Sigh. Last night’s Mad Men season five finale signifies the start of our long national nightmare: it’ll be months before we get to experience the pleasure of watching the show on Sunday nights. Thus, this will be our final Monday afternoon Mad Men discussion for a while. (Sniffle, sniffle)
So let’s get right to it, shall we? Here are a few notes I made during last night’s Mad Men about characters, scenes, etc. I found interesting for one reason or another.
- Personally, I thought last night’s episode was, on the whole, much less enthralling than some of the season’s earlier episodes, but I get that considerable time needed to be given to set up what’s to come in season six, in addition to reflecting a bit on season five. I did, however, find this particular episode to be even more laden with symbolic imagery and metaphors than most others, and I get a bit of a kick out of trying to interpret those. In such, the shot captured in the GIF above of Don walking briskly away from the sharp colors and bright lights of Megan’s commercial shoot and into the darkness was one I found particularly striking. This came after he’d had that nagging “hot tooth” of his pulled — something I interpreted to be a metaphor for all of the things that have been nagging Don all season long. Does this mean that Don will be shedding Megan, who’s become considerably less likeable since she left SCDP to devolve into the stereotype of a crazy actress, to embrace his past life as a swinging dick ad man? We can only hope that this is indeed the case.
- “I thought it would go away.” – Don Draper
- What the hell is a “hot tooth” anyway?
- Regarding the use of symbolic imagery, I loved the shot of the five SCDP partners — with Joan sandwiched right in the middle — fanning out in what will presumably be their new office space.
- Of course Pete appears giddy to finally be, in his view, on par with Don, at least in terms of office view. It’s going to be so great when Pete, who is more clingy than a recently deflowered teen with ole Crazy McWhatsherface, gets cuckolded by the mojo-recharged Don Draper next season. So. F-ing. Great. You just know it’s coming (no pun intended). Trudie Campbell’s not gonna know what hit her as she’s obviously never been taken to the bone zone by a real man before.
- Speaking of Pete, if there’s one thing this episode surely lacked it was him getting punched in the face by other men. Two was just not enough. #MissULanePryce #neverforgetwhowasthefirst
- FYI, the Hotel Pennsylvania, the hotel where Pete has his final rendezvous with Beth, was hailed as the world’s largest hotel when it opened in 1919 but is now a bedbug-ridden dump that’s rumored to be haunted and is slated for demolition soon.
- Because I don’t hate myself as much as I probably should, I’ve refused to watch The Killing after the sh*t sandwich the show served its loyal fans in its finale last season, so I found it kind of funny that AMC was running promos during Mad Men hyping the season two finale with the same “Find Out Who Killed Rosie Larson!” line they used last year. Seriously, how is anyone still watching this show? And wasn’t the Larson murder supposed to be resolved early in the current season?
- “I’m not talking about black coffee out there.” — Racist a-hole panty hose exec.
- When Megan mentioned to her mom that someone had been calling the Draper home and hanging up when she answered, I was absolutely convinced it was Creepy Glenn, who once harbored a crush on the pre-blubbery Betty Draper. Never in a million years would I have guessed that it was actually a horny Roger Sterling calling to try to set up a shag session with Megan’s free-spirited mother. Gold.
- It dawned on me last night that John Slattery appears in and does the voice-overs in Lincoln commercials that run during the show. Similarly, Jon Hamm does the voice-overs in the Mercedes spots that air during Mad Men. Now, I know Matt Weiner has said in past interviews that Jaguar essentially being trashed on the show in every way was just random, that he and the writing staff picked a car manufacturer out of thin air to center a storyline around, but I can’t help but think that maybe just maybe there’s a minor product placement conspiracy going on here in which Mercedes or Lincoln — perhaps both — approached AMC and said, “Look, rather than pay you guys to say nice things about our cars in the show, how about we pay you to trash one of our competitors AND we’ll buy commercial airtime to run our own ads?” If you don’t think something like this is possible, I’m afraid you don’t know how cutthroat the car business is.
- Okay, I won’t make you wait any longer — here is your bare-assed Roger Sterling on LSD GIF, people…
- And speaking of Roger on LSD, you just knew that the show would have to explore one of its characters experimenting with psychodelic drugs at some point — Peggy always seemed like such a natural to be that person — and I’m beyond delighted that the person Matt Weiner chose is Roger.
- At least for the sake of the actor who portrays him, I hope Matt Weiner figures out something to do with Bert Cooper next season other than wandering around shoeless in the office. I can’t think of another character on the show who’s so painfully less developed. He’s just…there. Maybe next season he can drift off into dementia and start crapping his pants in the office or something, igniting a drama revolving around his ouster by the other partners. Maybe then they can bring Peggy back to replace him?!
- Speaking of Peggy, after that scene where she looks out of the window of her Virginia hotel room — which I’ve still no idea what its greater meaning is — to see two dogs humping, I’m convinced that it is she who comes up with the state’s tourism tagline, “Virginia is for lovers.”
- That shot of Don watching Megan’s screen test alone in a room reminded me a lot of “The Wheel” scene from the season one finale, the scene I still think is the best Mad Men scene ever.
- The question on every Mad Men fan’s mind today is whether Don slept with that girl’s friend or not. Because, as John Ness pointed out, he’s apparently back to drinking the Old Fashioneds he drank during his man-whoring heyday, it’s obvious to me that Don nailed BOTH OF THEM.
Oh yes he did.
Your thoughts/feelings/observations are of course welcome in the comments. And be sure to check out Maske’s “Best Of” season five GIF roundup.
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I do disagree with the emerging consensus that this episode was ‘tame’ or ‘less enthralling’ than others (specifically, the rollercoaster that was ‘Fees & Commissions’). This episode was one of the most profoundly affecting hours of television I have ever seen.
Don watching Megan’s showreel, alone in SCDP, was heartbreaking. It was essentially a memorial to their relationship. The difference between this scene and The Carousel was that Don was alone, in the dark, as opposed to surrounded by colleagues and clients. Season 5 has flirted with the idea that Don Draper had found in Megan something that may be true happiness and a sense of identity, two overriding themes of Mad Men, and his realisation that it was an illusion was so sad. It was a scene that said ‘he’s more alone than ever before’.
This and the following end scenes were a tragic resolution of what built so subtly during the last few episodes of the season, and especially the last episode itself.
I think it was my favourite episode this season, perhaps joint with ‘Fees & Commissions’; Weiner and Co’s decision to end with an episode like they did and not the bombshell is sheer brilliance.
i utterly disagree with you isaac. admittedly fees and commissions was a fine episode but this let the series down if I am honest. We watch Mad Men for excitement and tension and ending the series like that was a bit of a let down in my books
Fair enough madmike. Don’t agree with you on that one though.
p.s nip into Sainso’s and get some milk if you’re out will you babe?
Dear Vincent Kartheiser: seeing you get fake-knocked the fuck out will never get old.
Great choice for the lead GIF: As the Fab Five survey their new castle in the sky, center position is taken not by Don, but by Joan, who has been quietly accruing power while the men are distracted by petty gamesmanship. I love it because it squares with a pet theory: Joan will ultimately maneuver her way to becoming CEO of whatever’s left of SCDP.
Watching the final scene (a classic, I don’t care what anyone says) with the “You Only Live Twice” lyric points up some provocative juxtapositions.
Peggy in motel room: “You drift through the years and life seems tame,” having wished for Paris and gotten … Richmond. Then, after seeing two dogs f**king, comes this: “‘Til one dream appears and love is its name.” So maybe she will coin, “Virginia is for lovers,” although Peggy’s own life has been tragically bereft of love. (Too bad she ixnayed the lesbian who fancied her.)
And yeah, Don did ‘em both. That’s one aspect of the Swinging Sixties which he can definitely embrace.
Pete Campbell is Kafka.
Anyone get a screen cap/gif of Lane’s shadow through his door when Don was walking in? Creepy.
“That’s what happens when you help someone. They succeed and move on.” – Don to Peggy. Less than ten minutes later he’s helped Megan get her job. He will return to his old ways, not because either of them have outgrown each other, but they are now equals, and nobody can actually be Don Draper’s equal, because Don Draper does not exist, or rather, he is a fraud.
Don’s great secret is that he is an impostor, and while he has grown into being Don Draper, he assumes that anybody who becomes successful as the persona he has constructed is similarly an impostor, gaining reputation by ill means. It’s why Joan trading her body for power affected him so.
Things are different with Peggy because he knows her secret. He has seen all of her and knows that she does deserve to be where she is.
I forgot to mention it in my post, but that scene between Don and Peggy in the theater made me really happy. You got the sense that they were two people who truly cared for and respected each other.
My thoughts on Megan and Don.
It was beautiful to see Don watch Megan in her demo reel. I felt that he saw in her face the desire she has for acting and really wanting this for herself. So, he got her the part, watched her in action and simply walked away…out of love. I saw no animosity on his part. He knew that he would not be able to handle her career path but saw no reason not give her what she asked for.
Sometimes I love him, sometimes I don’t.
While I agree with your assessment of Bert Cooper, I feel the same way about Ken Cosgrove. I mean, he just seems like a pretty face who is a mediocre writer in his spare time, and is engaged (married?) to Alex Mack.
Not sure who I enjoy getting slapped around more, Pete or Joffrey?
I want to name something I have “Alexis Bledel’s Side Boob!” because that’s all I think about whenever she’s on the screen. Oh, and she was definitely faking not knowing who that little weasel was after her electroshock therapy.
“Alexis Bledel’s Side Boob!” would make for a good fantasy football team name, I think.
I hope they’re setting him up for something beyond mediocre. Pete did do his “The Man with the Miniature Orchestra” headphone bit in the final montage. Dave Algonquin for the win.
Nancy Sinatra sings “You Only Live Twice” in the background, and Don absolutely nailed both the blonde and the brunette. Hell, that song could symbolize half the show.
And going forward, not only do I already miss Lane Pryce (the true son of Marcus Aurelius), but after realizing she also was Sheila in “Army of Darkness” (thanks, IMDB), I’m going to miss his stuffy British wife, too.
she was super sneaky hot as Lane’s wife.
Maybe she sticks around depending on how the partnership dissolves. Bert’s sister and that weirdness in Season Two and all.
She was hot on Californication a couple years ago too — banging Duchovny, like everybody else on that show.
Harry was the funniest character this season he needs his own story arc next season. Hopefully they’ll have him team up with creepy Glen where they head to L.A to pick up French chicks with their incredibly awkward personalities
i think it is her (lady at end = megan’s friend)
[img]http://rezkid.net/mad-men.jpg[/img]
[rezkid.net]
I don’t think it’s the same woman… The chins are different, and the chick at the bar has more of a heather graham look to her.
Striking similarity…
I really thought it should have ended with them looking through the window. Then I thought more about it and remembered that the show is still mainly about Don and not the firm as a whole and then the part after seemed more appropriate.
And yes, he totally did both.
Add me to the list of people who thought Glenn was calling Megan.
I was watching the first-ever episode of Mad Men again and Don orders an “old-fashioned”. Just a few moments later, he is knocking on the door of a woman that he is having an affair with. I feel that the “old-fashioned” that Don orders in The Phantom is a parallel to this drink in the first episode Smoke Gets In Your Eyes. Therefore, Don ultimately will have an affair with one of the women in the bar.
Megan is definitely gone. I’m not sure how this comes up but her mom confirmed that she can’t have kids last night.
It’s too bad but we’ll always have HotTubTimeMachine
I didn’t take her moms comments to mean that she couldn’t have kids, just that they were not going to have kids. I assumed it was more of Don already having kids and maybe not wanting more?
I dunno, that was just my impression, I need to re-watch it and pay closer attention to her wording.
Interesting read, I will have to re-watch now! Thinking about it, there have been a couple of references to Megan and the prospect of children – the subject has always been averted farily quickly..
Is it too much to have expected the Open Elevator Death Trap to make a literal re-appearance in season 5? His dead brother was in the elevator, so there’s that, but the threat of the faulty machine continued to linger for me and didn’t seem resolved. Not that it needed to be, I guess.
Or, I may just be an idiot and missed the purpose of the one symbolic scene it had.
Not as much as Bert, but Roger had very little to do this season, and still he raked in the lion’s share of the great lines. What’s a Regina? And then there was some great line said to the elder Mrs. Calvet that was essentially saying to just shut up and have sex because she was already there. I may have to go back and watch it again to see what it was.
Or better yet, when will the world give us “Sterling’s Gold Season 5″ mashup. Djinni of da Interwebs, I summon thee! *rubs pants*
(That was poorly written first sentence. Try “Not as little as Bert, but..”)
“Stop being demure. You’re already on the bed.”
My new closing comment for every future client proposal.
“I know cooler heads should prevail, but am I the only one who wants to see this?”
@Cajun Boy – regarding your theory on Jaguar…i think it’s definitely possible that there may be some corporate automotive espionage at play. However, i think Wiener and his crew are are too proud to let advertising dollars effect their writing.
In the end I think Jaguar was chosen as a brand due to the predatory undertones of the name. From a lit perspective this is the brand which is going to tear the agency to shreds, it is going to claw away at the partners like a jungle cat. You just wouldn’t get the same gut reaction if the dream account was “Jello” or “Downey”
When there’s product placement, it’s generally at the behest of the networks. When there’s voiceovers in commercials, those are generally because the actor was contacted by the automaker (via agent) to do them. Mind you it’s not like I’m on set so I can’t substantiate anything. But I’d say that the most they did was to make sure they didn’t pick on someone who was already a sponsor.
1) Yes, he had them both. I have no doubt of this, and I doubt they’ll even reference it next season. He’ll just be his old womanizing self, because such an episode to him isn’t worth noting, whereas for the rest of us, it’s the reason we write a memoir.
2) Any symbolism in Roger flapping his wings in front of a window? I think having the window open might have been a little too much. This way the constant references to people falling are more like ghosts that slip in unnoticed unless you’re looking for them.
3) I love that they separated Pete from his “true love” by having her not remember him. I actually expected HIM to be the one to bump into Peggy, just so he could realize he had something there too that he’s lost (a child).
4) The guy who played Lane Pryce is the son of Richard Harris? (I read that this morning on one of the links from this site). Holy crap. He’s related to King Arthur, Dumbledore (I), Cain… No wonder he was so awesome.
Was the whole ‘door opening’ theme around throughout the season/series? Seemed like every scene last night began with a door opening and someone entering a room.
I can’t remember the site, but some blog had the exact opposite allusion of characters always leaving a scene framed by Don’s arm throughout the series. It’d be interesting to compile the two different actions and see who/what it relates to.
Just want to say, I look forward to this article/discussion as much as I do the actual show itself. Gonna be a looong summer without it.
Aww, thanks!
Very true, always fun and nice to read the collected ramblings of the Uproxx community.
very true. who get’s breaking bad recaps? WG or the mothership?
We actually haven’t decided yet. But I’m fairly certain that all of us around here are huge fans of the show, so we’ll probably have to draw straws for it in the end.
Here’s my prediction: Lane is only the first partner to kick the can. Cooper goes by way of old age, Roger ODs, and Pete gets beaten to death by a guy on a train. Don has to start his life all over — again — and he starts a new firm with Peggy. The series ends with Don and Peggy reintroducing themselves to each other professionally, nicely inverting the series premiere.
You’re welcome, Matthew Weiner.
and joan dies in birth giving birth to roger’s second illegimate kid with her.
“…Don walking briskly away from the sharp colors and bright lights of Megan’s commercial shoot and into the darkness”
Not only is Don walking into the darkness, he’s walking away from Snow White- a fairy tale.
Indeed.
I thought it was Beauty and the Beast?
I don’t know what this means but i’ll throw it out to the group.
Both Pete and the nameless receptionist who sits outside the office both uttered the phrase “You can’t do that”!” during a confrontation this season.
Pete said the line last night, and the receptionist said the line when Joan threw the model airplane at her.
Not sure if it’s a subliminal link between the two characters which MM will explore later, or perhaps a nod to the rise of the youth generation’s coddled attitude, or perhaps a coincidental line of dialogue.
In the very first episode Joan explains to Peggy that the creative staff and the accounts staff are intermingled throughout the office and that it’s not organized. Joan seems rather bothered by this notion. I’m guessing that she takes it upon herself to reorganize the current SCDP offices to separate creative and accounts in a manner she approves.
Not that she wasn’t a driving force in the firm before, but with her being a partner now, I think she’s really going to start pushing the direction of the firm.
Might catch flack for this but I feel like the vast majority of the mad men fanbase have maintained a persistent misconception of Pete. Pete was undoubtedly the antagonist of the first season but was brought to heel by Don and turned into not only one of his proteges but also one of his staunchest supporters. Pete has made his share of scumbag moves since then but certainly no more than Don or Roger. I feel like Weiner and co. have made many attempts to cast him in a more sympathetic light, clearly unsuccessfully. Off the top of my head I think of the death of his father, being passed over as head of accounts, being the first character to display a progressive racial attitude, having (for awhile) the only healthy marriage on the show, rejecting Duck’s overtures and advising Peggy to do the same, taking the hit for Don with North American Aviation…but most fans kept dismissing Pete as a sniveling villain and as a result the writers arguably backslid back into that characterization this season where almost every episode he was creating conflict with another character.
That said I thought the scene with him and Beth in the hospital was great wrap-up to his arc this season. I love Pete getting hit in the face as much as the next guy but think he gets a bad rep.
Well said and duly noted.
I certainly don’t think he’s Joffrey level unlikable or anything. I’m not sure the writers have backslid on his characterization as much as they’ve stayed consistent with the theme that their characters always backslide into their worst traits, tendencies, and basest desires, despite efforts to do otherwise.
The single largest similarity Mad Men has with Sopranos imo.
I’ve always liked Pete because he is such a flawed character but not much worse than the others. Unlike Don he lacks the hypocrisy when he does bad thing. Don left the meeting over the Joan situation in disgust while seemingly forgetting the he fired Sal for practically the same reason. Also I like that he stands up for minorities as well as women, he fought Ken when he insulted Peggy for being fat like how he fought the guy who was treating his like shit because she was mentally ill. He has problems but I don’t get all the hate towards him.
Totally agree with you.
To quote the oddball-in-chief big Bertie Cooper, ‘one never knows how loyalty is born.’ Pete is Don’s man through and through.
I knew Peggy wouldn’t give Don a handy in the movie theater, but was I wrong to hope?
Ahhh…I totally missed the chance to make a handjob joke there.
as soon as he sat down next to her I was rooting for him to get a handjammer.
In the next season if they ever set up a storyline of revenge that eventually leads to Trudie and Don having graphic sex, I honestly don’t know who I will be more aroused by.
@Cajun Boy: Hot Tooth: A severe cavity that allows bacteria down into the nerve causing extreme pain.
@Everyone: The blonde girl that asked Don if he was alone, was that Megan’s friend that wanted Megan to help her get the audition with SCDP? Methinks Blonde Girl wouldn’t be happy that Megan “took her spot” and may enact revenge on Don’s hangdown.
Crossed my mind, but pretty sure it’s not the same blonde.
@renegator – That’s what I thought about the blonde – wasn’t she Megan’s friend that asked for an audtion? Also, why did megan c block her friend like that and ask for the audition for herself?
“Also, why did megan c block her friend like that and ask for the audition for herself?”
Because that’s all anybody has done in this show all season.
Oh snap…I’m going to have to go back and look now, but they surely did resemble each other, that’s for sure.
i agree with ya’ll in that it seemed like a summation of sorts.
the show left me kind of not really looking forward to next season as I did in the previous season 4 finale. It’s like so what? new office, megan = new betty. If anything I am probably only curious/interested in Peggy and her new gig. SCDP got kind of boring.
I don’t know when the Mohawk crash happened because it’s more fun for me to assume that it’s going to occur any episode now, but I was pretty convinced that Peggy was going to be on that flight while heading out to Virginia. Glad she wasn’t.
When Peggy mentioned flying I immediately Googled “Mohawk Airlines” to check the date and destination of that flight. Twas not it, obvs, but yeah, I worried the same thing.
Suspecting creepy Glenn and getting poon-hounding Roger: Best misdirection ever
I concur
I was laughing so hard when it then showed Roger speaking french.
“Virginia is for Lovers is the tourism and travel slogan of the Commonwealth of Virginia. Used since 1969″
Hmmm, not too far off.
I didn’t even bother to look that up.
Is West Virginia for incest lovers?
Was the only one who wanted to scream WE GET IT at the TV last night? Like you alluded to above, Mad Men always does a shit ton of symbolism and metaphors, but I thought it went way overboard with them last night, as if Weiner didn’t trust the audience to understand his genius. Overall, I liked the episode, particularly Don and Peggy’s scene watching Casino Royale (one of two Bond references!) and Pete talking to Rory in the hospital (I actually felt bad for the guy; he was trying to do something GOOD for once), but Weiner needs to tone down stuff like Don’s brother reappearing next season. WE UNDERSTAND SUBTEXT, MATT.
On the plus side, those dogs were just going CRAZY outside of Peggy’s motel. She’s totally going to “create” Virginia Slims, isn’t she?
Also: that Breaking Bad promo was amazing.
Virginia Slims it is.
After too many seasons of Dexter I don’t think I have the stomach for another dead family member who the protagonist gets advice on life from.
Adam showing up in the dentist’s office to explain the tooth thing was a bit much.
I agree about Adam showing up. was indeed over the top.
Roger Sterling tripping alone FTW.
This really was Roger Sterling’s golden hour. Nothing, not even the naked window scene beats him asking Don in bad French for his own mother in law. “Hey it’s your Dad, he sounds drunk.” Plus Black Haired French Actress #6 plays a great upscale MILILF.
…And if Alexis Bledel keeps up with all this side boob action she’s going to get herself a decent-paying role one of these days
I thought the episode felt almost more like an epilogue to the rest of the season rather than a stand-alone episode. Nothing new was introduced. It was like, “Hey! All these things happened over the course of the last 12 episodes, here’s the consequences.” Pete gets his own apartment, the firm adds a floor of office space, Megan becomes Betty, and Don goes back to being Don. Like most epilogues, it was largely anti-climactic.
I agree mostly. Epilogue/set up for Season 6.
The one thing I thought was at least crystallized was Don’s complete transition into thinking of Megan as a needy wife he has to prop up and do everything for (i.e. Betty) as opposed to a 50/50 partner who adds as much value as he does (i.e. someone he wouldn’t cheat on).
@Maske: Yes. I don’t think he cared for the Megan Calvet shit either.
very sopranos. IIRC, episode 11 was always when the bomb dropped, the finale was dealing with the consequences.
Also thought it was a great way for the audience to reflect upon the season, which has been the most stimulating and cryptic yet.