It’s been over a decade since Mad Men concluded and cemented its status as one of the best shows of the peak TV era, but what happened to Don Draper? While chatting on the latest episode of Good Hang With Amy Poehler, Jon Hamm revealed what he believes happened to his iconic character at the end of the series.
What Happened to Don Draper After Mad Men?
If you need a refresher, the final episodes of Mad Men found the chain-smoking, hard-drinking, womanizing, advertisement guru walking out of the middle of a meeting and simply driving west. He ultimately ends up at a spiritual retreat in Big Sur, California and has an emotional breakthrough. The final moments find Don meditating outside, before he smiles, and the advertisement for Coca-Cola’s I’d Like to Buy the World a Coke plays. It’s left ambiguous, but many believe it implies that Don returned to McCann Erickson to create the iconic commercial.
So, what does Hamm think happened to Don?
“Lung cancer,” he responded.
Fair enough.
Hamm added that Don ended up at the retreat because he’d “lost this connection with his job, his family, his everything,” but he rediscovers that he’s really “an ad man” at heart. “I think he goes back [to the Manhattan firm],” Hamm explained. “He is a successful advertising executive and I think he finds happiness and peace. I think he connects with his children.“
Those final scenes were “super heavy work,” and Hamm recalled that he “very much felt the weight of the end of the show and the responsibility of, like, ‘Don’t f*** this up… This is the end of a very, very, very long story, and if you s*** the bed on this, that will be what you are known for.’” Thankfully, Mad Men did indeed stick the landing. Take that, Game of Thrones.
Mad Men is Still Great
I watched Mad Men when it first aired and loved it, but I’ve recently started rewatching it, and it still holds up. Fantastic characters, wonderful stories, and an interesting look at the era of the 1960s. What stands out even more on a rewatch is how layered the writing is, with small moments and quiet choices revealing so much about the characters. It’s stylish and entertaining, but it also has a real sense of melancholy beneath the surface, making it feel timeless. The show began streaming in 4K on HBO Max last year, albeit not without a few hiccups.
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