What the lede said. If you go in here not expecting SPOILERS I don’t even know what to tell you.
The dominoes have been set for the final season. Let’s take a look at where they lie and how we think they will fall.
- Let’s start with the elephant in the room. Don got canned. Earlier in the season Jim said he was going to get him ousted. This episode he did it. From handing him the Hershey pitch to making sure Ted knew Don dropped the ball on Sheraton Jim was behind it but he wouldn’t have been so successful had Don not made himself vulnerable in the first place. On the one hand the pieces fit together perfectly. We knew Don ralphing at Roger’s mother’s funeral in the season premiere was not a harbinger of good things to come. On the other hand there are so many people in the office who Don had stood by when they were down and out it’s a little surprising no one was willing to take him aside and administer a wake up call. It’s even more surprising Peggy didn’t seem to care at all after the fact particularly in light of Don having been proven correct about Ted. The whole thing made sense but also didn’t make sense.
- Were I to be a high school student choosing a symbol to trace through the show for a final paper I would choose alcohol. Throughout the whole series to date alcohol has been right there in the middle of almost every episode. As I am not a high school student and this is not a thesis I will merely say I loved the role of alcohol in Don’s downward spiral. That season where Don was journaling to help deal with his isolation should never have happened. Don’s not a self reflective guy. He’s a “take a shot of whiskey and bite down on a rag” kind of guy. He has always done what he needed to do to deal with the here and now. The problem being you can never outrun your past. His past has finally fully caught up to his here and now. I loved the usage of the classic back-of-the-head shot with Don “in his element” saddled up to a bar right before he hit bottom. The further symbolism of the Nixon and Roy Goodman campaign posters juxtaposed behind the bar, the fraudster whose empire crumbled versus the (relatively) honest politician who successfully fought a smear campaign to become a stalwart Republican on an island of Democrats, was icing on the cake.
- Don having been removed to the bar before being ceremoniously ousted, Peggy’s now sitting in the big boy seat. I love that she’s sick of leaving herself to the mercy of her male bosses’ whims. I hate that she had to compromise her values to get to that point. Her lack of sympathy for Don’s plight in her closing scene really bothered me. Yes he got wrapped up in own issues and took you for granted but who was there when you were in the hospital recovering from your out of wedlock pregnancy? I get the argument about his having given her that first opportunity not being an entirely selfless thing but he went above and beyond for her on more than one occasion. While I don’t want to see her letting people walk all over her anymore this went beyond that and it didn’t sit well.
- Ted proved to be everything Don said he was in spectacular fashion. We see best in others what we fear most in ourselves.
- While it wasn’t the only factor in his demise I don’t think it’s a coincidence Don was fully honest in a pitch meeting for the first time only to be kicked out on the street in short fashion. “Going down” symbolism aside I actually think this bodes well for him. The past has caught up with him and he’s facing it head on. Good for him.
- Last but not least we have predictions for next season. Don’s turn for the honest makes me believe he’s going to be in a better place. What that place is I do not know. I’d love to see him dealing with things on his own for the first time. He’s always been so defined by his relationships with women. Spread your wings and fly, grasshopper. Be your own person. Peggy will definitely be the executive Don hasn’t been able to be. There has to be some kind of final resolution between her and Don. We’ve already seen the flip of the hand holding between the two of them. Perhaps now we’ll see the flip of the giving of chances and Peggy will be the path of Don’s return to the company fold. Regardless of the specifics there has to be a continuation of the upward trend the current season ended on because there’s nowhere left to go down.
