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https://madmen.withgoogle.com

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Well there goes my week...

Bringing back the Kodak carousel might be the PERFECT way to end this. And if the series does, in fact, end with "American Pie," this guy deserves a raise...

http://www.esquire.com/entertainment/tv/a34921/mad-men-season-7-finale-prediction

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Wow, you folks obsess too much over this show and miss the most important thing.

Alison Brie is amazingly effing hot.

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Not a bad GIS at all. Wow.

I just don't get the vibe that Weiner will have any kind of future epilogue. I don't think he will evem have a montage. I think it will just be Don gazing out a window or something while a song plays.

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Bringing back the Kodak carousel might be the PERFECT way to end this. And if the series does, in fact, end with "American Pie," this guy deserves a raise...

http://www.esquire.com/entertainment/tv/a34921/mad-men-season-7-finale-prediction

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I love this show, but part of me will be glad to have if gone if only so i don't have to read passages like this one in that Esquire article that have plagued it since about season 2:

"They care so little about who Don really is that they beat him in the face with a phonebook, injuring him with pages upon pages of the names and numbersthe identitiesof other people that they'll never bother to know, either."

Interesting take on the finale, though.

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"They care so little about who Don really is that they beat him in the face with a phonebook, injuring him with pages upon pages of the names and numbersthe identitiesof other people that they'll never bother to know, either."

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Can't even read it with a straight face

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Bringing back the Kodak carousel might be the PERFECT way to end this. And if the series does, in fact, end with "American Pie," this guy deserves a raise...

http://www.esquire.com/entertainment/tv/a34921/mad-men-season-7-finale-prediction

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I love this show, but part of me will be glad to have if gone if only so i don't have to read passages like this one in that Esquire article that have plagued it since about season 2:

"They care so little about who Don really is that they beat him in the face with a phonebook, injuring him with pages upon pages of the names and numbersthe identitiesof other people that they'll never bother to know, either."

Interesting take on the finale, though.

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Agreed. There's fun/informed speculation, and then there's reading into sh*t the showrunner never even thought of or intended. I can't tell you how many interviews I've read form Weiner and Gilligan and the like saying something to the effect of, "I wish I was that smart" in reference to the insanely detailed/symbolic crap some of these people think they're picking up on.

You beat people aith phone books because it hurts like hell but won't bruise badly or break any bones.

Basically it lets you beat the crap out of someone and avoid trouble....it is am old cop trick.

Speaking of full circle, don't forget Pete's father died in a plane crash. Now Pete is considering taking a job with a private aviation company.

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You beat people aith phone books because it hurts like hell but won't bruise badly or break any bones.

Basically it lets you beat the crap out of someone and avoid trouble....it is am old cop trick.

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It does seem like it would hurt like hell.

I had a coach/history "teacher" in high school who liked to whack us in the head with textbooks. It would give you a nice headache but leave no marks to show your parents.

http://www.vox.com/2015/5/12/8593701/mad-men-finale-trailer

After listening to a couple of podcasts and reading a bit more, I'm now convinced that Don comes back to New York for the final episode. He's shed literally everything but the clothes on his back, his odyssey now complete. Betty's death is the perfect device for him to come home a new man and reclaim his family. I think that's his final destiny - to stop running away from his family and instead be the father they've always needed him to be. Maybe he even meets a woman in the process who will be there to help him / eventually marry him. I'm not saying it's going to be happily ever after, but I've definitely come to the conclusion that Don continuing to "find himself" / go off to California (or wherever) would be a selfish bummer of an ending. That, and Don coming back would allow for final appearances by some of the more prominent cast members. I think we're done with Betty, Joan and Pete for good, but like I said earlier, there has to be one more Don/Peggy scene, and this would allow for that. And if they want to throw in one final Roger appearance, I'm more than ok with that too.

If there is a scene that shows Betty's funeral, then I could easily see a decent number of the cast come to the funeral. Pete/Trudy would be in Wichita by the time a funeral came around if Betty's timeline is to be believed of 9 months to a year. But basically anyone else could show up if they knew Don was going to be there, to support him and his children. I could see Peggy & Roger for sure, maybe Joan, maybe even a guy like Ken.

I think if there's a return for Don, to be able to accurately tell the story, it has to include the funeral at least in some way, since if he did go back to NY, it would be to take care of the children and raise his family. Maybe they wouldn't spend too much time on it, but I'd have to think a funeral would have to be either a scene, or at least acknowledged.

It's basically one of 2 things...either Don completely checks out and never looks back on his past ever again, or he goes back to raise the children.

Considering he has been keeping up with the kids on the road as we saw last episode, I'd have to think he goes back to the children, as he doesn't want to leave them behind even while he is leaving his professional life behind. I don't see Weiner having him just completely shed it all.

Because to truly shed it all, he'd have to knowingly leave his children in the custody of their step-father, and also know that Betty had cancer/died/etc....I just don't see him leaving all of that.

He wont be able to continue driving around the country, of even arriving at a destination AND also have the relationship with his children he currently does. So either he goes and gets them, goes back and lives with them in NY, or he just never looks back.

Are we sure Pete's deal is final? Duck was pretty wheels off maybe something falls through. I hope not as I liked his ending but if it does it may be Pete going out the window.

That would be pretty cheap of Weiner to have such a heartfelt moment in the penultimate episode, that included so much screen time building up to Pete and Trudy getting back together, only to have the job get squandered and him jumping from the window. He wouldn't do that.

No chance in hell that happens. Pete is going to Wichita, reuniting with Trudy, and moving on.

Good point above about his kids....When he hears Betty is dying he's either going to a) say screw it, Henry can raise them or b) see it as a life changing moment to focus on what is important. I think b is much more likely, but who knows the details around that decision. Sally is pretty much approaching college age so its really him and the two boys.

Love the funeral idea.

I don't know that Pete's new position is in the bag. He hasn't accepted yet or seen anything in writing. It would be typical Pete for this to blow up in his face. Remember GM? Plus, Duck is an unreliable drunk and if I were Pete, I wouldn't trust that everything had worked out until there was some money in my pocket.

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I don't know that Pete's new position is in the bag. He hasn't accepted yet or seen anything in writing. It would be typical Pete for this to blow up in his face. Remember GM? Plus, Duck is an unreliable drunk and if I were Pete, I wouldn't trust that everything had worked out until there was some money in my pocket.

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I'll say again what I said a few posts up...

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That would be pretty cheap of Weiner to have such a heartfelt moment in the penultimate episode, that included so much screen time building up to Pete and Trudy getting back together, only to have the job get squandered and him jumping from the window. He wouldn't do that.

No chance in hell that happens. Pete is going to Wichita, reuniting with Trudy, and moving on.

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I just think that would be incredibly cheap at the end of the series. Think about how much time and emotion was built into Pete & Trudy in the penultimate.

If something like that were to happen at the very end to devastate Pete, it would have been a build up for a while on a move, not something we learned about in the penultimate finale.

That storyline seems more plausible if we were midway through season 6...but this is the end. Stories are wrapping up for characters. That would just be so far out of left field to introduce a massive storyline like that in the penultimate, then one week later say "haha nah, nevermind. Sucks for you Pete!"

Any chance that nobody has heard from Don in ~a year or whatever it is and then he shows back up in NY for the funeral>?

I'm sure that's possible, and if there is a funeral scene, maybe that's how it happens.

But in the end, what will happen will be a complete 180 from anything we're discussing, and we'll all look like idiots come Sunday night.

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But in the end, what will happen will be a complete 180 from anything we're discussing, and we'll all look like idiots come Sunday night.

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This.

I think Betty's death is throwing a lot of this off. Will be very interesting how they deal with it. Either real time or in the past. I would still think Don would come back for his kids, but maybe he'll think they're better off with Henry.

I'm excited and sad for Sunday all at once.

I read on one of the sites that step-father/custody laws were a lot different in the 1970's, so I don't know how easily they would just "go to Henry."

That's the only thing that is keeping me in the camp that if we even see a decently current finale of within a year's time, and if it goes as far as Betty's death, then we'll see Don take the kids and it'll finish on that path.

It could go way ahead in the future, and treat this as an epilogue(not likely IMO), it could pick up as soon as Don gets on the bus, and simply not make it to the time of Betty's death, or it could include the timeline that crosses over with Betty's death.

3 different timelines Weiner could go with, and all 3 would create completely different endings, IMO.

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I read on one of the sites that step-father/custody laws were a lot different in the 1970's, so I don't know how easily they would just "go to Henry."

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if Don has disappeared, Henry taking custody becomes much easier.

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I read on one of the sites that step-father/custody laws were a lot different in the 1970's, so I don't know how easily they would just "go to Henry."

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if Don has disappeared, Henry taking custody becomes much easier.

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Well yes. I guess I just mean in general, what we know so far is Betty has terminal cancer and Don has continued conversation with his children, so if he continues that, he'll be expected to take custody

Man I'm gonna miss this show

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I like the idea of the show ending with Betty's funeral. As one of the blogs posted earlier in the thread alluded, Don could spend the night before flipping through old photos of her and the kids on the Kodak carousel.

And since I'm pretty sure we'll never see another epic Don Draper client presentation, wouldn't a eulogy be the next best thing? I could see Henry making some brief, politically correct remarks and then turning things over to Don for his thoughts on life, death, love, and priorities. And we'll all gather back here on Monday morning and at least one of us will swear it was the single best monologue ever delivered in the history of television.

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Damn. That would be quite the ending.

Here is what I know: no one on this thread will get it right.