The beginning of the end.
WARNING: SPOILERS AFTER THE JUMP
Alright. I will admit it. I was wrong. Don showed up in this episode in a big way. I still think finding his car abandoned on the side of the road and never knowing what happened to him would have been a better ending, though, so was it really me who was wrong or was it Weiner who was wrong for not listening to me when he had the chance? Regardless…
- I did enjoy the juxtaposition of Don’s story and Betty’s story in the episode. It really highlighted how well suited they were to each other. They both turned to very superficial paths to find happiness through which they would never reach that ultimate goal; the difference being that Betty knew when to stop and accept things as they were and Don didn’t. We had that great long-shot at the beginning of the episode of the woman laying out by the pool reading “The Women of Rome” (a reference to Don and Betty’s trip to Rome which was one of the few times we saw them happy together). Don’s still chasing after something he once had. Betty was about as good as it was going to get for Don – a gorgeous woman who was on his “level” in many ways – but he just kept going even after he had already won. Once again Weiner knocked us over the head with a big dose of symbolism in the locals telling Don he should have left when he got his car fixed. Just stop, Don. Stop.
- I know I should be happy for him, but I really, really, really didn’t want Pete to end up with Trudy. To be honest, I kind of wanted him to end up with Peggy. I really enjoyed the two of them. Barring that, just not Trudy. The whole episode was about accepting things and moving on and the danger in not being able to do that and instead Pete and Trudy are going backwards to something that didn’t work the first time. I guess we still have a whole episode for Pete to screw it up (which, knowing Pete…) but I think that was the end of his story line. Maybe he really has learned, though. I think he saw the future in Duck Phillips and it may have scared him straight.
- So glad Betty and Sally had that beautiful moment together. It was touching and it really did summarize who Betty was as a character. No, she wasn’t perfect, but she played with the hand she was dealt and was a lot smarter about it than anyone has given her credit for. Hopefully that’s how Sally remembers her.
- In this episode we see Don interacting with fellow servicemen which hasn’t happened since the Season 6 premiere when he ran into that soldier on leave in Hawaii. I can’t remember whether he was honest with the soldier in Hawaii about his experiences in Korea or if this was progress that he laid it all on the table for the veterans in Oklahoma but it was a very human moment which gets to the core of what motivates him. Maybe the reason he can’t stop when he’s happy is because he doesn’t feel he deserves to be happy due to the responsibility he feels for the real Don Draper’s demise.
- So now Don’s down and out somewhere in the heartland of America pretty much where things picked up with him. Doing a little digging into the title (hat tip to Gothamist’s Unpacking Mad Men series) reveals the term “Milk and Honey Route” is hobo-speak for a railroad. “Any railroad running through a valley of plenty may be called a milk and honey line. But this is a transient term; what may be a milk and honey route to one hobo may not be so to another. A hobo may fare well on a route one time and another time fare ill. Again, it may be milk and honey for a road kid but not for an old timer.” Don hopped on the milk and honey route in Illinois with little more than the clothes on his back and ended up in Oklahoma with little more than the clothes on his back. Just as Don was set on his path by a fellow traveler who gave him the Hobo Code, the end of the episode sees Don seeing off the next generation’s traveler. And so it continues.
- Was anyone else silently cheering when the locals walloped Hobo Don? Hobo Don is my least favorite iteration of Don.
- All in all, it felt like the episode put us into a good place for the upcoming series finale. I am fresh out of ham hock theories about how it’s going to end to regale you with. My apologies.
Those were my thoughts. Toss yours in the reply!
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