Matthew Weiner's End Game - Part 2

Read Part 1 of Matthew Weiner's End Game

Part 2 - Don's and Tony's Similar Trajectory and Similar Women

When Don Draper is introduced we see him living the city life with his artist girlfriend, struggling for ideas to pitch to a tobacco client.  It's not until the end of "Smoke Gets In Your Eyes" * that we discover Don has a wife, two kids and a house in the suburbs.  Don spends the next few seasons cycling through a load of (dark haired, independent, professional) women.  While surprising to see at the end of the first episode, we sort of accept this as the status quo and a sign of the times.

While his blonde wife somewhat complicity allows this behavior, Don's goes through a roster of dark haired mistresses including:

• Midge - owns her own artistry business
• Rachel Menken - department store owner
• Bobbie Barret - her husband's agent/manager
• Suzanne - teacher at Sally's school

Sound familiar?  Ton Soprano, another villain protagonist, philanders around in what viewers accept as "old ways" (but don't find acceptable).   Blonde, blind-eye turning Carmela Soprano also sat at home while her husband spent time with darker haired professional women**:

• Gloria Trillo - luxury car saleswoman
• Valentina - art curator
• Julianna Skiff - realtor **
• Sonya - high end Vegas stripper ***
• Dr. Melfi ** 
• And so on...****

While Tony and Carm separate at the end of season four (partially due to the unconsumated attraction between Carm and Furio) Don and Betty divorce at the end of season five (partially due to the unconsumated attraction between Betty and Henry).

After a season on their own where they live in their own versions of squalor and behave poorly, they both find themselves back in a home with a wife at the start of the season that follows (Don and Megan marry and Tony and Carm reconcile).  They then both spend a season keeping their vows, though tempted (Don's fever dreams, xxxx; Tony and Julianna Skiff).

Don seems to lose interest in Megan when she 1) leaves advertising which is is obviously good at and 2) helps her get a job.  Megan doing away with what Don views as a professional and independent life puts him back to his old ways.

Tony loses patience with behaving when he sees Christopher with Julianna in "Kaisha" immeiately regretting his decision.  He also catches hell from Carm following Christopher's movie premiere when she takes scenes in the movie for Christopher's mistaken impression that Tony and Adrianna slept together***.  Both serve to increase the riff between Tony and Christopher as well as create resentment within Tony.  As he sees it, even when he behaves, he is punished.  Shortly thereafter, Tony returns to his ways with a girl while he and Paulie are on the lamb in "Remember When."

The point is Don has followed a similar path as Tony and is about at the point where Tony was at the middle of Season Six: Part Two of The Sopranos. How he gets from the current point to the end point remains to be seen.  The biggest difference will be the role the 1960s plays in this shows.  The setting almost acts as character, like the Island on Lost.  A central tenet of the show has been to convey different characters reactions to both life events and current events.  The events provide the setting and conflict and the characters behavior so far will inform their reaction.  Which means we need to take all of Don's behavior thus far into account and predict how he will react to the upcoming era in the show's timeline, which is likely to be the setting at the conclusion of the series, the late 1960s and early 1970s. 

* Fun Fact - the episode title is also the episode title of an early Homicide: Life on the Street episode.  In the episode, from the early 90s, cops are still allowed to smoke in a government building, though they are considering a no-smoking section.  When I first watched this around 2005 it was jarring to see even then.  The episode also features cops fooling a suspect into thinking a copy machine is a lie detector, used again in the fifth season of The Wire, "More with Less."
 
** Tony makes this observation aloud in "Kaisha"

** He literally just "spent time" with her in this case, following Tony's new lease on life, and Melfi's rebuffs.

*** Possibly a real 'pro' in old profession

**** Two others meet the requirement halfway, Irina's dark haired but dependent on Tony and Svetlana is blonde but owns her own home care business...Tony's attraction to her starts when he sees her building a website herself

Matthew Weiner's End Game Part 1

Don Draper's taken a turn toward the unlikeable in the (likely) penultimate season of Mad Men.  It brings to mind another leading character who went down a similar path  in the show's final episodes, Tony Soprano.  The link is the Mad Men showrunner Matthew Weiner (also given writing credit on nearly every episode) who was a writer on The Sopranos 

Toward the end of the series, following the events of "Members Only" which begins to set up the finale, Tony had a come to Jesus moment which altered his behavior for a time.  However, he slowly forgets his new lease on life and devolved into more and more unsympathetic behavior as the series finale drew near.  Considering Matthew Weiner's own hand in Tony's journey those episodes, is it likely Don will follow the same path? 
 
Weiner is credited on eight episodes in the The Sopranos: Season Six (final season), including four each in Parts I and II.  These episodes feature some of Tony's most despicable acts:
Being on staff, Weiner no doubt had some hand in all or most of the scripts from that season, but this will focus on a few key acts which also happen within scripts credited to Weiner.  It's also possible the credits are provided on a rotating or semi-rotating basis.  The season can be viewed as two seasons, airing one year apart.

Part I
Members Only
Join the Club
Mayham (Weiner)
The Fleshy Part of the Thigh
Mr. & Mrs. John Sacrimoni Request
Live Free or Die
Luxury Lounge (Weiner)
Johnny Cakes
The Ride
Moe n Joe (Weiner)
Cold Stones
Kaisha (Weiner)

Part II
Soprano Home Movies (Weiner)
Stage 5
Remember When
Chasing It (Weiner)
Walk Like a Man
Kennedy and Heidi (Weiner)
The Second Coming
The Blue Comet Weiner)
Made in America

Following the shooting by Junior in "Members Only" Tony has a new lease on life.  Starting from his hospital exit in "The Fleshy Part of the Thigh", he appears to be more forgiving.  When a medic he accused of robbing him attempts to pay back the supposed money he stole, Tony waves him off.  During a garbage dispute, Tony looks for compromise citing "There's enough garbage for everyone."

Shortly after, however, in "Mr. & Mrs. Sacrimoni Request" Tony appears weak when he collapses entering through security at the wedding.  He also sees his colleagues' disgusted reactions to John's moment of weakness as the marshals return him to prison.  What follows is an example of a situation cited at the end of the series that leads Melfi to end their doctor patient relationship. (Elliot's assertion that sociopaths are not helped by therapy to get better, but helped to get better at committing crimes).  Melfi suggests that Tony do something to appear a decisive strong leader.  In response, Tony picks a fight with his muscle bound driver (who knows not to fight back) attacks him when defenseless and beats him into submission knowing he can't fight back.  Tony's taken on a lot of tough people but this is the first I recall a complete "innocent" * being on the other end of things.

* Meaning the character did not behave in a way to proximately cause the beating





"Soprano Home Movies" - Forcing/coercing Bobby, the most "innocent" of all the mobsters to execute a young father in order to grease an illegal pharmaceuticals deal the Sopranos negotiate with some Canadians.  Not only that, but he does from a position of bitter pettiness, being a sore loser after a Monopoly-caused rumble with Bobby earlier that trip

Chasing It - Tony completely alienates Hesh, one of his oldest and dearest friends.  THeir relationship deteriorates quickly once Hesh gives Tony a $200k loan to feed his recent gambling habit/losing streak.  Tony harps on perceived slights from Hesh, including insulting his heritage.  It never comes to a boil but upon Hesh's girlfriend's passing, Tony repays the debt with only a perfunctory condolence.  Clearly their long friendship is ended.  This was, for me, the most difficult and upsetting to watch.  Additionally, Tony wants to get his cut off Carmela's spec house, even though he doesn't need the money (aside from gambling with it) and knows the joy of t


Kennedy and Heidi - murders Christopher, admits to Dr. Melfi he feels relief at Christopher's death.  Then goes to Vegas, bangs a stripper and takes peyote.  He's even happier when his gambling cold streak appears to have ended.  So, Tony is having a good time as he gets worse. 

Tony did some terrible things in seasons 1-5.  He personally murdered people and he ordered other people to murder people.  He did it on a whim and he did it premeditated.  He extorts and manipulates people on a constant basis, but his actions in the final season resonate on a different level.  He continually "kicks the dog". As any NFL fan knows, animal cruelty is the worst act imaginable.

Some other actions of note:
"Johnny Cakes" Sells out a building in the old neighborhood to Jamba Juice, seemingly in conflict with Tony in the early seasons as he takes both Meadow and A.J. around to show them the neighborhood, specifically the old church.

"Kennedy and Heidi" In a separate storyline, Tony is dumping asbestos into the water supply.  Also has a crew of illegals working with asbestos without protective gear.

"Chasing It" Tony doesn't want to pay the relatively (to him) low cost to Vito's wife to relocate and start anew due to her son's troubles.  Instead he enrolls Vito Jr. in an obviously violent and ineffective "camp". 

It is pretty clear David Chase set out a path to completely alienate Tony from the audience and Weiner played a large part in doing so.


Part II - Coming soon