Jon Hamm Rejects the ‘Cynical’ Interpretation of Mad Men’s Final Scene
Warning: Spoilers for the series finale of Mad Men below.
If there is one word that he been used more than any other to describe the final moments of Sunday’s night Mad Men series finale by those were left disappointed it is “cynical.”
As Don Draper sits cross-legged overlooking the cliffs of Big Sur, he calmly meditates, chanting “om” before a bell dings and we cut to the real-life “I’d Like to Buy the World a Coke” commercial that debuted about a year after the show’s actions ends.
Is this all Don’s newly-discovered enlightenment wrought? A return to McCann Erickson and the creation of a legendary hippie-inspired jingle for Coca-Cola? While series creator Matthew Weiner has so far stayed uncharacteristically quiet about his intentions, actor Jon Hamm shared his interpretation with The New York Times’ Dave Itzkoff in an interview published Monday night.
He said:
“When we find Don in that place, and this stranger relates this story of not being heard or seen or understood or appreciated, the resonance for Don was total in that moment. There was a void staring at him. We see him in an incredibly vulnerable place, surrounded by strangers, and he reaches out to the only person he can at that moment, and it’s this stranger.
My take is that, the next day, he wakes up in this beautiful place, and has this serene moment of understanding, and realizes who he is. And who he is, is an advertising man. And so, this thing comes to him. There’s a way to see it in a completely cynical way, and say, ‘Wow, that’s awful.’ But I think that for Don, it represents some kind of understanding and comfort in this incredibly unquiet, uncomfortable life that he has led.”
Hamm also weighed in on the other aspect of the show’s finale that rubbed some viewers and critics the wrong way: Peggy and Stan’s rom-com happy ending. “The romantic stuff with Stan is nice and warm and fuzzy,” he said, “but to me, Peggy’s larger resolution was in the penultimate episode when she walks into McCann, the cock of the walk, and takes what’s hers.”
“There’s people saying, oh, it’s so pat, and it’s rom-com-y, or whatever it is,” Hamm added. “But it’s not the end of anything. The world doesn’t blow up right after the Coke commercial ends. No one is suggesting that Stan and Peggy live happily ever after, or that Joan’s business is a rousing success, or that Roger and Marie come back from Paris together. None of it is done.”
While we have not heard from Weiner himself, Hamm did reveal one thing the showrunner told him about his goals for the end of the series, “I just want my characters to be a little more happy than they were in the beginning.”
Watch the final scene below, via AMC:
[Photo via screengrab]
— —
