Entertainment

Matthew Weiner's Worrisome 'Mad Men' Hints

by Lia Beck

Anyone who has seen an "On the next episode" preview after watching Mad Men knows that the show is notoriously secretive when it comes to giving out any information. These previews are usually just a bunch of people saying "okay" in various tones while ominous music plays. The show's creator and the man behind all of this secrecy, Matthew Weiner spoke about Mad Men 's final season in an interview with Buzzfeed. Weiner kept his usual cautiousness about giving too much away, but still, the things he mentioned will cause worry for any fans. If you watch the show, you've been concerned about how Don Draper will end up for years now and Weiner's thoughts, though more mysterious than concrete, just bring on even more anxiety.

One of Weiner's most nerve-racking mentions is his love for the end of The Beatles' Abbey Road .

I just always loved that the album actually ends, almost like The Sopranos did, in the middle of a song. It’s just, 'Cut!' You know, that last note of “Her Majesty”? So I just admire it in artistic expressionism, looking at wrapping up the show. I’m writing an ending, and it will, whether I like it or not, frame the entire 92-hour experience of the show in some way. So, I was impressed with how the Beatles dealt with that responsibility.

If this made you think, oh god, it's going to end ambiguously, I right there with you. Is Don Draper going to have a heart attack at 11:59pm on New Year's Eve 1969 and we'll never find out it he makes it? Better question, am I going to have a heart attack as the final season draws to a close because ahhh so much pressure?!

The most recent season ended with Don finally opening up about being raised in a whore house. The interviewer asked Weiner if Don has freed himself and, you guessed it, Weiner's answer is vague yet terrifying.

One of things that I’ve been interested in this whole time is, OK, so what are the consequences of that? Not just, What happens next, but just because you feel different doesn’t mean that change is going to happen to everyone else... There is the reality of ambition, money, these things in our life that are material, and then the other part of our life: the internal world and the immaterial world. We’ve sort of investigated that on some level in the past, but this last season is really, really about that.

So Don Draper doesn't change? Or he changes internally, but not externally? Is he becoming a Buddhist?

Weiner finished the interview by explaining what people should expect from season seven "I think they should expect, as much as they can, to see our version of resolution. But what I’m really interested in is the last chapter, not in these people’s lives, but what we know about in these people’s lives."

Isn't the last chapter of what we know about characters' lives the definition of every television series finale? I think he means, while we might feel that, for example, Don Draper gets some sort of internal resolution about his past life, that doesn't mean he won't be completely resistant to ugly 70s suits. Am I right?

What I do know for certain is that this show will be so much more fun to talk about when it's actually airing and the conversation isn't just based on Matthew Weiner's insanely sneaky way of speaking.

Image: Michael Yarish/AMC; Michael Yarish/AMC