Mad Men: The Death of Don Draper
Jun 17, 2013 15:21:47 GMT -6
digifreak642 and Semi-bored torontonian like this
Post by affrosponge88 on Jun 17, 2013 15:21:47 GMT -6
SPOILERS FOR SEASON 6
Ever since Don Draper went on vacation, he has never come back. No, I'm not starting any "Don Draper was dead the entire time" theories, but instead am using the evidence at hand to support that by the end of the series, and possibly this season: Don Draper will no longer be employed by Sterling Cooper & Partners. In fact, let's start there.
A big part of the drama from this season came from: what are they going to name the new firm? Partly because this is Mad Men where even a t-shirt can spawn a thesis, but another reason is because it's actually pretty damn important. One of the biggest themes of the entire series is how Don Draper (and to an extent, the late SCDP) is losing touch with the times. Whatever name was chosen has to be a statement about the future, of where the company is headed next, and it makes perfect sense that Don is not part of that future. Roger notes in the season 6 premiere that life is nothing more than "a series of doors," and Don Draper is about to shut the only one that has any real meaning to him left.
It sounds basic, but let's look at Don's work performance this year. Has he ever shown up to a meeting this season prepared or on time? I can't remember a single time, and as the year progresses, he's also adding apathy to the mix. When he's at work, he's never really "there." His affair with the doctor's wife has made him miss more days than he would like to believe, and he made the biggest mistake of his career in "For Immediate Release," a title that might as well be referring to Don's placement in the company.
Merging with Chaough and Co. is an incredibly smart business decision but an even more risky personal career move. Don's been becoming decreasingly valuable to the company for awhile now, but that's been put on the fast track ever since the merge. The merge brings the biggest problem of Don's position now: he is not unique, and he is dispensable. This season has stressed that the most, with various characters taking on the different shades of Don Draper. Peggy Olsen quitting last year was the best career decision she could have made, now that we know what became of that. She's now in a position where she's the sole meaningful connection to both halfs of SC&P, so that when the bridge burns, she'll be able to take Don's position easily, appeasing to both sides of the company (and especially Chaough's). Pete Campbell's domestic life is following in the same suit as Don's, albeit on a more accelerated track (who wants to bet on how long it takes him to creepily land in bed with Clara?), and the season's biggest red herring turned out to be much more thematically important than we all thought, in the form of the mysterious Bob Benson.
The biggest problems with the theories on who Bob Benson was, was exactly that, they were focused on exclusively on the man himself. After last night, it is clear that Bob Benson's importance is not in his identity, but in his identity's connection to Don Draper's. Bob Benson is now a literal walking metaphor for how irrelevant Don is in his own company, and how oblivious he is to it. Like Peggy with his creative position, Bob Benson has stripped him of the only uniqueness he had left: his fabricated identity. Don Draper has become replaceable in every aspect of his life, so it's only a matter of time since that comes to fruition.
All this brings to light the fact that Don has always been living on borrowed time. In fact, I'd argue that Don hasn't shown up to work in years. Dick Whitman has. At least, certain parts of him. It's only now that he can't even keep up the facade he's leaned on far too heavily in the past. Ever since Sally opened up that door in "Favors," the only door a character had to obtain an actual key for (as far as what the viewers could see, I mean), she's opened the one door that was supposed to remain closed. With Don now a full-blown alcoholic (moreso than ever before), it's only a matter of time that Don Draper is forever "gone." Just like he muses in the season premiere.
You see, season six was never about the death of a living person... It was about the death of a deceased one.
All of this is to say: I think Don will get fired next week. Because Don Draper is nothing without his career. RIP.
