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Nosotros Finally Understand The Ending Of Mad Men

It's difficult to believe that information technology's already been four years since Mad Men signed off for practiced with its series finale, "Person to Person," and nosotros've been trying our best to understand the ending of Mad Men ever since. The series is one of the most acclaimed dramas of all fourth dimension, boasting a tape-tying four sequent Outstanding Drama Emmy wins. With such an esteemed full-blooded, at that place were a lot of high expectations for its finale. And similar the series closer of the similarly-lauded The Sopranos before it, a lot of people didn't know what to recollect when the finale of Mad Men first aired. Was it expert? Was it bad? Or was information technology but confusing?

Although Mad Men's catastrophe wasn't quite as cryptic every bit The Sopranos' closer, the terminal scene of "Person to Person" was still somewhat open to interpretation. Ending a popular and critically-dear show similar Mad Men later on eight years on the air was never going to be an piece of cake task, and information technology would've been impossible for the show to have come up with a finale that would satisfy all of its fans and critics. But the years take been kind to the show'southward finale, and in spite of the polarizing reaction it acquired when it first aired, we at present experience confident in saying that we finally understand the ending of Mad Men.

Don Draper searches for meaning in Mad Men'due south catastrophe

Two episodes prior to the finale in the installment "Lost Horizon," Don Draper decides to take a road trip. He does and then after attention a pitch meeting at his company'due south new home of advertizing behemothic McCann Erickson, where he feels lost, irrelevant, and uninterested. Don exits the meeting shortly after it begins, gets in his car, and but starts driving without telling anyone where he'south going. By the time we go to the start of the finale, Don has fabricated information technology to Utah where he's taken up racing cars across the desert. Having been inspired after witnessing Gary Gabelich pause the land speed record, Don pledges to stake a group of youths who are building a race car. It'south miles away — both literally and figuratively — from where nosotros're used to seeing Don. His grey wool suit has been replaced by a Canadian tuxedo as he embraces his grease monkey side.

This distance between Don's usual self and his road trip persona is deliberate. He no longer felt similar he belonged in the advertisement world of New York, and then he's on a mission to discover out where his place in the world is. He figures out soon enough that his destiny isn't to pause the land speed record in the Utah desert, but he's going to keep searching for meaning wherever he can find it, regardless.

Pete completes his redemptive arc

Pete Campbell only shows up in just 2 short scenes in the finale, but they're both essential to his overall character arc and undoubtedly showcase the grapheme at his virtually likable. Throughout most of Mad Men's run, Pete was 100 per centum hateable. He was smug and selfish like Don, only he lacked the effortless absurd and wry sense of sense of humour that helped to polish out Don's crude edges. One could even argue — assuredly — that the most satisfying scene in the entire serial was when Lane Pryce punched out Pete in season five.

Merely every bit Mad Men wrapped up, Pete underwent a transformation. He'd learned a lot over the years, and whether it was due to historic period, feel, or a combination of both, Pete became a better man. In the episodes leading upwards to the finale, Pete managed to patch things upwards with his ex-wife Trudy, reuniting their family unit for the kickoff time in years. He also took a new job with Learjet that would require he and his family unit to move to tranquility Kansas, where they would start their new life together. Pete's redemptive arc finally completes in the finale, in a scene where he says goodbye to Peggy. He's all smiles and has no ulterior motive, and he simply comes off as someone proverb farewell to an old friend. It's a complete 180 from his lewd first encounters with Peggy in the series' premiere, and information technology shows but how much Pete has grown every bit a person.

Don finally realizes he's been a terrible father

Don'due south fun in the desert lord's day is interrupted when reality re-enters the moving-picture show. He calls his daughter Emerge to excitedly tell her about his adventures, but she'southward wholly uninterested in hearing about them. She tells her male parent that Betty, her mother and Don's ex-married woman, has been diagnosed with terminal lung cancer. Don immediately declares that he volition return to New York and have Emerge and her two younger brothers move in with him, but Sally discourages him from doing then.

Undeterred, Don calls Betty and tells her the same matter. They're his kids so he ought to be the 1 to raise them. Well, that'southward Don's reasoning, anyhow. Betty, who's seeing things more conspicuously equally she marches closer to her death, wants the children to move in with her blood brother and his wife so they tin can have stability. She reminds Don that he'due south never been a father to his children, and even when he had opportunities to meet them, he would commonly forego them.

Later speaking with Betty, information technology finally hits Don that he'south non the family unit man he'd congenital himself up to be in his caput. His kids don't want to be with him, and fifty-fifty though he may have said so, his actions have proven that he doesn't want to exist with them either. They lead completely separate lives, and this realization — especially since he himself had grown upward without parents — hits Don especially hard.

The Draper kids are going to be all right

Fifty-fifty though Betty is dying and Don is finer out of their lives, we all the same get the feeling that the Draper kids — Emerge, Bobby, and Cistron — are going to exist all right. Sally, desperate to not become either i of her parents, is forced to grow upwardly more apace than she probably would've liked to. In the finale, after speaking with her father on the telephone, the eldest Draper kid surprisingly returns dwelling house from boarding school — canceling a trip away to do so —  to help heighten her two younger brothers. Every bit Emerge enters the kitchen of the Francis residence, and later on telling Cistron to go out the room, she has a brief discussion with Bobby nigh their female parent's wellness. Although Bobby hasn't been briefed on Betty's affliction, he knows she's dying, and has himself been trying to pick upwardly the slack around the house. He's only failed at cooking dinner as Sally enters, and she decides to testify him how it's done.

The final shot of Sally in the finale is of her washing dishes while Betty smokes at the kitchen tabular array. Information technology's obvious by this point that Sally is determined to give her brothers a proper upbringing, and that despite the all-time efforts of Betty and Don, she's turned out to be a loving and caring person who prioritizes family. Emerge has a skilful head on her shoulders and is going to be all correct, and thanks generally to her, her brothers are going to exist okay, too.

Roger begins his concluding chapter

The hilarious Roger Sterling didn't accept a lot to do in the Mad Men series finale, as his storyline had largely wrapped up by that bespeak. His biggest contribution in the seventh season, and his final grand act, was orchestrating the sale of Sterling Cooper & Partners to McCann Erickson. An older man with no roots at his new company, Roger didn't have much of a value to McCann, and he knew information technology. He wasn't the company's future, and in his mind, he didn't have much of a future at all. In the finale, he claims to exist entering the final chapter of his life, and surprisingly, he seems quite okay with it.

Rogers "last chapter" involves him getting his finances in order and learning to dearest again. He visits his old flame, Joan Holloway Harris, merely it's not to attempt and rekindle any romance. Instead, he's at that place to tell her that when he dies, he'll be leaving a substantial portion of his fortune to Kevin, the secret son they share together. Joan resists the offer, but Roger insists, claiming it will be done in such a way as to not arouse suspicion about the child'southward true parentage. Roger too declares his intention to ally Megan Draper's female parent, Marie, and the terminal we see of Roger, he'southward having a ball in Paris with his new bride.

Peggy and Joan are at a crossroads in Mad Men'southward ending

When the finale begins, Peggy Olson and Joan Holloway Harris observe themselves in completely opposite situations. Joan is living it upwardly in Florida with her wealthy new beau, Richard, enjoying her pseudo-retirement without a care in the globe. Peggy, meanwhile, is struggling to gain respect at her new home of McCann, and she finds herself fighting for the smallest of concessions. Every bit the episode progresses, it becomes clear that each of them are unsure of which direction they want to take in their lives. Merely after having dinner with her former colleague, Ken Cosgrove, Joan believes she has the respond for both of them.

Ken asks Joan to produce an industrial film for his company, and Joan decides to rent Peggy to write the script for the project. Peggy is reluctant initially, but after hearing how much coin is involved, she agrees. The project goes swimmingly, and Joan is able to secure more contracts for similar piece of work. Realizing how much she'southward missed working, Joan gets the thought to start her own industrial film production business. Peggy, meanwhile, is increasingly upset with her position at McCann, so when Joan asks her to exist her partner in the new business concern, information technology'southward something she seriously considers. Equally the two main female characters of the series, Joan and Peggy took very different paths to reach their corresponding points in the finale, only it makes sense that their futures would potentially be and so tied to 1 another when it was all said and done.

Don is rejected and finds himself solitary

Later on effectively existence cut out of his family'southward life, Don heads to Los Angeles to expect up the only family he thinks he has left. As part of his convoluted backstory, Don — or rather, Dick Whitman — had long ago befriended Anna Draper, the widow of the existent Don Draper whose identity Dick/Don stole during the Korean State of war. Anna remained Don'due south closest friend and confidant until her death in season four, and past proxy, Don also became shut with Anna's adult niece, Stephanie. Don shows up at her house in Fifty.A., dreadfully hungover and depressed, hoping to find some comfort, but Stephanie isn't doing so hot herself. Having just given upwards her baby and feeling lost, she's near to caput to a hippie retreat on the California coast. Don, having nothing better to do, decides to get with her.

Upon arriving at the retreat, Don is instantly put off by the New Age shenanigans that he sees. He may be trying to discover who he is, but he remains a conservative, strait-laced guy, and he gives off the impression that he thinks the unabridged retreat is silly. Afterwards Stephanie is criticized past young man retreat goers for giving up her babe, Don attempts to panel her and is met with hostility. Stephanie asks him what he's even doing at that place, telling him that he's not her family. She then takes Don's auto in the eye of the dark, leaving him lonely in every possible way.

Joan makes her choice

Throughout most of Mad Men'south concluding episode, Joan was trying to have it all. She wanted her carefree relationship with Richard, merely she too missed working, and she was excited nigh the prospect of starting her own business organization. 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 organization. Joan refuses to cull, but by doing then, she effectively chooses the business. 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.

Joan ending her arc as a career adult female in charge of her own business organisation has to exist one of the series' nearly satisfying endings. At the show'due south beginning, Joan'southward dream was to become married, have a family, and move to the suburbs where her wealthy hubby would have intendance of her. But this was never actually her dream. It was simply what the society of the time — pushed past the very advertizement agencies for whom she worked — had told her she desired. And after years of being doubted, pushed around, and sexually harassed by the men in her life, Joan ultimately decides to be her own woman, charting her ain grade to succeed or fail on her own.

Don breaks down and says goodbye

Upon learning that Stephanie has left, Don suffers a complete and total breakdown. Lone and abandoned in a strange place, Don silently reflects on all he's lost. He's walked abroad from his career, feeling like he no longer belonged there. He's recently carve up up with his wife, Megan, who wants nothing to practise with him, and his first ex-wife, Betty, is dying and likewise wants nil to do with him. He's effectively had his taken his kids taken away from him — though by now, he's realized that he never actually had them to begin with. And now, to top it all off, he's been left past the last vestige of what he thought was his true family, simply now realizing that his connection to Stephanie was merely an illusion.

In this desperate place, Don calls the only person in the world who he thinks might care about him: Peggy Olson. After initially lashing out at Don for taking off without telling anyone where he was going, Don'south sometime mentee changes her tune once Don starts crying and lamenting about all the mistakes he's fabricated in his life. Peggy tries to talk him down, fearing that he may exist suicidal — thoughts that aren't helped past Don saying that he's calling her to say cheerio and ending the telephone call by proverb he just wanted to hear her voice. We've seen Don break down before just not similar this. This is truly a human at the terminate of his rope.

Peggy comes to a realization

Peggy is naturally freaked out over her conversation with Don. Stan Rizzo shows upwardly to panel her, saying that Don always takes off without telling anyone and that he'll eventually return, but Peggy remains unconvinced that Don is going to be okay. That is, until Stan presents her with a mammoth distraction in the form of telling her that he loves her. Stan's declaration of his feelings takes Peggy by surprise, and it takes her a while to fifty-fifty comprehend what he's maxim. After all, she'd been thinking well-nigh a lot lately: her status at McCann, whether or not she should take Joan'south offering of a partnership, and now whether her dominate was going to exist all right, simply she'd never taken the time to think nigh her personal life.

Earlier in the episode, Stan had told Peggy that work isn't everything, and now Peggy tin can finally run into what he was talking about. When she takes a moment to recollect about it, to focus on what she actually wants, Peggy realizes that she loves Stan, too. The two embrace in what is easily the finale's biggest moment of fan service, simply that doesn't make it any less satisfying. After all, Peggy deserves to exist happy, and if turning downwardly Joan'due south offer and dating Stan is what makes her happy, then more than ability to you, Miss Olson.

Don discovers his true purpose in the ending of Mad Men

Subsequently speaking with Peggy, Don sits alone, staring into space until a fellow member of the retreat comes along and invites him to sit in on a group session. While Don is hostile toward the idea at start, he quickly realizes that he has aught else to exercise and relents. During the session, a suburban father, roughly Don's age, has his ain tearful breakdown while describing how no one in his life appreciates him — non his family, not his colleagues, no 1. Don sees himself in the man and embraces him, with the two of them holding each other and sobbing uncontrollably together.

The following morning time, Don attends a group meditation outdoors. No longer appearing cynical or broken downward, Don "ohms" along with the rest of the group before the faintest hint of a smile creeps across his face. The episode and so cuts to McCann's famous "I'd Like to Buy the Globe a Coke" ad, with the implication beingness that Don conceived the ad in that moment.

So what'due south going on here? Well, Don has finally realized his truthful purpose. Later on pushing away his advertizement career in pursuit of finding meaning elsewhere, information technology takes Don losing everything to realize that he'due south an ad homo through and through. After all of the pain and anguish he felt at the district, the fact that he'south still able to exploit hippie culture to sell soda simply proves that in that location's only one thing on this Earth that Don Draper was meant to exercise.

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Source: https://www.looper.com/164138/we-finally-understand-the-ending-of-mad-men/

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