"do you have any liquor I've been drinking beer all night"
― johnny crunch, Monday, 18 May 2015 14:07 (eight years ago) link
oh god that line
he basically just said "I am the man who drinks" multiple times in the episode
― ultimate american sock (mh), Monday, 18 May 2015 14:10 (eight years ago) link
I really was hoping that the circle of people talking it out after Stephanie left would have him saying "I'm Dick Whitman, yowza!"
― ultimate american sock (mh), Monday, 18 May 2015 14:11 (eight years ago) link
I'm probably grasping at straws there: thinking back on bigger developments, though, there just seemed to be things that happened or were said that paved the way for the conclusion that Don comes up with the Coke ad. I think that's the ending that Weiner and Hamm started crafting four years ago.
― clemenza, Monday, May 18, 2015 9:26 AM (42 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
fwiw, the original idea for the ending was what ended up being the season 6 don story arc and finale - that with happiness (megan) just in his grasp he would backslide, as he did, into cheating and the abject alcoholism he had cut back on, go through that whole mess as that season progressed and then finally purge at the hershey pitch, and then finally be honest with sally and bobby by showing them where he came from. that said, i'd believe this ending probably began taking shape in weiner's mind (and hamm's), fairly quickly.
― slothroprhymes, Monday, 18 May 2015 14:13 (eight years ago) link
fairly quickly into development of the final season (or seasons, depending on how you view 7A/7B), that is.
― slothroprhymes, Monday, 18 May 2015 14:15 (eight years ago) link
the opening with don soaring across the desert reminded me of
https://40.media.tumblr.com/f513900f843adbfc15253c6e0200bd92/tumblr_ncw5md5LnT1rllo7mo1_500.png
― Merdeyeux, Monday, 18 May 2015 14:18 (eight years ago) link
Another take on the ending is that, just as Don's habits came from being part of a certain era, the ending showed that he was in sync with the new era. He just doesn't have a job anymore that gives him the detachment to analyze it from afar, so he's just in sync with the times and the ad.
― ... (Eazy), Monday, 18 May 2015 14:25 (eight years ago) link
spinning that counter-cultural straw into gold
― ultimate american sock (mh), Monday, 18 May 2015 14:26 (eight years ago) link
I read last night that Weiner indicated he'd always had a vague image of how it would all end, and this particular ending came to him several years ago. Hamm: "I said that's great, then I asked him how he was going to get there," and Hamm so glad that he wasn't the one who had to write his way to that.
― dow, Monday, 18 May 2015 14:27 (eight years ago) link
tbh ending the show by connecting to a big, real advertising campaign has been in the cards ever since they wrote mccann in as the sc&p buyer
― ultimate american sock (mh), Monday, 18 May 2015 14:28 (eight years ago) link
the way the mccann guy said "coca-cola" in that meeting with don and co drifts into my mind quite often
― bureau belfast model (LocalGarda), Monday, 18 May 2015 14:32 (eight years ago) link
work is a lousy hero in any context
― the increasing costive borborygmi (Dr Morbius), Monday, 18 May 2015 14:32 (eight years ago) link
Thing about Megan was he realized that the only way really to please her was to help her find a way to go where he couldn't, off into the world of acting and maybe stardom, that kind of necessarily self-involved careerism, not so different from his own (and the California move for them both was his decision. also the decision to stay behind, which was more than helping Ted--he wanted to stay on his own professional turf, in his own shell, I think).
― dow, Monday, 18 May 2015 14:34 (eight years ago) link
I think they even put the coca cola thing into the 'previously on' segment at the beginning. Obviously the ad is his, reading it any other way doesn't make any sense.
― akm, Monday, 18 May 2015 14:34 (eight years ago) link
also nice that they finally mentioned Manson.
i am astonished people are trying to suggest the ad wasn't his.
― bureau belfast model (LocalGarda), Monday, 18 May 2015 14:35 (eight years ago) link
The only thing that didn't work for me: I didn't understand what he was doing with the racing guys in the salt flats. What did they mean, "you don't have to come with us but you promised to ..." what did they say?
― akm, Monday, 18 May 2015 14:35 (eight years ago) link
he promised to fund the trip to cali
― How Butch, I mean (Jimmy The Mod Awaits The Return Of His Beloved), Monday, 18 May 2015 14:36 (eight years ago) link
yah to stake them
― johnny crunch, Monday, 18 May 2015 14:36 (eight years ago) link
a friend texted me just now hopefully positing the theory that the ad was his, with a sense that he'd been thinking this through all morning.
xpost i think it was "sub us" or something synonymous - or "front us", basically i assumed they were gambling on racing and don was going to put up the cash.
― bureau belfast model (LocalGarda), Monday, 18 May 2015 14:36 (eight years ago) link
n p sure it was stake in that they can't beat those riverdale punks w/o the cash
― How Butch, I mean (Jimmy The Mod Awaits The Return Of His Beloved), Monday, 18 May 2015 14:38 (eight years ago) link
"Stake us." Are these maybe the car guys he met while he was carrying groceries back to Anna's, before he walked into the Pacific?
Megan's Mom last night said Canada was where her "children" were, incl. millionaire Megan now?
"Holloway-Harris" is the way Joan's secretary answers phone---who's Holloway? Sounds familiar.
― dow, Monday, 18 May 2015 14:39 (eight years ago) link
it's joan's maiden name
― call all destroyer, Monday, 18 May 2015 14:40 (eight years ago) link
Holloway is Joan's maiden name.
― Johnny Fever, Monday, 18 May 2015 14:40 (eight years ago) link
sorry, i wasn't correcting "stake us" - that was definitely it - should have edited after the xposts.
― bureau belfast model (LocalGarda), Monday, 18 May 2015 14:41 (eight years ago) link
I loved that Joan's babysitter was now her secretary.
― Johnny Fever, Monday, 18 May 2015 14:41 (eight years ago) link
Receptionist at retreat was in commercial---maybe some others too?
― dow, Monday, 18 May 2015 14:43 (eight years ago) link
That commercial holds up over 40 years on imo. Didn't Coke try to redo it at some point? They should just keep airing the original every once in a while, just a week at a time.
― Johnny Fever, Monday, 18 May 2015 14:46 (eight years ago) link
i don't think the receptionist was in it, just a similar outfit wasn't it?
― bureau belfast model (LocalGarda), Monday, 18 May 2015 14:48 (eight years ago) link
Same or very similar face too!
― dow, Monday, 18 May 2015 14:50 (eight years ago) link
Maybe he becomes a big benefactor of that place; he's really into that sort of seeding now.
― dow, Monday, 18 May 2015 14:52 (eight years ago) link
(Eventually meets Jobs & Woz, etc.)
everybody in that ad is 60+ years old if they're alive
Coke has re-cranked the ad at least 3x
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I%27d_Like_to_Teach_the_World_to_Sing_%28In_Perfect_Harmony%29#TV_commercial
― the increasing costive borborygmi (Dr Morbius), Monday, 18 May 2015 14:54 (eight years ago) link
another one for the conclusion that the Coke ad is Don's: in the meditation scene, he's back to wearing his white work shirt. if there's one thing we know from Mad Style, it's that there are never any accidents in the show's costuming.
― Roz, Monday, 18 May 2015 14:57 (eight years ago) link
― Johnny Fever, Monday, May 18, 2015 10:41 AM (16 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
this and meredith's cheerful firing were my favorite random moments of the episode
― call all destroyer, Monday, 18 May 2015 14:58 (eight years ago) link
Don't forget, the Manson Brothers were immortalized in an earlier episode.
I love the original Coke commercial. I'll admit it--I even love the jingle/song.
― clemenza, Monday, 18 May 2015 15:02 (eight years ago) link
"Holloway-Harris" was a nice joke on Joan's contention that you need two names at the top before anyone takes you seriously (dovetailing with all the permutations of SC&P).
― clemenza, Monday, 18 May 2015 15:04 (eight years ago) link
Meredith! How did they turn her into a favorite character so quickly? She was kinda the mvp of season 7b, at least among minor characters.
When I'd watched this a few hours ago, I did not know what to think. But I feel better and better thinking back on it. The show ended exactly right, with a mix of genuine emotion and cheeky cynicism. No need for major drama, more death, cliffhangers. It's not the best episode, not even of the season. But I like it more and more as the ending.
Actually, I've begun to think that most series would kinda be better off if they'd just ended with a normal episode instead of trying to tie everything up. Boardwalk Empire is the perfect example: Everything was tied up with a masterful sense of coming full circle, but it happened so quickly and effectively that it felt ridiculous to me. This was much better: A stop, rather than an ending.
― Frederik B, Monday, 18 May 2015 15:07 (eight years ago) link
Loved Joan using her maiden name as the solution to the "having two names in the title" dilemma.
― Norse Jung (Eric H.), Monday, 18 May 2015 15:08 (eight years ago) link
xp
― Norse Jung (Eric H.), Monday, 18 May 2015 15:09 (eight years ago) link
Weiner said in his NYT interview yesterday that he just treated this like the end of a season... that any season finale could have the same vibe.
― the increasing costive borborygmi (Dr Morbius), Monday, 18 May 2015 15:09 (eight years ago) link
I was just generally glad that Joan got so much attention in the final episode. In retrospect, it was probably weird to think (as some of us did) that certain main characters wouldn't show up in the last episode because their story had already been wrapped up--up to and including Don.
― clemenza, Monday, 18 May 2015 15:12 (eight years ago) link
a THE WIRE style lope through everyone's life for a few second peek inthere's no way they'll close with this imo― Οὖτις, Wednesday, May 13, 2015
there's no way they'll close with this imo
― Οὖτις, Wednesday, May 13, 2015
― “audience participation” otherwise known as “touching” (forksclovetofu), Monday, 18 May 2015 15:18 (eight years ago) link
it wasn't quite this, was it? it was more like a recap of this episode itself...
i would have quite like a six feet under style cheesefest outro
― bureau belfast model (LocalGarda), Monday, 18 May 2015 15:22 (eight years ago) link
it was probably weird to think (as some of us did) that certain main characters wouldn't show up in the last episode because their story had already been wrapped up
I don't think suspecting that was too weird. The show has let characters drop out like that before.
― Johnny Fever, Monday, 18 May 2015 15:23 (eight years ago) link
This ep emph Peggy's insecurity, like her previous rollerskating to Roger's phantom-of-the-suite musical direction, and subsequent swagger, emph. that she's still the young 'un--- even if she felt ready for such responsibility, would be *junior* partner to veteran Joan, for sure, and they've never worked together all that smoothly, despite the occasional break for smoke and drink and dish.
― dow, Monday, 18 May 2015 15:24 (eight years ago) link
they really had to rush joan's relationship out the door didn't they? i mean, i know that it was on/off in these last few eps, but they had like a 2-minute conversation and he was like "well then seeya" and just walked out.
this isn't really a criticism cos i don't watch this show for plot, but overall they could never resist meandering through surreal emotional worlds or portentous brief encounters, even right to the end of the last season they barely left themselves enough time for anything to actually happen.
it's prob an achievement overall to make something so resistant to the need for cliffhangers or big events. i guess this is why some people hate this show.
― bureau belfast model (LocalGarda), Monday, 18 May 2015 15:27 (eight years ago) link
i feel like they had at least two conversations like that already though
he wanted to control her happiness
― i blow goat farts, aka garts for a living (waterface), Monday, 18 May 2015 15:28 (eight years ago) link
i mean he was nice in that he was the nicest guy we've seen her with but he's still a fucking dick
― i blow goat farts, aka garts for a living (waterface), Monday, 18 May 2015 15:29 (eight years ago) link
even if she felt ready for such responsibility, would be *junior* partner to veteran Joan, for sure, and they've never worked together all that smoothly, despite the occasional break for smoke and drink and dish.
But it meant a lot to Peggy that Joan asked her -- and Joan liked that Peggy found it flattering to be asked. So it was a mutual validation, even though she turned it down.
― something of an astrological coup (tipsy mothra), Monday, 18 May 2015 15:30 (eight years ago) link