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Mad Men countdown

After news of the absorption hit, I thought I heard Roger say something like, "Jim Ericksen won after all". Did I hear this right? Is the Ericksen of McCann-Ericksen, the same guy who was the "evil" major partner with SC&P? I noticed that we had not seen him since this last season began. Did I miss what happened with him.

Can someone elaborate?

It was Jim Cutler, who opposed Don coming back and was bought out as a partner but not invited to stay with the firm. So it seemed like Roger and Don had beaten Cutler, but with McCann taking over completely it seems more like they ended up the same as he did.
Ooooh, "Cutler"...I'm all screwed up. Thanks.
 
Anybody else catch the "dishormony" toward the end of the opening theme since we've been back for these final episodes? I think it's an interesting nibble of a change, but also perhaps a subtle change, indicative of the whole "world of Don Draper" coming apart at the seams, as we've seen over these past few episodes.
 
^ I've heard others mention the change, but I didn't notice the difference myself.

Kor
 
There seem to be more than a fair share of assholes at McCann. Don and the rest don't look like they're feeling comfortable with the move and the pruning (with Joan) has already begun.
 
There seem to be more than a fair share of assholes at McCann. Don and the rest don't look like they're feeling comfortable with the move and the pruning (with Joan) has already begun.

Although obviously much had changed for the better in the workplace between 1960 and 1970 (ex. Peggy being able to rise from secretary to lead copywriter), it is shocking to see how bad things still were.
 
Was that an older Don we saw in the next episode preview? If so then that bust the "Don jumping" theory.
 
McCann is so obviously the massive corporate nightmare. The fake smile, false sincerity and faux casual "shirt sleeves" environment very thinly veils the claustrophobia and inhumanity of the place. It's a dark soulless machine that buys and talks creativity without actually displaying any. Jim Hobart and his minions are the perfect face for the corporate entity.

And may they all rot in hell, every last fucking one of them.


Don has messed up in a lot of ways over the years, but how many of us have wished we could just get up and walk out the door from a suffucating environment (often work) in our lives? Don looked at the naked ugliness of the place and said, "Fuck it, I'm outta here." Nice.

Joan was royally shafted. McCann's fake smiles quickly vanished to reveal the hardass misogyny of the place. After the "pleasantries" were dispensed they didn't bother hiding what bastards they really were.
 
These last episodes have some nice moments, but as a whole they're leaving me bored. I've never seen a show limping so badly to its end. Wake me up when its over.
 
^ I don't mean this post to be as critical as it's going to sound; I actual am enjoying these final episodes. But...

It's all so predictable. Joan is not taken seriously and is seen as a sex object and/or pushy interloper by TPTB. Don is dissatisfied at not having everything his way, and of course with the ever-present overlying general dissatisfaction with his life. Roger pretty much the same as Don, just ever so slightly more entertainingly expressed. Peggy wants it all and she wants it right now. We've seen them all do it before and, frankly, it's a bit boring the second (or third or fourth) time around.

Actually, the character I'm currently getting the most enjoyment out of watching is Meredith. She's a little firecracker! :D
 
^ If he ends up a new-age guru, it would be the only thing that would disappoint me more than him going out that window. :lol:
 
Was that an older Don we saw in the next episode preview? If so then that bust the "Don jumping" theory.

In a scene set in his new office, Don presses his hand against the window pane, almost testing it to see if it'll open. This is either foreshadowing or the producers winding up the "Don becomes the opening credits" theorists.
 
Was that an older Don we saw in the next episode preview? If so then that bust the "Don jumping" theory.

In a scene set in his new office, Don presses his hand against the window pane, almost testing it to see if it'll open. This is either foreshadowing or the producers winding up the "Don becomes the opening credits" theorists.
I have never believed (and still don't) that this will happen. For one thing you have to look at the entire opening credits. The office dissolves around Don and he seems to be falling from a great height, but at the end we see him comfortably seated with a cigarette. The opening credits are symbolic rather than literal. Don reached great heights and then he came back to Earth as it dissolved around him. In the end Don will likely re-invent himself (and possibly as Dick Whitman) and let the identity of Don Draper fall away behind him.

Peggy (in some ways) is embarking on the road Don has already traveled. Don is finding that all his success in the gamesmanship of business has left him feeling empty. He did everything he was expected to do in pursuit of "the American dream" and he's finding it hollow. All that money and all those accounts and awards and such and he's finding the numbers don't add up. He was never true to himself so all that success is meaningless. And all those relationships were ultimately meaningless, too, because they loved Don Draper ad exec and not Dick Whitman the man. I think he identified with Diana the waitress because she was a broken person like Don is. He feels (maybe mistakenly) that she can understand and accept him as no one else really has.

Don Draper may fall, but Dick Whitman will live on.
 
I never believed Don will kill himself. For a show so secretive, why would it have an ending be a literal version of its opening titles we have seen every week. Way too obvious!

At this point he may never return to New York City for the remainder of the series. Or any skyscrapers. I just read a review that in this episode he basically committed "Career Suicide" by walking off the job. I do not all get the sense that he is suicidal at all. He was bored and just woke up from a malaise he has been in.
 
My wildcard prediction is that Don's identity theft/desertion finally catches up with him, and he either gets hauled off by the FBI to face charges, or he escapes justice by jumping out of a window before they can arrest him.

This is a longshot of course, maybe 100 to 1 against. He will probably just drive to California and become a venture capitalist in Silicon Valley, or maybe a television writer.
 
Was that an older Don we saw in the next episode preview? If so then that bust the "Don jumping" theory.

In a scene set in his new office, Don presses his hand against the window pane, almost testing it to see if it'll open. This is either foreshadowing or the producers winding up the "Don becomes the opening credits" theorists.

Yeah. It's either foreshadowing or teasing.
 
Was that an older Don we saw in the next episode preview? If so then that bust the "Don jumping" theory.

In a scene set in his new office, Don presses his hand against the window pane, almost testing it to see if it'll open. This is either foreshadowing or the producers winding up the "Don becomes the opening credits" theorists.

Yeah. It's either foreshadowing or teasing.
I made a mistake--it was Henry we saw in next week's preview.

Don ain't gonna jump. The window scene was a tease.
 
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