Mad Men Season Finale!!!!!!

[summer]

spoilers**************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************

Don is unraveling!  The people who he thought were his life are falling aside.  Dick is emerging!  I LOVE it! 

I wonder if he is doing this partly for Sally.  I thought it was so telling when Betty said, "The good isn't beating the bad!"

I was shocked that the agency dropped him.  I was shocked with how "well" he took it.  That he took his kids to his home instead of going to the bar.

And poor Peggy.  Though I loved seeing her sitting in Don's chair.  Wonder what that means?

And Pete. Pete is going to California with Ted to work?  And Trudy is right, he is finally free of it all, but what will he do now.

I thought this was a great finale. 

[summer]

I liked this recap:
www.oregonlive.com/movies/index.ssf/2013/06/mad_men_season_6_finale_a_bril.html

Everything that's been strong in this uneven season of "Mad Men" was even stronger in the excellent Season 6 finale. And it was perfectly fitting that -- even though the finale expertly allowed all of the series' principal characters their moment -- the action centered on the inner struggles of Don Draper (Jon Hamm), the character who has divided viewers all season long, and revealed the consequences of his ill-considered actions.

As I said in my Sunday column, for many "Mad Men" loyalists, this was the season where they lost sympathy for the extravagantly flawed Mr. Draper. In the terrible year of 1968, Don has no doubt spent most of his time flailing in every wrong direction. He's never seemed more like the man in the series title sequence, falling, farther and farther down. As if to slow the drop, Don has reached out for something to hold. But what he latched onto was more drinking; an affair with his married neighbor, Sylvia; distance from his wife and children; and a reckless disregard for what had been the most solid aspect of his life, his role as the ad agency's designated visionary.

The brilliance of the finale was how Matthew Weiner (who co-wrote the script with Carly Wray, and who directed the episode) kept pushing Don downward, until at last he finally seemed to hit bottom. There was no end of trials for Don in the finale, titled, "In Care Of" (from a letter sent to his daughter, Sally (Kiernan Shipka), "in care of" her father). If he began this season reading "Dante's Inferno," we all knew that by the end of it, he'd be in a hell of his own making, and so he was.

In the course of the episode, Don gives us an encapsulated view of his failings: he's selfish (outright stealing Stan's idea for heading up the agency account in California); his drinking has escalated to the point where he winds up spending the night in jail, after having punched an evangelist who's in the bar trying to convert the patrons to Jesus; he has to deal with his daughter's disdain for him, in the wake of her having caught him together with Sylvia; he again puts his own interests before those of his wife, Megan (Jessica Pare); and he expects his partners at the agency to tolerate his wildly unprofessional behavior.

But just when it seems Don is doomed to continue his slow-motion self-destruction, something in him breaks. The night in jail at last makes him realize, as he tells Megan, "It's gotten out of control. I've gotten out of control."

The key scene in an episode that's packed with good scenes is Don's pitch-turned confessional-turned into borderline breakdown. He's in a room with Ted (Kevin Rahm), Jim (Harry Hamlin) and Roger (John Slattery), trying to win the Hershey's chocolate account. Don spins one of his patented nostalgia-for-America's-golden-youth concepts.

The scene is an obvious echo of the classic Kodak Carousel pitch, in which Don mesmerizes clients -- and us -- as he shows slides of himself and his young family, sharing personal stories and seducing them with the power of nostalgia, which could be translated to mean "the pain from an old wound." Though Don's family back then was hardly the ideal unit depicted in the slides, he was able to make everyone -- even himself, perhaps -- believe that they were.




But this time, something's not right. The personal anecdote he shares is totally made up, a sentimental scene featuring young Don and an imaginary loving father tousling his hair, the father's love and the Hershey's chocolate bar being all tied together. "It's the childhood symbol of love," Don says of the candy, laying it on thick. But the Hershey executives are liking it. "Well, weren't you a lucky little boy," one of them says.

Then we see Don's hands shaking -- he's been off booze for a short time, though Ted advised him to have a quick one prior to the meeting (from the sound of it, Ted's father may have been a problem drinker). And he suddenly does something we only rarely see him do: he tells the truth. The unvarnished truth. As the other partners in the meeting watch in silent alarm, Don tells the Hershey clients the real personal story of a child's connection to the Hershey chocolate bar.

"I was an orphan," Don says. "I grew up in Pennsylvania, in a whorehouse." He read about the Hershey founder, and his school. "I read that some orphans had a different life there." It was what he dreamed of, being wanted. Instead of being in the care of a woman who didn't want him. The closest he got to feeling wanted, he says, was when one of the hookers would reward him for rifling through the pants pockets of customers. "If I collected more than a dollar, she'd buy me a Hershey bar." He would eat it alone, in his room, "with great ceremony, feeling like a normal kid."

It's astonishing to hear Don reveal all this, and in such a shockingly inappropriate setting. The scene straddles a delicate line between being too sentimental itself, but Hamm plays it perfectly, letting us feel the mixture of relief and weariness in Don as he at long last talks about what he worked so long to conceal. He covers his face with hi hand, and it seems like Don is on the verge of a nervous breakdown, as he pays no attention to the shocked, silent faces of everyone else in the room.

And then, in an inspired line that rescues the scene for any danger of turning maudlin, one of the Hershey executives breaks the uncomfortable silence by asking, "Do you want to advertise that?"

From this point on, Don seems to be trying to reconnect with some better part of himself. When Ted had pleaded with him to be the one to go to California, a move Ted says he must make for the sake of getting distance from Peggy (Elisabeth Moss) and saving his marriage and his family, Don initially said no. But now he tells Ted, "You're going to California. I want you to."


But that choice, generous though it may be towards Ted, isn't something Don cleared with Megan, who has already quit her New York soap opera, and gotten her agent busy getting her prospects for roles in California. Megan reaches her own breaking point: "You want to be alone with your liquor, and your ex-wife, and your screwed-up kids." Don tries to sell her on them having a bicoastal arrangement, and tells her he loves her, but Megan gets her coat and walks out, saying, "I can't be here right now."

And there's more reckoning to come. The morning meeting on Thanksgiving at the agency turns out to be an intervention/firing. Don arrives, and finds Bert (Robert Morse), Joan (Christina Hendricks), Roger (John Slattery) and Jim (Harry Hamlin) sitting before him like panel of judges. Don quickly realizes what's going on, and Roger tells him they've decided that, for the good of the firm, Don needs to take a few months off to "regroup." Don wants a set date for when he will return. "We can't give you that," says Bert.

Don heads toward the elevator, which is bringing visitors to the dark, closed holiday morning office: Duck (Mark Moses) and Don's replacement, recruited from a rival agency. "Going down?" the rival agency man asks, as Don stands at the elevator.

But if this is Don in Hell, he doesn't end the episode in a bleak place -- despite the apparent departure of his wife, and his partners' move to ease him out of the agency. He has picked up Sally -- who's suspended from Miss Porter's boarding school for following in her father's footsteps, in stealing beer, getting drunk, and getting other girls drunk -- and his two sons. Sally is continuing to sullenly, angrily ignore him. Don stops the car in what Bobby observes is a "bad neighborhood."

They all get out and walk across the street, and there's the house we've seen in the flashback to Don's youth as Dick Whitman, the unwanted orphan in the whorehouse. It's a derelict-looking wreck, and junk litters the sidewalk and street.

"This is where I grew up," Don says. The children stare at the house. And Sally slowly moves her gaze from the house to her father, seeing the side of him she's never known before. As they look, Judy Collins' version of "Both Sides Now" plays on the soundtrack, while Don for the first time shares his other side with his children.

It's a beautiful, perfect ending and with the next season expected to be the last, Weiner seems to preparing us for a Don who's ready to merge both sides of himself, and let the sun shine on the past he has so long tried to hide.

There were so many other terrific moments. Here are a few:

* In a better place: Roger is in a bad place early in the episode, once again being scolded and nagged by his daughter for not financially helping her husband. But at the end, Roger is at Joan's Thanksgiving table, with their son, Kevin -- and the inescapable Bob Benson (James Wolk), aproned-up and ready to serve.
madmen-season6finale-joan.jpgView full sizeJoan Harris (Christina Hendricks) is among the partners who deliver sobering news to Don (Jon Hamm) in the "Mad Men" Season 6 finale.Jamie Trueblood/AMC
Pete (Vincent Kartheiser) goes through his own passage, though the weirdly random event that precipitates it is the weakest element of the episode. Pete's mother, he learns, has fallen off a cruise ship, on which she was traveling with Manolo, who turns out to have an alias, engineered a quickie marriage to Pete's mother, and is suspected of having pushed her overboard. Weiner and company make the choice to treat this almost as black comedy relief, which seems odd, considering the lady's dead.

But as Trudy (Alison Brie, always so good to see in this role) tells Pete -- who has been bounced from the Chevy account but is now headed to California to work on Sunkist -- he's free. "Free of her, you're free of them, you're free of everything." But, Pete says, "It's not the way I wanted it." Trudy responds, "Well, now you know that." And before he leaves, Pete goes into say his own goodbye to his sleeping daughter, Tammy. Weiner keeps the camera on this sweet, sad scene, as Pete looks down at the little girl with affection.

Peggy as pinball: With Ted having told her they can't have a relationship, Peggy gets dolled up in a low-cut minidress, and makes a point of stopping by a meeting and announcing that she has an engagement for the evening. Ted just stares at her, shaken and stirred. When she gets home from her date, Ted's at her door, and inside her apartment, he tells her he doesn't want anyone else to have her. He's going to leave his wife, he says. "Don't say that," Peggy replies, "I'm not that girl." Ted says, "I love you," and they kiss, and Peggy takes off her top while prudently locking the door. They have sex, and in bed, after, Ted is all aglow. "We should go to Hawaii," he suggests, for Christmas.

But in the light of day, Ted changes his mind. After Don agrees that Ted can go to California, Ted breaks the news to Peggy. He has to hold onto his family, he says, or else get lost in the chaos of the times. He loves her so deeply, he says, that "I can't be around you." Peggy, having been seduced, is now angry at being abandoned. "Someday, you'll be glad I made this decision," he tells her, sounding more sanctimonious than is probably wise under the circumstances. "Well, aren't you lucky to have decisions," Peggy snaps back, and tells him to get out of her office.

Once again, it's a "Mad Men" finale that makes me grateful that this superb show is on the air, and that we have at least one more season to look forward to. Is Don free, as Trudy said of Pete, now that he's out at the agency? Is he connecting the broken parts of himself into an integrated whole? How can we be expected to wait to find out what comes next for him?

But wait we will, until "Mad Men" returns, and draws us into another round of viewing, reviewing, analyzing, arguing about and wondering the ultimate fates of these characters who are still capable of surprising us.

[josieposy]

I was pissed for Peggy. Ted was definitely pushing the wrong buttons with his "someday you'll thank me for this." I half expected him to pat her on the head before he left.

My favorite line was Pete saying "Not good, Bob!" I had forgotten that he wasn't much of a driver so Bob's scheme at Chevy was genius on his part.

So do we think that SC&P will buy Don out before it's over?

[sporky]

I still cannot stand Bob Benson. Pete can be full of himself and a dick, but the whole scene at Chevy was such an asshole thing to do. Especially after your good friend just upped and married, then possibly killed, this guy's mother.

[summer]

I'm still trying to figure out Bob's end game. Is he doing Chevy alone now?

I can't believe that's how they killed off Pete's mother.

I wonder if Peggy and Stan will end up together.

[pescalita]

I was glad to see them kind of actually go somewhere with Don/Dick. I was worried that the end theme was going to be that people never change, and he would just keep on Drapering. It almost seems too happy ending for him to deal with his demons and change for the better.

[LoveTrains]

Jun 24, 2013 9:20:43 GMT -5 summer said:

I'm still trying to figure out Bob's end game. Is he doing Chevy alone now?

I can't believe that's how they killed off Pete's mother.

I wonder if Peggy and Stan will end up together.

I think Bob is doing alone now.

I also think it is clear that Joan knows that Bob is gay. I loved seeing him at Thanksgiving with the apron on, ready to carve the turkey.

[moreace01]

I think that's the first time we've seen Bob openly be an ass. Feel kinda bad for Pete. Sorta. But Bob got what he wanted - he is the sole account person on Chevy now.

Anyone notice the new logo for Sterling Cooper and Partners? It was splashed all over the first few scenes.

Ted is an ass. But whoah Peggy with the fishnets. Wow, that was quite a scene.

My guess for next season is Don takes over the California branch with Pete, Harry, and Stan (oh yeah, and Ted).
Peggy takes Don's old role (whoever they got to replace him is out).

And it looks like Megan is leaving Don.

[Deleted]

Loved this episode! I was impressed at the end that instead of further diving off the deep end, that Don took his kids to see where he grew up.

[rosiedozie]

Considering that Pete knows Bob's secret I'm surprised that he did the Chevy thing. Or maybe I misinterpreted that scene last week.

[pescalita]

Jun 24, 2013 9:47:08 GMT -5 rosiedozie said:

Considering that Pete knows Bob's secret I'm surprised that he did the Chevy thing. Or maybe I misinterpreted that scene last week.

I don't think Pete was telling Bob he owned him last week. More like calling an uneasy truce, because he's seen someone like Bob weasel out of this before, and Pete doesn't end up winning. He realizes Bob is dangerous. He just forgot all that when he got pissed about his mom, as Pete is apt to do. I loved when the sign fell over.

[ttt]

This was an excellent episode. I still just can't stand Pete so I loved the Chevy scene. I did have a tiny bit of softening towards him at the end with his daughter.

I am so sad that next season is the last

[ttt]

Jun 24, 2013 10:23:59 GMT -5 toledo said:

I'm surprised at all the sympathy for Peggy. Girlfriend slept with a married man. With a daddy.

Yeah, but Ted is the one who's married, and he's being a huge asshole to everyone, his wife and Peggy both.

And I just can't help it. I love Peggy. She gets huge leeway from me, deserved or not.

[ttt]

And Elisabeth Moss's delivery of that line "Aren't you lucky to have decisions" - so so good. She is so perfect as Peggy.

[mx27]

Jun 24, 2013 10:23:59 GMT -5 toledo said:

I'm surprised at all the sympathy for Peggy. Girlfriend slept with a married man. With a daddy.

agreed.

peggy is a grown woman who knowingly kissed, fell for, and slept with a married man.

she is just as wrong as ted.

i don't feel sorry for her.

[ttt]

LOL I just read a comment on an article speculating that next season, Don's going to get out of the advertising business and reinvent himself by opening up the old whorehouse.

[ttt]

Jun 24, 2013 11:03:04 GMT -5 mx27 said:

Jun 24, 2013 10:23:59 GMT -5 toledo said:

I'm surprised at all the sympathy for Peggy. Girlfriend slept with a married man. With a daddy.

agreed.

peggy is a grown woman who knowingly kissed, fell for, and slept with a married man.

she is just as wrong as ted.

i don't feel sorry for her.

I don't think she's just as wrong. It's more wrong to cheat on your spouse than to sleep with someone who's cheating on their spouse, IMO.

[pescalita]

Peggy doesn't have a commitment to Nan and the boys. Ted does. It may be immoral, but in the heat of the moment, I'm not crucifying her.

Ted not only broke his vows, he banged Peggy under the pretense of leaving his wife and THEN decided he couldn't do it, once he'd drank the milk. Dick.

I think Don was Freddy Rumsen'ed. He's not fired outright, but they're not necessarily planning on having him back. I am surprised that this was the last straw, but I think the difference was this time Cutler was there, and he won't give him the break Roger and Bert have. Remember it was Bert who gave him the talking too after marrying Megan.

[mx27]

Jun 24, 2013 11:04:30 GMT -5 ttt said:

Jun 24, 2013 11:03:04 GMT -5 mx27 said:

agreed.

peggy is a grown woman who knowingly kissed, fell for, and slept with a married man.

she is just as wrong as ted.

i don't feel sorry for her.

I don't think she's just as wrong. It's more wrong to cheat on your spouse than to sleep with someone who's cheating on their spouse, IMO.

this is silly "more wrong" or "just as wrong"...

however you want to describe it, peggy is wrong.

[MarmeeNoir]

I feel like Peggy will end up alone for the rest of her life.

[UnicornDog]

Jun 24, 2013 11:18:07 GMT -5 MarmeeNoir said:

I feel like Peggy will end up alone for the rest of her life.

If next season opens with five more cats in her apartment, then we know it's true.

OMG at the modular typeface in the new logo!

[sushi]

Peggy is dumb for falling for a married man, especially one who's her boss.

But, she's a single woman. She made no promise to Ted's wife. He did. The moral outrage falls on him.

[pescalita]

Jun 24, 2013 11:09:25 GMT -5 mx27 said:

Jun 24, 2013 11:04:30 GMT -5 ttt said:

I don't think she's just as wrong. It's more wrong to cheat on your spouse than to sleep with someone who's cheating on their spouse, IMO.

this is silly "more wrong" or "just as wrong"...

however you want to describe it, peggy is wrong.

Ok. That doesn't mean she's not deserving of sympathy for how Ted treated her. Find me a character on MM that hasn't been "wrong".

[rubytue]

Jun 24, 2013 11:18:07 GMT -5 MarmeeNoir said:

I feel like Peggy will end up alone for the rest of her life.

I work with a women (well, use to. She just retired), who I envision had an early career a lot like Peggy. She retired at the top, but just knowing her age I imagine it was a long road up there.

I therefore predict Peggy will never marry, but will be in a long term relationship with someone for many, many years. Perhaps finally marrying him. No kids though. That was not a time where you could be a wife and a career woman, let alone a mother.

[mx27]

ok, but that doesn't mean peggy shouldn't share some of the blame.

too much hair petting in this thread.

i do think some of the moral obligation falls on peggy. respect for others (their feelings, commitments, etc.) and all that jazz.

don't get me wrong, ted is a dick for cheating on his wife. i just hold peggy accountable for her part in all of this.

[josieposy]

Peggy doesn't get sympathy for sleeping with a married man in my eyes. But she doesn't deserve to get treated like a little kid half the time by Ted or Don. It's like they can't make up their mind how old she is.

[Deleted]

Eh, its a show, these aren't real people. Yes, I feel sympathy for Peggy. Yes, what she (and he) did was wrong. It was good TV.

[summer]

I feel like they are looking for a way to way to get rid of Don permanently.

Bob may end up running that whole place someday.

I'll be glad to see Megan go. The sound of her voice is like nails on a chalkboard.

[josieposy]

Jun 24, 2013 11:43:04 GMT -5 summer said:

Bob may end up running that whole place someday.

Funny thing is I said the same thing a few weeks ago. But at that time I thought he was sweet Bob who would just butter his way up. I didn't think he was creepy and evil yet. LOL!

[ttt]

Jun 24, 2013 14:24:09 GMT -5 asdfjkl said:

Okay, so I have a question that I can't state delicately and without sounding like an enormous asshole, but I just wonder what other people think.

So this is Joan Season 1:



This is this season:



Is she wearing something to make her boobs look ridiculous?  Like is she supposed to be starting to look frumpy this season?  The voluptuousness now is just awkward.  Is this blasphemy?  Do I have to turn in my fan card?

She looks heavier overall - I'd guess she's put on a good 15 pounds since the first season.