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I think that it could have almost served as the series finale, or very close to it, except for the lack of closure in the case of a couple of characters - particularly Don and Joan.
We see a couple of other characters really struggling with the merger, and longing to stay at Sterling Cooper & Partners, rather than go to the dreary, cramped, and impersonal offices of McCann Erickson.
Sees a plane in the sky going past the Empire State Building while he should be focusing on this meeting, on the business. We see him turn around, pick up his boxed lunch and, just like that, walk out of the meeting without a single look back.
He seemed ill at ease in what we would consider today to be a very professional and serious board meeting, where the focus is not essentially on him, and where his suave personality is unlikely to win anybody over.
It seemed, at least from my perspective, that this episode in particular was a nod to the end of "the Sixties" as we know them. The end of idealism and a certain naivete in the way things were done, even if it seems sometimes backwards and chauvinistic to us by our more modern standards. We could see shades of this world - of our world - when Don first truly sees his office and goes right to the window, which we notice does not open at all. No air is allowed in, which means that the atmosphere inside is stifling. That is our first clue that Don will not fit in.
Later, Don goes to his first meeting, for light beer. ees a plane in the sky going past the Empire State Building while he should be focusing on this meeting, on the business. We see him turn around, pick up his boxed lunch and, just like that, walk out of the meeting without a single look back.
He seemed ill at ease in what we would consider today to be a very professional and serious board meeting, where the focus is not essentially on him, and where his suave personality is unlikely to win anybody over. They are belittling the average Joe from the Midwest, the farmers, which strikes a personal note with Don, given his secret, rural upbringing.
For the rest of the show, he is driving around in the rural Midwest, assuming a false identity (a couple of them, actually) in pursuit of Diana, his love interest. He seems indeed to be leaning towards beginning a new life, but it seems that he cannot, at least not to his liking. For the rest of the episode, Don seems like he's driving without any real sense of direction or purpose. He does not simply want to return to his life back in New York as Don Draper, but he does not seem to be yet ready to plant his feet somewhere new just yet. The changes at the office have disturbed everything, and it appears that this merger, which he initially did not like, then came around to, only to ultimately be turned off again once he saw the reality of it, has done irreparable damage that he might not recover from.
He is not the only one. Joan wages a war. Everything seems fine at the new workplace initially, but things turn sour very quickly. Her subordinate clearly does not take her seriously, and so she talks to a superior, who volunteers himself as Joan's new partner. But he is interested in only one thing: having his way with her. So, she takes it to the big boss, Jim Hobart, but that conversation turns heated in a hurry as well. He is not willing to listen to her complaints, because he feels things should continue to run as they have been going, and that the arrival of new SC&P people means little to nothing in the long run. He tells Joan that her former status as partner there means really nothing here, and when she presses by saying she might just take the money and run, he offers her fifty cents for every dollar she is owed. She is livid, and threatens legal action, up to an including the ACLU. But he is not easily intimidated and, in the end, Joan has to accept his offer of only giving her half of the money that she is entitled to.
The Kerouac reference to the book On the Road actually proves to be telling in a very real way in this episode, as that is where we finally see Don in the end. He is driving at night and sees a sign for Pennsylvania, and takes that turn. Is he heading home? Heading West? Beginning a new life, with a new identity? Or is this just his way of letting off a little steam, something that, Roger reminds the viewers later in the show, Don has done before, and has a history of.
We begin to get some answers when he has a meeting with the recently deceased Bert Cooper, who suddenly winds up in the car with Don during the middle of the night, trying to talk some sense into him. He first arrives through the radio, when his voice is coming across clearly, and then, just like that, he is sitting next to Don, asking him where he thinks he is going. It was refreshing to see Bert Cooper again.
Literally, on the road.
With everything in flux, and so many questions revolving around the main characters, this episode was filled with drama that makes the fan of Mad Men want to see what happens next!
Should be good!
Mad Men Characters in Tumult for Recent Episode;
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