Tomorrowland

      With the season four finale of Mad Men looming like the last day of summer vacation this Sunday night, I started to look back at the most recent episode as well as forward to the next one.  Sterling Cooper Draper Price has been under crisis since losing the Lucky Strike account, and Don pulled the old Don-did-something-really-ballsy-and-we’ll-all-just-wait-and-see-if-it-works-move.
      It started after leaving the office one day and a chance encounter with old flame, Midge, in the lobby. They catch up a bit, and Don accompanies her to her apartment. She wants him to buy one of her paintings, but while she’s out of the room, her husband slips up and tells Don that she was so excited that she was finally able to track him down.  It turns out that Midge is addicted to heroin and struggling to get by.  Don hands her a wad of cash, takes a painting, and leaves. 
     Later, Phillip Morris cancels a previously scheduled meeting with SCDP and gives their women’s brand cigarette account to another agency.  The partners are obviously disappointed, and Don is furious.  He yells something about how they all smell of desperation, and that clients are taking notice.  
     Cut to Don in his dour Greenwich Village apartment, staring at Midge’s abstract painting.  He starts a new journal entry, “Why I’m Quitting Tobacco” and (of course) lights another cigarette.  In it, he explains that SCDP will no longer advertise for companies that sell tobacco, a product that never improves, whose users can’t quit, and causes sadness.  He goes on to explain that he views the termination of their relationship with Lucky Strike as an opportunity to sleep better at night. 

    We find out the next morning that Don ran the journal entry as a full-page ad in the New York Times.  The other partners, to their chagrin, learn that Don has sworn the agency off of all tobacco accounts.  They accuse Don of throwing a tantrum, and Cooper actually resigns, saying on his way out that they’ve all “created a monster” in Don.  Don defends himself by saying that he did something, and that he is the only one who has.  
     All of that news aside, the firm still has to begin making layoffs.  Those that remain, like Peggy, do their best to work while others sob and gather up their things.  The episode closes on Don opening the door to his office to another employee, the random employee going in, Don pausing at the door to contemplate the scene around the office, and finally entering the office to fire another man.
     I talked to a friend about Don’s ad in the Times and whether it really is just an ad for the firm, like Don said to the partners, or he really meant it.  I really think that our Don meant it.  For me, and I think for Don, ruminating over Midge’s painting and her situation are what inspired the journal entry.  I mean, when he found out about her addiction, he asked her why she doesn’t just quit.  She said something like “I can’t, its heroin.”  After that, even while Don handed her the cash, we got the feeling that any feelings of his pity for her were crushed by an overwhelming amount of disgust.  He saw what heroin did her and realized that he was selling addiction because of his and the company’s addiction to money.  This season, we’ve watched Don Draper’s signature habits catch up to him, and I think that just maybe we’ve seen him hit bottom. Maybe the ad was a turning point in Don’s character.  Are we going to see redemption become part of Don’s arc? Everything I know about Mad Men says no, but a guy can hope, right?
The title of next week’s finale is “Tomorrowland.”  When I found that out, something piqued my memory.  My first thought was of Disneyland, you know, the Magic Kingdom has a section that has the same name, or something like that.  That wasn’t exactly what I was thinking, so obviously I googled it, and through the magic of Google found what I was looking for.  “Tomorrowland” is a song from the film “An Affair to Remember” starring Cary Grant and Deborah Kerr.  Here is a taste of the lyrics:

There’s a wonderful place called tomorrowland
And it’s only a dream away
And the moment you get to tomorrowland
You’ll forget about today. You’ll be walking on clouds,
You’ll forget every care,
And your troubles, like bubbles, will vanish in air
Ask me how do you get to tomorrowland
Close you eyes, make a wish and you’re there

     That gives me some sense of hope for the season finale.  It’s going to take a lot more than a wish for Don to get there, but either way, I know I’ll be watching.