Mad Men ending explained: What happens to Don Draper

Mad Men, a 2007 television series produced by Matthew Weiner, was mostly set in the 1960s. It follows the lives of the advertising professionals who worked on Madison Avenue in New York. One of the greatest TV series of the Golden Age of television, Mad Men ran for seven seasons and ninety-two episodes on AMC.

The Mad Men series finale episode, Person to Person, sees the protagonist, Don Draper (Jon Hamm), attend a retreat in California. After all the anguish and suffering his falsehoods have caused him and his loved ones, this retreat is an attempt to find some sort of enlightenment.

During a group meditation at the retreat, Don can be seen wearing white. He has a faint smile; the atmosphere is serene, and perhaps he has truly discovered serenity. Fans are left wondering what happens when the famous Coca-Cola "Hilltop" commercial from 1971 abruptly cuts the scene in Mad Men.

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Understanding the ending of Mad Men

In the episode Lost Horizon, two episodes before the Mad Men finale, Don Draper decides to travel. He leaves for the trip after feeling disoriented, insignificant, and uninterested at a pitch meeting at his company's new location of advertising behemoth McCann Erickson. Shortly after the meeting starts, Don leaves, gets into his car, and drives off without telling anyone where he's going.

As the finale approaches, it is revealed that Don has made it to Utah and has been racing cars in the desert. There is also a change in his attire; he is wearing a Canadian tuxedo instead of his suit and is embracing the change around him.

It is intentional for there to be a gap between Don's real self and his road trip character in Mad Men. He's on a quest to discover his place in the world because he no longer feels like he belongs in the New York advertising world. He quickly realizes that breaking the land speed record in the Utah desert is not his destiny, but he still intends to continue looking for significance wherever he can.

However, he is taken out of the dilemma as reality hits him in the face once again. Don calls his daughter Sally to fill her in with all the adventures the road trip has offered him. But Sally is uninterested and informs him that his ex-wife Betty has been diagnosed with terminal lung cancer. Don tells her that he will return and be with them, but Sally turns him down.

Don calls Betty to allow him to take responsibility for their children, but Betty denies it and informs him that the children would be in better hands with Betty’s brother and his wife. Don then realizes how miserably he has failed in being a good father by never being present for his kids.

Don also discovers that Stephanie, whom he views as his only family, abandons him at the retreat. She takes his car in the middle of the night after her friends chastise her for giving up her child, and Don then has a complete collapse.

In a foreign area, all by himself, Don muses over all he has lost. Feeling as though he had outgrown his career, he left it behind. He recently got divorced from Megan, his wife, who doesn't want to be with him. And Betty, his first ex-wife, who is dying, also doesn't want to be with him. Having no choice, he calls Peggy to tell her goodbye for the last time.

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In Mad Men, Don must lose everything to acknowledge that he is an advertisement guy at heart. The fact that Don Draper can still capitalize on hippie culture to sell soda, despite all the suffering and agony he endured at the commune, is further evidence that there is only one thing Don Draper was destined to accomplish on this planet.