My favorite line in the Season Three Mad Men finale, "Shut the Door. Have a Seat," is one that doesn' t make much sense out of context, but at the point it arrives within this singularly upbeat episode, it causes a smile even upon repeat viewing. It's said by Don Draper when Lane Pryce, having been offered a partnership in the new firm if only he'll fire the first three partners, says, "I imagine it's worth considerably more than that." Don's eyes light up as he says it: "So now we're negotiating."
If, as creator Matthew Weiner says, every episode of Mad Men is meant to be a different genre, this one is the caper movie. Sure, it has it's melancholy counterpoints, most notably when Don and Betty do their typically terrible parenting job in explaining their impending divorce to the kids, certainly in the flashbacks to Don's father's farm failure and accidental death, which are much of what goads him into taking decisive action and set the caper in motion. There's a scary late night fight scene with Don returning home drunk, having just learned from Roger of Betty's new paramour, her "lifeboat," Henry Francis, is another classic of physical acting between Jon Hamm and January Jones, at her best. But most of all there's joy, and I'd put the relief of seeing Betty on an airplane to Reno in this same category.
Joy is an emotion missing from so much of Mad Men and hard-won when it comes, typically offset by tragedy, like the Season One closer when Don gave the triumphant, moving, instantly famous Kodak Carousal pitch, only to arrive home too late to spend Thanksgiving with his family. The success of Don reuniting with Betty at the end of Season Two was fraught with the tension of the Cuban Missile Crisis, playing over the a.m. radio as they reached out to hold hands across the kitchen table. But this time Don takes all the sturm und drang of the season and boils it down to his biggest move yet, leading Bert, then Roger, then Lane and ultimately four others to break away from PPL just as their fates are being sold to the huge corporate advertising factory of McCann Erickson, to take the biggest gamble of their lives and start Sterling, Cooper, Draper & Pryce.
There's the gathering of the team, like a Danny Ocean movie (most moving when Don apologizes to Peggy), the jaunty, jazzy score that kicks in as the team begins taking what they need from the old office, working quickly over the weekend to avoid getting caught or leaving behind anything important for client continuity. There's the breezy conspiratorial smiles, the sense that everyone chosen has a part to play, and the scrappy new beginnings, if one can call a suite at The Pierre hotel "scrappy."
Most of all, there's the triumphant return of Joan. She's re-introduced with the reaction shot of the team hard at work, looking up as the camera tracks in on them, then the joyful-to-tears reverse of Joan striding in, wearing black slacks, no less, list in hand, already planning all the infrastructure steals and moves they'll need to make it work. Following it up is the equally gratifying moment of Don kicking in the locked door to the Art Department, with only the continued absence of Sal making it just a little wistful.
As for where the show picks up, one guesses it will be somewhere far enough in 1964 that there will be a new office, albeit not nearly the size yet of the old place, perhaps as early as February 9, 1964, the night The Beatles first appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show and the 1960's began shaking off the ache of JFK and kicking into gear. There will be reversals, losses of clients, reaches for bigger fish, money pressures, renewed personality clashes, old addictions and new temptations. Maybe Betty will find Henry Francis less than she imagined and want Don back, although one hopes there that a constant retread cycle in our viewing future. Maybe Don will take Peggy for granted again, maybe Pete will feel under-rewarded again, maybe Bert will die or Roger take up with Joan and even lose the next half of his fortune in a divorce from his second wife.
If nothing else, the stage is set for SCD&L to represent the new age of advertising that succeeded the Sterling Coopers of their day, as the medium exploded with creativity, visual pleasures and a savvy wit that matched the rocketing cultural changes of the times.
It's been a great first three seasons, but if the 1960's themselves are any guide, the best is yet to come.
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