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Meet the new Don Draper, same as the old Don Draper? Thoughts on Mad Men: Shut the Door, Have a Seat

Reading the various recaps and reviews of Mad Men around the internet, I'm struck by the number of different ways that people interpret this series.  I still readily admit that I've only seen 2/3rds of the series and still have to catch up with most of the second season but I think one of the strengths of this show is how open to interpretation it is.  A glance here, a throwaway line there and a sexual tryst over in the corner can mean so many different things on this show.  Rarely is a pipe just a pipe on Mad Men. 

For the last couple of episodes, I've been wondering who Don Draper is now?  Betsy has completely humbled and broken down Don Draper at home.  Conrad Hilton has played with Don, simultaneously embracing him and shoving him down to put him in his place.  His once prominent position at Sterling Cooper has been reduced to begging and borrowing just to replace an art director.  The once proud, man about town has become something new.  Actually, maybe he's become something old, more resembling his childhood self, Dick Whitman, and is on the road to becoming the man Dick Whitman should have been.

In the end, the third season of Mad Men has been about family.  To me, there's little that separates the suburban bedroom drama of Don and Betsy from the work-place drama of Sterling Cooper.  The main difference is the definition of family in both settings.  In the suburb of Ossining, Don is the head of the family.  He's the husband and the rest of the family is supposed to fall in line behind him.  In Sterling Cooper, he's one of a band of brothers and sisters.  While he's still a leader, there's a different reason for it.  In his actual family, he's presumed to be the leader because he's the husband.  That's just the way it is.  But when his family dissolves right in front of him, you can see him lose that powerful position.  He doesn't know what to say to his kids Sally and Bobby as Betsy tells them that Don is moving out of the house.  For once, the man who's job it is to know what to say to sell an idea or a feeling just doesn't have the words to talk to his own children.  What happens in Ossining is no longer his.  It's no longer under his control.  Justifiably, Betsy has taken that away from him with very little of a fight put up. 

Maybe it's the lessons of his marriage that drive Don into the next step of his professional life.  Learning the news that Sterling Cooper is to be sold and that Don will most likely be just another cog in a much larger corporate machine for the next three years, he begins planning and plotting.  This isn't the Don Draper who disappeared during his child's birthday party only to show up hours later with a puppy.  Nor is it the Don who gets conned and drugged by a couple of alleged draft dodgers as he's running away from home again.  In the past, when the going has gotten tough, we've seen Don run away and it looked so easy for him to do it again but something's different now.  Confronting Cooper about the sale, Don forcefully admits "I want to build something."  That's a different tune from the man who has always been ready to leave Don Draper's life at a moments notice.  But now at home and at work, Don isn't so much given the opportunity to run away as he is being shown the door and told get out.  Betsy has told him to leave, Connie has told him to leave and Don is sure that the new bosses will tell him, Burt Cooper and Roger Sterling to leave as soon as their contracts are done.  At the best, Don will just be another person bought and sold by the new company. 

Looking back on it now, it's funny how much trouble that contract caused for Don.  He didn't want to sign it because it tied him down to Sterling Cooper.  He never wanted a contract because he'd always have an opening to leave, to just walk away.  He always felt like that is what gave him his power.  The contract was just the first step towards Don having to make real and true commitments.  As we've seen by his infidelities, his marriage wasn't real but for some reason, that contract looked much more imposing to him than his vows had.  A three year contract looked to have a stronger hold on him than the vows "to death do we part."  And maybe that's why, in the end, Don has built a new family when his old family looks lost to him.

Make no mistake about it, the new Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce advertising agency is more of a family at this point than a business.  At the core, Don and Roger are true brothers.  They don't always get along but in the end, they realize how much they need each other.  Their road this season has been rough, with both of them wanting to cut off any contact with the other at various points.  It takes a lot for Don to basically come to Roger, hat in hand, and tell him that he can't figure out how to move on from Sterling Cooper without Roger.  As much as he needs Roger's money, he needs his expertise and probably even needs Roger's guiding touch.  Roger and Don are the yin and yang of Sterling Cooper.  In an earlier episode this season, Burt Cooper told Don that everyone wants to see "Martin and Lewis" back together again.  I've just got to say that seeing Don and Roger, sitting at a bar, talking about Don's marriage was a great scene and shows that no matter how much they argue and proclaim to hate one another, the two of them work so well together.  Martin and Lewis now have to build something.

Seeing Don, Roger, Burt and Lane set up shop in a hotel room perfectly reflects the new ad agency that they're setting up.  There's no front doors, no receptionists, no break room and no private offices.  There's only people; them, Pete, Joan, Harry and Peggy.  A lot of the online commentary so far as pointed out how Ken Cosgrove, Paul Kinsey and even Salvatore Romano are absent.  I loved the Monday morning scene, after Sterling Cooper has been cleared out by Don and Roger, as Ken and Paul realize that they've been left behind.  There's a reason that they're at Sterling Cooper on Monday morning while Peggy and Pete are with Don; they don't have the hunger or desire that Peggy and Pete have.  It's not just a hunger on a professional level but on a personal one.  All Peggy and Pete have ever wanted is a place to fit in, a place of their own and to be loved and appreciated as much as they want to love and appreciate others.  And really, isn't that what Don and Roger both want?  Don't they want to be loved?  Even Burt Cooper, who could easily retire, is driven by the fact that he doesn't want to left behind as a relic of the past.  Or Lane Pryce who doesn't want to be another cog in the PPL machine?  We may see more of Paul and Ken in the future but they'll never belong at the new agency as much as Joan, Pete or Peggy do. 

There's a strange parallel drawn between Paul and Ken and Don's own children Bobby and Sally.  With all of the maneuverings of the grown ups, it's the kids that are left behind, in uncertain positions.  In our final shots of all these characters, they've been left behind in the care of others, either in the uncertain arms of PPL, Sterling Cooper's British masters or in Carla, the loving housekeeper of the Drapers.  The parents are all gone and they've taken some of the kids with them in both situations.  Acrimonious divorces and separations have ripped these small worlds of Sterling Cooper and Ossining apart and further divided them.  In the end, Paul, Ken, Bobby and Sally are left questioning what could they have done better?  What could they have done to prevent this or to go with the parent that they want.  But in both situations, we see that there are innocent (or relatively innocent) sons and daughters left behind.

While the new advertising agency has an air of excitement and purpose, you've got to wonder about Betsy's future, abandoning her husband and seemingly ready to find protection in another man, Henry Francis.  Francis is everything that Don isn't, both in the best and worst ways.  Henry may never cheat on Betsy but he also won't be taking her to Rome, playing romantic games to spark up their love.  Henry offers safety but with little spark.  Maybe that's what Betsy needs now but how long will that satisfy her?  How long until she wants to be something more than Betsy homemaker?  At least Don occasionally offered her the opportunity to be desirable. 

Shut the door.  Have a seat.  Doors were definitely shut with this last episode but, interesting enough, not locked.  Roger tells Don not to bother locking the door at Sterling Cooper.  Is that somehow leaving the door open for the future?  Will Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce somehow make a return and buy up their old firm somewhere down the line?  Is the door locked behind Don and Betsy's marriage or is there still some chance of reconciliation there?  More importantly, with this new stage in his life, it's another chance for Don to redefine himself.  Will he begin valuing his relationships with his co-workers more?  With his family?  Don is now part of something, he's given himself over to other people in a way that he has never done before.  He's lost his father, his wife, his children.  How tightly will he hold onto his future?