Mad Men - Talking Mad - THE FINAL SEVEN

Yes, but one of them was prominently featured in a scene minutes before the ending, and we can probably assume that Don saw more than one girl with that style in his days at the retreat.

I think the smile at the end was Don finding his happiness within himself: his creativity, which then turned this beautiful moment into a money-making machine.

You’ve never seen “see you soon” to someone you’ll probably never see again?

My initial reaction is that I didn't like it. I'm reading all the insightful comments, and the typically excellent John Teti analysis, hoping to turn that opinion around.
But it was too fan-service-y in parts (Peggy and Stan). We checked back in with too many characters that had really gotten a perfect send off already. I'd have liked more Don, honestly.
My initial read of it was that he created the ad. My wife took the bent that it was just a cynical comment on commercialism co-opting happiness. My problem though is that I didn't buy either version. Don wouldn't and couldn't go back to McCann; it seemed like a betrayal of his entire arc the past two seasons in particular, but certainly the entire show. But I also don't buy that he'd find bliss and happiness at some hippie resort. He'd see through that in a second. Plus it just seems to Forrest Gump of him partaking in some famous social movement at the time.

I still got goofy over it, even as it seemed like not something the show would do. But I was perfectly happy with our last shot of Peggy potentially being her strutting into McCann with a cigarette and a 200 year old tentacle porn painting.

Yeah, maybe I'm a bad fan but in most cases I won't complain one bit about being serviced. 

I actually squealed happily when the Peggy and Stan thing happened. This show doesn't give you a lot of romance, and theirs always felt genuine to me. 

As far as Don and the ad goes, I'm happy with both interpretations. Even if he made the ad, I don't think that means he would end up going back to his old ways. Hell, he could have made the ad as a last hurrah and then left to do his own thing. I was very satisfied with the episode.

I was, however, very sad to delete the show from the app I use to keep track of TV. 

This is the coolest thing about the finale, for me. The more I think about it, the more I like EVERY possible interpretation of that ending. I'm really just enjoying thinking about them. There's no way to read the final scene that would be false to the show, or that would annoy me, or that would be ridiculous.

That's exactly where I'm coming from.

Don making the ad is a good thing, even if the ad is a cynical cash grab to sell good feelings to the masses. He jettisoned his baggage and is now free to create again.

Ugh, people are actually saying this? If ever there was a show that allowed for (begged for?) people to make their own interpretations, it was Mad Men.

I liked Peggy/Stan even though it was blatant fan service. Peggy's reactions on the phone as well as the fact that she had to reason her way into realizing she loved Stan were very true to the character. Those scenes were jarring, though, I think because there's never been a scene on this show that didn't have some sort of undertone of darkness to it. Normally if a character declared their love for someone, you knew in the back of your mind it was a bad idea or it was doomed, but this scene was completely sincere.

I agree with Pear on the ending, I don't personally think it was saying Don goes back and does the Coke ad, but I also think it's very specifically up to interpretation, just like a ton of the biggest moment on the show. It drives me nuts that so many people are saying "My interpretation is the right one obviously, and if you disagree you're wrong!" What kind of a way is that to look at art? I'm speaking on reactions I've seen across the internet, by the way, not about anyone specifically here.

Do we have any proof whatsoever that McCann would even have Don back? Peggy tells him they would, but how does she know? Don's clearly been gone at least long enough to find himself a new job and make his way out to the west coast, this isn't like his unannounced weekend trip to California. I also reject the idea that the 'ding' at the end is Don getting the idea, after seven seasons of being the deepest, most maturely symbolic show on television, Matthew Weiner decided to end the entire series with a stage direction directly out of Looney Tunes? But, I do think there's enough there that that ending COULD work as well, which is why I loved this ending, any way you look at it, it fits the show and the characters, and also with either interpretation there are ways to view it as an optimistic or cynical ending as well. 

I'm really going to miss this show. There's nothing left on TV that comes even close to being as smart or deeply emotional as Mad Men to me.

People only like saying "It can be two things!", they don't like actually accepting it.

Oh, Don makes the coke ad. It's not just the ribbon, it's the outdoor setting.

Weiner dislikes the pretensions of hippies in general, and the coke ad puts a bow on that.

The number one thing I've learned from discussions of the finale at TOS is that people fucking hate Coke and think the Coca-Cola company is evil, which is amusing to me.

So the finale aired here tonight. Coincidentally I was drinking a Coke when the episode ended.

Mad Men Auction!

Do you want Stan's maroon button down with love beads?? Yes. Yes, you do