Jon Hamm gives his interpretation of Mad Men’s final scene
Jon Hamm offered up his interpretation of Mad Men’s vague final sequence during a Q&A
(It should go without saying, but spoilers ahead, ye who enter)
Mad Men, one of the great dramas in this Golden Age of television, ended its eight year run on Sunday evening. And while the show’s final sequence neatly placed a bow on many characters’ arcs – Joan running her own company; Sally accepting Betty’s role; Roger and Marie dining in Paris; Pete and family enjoying the perks of Learjet; lovebirds Peggy and Stan burning the midnight oil – the send off for protagonist Don Draper was much more ambiguous.
After making his way to California on this latest hobo journey (go West, ad man), Don found himself at a personal growth retreat where the final bits of his fabricated life had been stripped away. In his penultimate scene, Don listens to a (rather ordinary looking) man explain the emptiness that he (Don) has run from ever since he was little Dick Whitman growing up in a Midwestern brothel. No job, no wife, no apartment, no family (the boys were to be raised by Betty’s brother and Sally is hardly sympathetic towards her father), and now no false exterior. He had finally become an empty vessel.
The final shot of Don shows him at sun salutations, greeting the morning as a retreat leader preaches the ideas of rebirth, reimagination, and new ideas, when – ding! – it hits: Coca-Cola’s famed 1971 I’d Like to Buy the World a Coke ad.
While not nearly as abrasive The Sopranos cut to black moment, Mad Men‘s final shot – the iconic advertisement for, arguably, the world’s most global brand – is equally as vague. There’s no clear resolution for Don outside of a shit-eating grin and a beautiful Big Sur backdrop.
Did he create the ad? Did he find fulfillment? Is he a changed man? Will he backslide? Does he go back to New York? Is he still Don? Or Dick? Or somebody new?
Unless showrunner Matthew Weiner explicitly parses his final sequence, it’s likely that Man Men‘s finale will forever be open to interpretation – something that series star Jon Hamm welcomes.
In a Q&A with the New York Times, Hamm gave his own interpretation of the closing scene and what became of his character. And while some may feel that Donald Draper and advertising are incapable of having a non-combustable relationship, Hamm feels that his character is finally at peace. After a long, strange, self-destructive trip Don Draper is, at his core, an ad man who, at last, has found calm within the eye of a storm.
"Q.Those last few moments of the episode, and that transition from Draper’s bliss to the Coke commercial, has raised many questions about what it means. Is there a correct answer to that question?A.I think there probably is. But I think, like most stories that we go back to, that it’s a little bit ambiguous. We had talked about this ending for a long time and that was Matt [Weiner, the “Mad Men” creator and show runner]’s image. I was struck by the poetry of it. I didn’t know what his plans were, to get Don to this meditative, contemplative place. I just knew that he had this final image in mind.Q.Do you have an interpretation of it?A.I do. When we find Don in that place, and this stranger relates this story of not being heard or seen or understood or appreciated, the resonance for Don was total in that moment. There was a void staring at him. We see him in an incredibly vulnerable place, surrounded by strangers, and he reaches out to the only person he can at that moment, and it’s this stranger.My take is that, the next day, he wakes up in this beautiful place, and has this serene moment of understanding, and realizes who he is. And who he is, is an advertising man. And so, this thing comes to him. There’s a way to see it in a completely cynical way, and say, “Wow, that’s awful.” But I think that for Don, it represents some kind of understanding and comfort in this incredibly unquiet, uncomfortable life that he has led."
Hamm’s view of the scene is rather utilitarian, though no less interesting, considering it concerns a man whose career feeds off excess.
Don’s work is his life, and vice versa. For him to be truly happy he must find comfort in discomfort. Peace within mayhem. Where once a void, there now lies an understanding that, though his existence resides in turmoil, it is an ecosystem in which he can not only survive, but also thrive.
Below is a look at the show’s final scene. What did you make of the finale and Hamm’s interpretation of it?