must be closeted to survive, and women are seen only as sex objects.
"Mad Men" is leftist propaganda run wild. It exemplifies what Big Hollywood is supposed to be fighting against. And yet Rulle gushes that "Mad Men" is just–well, it's just wonderful!
I think he needs to be writing these little tidbits for the Huffington Post.
Remember: Don ran into her at a restaurant and she was with her new husband.
I look for Peggy and Pete's baby to show up sometime…that story ain't over.
Lane Pryce was needed to keep the coup underwraps. I like him and think he is a good addition. After all, a new agency will need someone who can keep finances under control. That said, look for his wife to become a first class pain in the rumpus.
They have to bring Sal back! Even a show set in the 60s has to have diversity. Besides, he was a hoot with his snarky bon mots.
Wonder if Hannah (Don's "first wife") will show up again? I liked her character.
As a kid growing up in the 60s, I can attest to the fact that it wasn't so much that kids were seen and not heard, but that kids did not expect their parents to entertain them or to be their buddies. My parents had their own lives and we had ours. The two entities didn't quite intersect as they are forced to today. We didn't feel deprive at all. That's just how it was.
Please read Mark M.'s previous comment about 60's repression. While we seem to be so enlightened today, we have actually become chained and bound by the new rules of political correctness and guilt over race, class, sex, etc. I think Mad Men asks the question: who has more freedom? You or Us?
Tidy or not, I think what was on display in the final episode of this season's "Mad Men" was the beauty of capitalism and liberty and personified the American spirit. just my opinion
I can't say you didn't warn me this show was great!
Great Icon!
I think you got it backwards. When Peggy asked something like "If I say no, I won't ever see you again, will I?", Don's response was "I'm NOT going to spend the rest of my life trying to hire you." In other words, this was his attempt at contrition, accept it or move on.
Lane Pryce was the key to the coup.
He had to fire Don, Bert, and Roger or there was no coup. They all had contracts.
They could either work for the new bosses, retire, or in Don's case, not work in the ad industry for three years.
That was the point of the scene with Connie. Don could be economically secure by going with the new bosses.
Or, Don could do what Connie did. Take the risk and do what is necessary to make sure the growth of his empire is secure.
Don chose empire. So, the comparisons with the Godfather are apt.
But, without Lane….no firing = no empire.
We all know that Harry will have some flaw, some unfathomable character trait that will make Betty realize she traded her Cadillac for a Pinto…
I agree that the one area where the show makes the most mistakes (even though there aren't that many) is in women's fashion and, to use an apt word, comportment. With the kids' clothes, though, I haven't noticed any big lapses. I grew up just a 3 years or so behind the Draper kids (and wore a lot of my older cousin's hand-me-downs), and I recognize so much of what they wear. I'm always thinking, "Hey, I had a dress just like that!"
But to your first point, I also don't think Don was relieved. I actually think losing the stability of the house and family strikes at the heart of the character, given his own childhood. Obviously, he doesn't have the healthiest, most genuine emotional connections to Betty and the kids. But he desperately wants that security and stability. He just expected it to stand on its own while he did as he wanted. But when it fell, he was shocked. In the scene where he goes up to the bedroom and drops into a chair was very sad. It made me feel sorry for the cheating bastidge.
"Mad Men' just about lost me this year. The writing was very up and down with to many "hanging-fire" episodes.
And Betty is such a drag. Most women in the 60's didn't just sit around the house all day and smoke. Between kids and kid related activities and community activities and bridge clubs and church activites and parties, etc, etc, etc., there was plenty to do. Your choice whether that was fulfilling or not.
There's several reasons why the 60's were so traumatic for American society, but a major one was the "end" of the stay at home and community service Mom. That big ball of societal glue got blown apart. Again, your choice as to whether that was good or not.
Anywho, With the dynamism and problems of start up a business and the whole 60's scene exploding, I hope they sideline Betty. Beautiful to look at, but the very definition of the high maintenance depressive.
LOVED the season finale. Lots of good one-liners in it, too. "I'm just going to go change the sheets." Ha! I can't wait for next season!
Uh, I think Mad Men shows how it really WAS back then. You can't change history.
She's too busy in Sons of Anarchy.
Yesss! My evil plan is working!
Yes, I too became hooked. Bought Seasons One & Two to catch up on everything I missed. I love love love this series!
Can't even imagine what your take on Breaking Bad must be….
And Rockefeller is purged in 64 as well. Not a coincindence that Betty runs off with a Rockefeller aide. It's a way to bring her back to the fold when Sugar Daddy has no cushy DC job to go to.
I'm sure Gulf of Tonkin figures in as well…
I think they will eventually bring Sal back too; they just did not because Joan and Sal coming back would have been to perfect an ending.
Mumblix: I loved that line too. That, and Pryce's: "Happy Christmas!"
Great simile, Mike. I laughed heartily as well.
Remember: It's only funny until something gets amputated…then it's freakin' hilarious!
Yes, Lane fired Don and Roger and Cooper, therefore allowing them a way out and a new beginning. That still doesn't answer my question.
WHAT DOES LANE BRING TO THE NEW FIRM THAT IS WORTH HIS BEING MADE A PARTNER ?
It screws the Brits and makes the sale pretty worthless, but so does taking the cream off Sterling Cooper.
In the first season, Sally's dresses were too short, that happened a couple of times in season 2, as well. Okay, it's a teensy quibble and not nearly as bad of an ooooooppppppppppps as szome of the really stunningly bad hairdos ( some just did not fit the time period ) and clothes choices for the women. OTOH, I was shocked at how the aurora borealis crystal necklace showed up on Betty, just at the time that fad was at its height,late winter of '61 into '62. But the misses ( granted, they're few ) are glaring to anyone old enough to remember just what women and girls wore and really looked like.\\
Don has always been a lonely boy and man. Betty and the kids not only gave him stability, but far more important………….RESPECTABILITY ! As the bastard son of a whore and then the mistreated orphan of very poor people he didn't like, the world he made for himself was better, though not any easier; even with money.
Yes, Don was crushed and that was hard to watch.
I'm still trying to figure out why Peter and Lovey did The Charleston. They had very good coaching, I loved the scene, but that didn't fit. If they had done THE BIG APPLE or the SUZY Q, or even TRUCKIN……….that would have made some sense, even though none of those were their generation's danced, but their parents'. They could have learned it from a grandparent, but not that kind of arrangement, which was different from how regular people danced; this was stagey.
The show is so well done, that when something is out of joint, it sticks out like a sore thumb.
You raise a very interesting point. I listened to it 10 times. What I heard was him saying "no" (as in "no you are wrong") when she says you will never 'speak to me again". Instead "I will soend the rst of my life trying to hire you" This is also consistent with his "i don't think I can do this without you—becasue of her understanding of how things have changed after JFK assasination.
Any one else have a view on this important point?
If I am wrong, how does it change my theory of their relationship's central importance to the show?
correcting spelling mistakes above
You raise a very interesting point. I listened to it 10 times. What I heard him say was "no" (as in "no you are wrong") when she says you will never "speak to me again". Instead "I will spend the rest of my life trying to hire you" This is also consistent with his "I don't think I can do this without you—because of her understanding of how things have changed after JFK assasination.
Any one else have a view on this important point?
If I am wrong, how does it change my theory of their relationship's central importance to the show?
it actually is a conservative show in some respects- the power of the women behind the scenes, and you see the awful consequences of adultery (ripping apart Don's family and also how Pete nearly lost his marriage) and also you see real capitalism and American ingenuity.
it is also a good look at how America was back in the early 1960s- even the way the men wore business suits was conservative!
It's coming on the season opener!!
Several hours ago, I wrote and posted a long, detailed post. There was nothing objectionable in it, nothing whatsoever, yet it has been removed…………..for no reason.
If this is allowed to stay, I'll try to rewrite it, but it won't be as good as the original one.
You're going to love them. Enjoy.
Actually, you already answered your own question: if you had seen the show, I expect you'd have had the context of that particular scene and got the full oomph of it. Among other things in this show, that scene carried a heavy bit of dark comedy about it.
It's HENRY Francis.
Not Harry Francis.
D'oh!
You are correct. Harry, Henry, whatever, but his character is a prop, like a lamp or a table, designed only to shed light on Bett'y's character. In fact, I think it appropriate to call him by the wrong name.
Again no firings – no new company.
It was a business deal pure and simple – I give you your freedom/you make me a partner.
Without the partnership, there was no reason for Lane to do anything.
In firing them, he truly burned all his bridges in the world of British business. Without a partnership, the firing would've been a stupid act of financial suicide.
In other words, Don did the necessary thing to build to build his empire.(See Connie)
"WHAT DOES LANE BRING TO THE NEW FIRM THAT IS WORTH HIS BEING MADE A PARTNER ? "
I think you underestimate the value of that "pencil-pushing."
For one thing, who else among the partners are going to make those hard decisions? Sterling and Cooper don't really appear to do much of anything at all and Don is notoriously bad about money. I mean, even the clueless Bets points that out.
They're now forming a firm on shoestrings and paperclips. Lane is probably more essential to the firm than either Sterling OR Cooper, who, as much as I love their characters, only really bring their name and one account between them.
Face it, someone actually has to run the firm, and Lane does an already proven fantastic job of doing it.
On a personal note, I've really grown to like him as a character, in spite of myself. I've seen him in other roles, and this is the first that I've genuinely liked the character he played.
Ah, I wish to trade places with you and bring back the beauty of watching season 1 and 2…when I was done with Mad Man I watched Sopranos in it's entirety, for the first time- good show!
Exec Producer Weiner of Mad Man shows up on last season of Sopranos as a writer…can not wait to see season four.
I am a brand new (legal) American citizen and this show makes nice look back at some of the most important ties in modern America..
Welcome to the good ole USA, Maja!! Where are you from? I love "The Sopranos," as well, and being from, though no longer living in New Jersey, get asked about it a lot.
Generally speaking I see Peggy as allegory for the rise of true female independence in American culture. And I saw Don's statement as more symbolic that Adam needed Eve to move forward. And also some minor self admission, by Don, that he doesn't appreciate the submissive mother role that women were pushed in in his society.
His mistresses were all sophisticated independent women who could hold their own, showing that he sees that as a preferable personality for women… even if he doesn't realize it. The tragedy of him losing connection with Betty as that she was that sort of woman before she and Don married. But she fell into the submissive mother role to appease cultural norms that neither she or Don wanted her to abide by.
A bit of a ramble, above. meh
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