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Okay, so, last night's episode was the second to last episode ever of Mad Men.
For me, it almost feels like saying goodbye to an old friend, after all of this time.
It was an old girlfriend of mine who first introduced me to the show, and got me into it, if you will. I followed it inconsistently after that, liking the show, but not following it, because I wanted to "catch up" to the newer episodes by watching all of the episodes of the previous season. Finally did that a few years ago, and have been enjoying following the show as it happens ever since. Still trying to do more or less the same thing with The Walking Dead, even though that has proven considerably more difficult with that particular show.
In any case, back to last night's episode:
First of all, no Peggy. No Joan. The two most prominent women of the show were nowhere to be seen.
Although we did get to see Betty, who has gone back to college, something that we learned last week. Only, the issue this week with her has very little to do with her going back to school, which seemed like a modern leap for the show last week, a kind of introduction to the trend of older adults returning to school, which has spiked in recent decades.
The real drama with Betty that was revealed last night was that she is going to be battling cancer. She was diagnosed suddenly, and very unexpectedly. That is, at least, unexpected for her, and it came from out of nowhere for most of us viewers. I'll admit to being surprised, although if she did even half the smoking that it is implied that almost all adults did back then, the shock value can only go so far. But this was the first time that a health concern coming from all of that smoking that was so acceptable back then has come to the fore.
Her husband is unable to convince her to fight this, so he tells Betty's daughter, Sally, who temporarily comes home from school to talk to her mom at her husband's behest. But Betty is determined to essentially not seek treatment, and to resign herself to death, quite literally, in a rather surprising turn of events.
In the meantime, we see Pete Campbell making his way to what appears to be a promising future, although he will have to move out to Topeka. But he is wooed by another agency, and is essentially promised big bucks and big perks. He initially resists, but when Duck tells him that he is on top of the world, but that this moment does not last long, Pete finally seems persuaded, and decides to get back with his ex and pursue a new life in Kansas.
Interesting. He had been interested in staying on with McCann Erickson for at least four years so that he could rightfully obtain the million dollars that is owed to him. However, like Joan (we find out definitively that she has taken the money in this episode, even though she herself made no appearance), he seems willing to part early for what seems to him (at least right now) like greener pastures.
Finally, there is Don. Still driving through the Midwest, although the episode opens with him getting pulled over, and him being told by the cop that they have been trying to find him for a long time, but that they knew they were ultimately going to catch him. But he wakes up in a hotel room at that precise moment, so that we know that this was a dream, or rather, a nightmare.
He is still in the Midwest, although we learn that he made it all the way to Wyoming at some point. However, we see his car breaking down, and he gets stuck in some two-bit town somewhere in the rural Midwest. He goes to some lengths to find alcohol (of course), and finally lands some with this young man. But the young man is trying to con Don, and when Don is invited to the local Vets get together on a Friday night and starts giving of his money generously, this will later be used against him as flaunting once the money for this fundraiser is gone, and Don is the man suspected of the crime. It is the young man who did it, and Don forcibly convinces the kid (perhaps intimidates him is a better description) into giving him the money that he stole. Don then gives the locals the money without a word about how he did not take it, and they give him the car keys that they were holding as collateral back to him. As a curious end to the show, we see Don driving that young man to a bus stop, where he will try to find a new life and, it seems, a new identity, despite Don's urging him to reconsider, because Don tells him that getting a new identity is not all that it is cracked up to be.
One interesting thing, however: Don seems, for once, to be very comfortable in the presence of those other veterans. For the first time, we see him actually coming clean about what happened during the Korean War, and how he killed his commanding officer and, in that way, got to get out of the war and go home (although he does not reveal that he stole his superior's identity). The vets accept his story without seeming judgment, and Don suddenly seems quite comfortable in his own skin. Not as Don Draper, and perhaps not even as Dick Whitman. But comfortable nonetheless.
Uncharacteristically, we see Don singing along with the other veterans, singing "Over There", about how the "Yanks are coming!"
It seems fitting as both an ode to the past, as well as a nod to the future, where the culture of the "Yanks" has permeated across much of the world, with decidedly mixed reviews. Some people love it, some people hate it. But it is the reality. Sometimes, it seems that "globalization" is just a front for "Americanization" on many levels, as American movies and television and music and pop culture in general, as well as American fashion, American food (particularly fast food) and, increasingly now, American political influences are spreading throughout the world, and have been doing so with increased intensity since the end of World War II.
Or am I reading too much into this particular scene? If you believe so, I am not so sure. But, that is probably best open to interpretation.
In any case, the point is that, for once, Don seems entirely comfortable, to the point that the viewer begins to believe that he may finally have founded his new home (surely, I could not have been the only one thinking this, right?).
But all of that is swept aside when we next see those same veterans enter Don's room and grab him, interrogate him about the stolen money (see above story as I described what happened a couple of paragraphs or so ago), and then forcibly take his car keys from him, until they get the money. Don obviously has hard feelings, with justification, and wants to get out of this town as quickly as possible afterwards.
And so, now, we only have the one episode left, and I feel a certain melancholy, as this great and very smart, provocative television series comes to a close. One more week until the final episode, and then it's curtains! Can't wait to see it, although it will also be sad to see it all come to an end.
Maybe it will inspire more great shows like it?
We can only hope.
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