"Mad Men" -- *Final* Season Official Thread (possible spoilers) (part 2)

Less obsession. More curiosity. I simply saw the address & wondered where it might be. But I appreciate that you think I am remarkable.

 

I rejected a couple other candidates before deciding to use a term as complimentary as remarkable

I do note that Park and 2nd never meet (as Park does not go south of roughly 17th street and 2nd Ave is parallel to Park), but assume that 2nd was just a typo

 

Sorry I can't view your link from here Ray

 

I'm sure that was done intentionally to avoid problems with the tenants/owners that live there.

Not to get all class-conscious here, but if we were talking about an address up in Soundview in the Bronx, the residents of that area would probably enjoy the business/commerce that tours and sightseers would bring to the neighborhood. Wealthy upper-class folks on Park Ave. on the East side don't want the attention/problems around their dwellings and have enough grease to cause a stink about it.

 

The above was a typo - it should read Park & 72nd.

 

Pretty sure they made it a non-existent (but plausible) address on purpose.

 

It is standard to use impossible phone numbers on TV shows

 

You need to rewatch. Don chose to go to CA for work (i.e. Sunkist) and convinced Megan to go along with him. Then Ted plead mercy to Don to let him go to CA instead of Don to get away from Peggy, which Don ultimately acquiesced to. By then, Megan had quit her soap opera job in NY and decided to proceed with their plan, alone.

 

Let's all not forget that it was Don and his agency that got Megan the audition (with attached favoritism) for the comercial work at the end of S6, which then led to her soap opera role. He helped put her on the acting map, CA debacle aside. She owes Don big time. It's her fault she became unglued from the rejections (e.g. her manager's phone call to Don) and stalking the producer and Rod Serling at the Brentwood Country Mart.

Yeah, he really ruined her life with that million dollar check. Good riddance!

 

I think the soap opera/LA comment was part of it, but in that conversation Harry also insinuated to Don that Megan tried to seduce him in order to benefit her career. Knowing Don he probably suspected the opposite was true; but in any case I think that was another aspect of the appearance of the million dollar check, Don wanting to protect Megan from the seedy side of the entertainment business, from people like Harry, from having to literally sell herself for success. There was an undercurrent of sex in exchange for services in that episode, with the photographer trying to seduce the art department, Roger paying off the movers in exchange for sex with Megan's maman, Diana using Don to make her forget about whatever happened with her daughter(s), perhaps Don using Diana for similar reasons.

 

Nice observation. Maybe thus the title "New Business"

 

Right, hadn't considered that!

 

If you're counting, Diana is Don's thirteenth lover outside of Betty in the series. I think she represents bad luck, despair and death.

I thought when Diana rejects Don and Don understood was a redemptive moment since she was able to confess to Don her own dark failings. Yet both are just humans trying to figure it all out. Very poignant. I sort of hope they end up together at the end.

 

And the start of the previous episode, Don was selling sex. I think you,re right that the $MIL check protects Megan from the vultures out there like Harry and even himself. And porn started coming in more and more as part of the sex revolution that really took off in the 70s IMHO.

 

Now I have to think of Megan doing porn. Thanks.

 

...and that's bad because...?

 

Maybe now she can afford to have her teeth done.

 

It's not a bottle of Canadian Club, it's an item that was very common on art director's work tables, a rubber cement dispenser. Next to it is the cleaning fluid (Bestine). But I agree the barcode is likely a mistake.

John K.

 

Her teeth are fine. Not everyone needs to be a botoxed, boob-jobbed, perfect barbie doll.

 

In a funny twist of life imitating art .... john Hamm worked on a porn set in LA before Mad Men came along and has just had a stint in recovery......

I also read a quote recently from Mathew Wiener - When Hamm left the room after his first audition, Weiner famously turned to his casting director and said, with certainty, "That man was not raised by his parents."

Which is the embodiment of Don at heart.

 

I wonder if will we see Diana again? I was surprised to see her back in this episode, and with a central role. I'm having some trouble with her presence, her scenes with Don seem to be lacking something, but it must be intentional: how out of place she looks, how dull she is, with her doughy body, bad hair and waitress outfits. She's not concerned with selling herself at all, is that it? Quite a contrast with everyone else.

 

I think when Don walked out on her in this week's episode, that was the last time we'll see her. Too late in the series to introduce a brand new character and really develop them. She was more a plot device or character development device for Don.

 

I'm certain that some kind of unexpected plot twist will happen at or near the ending.....one that involves the final resolution of Dick Whitman. Maybe Jim Cutler rats Don out somehow...

Ending the series by showing a handful of characters each episode moving on (like Megan and Ken, seemingly, so far) is too soft-soap for a series this good. Something else needs to happen.

 

Bob Benson is going to go postal on the agency floors. You read it here, first.