Oh man, that was a REAL THING? Hahahahaha.

This whole season feels like an epilogue. I'm not even sure why it was made, artistically speaking.

Eh, one last spin with the gang I s'pose.

My understanding was that Wiener burned his 'planned' ending last year and that AMC's decision to split the season and add more time in kinda messed everything up.

So to an extent, there is no reason it was made from a purely artistic standpoing - Wiener appeared to have told the story he wanted to tell. And really, Bert's death and the acquisition by McCann as last season's finale really would have been a perfect wrapup to the series.

This appears to be easy money for Wiener and yes, something of an epilogue. Hell, you could almost even call it fan-service for a guy that's almost as opposed to it as George Martin.

I'm on board to the end. I'm finding it fascinating that, while we spent so much time watching Don unravel from his own hangups, he's now unraveling through the world moving on. And how much it looks like success despite he discomfort. All of the Mad Men 'tropes' are similarly getting unraveled. The 'pitch that saves the day' falls on deaf ears, then gets pre-empted.

Me and the wife are waiting for the end so we can binge watch like we did with Breaking Bad.

We're already like 3 seasons in but have put it on hold for now.

My only regret is a show like Parks and Rec. I had but one year to enjoy the magnificence of Ron Swanson instead of the years I could have...

Now that McCann is putting Don on Co-ca Coooola, is this his work? Timeline fits.

<iframe width="650" height="395" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/1VM2eLhvsSM" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

I wondered about that - sure doesn't seem like Don though, does it?

He's just too damn cynical. Does 'carousel' Don really still exist? Seems unlikely.

But I figure that's just the kind of open-ended conclusion we're going to get. Does Don keep the Coke account? Does he re-discover his fastball and become a key cog at arguably the biggest ad agency in the world or does he slide off into irrelevance after the end of his 4 year deal?

Is McCann really trying to bring these guys into the fold or are they just trying to cut some expenses while they wait for those employment contracts to expire? With Roger and probably Joan, it's probably the latter. With Don, Pete and Ted...well that's an open question.

Well, it's no Patio

<iframe src="https://player.vimeo.com/video/14879858" width="500" height="375" frameborder="0" webkitallowfullscreen mozallowfullscreen allowfullscreen></iframe> <p><a href="https://vimeo.com/14879858">Hello Patio/Mad Men</a> from <a href="https://vimeo.com/user3863192">Patio</a> on <a href="https://vimeo.com">Vimeo</a>.</p>

5 key companies were mentioned in the meeting but only 4 actually by name, with Joan noticing that she wasn't given a nod towards a company while everyone else did. Is that 5th company going to be given to Peggy?

Were they teasing the idea that Joan's new boyfriend is a con man or something?

If that was intimated, I missed it. It seems un-Joan-like but I wouldn't be surprised to see Joan move to SoCal, get bored and open her own shop at some point.

I still can't figure out how that spot didn't just blast Sal right into being straight.

That chick kinda melts my brain.

Redditor made the comment in a watch / post-ep thread that he didn't believe there was a "Lisa" to book Admiral Pike's red-eye flight.

That's nonsense.

Weiner isn't going to introduce a character, with only a few episodes left, that destroys Joan's life.

:facepalm:

The AVClub writeup is fantastic this week:

http://www.avclub.com/tvclub/mad-men-time-life-218571