Margaux and I say a teary goodbye to Mad Men.
Trevor: Series finales are hard. I’m glad “Person to Person” didn’t go the Dexter lumberjack route. I liked the episode quite a bit.
Margaux: Endings are not easy, especially for something like Mad Men, but for a show that doesn’t dole out a lot of happy endings, “Person to Person” left me feeling utterly hopeful for all the characters. Except Betty, of course, someone had to pay the price for Don’s sins.
Trevor: That’s an excellent way of putting it. Don gets to test race cars in Utah and Betty gets cancer. As Meredith put it when Roger let her go, “There are a lot of better places than here.”
I have to admit, there were a lot of ways I thought the series finale could go. Don at some hippie yoga retreat was not on my list.
Margaux: I never bought into the idea that the opening credits of Mad Men was a thinly veiled metaphor for Don eventually committing suicide. But something about Don’s desperation to belong to literally any family as soon as he hits California was so palatable and got me thinking he was going to throw himself off a cliff in Big Sur. At least it would’ve been poetic-sih?
Trevor: I was thinking that too. I didn’t rule death completely out. But in a lot of ways – and this is an observation made by almost every critic online at this point, so I can’t really take credit for it – there was a death, that of Don Draper. I think it’s telling that he went to Stephanie, the only person who still calls him Dick. He tearfully confessed to Peggy that he took another man’s name. Don Draper is dead, twice over now. It’s that whole Fitzgerald thing turned on its head, about there being no second acts in America. “Person to Person” was almost nothing but people starting their second acts.
Margaux: Now that’s a great way of putting it. Or, as Roger put it, it’s the last chapter – the second act that segues into the end. So, are you on the side that Don’s OM smirk at the end was a cue that he went on to make “Hilltop,” the Coca-Cola commercial?
Trevor: Lot of speculation going on about Don and the Coke commercial. I interpreted his smile as just that – a smile, something to signify happiness but also contentness. I choose to believe that he doesn’t go back into advertising. I want him to take care of his kids and move out to California or some fuckin thing. That’s why I like endings like this, that are so open-ended. You can project whatever you want onto the characters.
Some random thoughts about the retreat: Matthew Weiner couldn’t resist getting in one last Manson reference, which I chuckled at. Don embracing that man just slayed me. Jon Hamm does great cryface. And lastly, I’m sure we could come up with about 100 different explanations for why that old woman shoved Don.
Margaux: I loved the look on Don’s face when that old woman shoved him, hard. He looks around at the room like, did anyone just see that? I’m about to shoulder check this old broad.
Can we talk about Peggy and Stan, please? I’ve been dying to talk to you about that. It was 100% the moment from Clueless when Cher realizes, “oh my God, I love Josh.” The critical side of wanted to call it fan service, but it was such a payoff and so well acted, that if you didn’t tear up, you are dead inside.
Trevor: Peggy had two great phone call scenes, with Don and Stan, but yes, it was the Stan phone call that really did it for me. She went from calling him a failure to saying “I love you” in less than 24 hours. And her realizing that she loves Stan – in real time – was a major showcase for Elisabeth Moss’s talent. Goddamn she is good. And the ending was too sweet for words, the phone going silent, then the sound of Stan’s footsteps rushing to Peggy. “What were you saying?” Loved it. Fan service, maybe, but I feel like Mad Men has been laying the groundwork for this for a while, and maybe Weiner ‘ships Stan and Peggy as hard as the rest of us do.
Margaux: When they finally kiss, I just had to ruin it by remarking, “look at that fuckin’ turqouise bracelet Stan has on.” Agreed, overall, that this was coming from a mile away – the best and most satisfying will they/won’t they – Peggy finally has it all, take that Sex and The City.
Peggy’s heartbreaking phone call with Don though is what leads me to believe that Don ends up coming back to New York, but I think what I liked most about their person to person call is, as Stan put it, Peggy and Don have let each other go, but still care about deeply for each other. Something about the tone of them talking, and maybe because Don gave Stephanie a very similar speech that he gave Peggy to get her through the trauma of giving up her child, but this time, it blew up in his face, made sense that Peggy’s voice was the one Don needed to hear as he was losing his shit, again.
Trevor: Well put, I could see that sending him back to New York. And he keeps talking about the boys living with him (fun fact: the kid playing Gene Draper also played Abel Teller on Sons of Anarchy, and is the worst child actor in the world).
Kind of sad that Joan and Richard didn’t work out, although I’m not too surprised. Joan is happiest when she’s working, and I did like that she called her firm Holloway & Harris – Joan don’t need no one but herself.
Margaux: “He’s just a terrible person.” I’m glad Joan finally got her God damn day! Even though my secret hope for Joan was that she’d start her own makeup line with her BFF at Mary Kaye, Joan ending up as a HBIC Hollywood producer had the most sense of “OF COURSE SHE WOULD.” I loved her lunch with Ken, it was nice to see Joan get the respect she’s wanted in the working world, after everything she’s been through. And I’m glad Richard walked out on her, she was too good for his leather suitcase ass. I actually thought that after Richard and Joan do blow in Florida (of course) and have sex, Richard would likely have a heart attack and die before he and Joan broke up. But hey, such is life.
It was refreshing to see Roger interacting with Kevin, it’s been a few seasons since we’ve seen Roger interact with kids, ie: Ellory, his grandson. I found Roger’s resignation about Margaret being “in the wind” kind of sad, but ultimately, all he’s ever wanted was to do right by Joan. It’s just too bad he figured it out just in time to end up with someone that “Megan Draper introduced to him to.” How odd that Roger, of all people, found love with Marie Calvert. Speaking broken French in a silly Canadian cafe with a bowtie on. Thank GOD he didn’t have another heart attack before the shows end.
Trevor: Yeah, as sick as we all get of Marie Calvert – for example, that fight in the bedroom – the important thing is that Roger loves her, and he seems happy with her. But Roger always lands on his feet. I was also really glad to see Kevin at least referenced, especially when it came with such a great Roger Sterling capper as him dismissing Kevin as a rich jerk.
It was kind of funny seeing the endings everyone got. Ken got his back in “Time and Life,” so I don’t count this episode, but Harry went out the way he lived: like an asshole. That fucking coat. What are you, Bane? At least Pete and Peggy were smart enough to comment on it.
Margaux: It was nice to see Pete and Peggy say goodbye, even if it was ruined by Harry’s complaining. What’s the over/under on how long that cactus lives before Peggy kills it? I say, one week.
I loved watching the Campbell’s board a Learjet to their Kansas future, Trudy’s outfit a picture of Jackie O realness. King and Queen of Wichita, indeed. I guess if you get punched in the face enough over the span of eight years, people will finally end up rooting for you. I will miss Pete’s Campbell-isms the most: “well I’m the president of the Howdy Doody circus army!”
Trevor: I’ll remember the good times: Pete getting punched on the train, Pete getting punched by Lane Pryce, Pete falling down the stairs on his ass. Gotta hand it to Vincent Kartheiser, though, he gave 100% to that role for seven years.
Anything else you want to mention, or should we start talking Mad Men stars for the last time ever?
Margaux: That’s such a depressing sentence! I don’t want Mad Men to end, and you can’t make me!
I sort of want to talk about Don and Betty’s final phone call, which is the first person to person call Don makes in the episode. Do you agree that Gene and Bobby should go live with Betty’s weirdo brother and wife? I understand Betty’s points as to why, trying to keep things as normal as possible, but I think Sally’s plea to Don about keeping the boys with Henry is actually the less disruptive route.
PS, I think Gene got his very first (and only line) last night, “NO!” What a way to go out, creepy Child of the Corn.
Trevor: The kids should stay with Henry. It’s better for them, and it’s better for him – and I don’t mean politically (I’m not that cold-hearted). Henry’s life is about to become seriously upended, and he and the boys could help each other through it. But then there’s the tricky question of whether or not to defy a dying woman’s wishes. It’s a quagmire.
Margaux: Between the way Sally ends her call with Don, and the final shot of Sally doing the dishes as Betty continues to live her life as she always has, leads me to believe that Sally will take matters into her own hands. That’s not to say she’ll wait until her Mother passes to do what she thinks is best, I think Sally is going to prove to Betty in her final moments, that she is ready for this and can take care of Henry and the boys, that this is her home, too. At least, that was my uber sad read of the situation, especially with Sally coming home from school more often. I think the Draper kids will be alright, at some point.
Trevor: For all of Don and Betty’s faults, at least they made Sally.
Margaux: I think a lot of fucked up parents think that about their kids that defy their expectations.
Trevor: Okay, we have to rank the episode, the season, and the series. Ready? What do you think for “Person to Person”?
Margaux: Will never be ready, but fiiiiiiiiiiiiiiine. “Person to Person,” as far as series finales go, pull it off for me and, as my old screenwriting teacher used to say, got the fucking toys over the mountain for a satisfying conclusion. I’ll happily give “Person to Person” five stars. Your thoughts?
Trevor: I’m more than okay with that. As far as season 7B goes, I’m thinking four, maybe four and half. The last few episodes were really good, but don’t forget that it kind of staggered coming out of the gate. For season 7 as a whole, though, not divided into A and B segments, I’d go 4.5.
Margaux: It’s a little easier to judge season 7 as a whole after AMC had that “Every Mad Men Ever” marathon, I feel like I finally saw season 7 the way it was intended. That being said, I do agree with giving it 4.5 stars – there were a few start/stop episodes along the way, but it’s hard to deny the final 3 episodes and the emotional punch they packed for longtime fans.
Trevor: Absolutely. Now, here’s a stupid question: how would you rate Mad Men as a whole?
Margaux: You’re forcing me to sound like every other douchebag on the internet over the last week, but fuck it. I think Mad Men as whole did something no other show has ever done, it was the closest thing to watching the best version of real life TV has ever seen, and it gave us Jon fuckin’ Hamm. What can I say, besides, “that’s what the money’s for!”, five (hundred, thousand) stars for the entirety of Mad Men. Weiner has done something extremely profound, I mean, it’s not the cure to cancer, but it definitely did what every piece of entertainment should aim to do: break your heart, make you laugh, and let you choose your own adventure in the end.
Great, now I’m crying again.
“Person to Person” grade: 5/5 stars
Mad Men season 7 grade: 4.5/5 stars
Mad Men series grade: 5/5 stars
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