Saturday, August 30, 2014

How Will ‘Mad Men’ End? Five Ways It Probably Won’t

The first half of the final season of “Mad Men” is winding down, and longtime fans are obsessed with how the show’s final seven episodes will play out. Will Don Draper (Jon Hamm) jump to his death from a New York skyscraper a la the show’s opening credits? Will Roger Sterling quit the hippie chicks and finally settle down with his baby mama, Joan? Will Peggy take over the world?
We’ve done some digging, so here’s a checklist of five ways ‘Mad Men” probably won’t end.

Don and Betty will reunite and live happily ever after

While Don Draper’s marriage to second wife Megan (Jessica Pare) is on the rocks, don’t expect him to reconcile with frosty first wife, Betty (January Jones). That hookup came via a one-nighter at son Bobby’s summer camp last season. In an interview on AMC’s website, Jones dished on how much the Betty character has “grown” since she moved on to second hubby, Henry Francis. But she added, “As an audience member, I always rooted for a Don and Betty reunion even though it would never work. I just always wanted to see how it would happen now, and I loved the way it did.” Sounds pretty final to us.



Roger and Joan will end up together

Fans have been clamoring for it, and doesn’t big-hearted Joan (Christina Hendricks) deserve a happy ending? Or at least a father figure for baby Kevin? Actor John Slattery, who plays hard drinking silver fox Roger Sterling on the AMC series, told HuffPost Live he knows viewers want to see his character end up with the red-haired bombshell, but he doubts creator Matthew Weiner will go there: "It isn't to say he's not going to give the audience what they want, but it's much more interesting to expect one thing and get the other,” Slattery said. "That's why Matt's as good as he is. Because he knows what the audience wants -- you know, Joan and Roger -- that's not what he's necessarily interested in."


Sally Draper will go to Woodstock

“Mad Men” fans apparently want to see Sally Draper run off to White Lake, New York for three days of peace and music with Jefferson Airplane, Janis Joplin and Jimi Hendrix. But while Weiner has joked that the teen daughter of Don Draper will probably end up with a lot of issues (“She's inherited a lot. I predict smoking. I predict alcoholism,” he said), he later told Rolling Stone the rebellious character won’t be attending the biggest music festival of the era. "Is Sally going to go off to Woodstock?” he mused. “You know what, I'm just going to go on record as saying no. But when she grows up she's going to tell everybody that she was there."




Megan Draper will be a victim of the Manson murders
The rumors have been swirling ever since Megan Draper was spotted wearing a shirt identical to one that slain actress Sharon Tate once wore in a photo shoot. Now Megan’s moved into a secluded little house in the canyons amid the howling coyotes, and there have been Folgers coffee references (Abigail Folger was a victim in the murders) and “Rosemary’s Baby” readings (the last movie Tate’s husband, Roman Polanksi, directed before her murder). 

But Weiner insists these are not clues that Megan will end up a Manson casualty: The T-shirt she was wearing on the balcony at the end of episode nine was a T-shirt Sharon Tate wore, so everyone's convinced that this is some secret clue that Megan's going to be murdered or die or end up in Los Angeles in a house in the hills,” he said. “And then because Sally was reading ‘Rosemary's Baby’ too, they thought that was some kind of clue. It's not. It's the end of the '60s. Honestly, on the cheap, we're trying to tell the story of the disintegration of the city. That's our way of evoking hard-core decay.”


Don Draper will die

“Mad Men” has had deathly undertones since its debut, so the death of Don Draper would almost seem too obvious at this point. The Daily Beast compiled a list of the show’s incessant death imagery:  Unusual airplane images, Don’s reading of “Dante’s Inferno,” the doorman’s sudden death, the Zippo lighter (long story if you haven’t watched the show faithfully), an abundance of orange (a “Godfather” reference) and more.  Slate has even posted a handy dandy Don Draper Death Watch tool.

At the end of the penultimate season last year, Weiner told the Los Angeles Times, “I don't want to spoil anything for people, but after [the death of ‘Mad men’ character] Lane … It's just not part of the show. No one's going to die.” But then he added, “This season. I didn't say never!”
OK, so let’s keep that death watch going…



The final seven episodes of “Mad Men” will air in 2015.

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