The hidden meaning behind the 'Mad Men' finale

SEATTLE -- Sunday's series finale of "Mad Men" left some fans a little confused. Much like life, there were very few definitive conclusions, aside from the fact that Don Draper, the "Golden Man", had finally learned "The Golden Rule", and found enlightenment, presumably to go on and create the iconic "Teach the World to Sing" Coca-Cola spot.

"Mad Men" creator Mattew Weiner has said that he knew how the show would end from the beginning. If you pay close attention to the clues along the way, you see that he was dropping hints as to what was really behind this story all along. Weiner's attention to detail is impeccable. From the clothing, styles, decor, artwork, music, books, movies and television shows he includes, he's telling a multi-layered story. The story takes place primarily inside an advertising agency, and he is using subliminal messages to tell a parable about the meaning of life, to be sure, and the search for truth. It's also about the passage of time, and the carefully-laid plans we make for ourselves. It's about how hard we work to make our dreams come true, and how sometimes, despite that, it all comes crashing down.

At it's core, "Mad Men" was really about accidents. Two accidents in particular.

There are a lot of recurring themes that pop up in just about every episode of the series. Travel is the most dominant theme, and for good reason. The penultimate episode is called "The Milk and Honey Trail". That is an old hobo term for a rail line that runs through Utah. In that episode, Don Draper found himself stranded in a motel when his car broke down. In the end, he gives his beautiful, newly repaired Cadillac to a would-be young grifter who reminded Don of himself.

The episode ends with Don smiling contentedly as he watches his car drive away, while he sits at the bus stop, heading out on a grand adventure on the road. The date, according to the calendar in the motel office was October 2, 1970. On that day, a charter flight carrying members of the Wichita State University football team, along with administrators and supporters to a game against Utah State in Logan, Utah, crashed in the Rocky Mountains, killing 29 of the 36 people on board.

The series finale, "Person to Person", opens with Don "setting a land speed record" in the Bonneville Salt Flats of Utah. Topographically, it is the lowest point in the continental United States. Don then gets the news that Betty is dying, and doesn't want him to come home to care for the the kids because she doesn't want to "upset them". Don goes into an emotional tailspin.

Joan Harris, meanwhile, is making plans to start her own production company. The very last time we see Joan in the series, there is a large white calendar behind her of November 1970. There is a large pink "While You Were Out" note obscuring the date November 14. On November 14th, 1970, 75 people died when a plane carrying the Marshall University football team crashed while returning to Huntington, West Virginia from a game at East Carolina University. It is the single worst air tragedy in NCAA history.



Two plane crashes involving college football teams in the span of a month and a half in the Fall of 1970. Two tragic events. Dozens of strong, talented young men, black and white, struck down in the prime of their lives. There were administrators, elected officials, wives and family members on those planes as well. In an instant, the lives of those families were altered forever.

I picked up on many clues alluding to plane crashes heading into the "Mad Men" finale, and feared that there would be a crash. I think a lot of fans did. There would be a crash all right, but not a literal one. A metaphorical one.

Don is roused from his drunken slumber in his motel room by two men who say Don doesn't have to go, but he had promised them he would "stake" them on their trip to Los Angeles. The show on TV is "The Odd Couple". He is carrying a Penney's bag. James Cash Penney's department store was originally called The Golden Rule.

In nearly every episode, there are references to hills. Running jokes about "hillbillies". Countless references to blood. And beef. And bison.

In the finale, Don, who was a "football hero", and was called "a football player in a suit", shows up at Stephanie's house. Stephanie had “dropped out of college”. This was the place that Don bought for Stephanie’s aunt, Anna. The last time he was there, Anna told him that the next time he came, at Easter, they would go to Catalina Island, and "See the bison". There actually are herds of bison on Catalina Island. They were brought there for a movie back in the 20's, and have since bred and created a herd that numbers in the hundreds today.

The Marshall University mascot is The Thundering Herd. They play their home games at Joan C. Edwards Stadium. It's known as "The Joan".

There were three people named Harris killed in the Marshall crash, including running back Art Harris, the team's quarterback, Bob Harris, and Bob's father, Arthur.

On "Mad Men", Pete Campbell accepted a job by LearJet, and relocated his family to Wichita. There was a LearJet crash in May of 1970. You may also recall that Pete's father was killed in an American Airlines crash in 1962. Peggy Olsen told Pete at the time, "It's not statistically very likely for it to happen to two members of the same family."

After that crash, Sterling Cooper tries to win the American Airlines account. The staff was forced to work through the weekend, trying to come up with a strategy. At one point Don addresses the entire staff and makes a grand pronouncement about how they will proceed. "American Airlines is not about the past anymore than America is", Don announces. "Throw everything out. There is no such thing as American history. Only a frontier. That crash happened to somebody else." He is taking about a business strategy as much as he is the human condition: how to recover from a profound loss.

At first glance. It looks like pictures of animals, but look closely at the middle picture. Is that a fish? Or something else?



The Marshall plane crashed on approach to Huntington's Tri-County Airport, which is located in the Appalachian Mountain region. Two of those counties are Putnam and Lincoln. If you study the artwork on the show, you will notice triangles and vague images of planes and mountains in the abstract paintings. There are numerous references to Lincoln in "Mad Men". In fact, a poster for Lincoln Center is prominently placed behind Peggy as she has a pivotal phone conversation with Don towards the end of the final episode.



The Sterling Cooper ad agency was bought out by a British Firm called Putnam, Powell and Lowe.

Sterling Cooper was trying to get Topaz pantyhose into Marshall Field's department stores, which happened to be an account held by McCann-Erickson. Before McCann bought out Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce, they acquired another advertising firm called Marshalk.

In the 1950's, Dr. Jackson Powell convinced Frank Lloyd Wright to design Wichita State University's Department of Education building. Dr. Powell was a psychology professor at Wichita State. On the show, Roger Sterling once joked about "Frank Lloyd Rice", saying that his wife Jane's snooty friends hated it when he said the name wrong. Dr. Powell's wife was named Jane.

The Wichita State plane was one of two chartered planes carrying the team and supporters to Logan, Utah. The "black" plane arrived safely. The pilot of the "gold" plane decided to take a scenic tour of the Rockies, but flew too low in a "box canyon", and crashed into the mountainside in a town called Silver Plume, Colorado.

There are many allusions to boxes in the show, including a strange painting of boxes in Bert Cooper's office that was a central theme of one episode. If you recall, a few episodes prior, Don was handed a box lunch with roast beef inside, and then sat at the meeting at McCann Erickson and saw a plane in the sky. The jet's smoke trail crossed the Empire State Building in the form of a cross. After taking a long look, Don gets up, walks out of the meeting and heads out on the road.

There are countless mentions of "gold" in Mad Men. The series opens with the song, "Band of Gold." If you watch closely, every scene includes some aspect of gold, and a clock, watch or an element of time.

In the final episode of Mad Men, Stephanie struggles to deal with the loss of her son. Much like Don told Peggy in season one, in a similar situation, Don tells Stephanie that "she can move on" and it will be "like it never happened", Stephanie replies, "I don't think you are right about that."

The next we see Stephanie, she is coming to bed to go to sleep, a single light in the dark. When Don wakes in the morning, Stephanie is gone. Her bedding is balled up and there is no trace of her. She left, and Don can't get to her. That's when Don has his "crash". He confesses his sins to Peggy on the phone and then collapses. The counselor wearing a horseshoe necklace offers her hand, but Don can't get up. Shes asks Don if he "has taken anything", which sounds like a drug reference, but like much of the dialogue in the series, there is another meaning. Don, in fact, had taken another man's identity and life and it had finally caught up with him, just as he feared it would. Don had finally faced his truth. He took the woman's hand, headed into a group therapy session, and had his epiphany.

We are all crash survivors. We have all been damaged in ways large and small. We all need to figure out how to deal with it in our own way, and it takes time to recover.

At its heart, "Mad Men" wasn't really about advertising. It was about finding your own truth. Happiness is an illusion. Contentment is real. To be content is to be okay. And that's about it.