SPOILERS, obviously, and this also includes some commentary from show blogger Margaret Wapler


From the L.A. Times:

>'Mad Men': Honestly Madison Avenue

So we’ve reached the end of the line, the last stop on the 5:15 that dumps all us lumpen souls off in the blank suburbia of Other TV. Back to your regular programming, folks, the siren call of Manhattan business life in 1960 is silent for now. The good news: “Mad Men"'s season finale was a triumph for tonally sophisticated TV and it’ll be back before you know it.

Alright, got your dirty martini in hand? Let’s dive in… this week, we get extra insight from creator Matt Weiner, who chatted with me in great detail about the last show. Weiner is unpretentious and open, yet respectful of his muse. Sometimes he’ll pontificate on a character’s motives, other times he’ll simply repeat the mantra, “It’s in the show.”

“Mad Men” knows there’s no bigger ache than self-imposed loneliness, especially when it’s the consequences of a poor decision. Remember Harry’s frightened and teary eyes as he asked his wife to let him come back home? Marriage is full of these pratfalls, even for the ordinary and moral. “Harry’s seen as a nice guy,” Weiner said. “And his marriage is a happy one but that doesn’t mean he’s immune to temptation. These men got married so young.”

Which might be why Pete is bucking the in-law’s pressure to “tend his garden.” Little do they know he already has –- wrong garden but more on that later.

The first moment in which this finale really started to cook was with Francine, Betty’s perfectly nonplussed gossip of a neighbor. Suddenly, she was a wreck in her coat and messy hair. Turns out she called one of her husband’s mistresses. The scene’s most potent line is when Francine fantasizes about poisoning everyone –- Carlton, his parents and hers, and worst of all, her children.

Infanticide is powerful and with Francine’s admission and Peggy’s denial of her child, “Mad Men” once again touched on an issue that, like sexism, we all want to sweep under the rug. “It’s a big taboo but it’s very real,” Weiner said. “I have four children. I’ve not tried to kill any of them but I do understand. In the end, these people are just talking but it’s an honesty that comes from the character.”

Weiner is big on honesty with his characters, but on their own terms. When I asked him why Don is attracted to Rachel, he said they have a lot in common –- intelligence, an outsider’s point of view and honesty. “I know it’s weird to think of Don that way, but he is honest.”

And then there’s the honesty of Weiner himself. Regarding his male characters’ dismissive treatment of women, he insists it’s true to the period and will continue to document without glamorizing or glorifying it.

“Everyone is part of a group and everyone assumes that the other group is not equal to them. It’s horrible that people are prejudiced… but it’s real. Do I have those feelings? Are they easy to access?… Yeah, I have prejudices. Do I think women are stupider than me? No… I write the women characters also.”

By the way, there’s nothing too juicy I left out in those ellipses. Just a few false starts.

For Betty, honesty has been a thorny issue and denial a bedrock of her existence. Though Don is the one having all the affairs, is Betty also at fault for not saying what she wants? Maybe she is less fundamentally honest than Don but the consequences, it’s safe to say, would be much more dire for her. Demand your husband stop seeing other women and you could end up like Carmela Soprano, impotent and shrieking. Or alone, an untenable life in suburban 1960, or so Betty thinks.

Weiner has a funny sense of romance. “I use certain words differently,” he said. “Romance is one of them.” For Weiner, the scene where Glenn asks for a lock of Betty’s hair is one of the season’s most pure and touching moments. So when Betty runs into Glenn in the bank parking lot, it’s a reunion between two kindred spirits. “Betty knows that Glenn unconditionally loves her. It’s only creepy if you think kids have no sexuality.”

I saw a little David Lynch there, or the hyper-realism of “Six Feet Under.” There was something about the pop of the baby blue sky, the asphalt tinged with snow, the utterly serene, undisturbed nature of the parking lot that hinted at something surreal. Either way, it was mesmerizing –- Glenn’s puffy mittened hand, his wonderful line about not knowing exactly how long 20 minutes is. I have a feeling that won’t be the last we see of Glenn.

For maybe the first time this season, we got to hear Betty verbalize what she really thinks. Dressed in a smart woolen suit straight out of “Vertigo,” Betty lies on the psychiatrist’s couch, and tells him she knows Don is unfaithful to her and that he doesn’t know the meaning of family. The kicker: “The way he makes love -- sometimes it’s what I want, but sometimes it’s obviously what someone else wants.” Ouch, but yay. Betty took advantage of this new, protected communication line to her husband.

As for Don, we saw him in a different light. Fallible, vulnerable, tossing on his couch in the fetal position like a feverish toddler. “I didn’t want to soften him up or redeem him, there’s no need for that… he’s a real person with feelings. He makes mistakes and has regrets,” Weiner said. Typically, I’m smothering a giggle when Don gets on one of his “advertising as art” kicks but his Kodak Carousel presentation was a lovely synthesis of the show’s themes –- nostalgia, the nature of truth and Don’s own pained, only partially realized relationship to his past.

And then there was the cold winds of that house. But before that, the fantasy of Don joining the family at the last minute for Thanksgiving. The fantasy was unattributed –- we didn’t see Don lapse into this vision, no tight-focus on his face, which is the typical TV way. It’s almost as if it was a fantasy of every character on the show, to be truly joined with their loved ones, even when it’s impossible because you’re married to someone else, or don’t know how to express the desire. Don sitting alone on those stairs, with “Don’t Think Twice,” Bob Dylan’s stoic ode to moving on down the line, was a fittingly quiet end.

Last but not least, shocker pregnancy! “Ms. Olsen, you are now a junior copywriter,” Draper said to Peggy. But wait! Peggy’s now a mother too? Did anyone see this coming? I’m happy that the horrible prosthetic chin we had to suffer through most of the season actually had a purpose. Weiner, of course, smiles at the dupe. “I think we’re all powerful in some ways, and totally powerless in others.”

Does denying a pregnancy, even while you’re having labor pains, qualify you as crazy? “I don’t think it is crazy. I think it’s part of the period. For her to absorb it would mean her entire life is over. What is she going to do?” Naturally, Weiner wouldn’t answer his own question. Or anything else about next season, for that matter. We’ll just have to wait.
______________________________________________________________________
I have no remorse
So check me out in The Source