Summary

• Mad Men's ambiguous finale challenges viewers to consider Don Draper's character growth and inner peace.
• The series finale hints at Don's creation of the iconic Coca-Cola ad, suggesting a shift in his identity.
• While Mad Men's ending may be debated, it delivers a fitting conclusion to Don Draper's complex journey.

best shows of the 21st century still intact and a finale that earned acclaim and plenty of talk.

Mad Men always showed the complicated nature of a character like Don Draper, daring the audience to like him even when he made it very difficult. Mad Men's finale put Don on a path to change for the better while also leaving the question open of whether he was capable of change. This led to the show's famous final moments that seem to clarify his journey while also hinting at his future. However, the ending is left fairly ambiguous, making it necessary to explore Mad Men's finale in more detail.

How Mad Men's Series Finale Ends

Don's Journey Comes To An End With A New Idea

In "Person To Person," the series finale of Mad Men, Don goes to a retreat in California, to find some kind of enlightenment after all the pain and suffering his lies have caused not only himself but just about everyone he’s ever come into with. Elsewhere, Mad Men’s ending attempts to give relatively happy conclusions for most of the other Mad Men characters.

There are happy and satisfying endings for the main remaining characters, as well as some bittersweet endings. Peggy stays at McCann Erickson where she and her coworker Stan confess their love for each other and start a relationship. Joan starts her own production company, juggling being a single mother and a career woman despite what people think. Roger is happily married to Marie, enjoying their wealth and shared interest in drinking. Most tragic of all, Betty is revealed to be dying of cancer, choosing to die on her own , which leaves Sally stepping up to take more responsibility.

However, Don is the main focus of the final episode with him having phone conversations with Betty and Peggy to bring closure to his relationships with these women. The finale ends with Don searching for his inner peace at the meditation retreat. As Don participates in a meditation exercise, the camera slowly moves in on his face as he smiles satisfyingly. The episode then cuts to the real-life Coca-Cola "Hilltop" advert from 1971 as the credits begin to roll.

Did Don Draper Find Inner Peace?

The Coke Ad Puts Don's Transformation Into Question

Throughout the entire run of Mad Men, Don Draper was a troubled soul. Running from his past as Dick Whitman, Don constantly turned to women and alcohol in order to either make himself feel better, to find what he was missing, and to experience fleeting moments of joy. He married a couple of times, but Don could never be truly happy with anyone else until he learned to be truly accepting of who he is.

Don’s retreat was centered around him finding not just a sense of purpose, but an idea of who he really is and being happy with that. While Don's smile as he mediates begins to suggest he has begun to find that inner peace, the cut to the Coke advert suggests otherwise. It hints that Don instead simply went back to being Don and doing the one thing he was always good at. That he hadn’t really changed all that much.

[T]he retreat does seem to change Don as his reaction to hearing fellow retreat guest Leonard's story has a profound effect on him.

However, the retreat does seem to change Don as his reaction to hearing fellow retreat guest Leonard's story has a profound effect on him. Hearing Leonard’s story of feeling overlooked and unloved causes Don to break down crying, recognizing himself in those words. That’s a rare and huge moment of self-reflection for Don and is what leads him to the group mediation and that smile on his face. He might’ve gone back to New York and created the advert, but he’s also not the same Don Draper who left it behind.

Did Don Draper Create The Coke Advert?

Clues To Don's Time At The Retreat Relate To The Commercial

When the camera zooms in on Don Draper’s smiling face in the Mad Men series finale's final moment, the meditation bell rings just as the episode transitions to the “I Want To Buy The World A Coke" advert. It suggests that Don came up with the idea for this famous commercial and it is not hard to draw that conclusion as there are numerous similarities to the commune Don is at, which are without a doubt deliberate.

The clothes are the same, the people look similar, it’s at a place called the Hilltop, and even the idea of having a Coke is related to something Leonard said, describing himself as an item in a refrigerator that no one selects. Previously, Peggy encouraged Don to come back and work on the Coke ad only to choose to stay at the retreat. However, it seems the retreat played into this idea, especially since the company they're working for - McCann Erickson - did create the Coke ad in real life, with Bill Backer as the man behind it.

Having worked on The Sopranos, however, Matthew Weiner knows the power of an ambiguous ending. He’s strongly hinted that Don did indeed create the Coke advert, telling TVLine just after the finale aired: "The idea that some enlightened state, and not just co-option, might’ve created something that is very pure." It’s nonetheless left open to interpretation within the text itself though.

How Mad Men Gave Don The Perfect Ending

Was Don's Commercial Idea Cynical Or Enlightened?

Mad Men is a show about both advertising and the changing nature of America through the 1960s, making Coca-Cola's "Hilltop" advert a perfect culmination of these themes. It's one of the most famous ads ever made, but also linked to the ending of the decade and, somewhat more cynically, how big corporations began to cash-in on counter-culture. There is a way to read the ending as Don uses this supposedly enlightening experience, including Leonard's speech, to grow his career.

Mad Men delivers a finale that is about hope, both real and manufactured.

However, it is possible to read Mad Men's ending as far less cynical. As Matthew Weiner suggested, the final moments and Don himself buy into the earnestness of the Coke advert. It is linked to the change Don undergoes in the final season. Mad Men delivers a finale that is about hope, both real and manufactured. In the endings of almost all the major characters, hope is a recurring element. It's surprisingly sweet for the show, yet it underlines one of its central facets: change.

By finding a sense of enlightenment, he's able to create the Coca-Cola advert. In doing so, Don's also able to reach out, help others, and finally even help himself. He is able, at last, to make genuine human connections, and to create something that has a real impact too. Don is great at advertising, but now he's finally found a way to make that not seem so empty. In Mad Men's ending, Don not only creates an all-time great advert, but most importantly, he's able to change.

Will Mad Men Ever Continue?

Jon Hamm Commented On A Possible Reboot

While the Mad Men finale brought Don Draper's story to a satisfying conclusion, it doesn't close the door to more stories being able to be told. As with most popular shows that come to an end these days, there have been questions about whether there could ever be more Mad Men to come in the future. Kiernan Shipka, has discussed the possibility of continuing on, saying,

I’m not done with Sally. I don’t think she’d be in New York. I think she’d do L.A… But I’m not done with her at all.

Shipka also added that she still sees her on-screen father, Jon Hamm, often and loves running into him. When asked about a possible Mad Men reboot, Hamm himself suggested it was possible but approached the subject with caution:

I mean, I was so very happy, as many people were, and I think Matt was as well, with how satisfying the ending was for Don, that I think to revisit that might be—I don't know... might be too much. I'm not sure but we don't really talk about it. It's not that it's off limits, but it never comes up. We have families and other things to talk about. So you know, I'm a big believer in never say never, but if it comes up, you know, it would be—there's a lot of ways to do that. I can't really confirm or deny it.

While there are many who would love to see where Don's career led him past the Coke ad, Hamm is likely right that the ending should be left alone. While it is not a definitive ending for Don, the Mad Men finale brings his story to a conclusion that is fitting and clever, and suggests there is not anything more that needs to be said.

Continuing the show would likely only see a repetition of the story, or worse, undo what was done with the character in the end. Should Mad Men continue, a spinoff set in this world would be better as it would allow Don and his story to be left untouched.

Where Mad Men's Ending Ranks Compared To Other Great Finales

Mad Men Didn't Play It Safe With Its End

The Mad Men ending stands out in the pantheon of great series finales for a bold yet satisfying conclusion to the story. The show managed to fulfill the daunting task of wrapping up the many storylines in a nice way while also giving the audience something unexpected. The final Coke ad and its meaning have been debated since the episode aired, showing the impact the ending has had. However, even with the debate, the ending brilliantly ties into the themes of the overall series and makes sense for Don's journey.

The Mad Men ending attempts to do something more than just give the viewers what they expect and offer a chance to bid farewell to these characters. In that sense, it is somewhat more controversial than the truly beloved television finales. Breaking Bad is a highly acclaimed finale among fans as it seeks to go out with a bang, showing the consequences of Walter White's actions while also celebrating his victory over his enemies.

Six Feet Under is often regarded as one of the best television finales of all time thanks largely to the extended montage in the final moments that jumps forward in time to show the deaths of all of the main characters, giving a conclusive, emotional, and cathartic ending. Mad Men seeks to be a little more challenging to its viewers, giving them a final moment that makes them wonder if this is a good or bad outcome for the main character.

Interestingly, Mad Mad's ending is perhaps best compared to one of the greatest sitcom finales of all time. Cheers ended its historical run with a finale that captured the show's incredible writing style. The finale saw Diane return to rekindle her romance with Sam. The two plan to go off and get married, giving them the happy ending that many fans wanted throughout their iconic will-they-won't-they romance. However, as the episode comes to an end, Sam realizes that the life he has built at Cheers and the family he has made is all the happiness he needs.

Mad Men allows its audience to say goodbye to these characters and hint at where their stories will go from there, some with heartwarming conclusions and others with peaceful acceptance of their fate. While the show doesn't quite reach the heights of some of the all-time great finales, its finale moments fit the complicated nature of Don Draper.