Mad Men - "Waterloo"

Oh, Bert Cooper. What a man.

Due to AMC's amazingly irritating scheduling choices, I've sort of forgotten that this is the final season of Mad Men. Sure, there's been some sense of finality, but it didn't come into full force into this weeks' mid-season finale, which made it clear that we're finally coming to the end of our journey through the lives of the workers of Sterling Cooper (Draper/Pryce/& Partners). Mad Men is a show that has always done such a great job of acknowledging and interacting with its past, so it's not surprise that so much of "Waterloo" (and, really, this season as a whole) has felt like both a celebration of what came before it and a declaration that things are about to change. "I thought things were finally getting back to normal", Peggy says about halfway through this episode. And, really, they were. Don's back at the office, seemingly working his way back to some sort of respect. His relationship with Peggy has mended, and his relationship with Megan was...still there. and business seems to be returning to its usual course of action. And then, Bert Cooper dies and then comes back to life in a full musical number. That's Mad Men for you.

Let's back up a little, of course. Bert Cooper's death is perhaps the biggest indicator that the story of these characters is about to reach its endgame. Long the bedrock of the origins of the company and the old game of advertising, Cooper represented someone each of the agency members could aspire to be. He was basically a statue at this point, sure - never technically contributing much to the company but always there to be either a model or a warning sign for the future, depending on how you look at it. Cooper and Don's relationship is one of particular interest - he was extremely high on Don in the early seasons, even choosing to overlook the sketchy details of his past back in Season 1's "Nixon vs. Kennedy". But as the years went on, Cooper seemed to grow increasingly frustrated with him, irritated at the way he did everything in his power to subvert and overthrow the rules of the game. So what does it mean that, following his death, Don hallucinates Cooper putting on an elaborate song and dance to "The Best Things in Life Are Free?". Perhaps part of it is Matt Weiner's middle finger to the entire concept of  a "mid-season finale", but more than anything, it seems to be a warning sign. Cooper was a symbol of what Don aspired to be - a successful man at the top of an advertising agency, leaving behind a legacy of fortune and goodwill. And yet, here he is, after death, serenading Don about how the best things in life are free and not to sign your life away - right after Don signed a five-year contract with an agency that a few days earlier was trying to get him fired. Don has been heading down a path of loneliness. But maybe it's not too late to turn that path around. Maybe it's not too late for any of these people to turn that path down. Sure, this merger is going to give them a lot of money. Sure, Peggy's brilliant pitch to BurgerChef (which, by the way, I don't think I've ever been as proud of a character as I was for Peggy in that moment) will likely earn her a lot of credibility and respect that she's been vying for since the day she started at Sterling Cooper. But at their core, so many of these people are still undeniably disappointed. Joan is understandably thrilled at the prospect of giving her son a great life despite the lack of a father figure in his life - and yet, she can't help but feel disappointed at the way she's failing to live up to the expectations she set for herself. Peggy can't help but see the ghost of what could've been in her neighbor Julio, a boy who looks up to her as the mother she could've been nine years ago. (Thank God she didn't, though, because then we wouldn't have gotten that BurgerChef moment). Don may still have his charm and his skills, but he's now failed at two marriages and his relationship with his kids is certainly not what he'd like it to be (even as Sally seems to be increasingly looking up to him again, rejecting the hot jocks' cynicism and going for his idealistic brother with a telescope). These people are a long way from happiness, despite all of the money and good fortune that might be coming their way. But they can still achieve happiness. They just have to listen to Bert Cooper. The moon belongs to everyone, and the best things in life are free.