Mad Men’s Finale and the Making of History
Abstract
This paper argues that the main purpose of the final arc of the series, from episode 85 to episode 92, is to end Don Draper as a character. It’s the end of Dick Whitman’s journey as Don Draper and new beginnings for Dick and all the other characters of the series. But most importantly maybe, it is also for the viewer the moment to go back to reality with a real ad from 1971, ironically selling Coca-Colas and hippie culture as “The Real Thing”, when the point of the entire series has been to nuance and complexify our memory of the Sixties as a mere “cool kids and rock’n’roll era.”