Don Draper is a phantom. He's a hollow shell of humanity. He looks and acts like a human but underneath, it's cold darkness. He sits in a cloud of smoke, silent and stoic. He has rational and can talk himself out of a paper bag. Problem is, he's his own worst enemy. He's philanderer, a cheat and a drunk. He stole a man's identity in the Korean War and lived an alternate life from that point forward. He took care of the real Don Draper's wife in secret until she succumbed to cancer. He drove his brother away, and ultimately led him to commit suicide alone in his hotel room. He slept around on his wife for many years while driving himself towards an inevitable oblivion.
Bear in mind, that he's the hero of our show. Or rather, anti-hero. If anything we would see Peggy Olsen as the entry point of the story, the true story. She started out as a secretary for Don and worked her way up the ranks finally ending up as Don's trusted confidant. And she had finally had enough of Don's shenanigans, and jumped ship therby breaking Don's shell even worse. She's become the old pro at her new firm, treating her copywriters like Don would've treated her way back in season one. But not now. She's the trusted one. Even when she sneaks away to a movie and sees Don, the dynamic is still there. They're the old couple, the old pros. Together again for the first tim, you might say. If it weren't for the age gap and the outright respect they have for one another, they'd even be comfortable as lovers. The last moments of Peggy's story is that of her in Virginia on a company trip. The unpleasant view she gets from her window is not the view she would've gotten if she perhaps still worked for Sterling Cooper Draper Blank. The look on her face is a tell of disappointment.
If there's one character who draws the most dislikable behavior it has to be Pete Campbell. He's aiming to be Don Draper so bad, it's killing him. He's cheated on his wife, fathered a child with Peggy (unbeknownst to him), even convincing his wife that he needs an apartment in the city. He's been beat down this season, quite literally, and this episode it happened mulitple times. He had a fling with a woman, Beth a few episodes back and is still pining for her. He soon discovers that her husband is sending her to a hospital in the city to get ECT to cure her of her depression. Pete is angry with the man because he's a cheater and hates that the woman he cares for is getting psychiatric treatment, when her husband is the problem. Before she commits herself, she has one last fling with Pete. After the therapy, she won't remember him at all. Later, he visits her and she has no recollection of him. He recounts a story about a friend he's visiting in the hospital, who is very clearly him. basically, Pete is broken. He's far beyond repair and if this season were any indication, Pete would've been the clear winner in the, "Who Will Kill Themselves?" office pool. He stirs up a fight with the husband on the train and gets the beatdown harshly. He then causes a fight with the conductor and gets beaten down again. Grace thou art not Pete Campbell. He goes home and and lies about his broken face, he says he fell asleep while driving. His wife allows him to get an apartment, he has everything he wanted and yet, he's still alone. He's become Don.
Another noteworthy thing, is that this season has been fairly light on Betty Draper-Francis. She was once the former model seduced by Don Draper and became the cold, calculating housewife we know and loathe. She's now overweight due to a glandular problem. She's sitting in her dark castle and taking out her failures on her children. She hates what Megan, Don's new wife represents ... a new start. Megan's a free spirit, an oddly attractive girl with aspiring dreams to be an actress. Don impulsively married her after the events of "Tomorrowland,' the season four finale. They've clashed in a very, violent manner sometimes but they're a stronger couple for it. Megan became Don's wife and everybody at the office noticed it. She was good at her job. Very good. She had traces of Don and at the moment she pitches to the Heinz people in the episode, "At the Codfish Ball," you can see it. But she left the office a few episodes later, hellbent on pursuing her dream of acting. And she thinks she's found it in a commercial. She asks Don to let her in, to put her name in the casting pool. He refuses simply because he knows where that path leads. It leads to Betty. But, he relents in the end, and the last shot of Megan is her shrouded in light as Don walks away into the darkness. But from what? He's transitioning to become the phantom in the night.
The very last shot of the season is Don sitting at a bar. A very attractive girl walks up and inquires as if he's alone. He turns and we cut to black. We're left hanging in the darkness that Don is floating in. It's a very effective thing, cutting to black. It was employed in one of my favorite films of 2011, "Shame." The black represents what we don't know. It can mean anything and everything. It's why books are so great. You decide and you interpret. Did Don say yes? If so, he's turned against everything he's fought against this season. If he says no, then he's become a new man. He's becoming a human and not the hollow effigy of one.
One thing, I didn't particularly like about this episode was that they skimmed over the death of Lane. Nobody really mentions him outside of the occasional discussion over who gets his office and paying his wife back the five grand collateral that he put in the firm to start it up. I feel as if a powerful death should have been discussed and dealt with a lot more than that. But, oh well.
I liked a lot of episodes this season, probably more so than season three, which would be my favorite. I think back on, "Mystery Date," with it's fever dream atmosphere. It was practically a horror film, the thoughts that go through your mind as you wander the empty halls of the building you work in. If a spree killer exists elsewhere, surely they can exist in your city. I also liked "Far Away Places," an episode that broke traditional structure and showed three concurrent stories told all at once, rather than broken up over the hour. It was like watching "Pulp Fiction." And that final scene, was the most terrifying setpiece ever shown on the series. Don was a monster chasing Megan through their house was like watching Jason Voorhees terrorize the girl at the end of the film. It was pure suspense. It was beautifully done, it was domestic terror.
Mad Men continues to be a phenomenal show. I've always loved it and thankfully we don't have to wait two years to see what happens with the denziens of the maddest of men and women.
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