Mad Men Finale Explained by Jon Hamm

The following are some salient facts about the finale of the television series titled Mad Men. And they come straight from the horse’s mouth, that is Jon Hamm spoke about them in an exclusive interview.

Everybody knows that Jon Hamm plays the quintessential Don Draper, the ad man par excellence in Mad Men. The era that is shown is the 60s and 70s when the whole world was watching as a series of revolutionary acts took place. And while Don Draper /4/be in control on the outside, deep down inside he is as insecure as an undertaker at a costly funeral. 

The finale shows the dude finding himself in California after the end of a long journey of existential discovery. When he arrives at his destination, his face breaks out into a devilish grin of satisfaction. He has literally found himself. The scene changes to a Coke advert and one is left perplexed as to whether Don Draper was responsible for the this ad campaign or not. 

Draper had led a double life as himself and as Whitman, a man who had engaged in identity theft. But now he gets to slough both those alter egos as a snake sheds its skin. In a one-on-one interview with NYTimes, Jon Hamm spoke at length regarding the finale of the Mad Men series. He said that the Coke commercial scene was a bit puzzling, but it was meant to be that way. The fixation of meaning was something that was deconsctructively avoided in this context. 

Hamm reiterates the fact that Draper is shown as a confused personality who is trying to avoid the void within. He faces crisis after crisis and is in a struggle to get out of the self-created absurdist universe of influence he finds himself in. The strangeness and anomie of the situation forces him to take an epic journey and he finally finds bliss as an ad man. This is what he was meant to be in the first place. 

The nutcracker of an experience that Don goes through leaves him a changed man. And at one point a man he knows says to him that the average male has had three very important women in his life who have left an indelible impression on him. This seems to be pop psychology although it could be true in the end. As for the other characters, they have their individual fates and life narratives. Peggy and Elisabeth are included in this. 

The response of the audiences to the finale according to Jon Hamm was that it was a bit lukewarm. As for his future after the end of the series, well, the world is full of empty sets. So Jon will hopefully find alternative work in another setting and earn some extra dollars in the process.