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Let’s overanalyze these groovy promo shots for the last season of Mad Men
When we last saw them, our mad men and women were, for better or worse, unmoored. Sterling Cooper & Partners lost its patriarch, Bert Cooper. Don Draper may have lost his job. Peggy stepped into the limelight. Megan cut ties with Don and the East Coast. And America landed on the moon.
So where will our mad men be when we meet them on April 5 for the series conclusion? While there's little plot information to discern from these groovy promo shots, with more than six weeks until the premiere, it is our duty to wager a guess. Below, a few desperate attempts to analyze the plot points of the final season.
(Image credit: Frank Ockenfels 3/AMC)
Alone, drink in hand, Don seems to have found the only dangerous place to stand at this otherwise bucolic spring picnic. Don may be once again uncomfortably close to the water’s depths, but with the weight on his back leg, this casual shot reveals our protagonist will walk right up to the edge — death, loneliness, what have you — but he won’t go over it as the opening titles have always suggested.
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When we last saw Sally, she was having her first kiss with a younger boy, a friend of the family, after flirting with the boy’s older brother. Here, the two Francis women pose in synch in the foreground, leaving Henry and the boys behind. Perhaps Betty will also find herself smitten with another, younger, man, just as her daughter has.
Megan has fully embraced 1970s California fashion, even if the bright white lace gives her an angelic air. But in this "family" photo, she stands the farthest back, pressed up against a brick wall she could easily disappear behind. Megan may still be a present force in the last season, but it will be a fleeting one.
There are four promo shots featuring Don. In three of them he is either alone, or might as well be for all the interaction he has with the other characters in the frame. But in this one, he not only stares directly at Peggy, but also smiles at her. Peggy has been Don’s mentee, confidant, partner, and now successor. With legs turned toward each other, their mutual admiration is palpable, but while Don’s shoulders face Peggy, Peggy’s posture faces front. The torch has been passed and Peggy’s ready to run with it.
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Lauren Hansen produces The Week’s podcasts and videos and edits the photo blog, Captured. She also manages the production of the magazine's iPad app. A graduate of Kenyon College and Northwestern University, she previously worked at the BBC and Frontline. She knows a thing or two about pretty pictures and cute puppies, both of which she tweets about @mylaurenhansen.
