Mad Men is one of the greatest shows in television history, but it's ending prompted quite a
bit of debate.
All these years later, we’re still discussing what exactly happened in that last episode,
but now, we think we finally understand the ending of Mad Men.
In "Lost Horizon," the twelfth episode of Mad Men's seventh and final season, Don Draper
decides to take a road trip.
He does so after attending a pitch meeting at McCann Erickson, where he feels lost, irrelevant,
and disinterested.
Don exits the meeting shortly after it begins, gets in his car, and just starts driving,
and he doesn't tell anyone where he's going.
At the start of "Person to Person," the fourteenth episode of the seventh season and the final
episode of the show, we learn that Don has made it all the way to Utah, and he's racing
across the desert.
It's miles away, both literally and figuratively, from where we're used to seeing him.
Embracing his inner grease monkey, Don opts for a "Canadian tuxedo" in lieu of one of
his signature business suits.
Draper no longer feels like he belongs in New York's advertising world, and he's on
a mission to discover where he truly belongs.
Soon enough, he discovers his destiny isn't to break the land speed record in the Utah
desert.
Pete Campbell only shows up in two short scenes in the finale, but they're both essential
to his overall character arc.
Throughout most of Mad Men's run, Pete was unbearably smug, selfish, and insincere.
"A man like you I'd follow into combat blindfolded, and I wouldn't be the first.
Am I right, buddy?"
"Let's take it a little slower."
But in Mad Men's final season, Pete begins to change for the better.
In the penultimate episode of Mad Men, he manages to patch things up with his ex-wife
Trudy.
He also takes a new job with Learjet that requires moving to Kansas, so he'll be starting
a whole new life with his family.
In the scene where Pete says goodbye to Peggy, he's all smiles and clearly has no ulterior
motive.
"Keep it up, you'll be a creative director by 1980."
"God that sounds like a long time."
It's a complete 180 from his sleazy first encounters with Peggy in the series' premiere.
"Well, you're in the city now, wouldn't be a sin for us to see your legs, and you pull
your waist in a little bit, you might look like a woman."
Moral of the story?
People can change, and so can weasels.
Don's fun in the sun is quickly squashed by some terrible news.
He calls his daughter Sally to excitedly tell her about his adventures, but she's not interested.
"Uh-huh."
"Six hundred and twenty-two miles an hour, a car that looked like a jet…Sally?"
Eventually, Sally tells her dad that Betty, her mother and Don's ex-wife, has been diagnosed
with terminal lung cancer.
Don immediately says he'll return to New York so Sally and her two younger brothers can
move in with him, but Sally discourages him from doing so.
Undeterred, Don calls Betty and tells her the same thing:
"I don't want you to worry about them.
They're going to come live with me.
You don't even have to ask."
"I wasn't going to."
Betty is seeing things more clearly as she approaches death:
"What they really need is a woman in their life.
A regular family.
Living with my brother and Judy is in their best interests."
Betty reminds Don that he's never really been a good father to his children.
It finally hits him that he's not the family man he always thought himself to be.
This revelation hits him hard.
Despite the fact that Betty is dying and Don is effectively out of their lives, we still
get the feeling that the Draper kids, Sally, Gene, and Bobby, are gonna be alright.
Sally seems intent on not turning into her parents, and her predicament forces her to
grow up fast.
After speaking with her dad on the phone, the eldest Draper child surprisingly returns
home from boarding school, canceling a trip abroad to do so, to help raise her two younger
brothers.
After telling Gene to leave the room, she has a brief discussion with Bobby about their
mother's health.
Although Bobby hasn't been briefed on Betty's illness, he knows she's dying, and he's been
trying to pick up the slack around the house.
He just failed at cooking dinner as Sally comes home, so she decides to show him a few
tricks of the trade.
The last time we see Sally, she's washing dishes while Betty smokes at the kitchen table.
It's obvious that Sally is determined to give her brothers a proper upbringing.
Despite the best efforts of Betty and Don, she's obviously got a good head on her shoulders.
Sometimes people become fantastic individuals despite their parenting, rather than because
of it.
Roger Sterling doesn't have a lot to do in the Mad Men series finale.
His biggest contribution in the seventh season, and his final grand act, is orchestrating
the sale of Sterling Cooper & Partners to McCann Erickson.
An older man with no roots at his new company, Roger wasn't particularly valued at McCann,
and he knew it.
He wasn't the future of the company, and in his mind, he didn't have much of a future
at all.
In the finale, he claims to be entering the final chapter of his life, and surprisingly,
he seems totally okay with that.
Roger's final chapter involves him learning to love again, and getting his finances in
order.
At one point, he visits his old flame, Joan Holloway Harris, but not to rekindle a romance.
Instead, he tells her that when he dies, he'll be leaving a substantial portion of his fortune
to Kevin, the secret son they share together.
Joan initially resists the offer, but Roger insists, claiming the arrangement was made
in a way that won't arouse suspicion.
"Roger, this is an expensive way to mark your territory."
Roger also declares his intention to marry Megan Draper's mother, Marie, and the last
we see of Roger, he's living a cozy life in Paris with his new bride.
At the beginning of the Mad Men finale, Joan is living it up in Florida with her wealthy
new beau Richard, enjoying her pseudo-retirement without a care in the world.
Meanwhile, Peggy is struggling to get respect at McCann.
They both seem unsure of what they want to do with their lives.
But after having dinner with her former colleague Ken Cosgrove, Joan believes she has an answer...for
both of them.
Ken asks Joan to produce an industrial film for his company, and Joan decides to hire
Peggy to write the script.
Peggy is initially reluctant, at least until she hears how much money is involved.
"I don't have time to moonlight."
"It's $1,200 for a ten-page script."
"Geez.
Well.
Anything for a friend..."
The project goes swimmingly, allowing Joan to secure more contracts for similar jobs.
As she realizes how much she's been missing work, Joan flirts with the idea of starting
her own industrial film production company.
"Harris-Olson.
You need two names to make it sound real."
"Are you serious?"
Peggy has been increasingly unhappy at McCann, so she begins considering Joan's intriguing
proposal.
But will she go for it?
As part of his convoluted backstory, Don Draper, or to call him his real name, Dick Whitman,
befriended Anna Draper, the widow of the real Don Draper, whose identity Dick stole during
the Korean War.
Anna remained Don's closest friend and confidant until her death in season four, and by proxy,
Don also became close with Anna's adult niece, Stephanie.
Don shows up at their house in L.A., dreadfully hungover and depressed, and Stephanie isn't
doing so hot herself.
Having just given up her baby and feeling lost, she's about to head to a hippie retreat
on the California coast.
Don, having nothing better to do, decides to go along with her.
Upon arriving at the retreat, Don is instantly put off by all the New Age shenanigans.
Even though he's trying to discover who he is, he's still a conservative, strait-laced
guy at heart…and he seems to think the whole retreat is rather silly.
Later, one attendee criticizes Stephanie for giving up her baby:
"What I feel when I hear about your baby is sadness."
Don attempts to console Stephanie, but it doesn't go well.
"You're not my family, what's the matter with you?"
To make matters worse, Stephanie takes Don's car in the middle of the night, leaving him
alone in every possible way.
Throughout the Mad Men finale, it seems like Joan is trying to have it all.
She wants her carefree relationship with Richard, but she's also excited by the prospect of
starting her own business.
It all comes to a head when Richard calls her out on her career aspirations, essentially
asking her to choose between him and her fledgling business.
"Seems like this might be a chance to build something."
"Well, it's going to take all your time, all your energy, and all your attention."
At the end of the scene, Richard wishes her luck and literally walks out of her life,
leaving Joan single and ready to mingle, with businesses that need industrial videos, that
is.
The fact that Joan winds in charge of her own business is one of the show's most satisfying
developments.
After years of being doubted, pushed around, and sexually harassed, Joan ultimately decides
to be her own woman and chart her own course.
Upon learning that Stephanie has fled the hippie retreat, Don has a complete and utter
meltdown.
Alone and abandoned in a strange place, Don silently reflects on everything he's lost.
He's walked away from his career, feeling like he no longer belongs there.
He's recently split up with his wife, Megan, who wants nothing to do with him.
His first ex-wife Betty is dying and also wants nothing to do with him, and he's effectively
had his kids taken away from him.
Now, to top it all off, he's been abandoned and betrayed by someone he considered part
of his family.
In this desperate place, Don calls the only person he thinks might care about him: Peggy
Olson.
She initially lashes out at him:
"Where the hell are you?"
Don's former protégé changes her tune once Don starts crying, expressing regret about
all the mistakes he's made in his life.
Peggy tries to talk him down, fearing that he may be suicidal.
Those fears certainly aren't laid to rest when Don says he's calling to say goodbye.
He then abruptly ends the call by saying he just wanted to hear her voice.
We've seen Don break down before, but never like this.
Peggy is naturally freaked out about her conversation with Don, and so she gives art director Stan
Rizzo a jingle.
He emphasizes that Don is prone to taking off without telling anyone, assuring Peggy
that he'll come back eventually.
Suddenly, whiplash!
Stan abruptly drops a truth bomb on Peggy:
"I want to be with you.
I'm in love with you."
The admission takes Peggy completely by surprise, and at first she doesn't even understand what
Stan is saying.
After all, she has a lot on her mind, her status at McCann, Joan's business proposal,
her wayward boss.
She hasn't really taken any time to think about her romantic life.
Earlier in the episode, Stan tells Peggy:
"There's more to life than work."
Now Peggy is starting to see what he's talking about.
And when she takes a moment to consider her feelings, here's what she comes up with:
"I can't believe this.
I think I'm in love with you, too."
Soon enough, they kiss and embrace.
It's the finale's biggest bit of fan service, which doesn't make the moment any less satisfying.
After speaking with Peggy, Don sits alone, staring into space until a member of the retreat
comes along and invites him to sit in on a group session.
Don eventually relents.
During the session, a suburban father, who's roughly Don's age, has his own tearful breakdown
as he describes how no one appreciates him: Not his family, not his colleagues, no one.
"But I've never been interesting to anybody."
Don sees something of himself in the man and embraces him, and they hold each other and
sob uncontrollably.
The next morning, Don attends a group meditation outdoors.
No longer appearing skeptical, cynical, or broken down, Don meditates along with the
rest of the group.
Eventually, the faintest hint of a smile creeps across his face.
The episode then cuts to McCann's famous "I'd Like to Buy the World a Coke" commercial,
strongly suggesting that Don Draper cooked up the concept right then and there.
So what's going on here?
Well, one could argue that Don has finally discovered his true purpose.
He pushed away his advertising career to try and find meaning elsewhere, and he had to
lose everything to realize he really is truly an ad man through and through.
He's the kind of guy who would happily exploit hippie culture as a means to sell soda made
by one of the biggest corporations in the world.
Hey, it's nice work if you can get it, right?
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