Don Draper passes through Wisconsin on way to “Mad Men” finale
“It’s time to leave the capsule if you dare,” David Bowie sang at the end of Sunday’s penultimate episode of “Mad Men,” as Don Draper did exactly that, passing through Wisconsin in the process.
In the episode called “Lost Horizon,” Draper and his colleagues at the now-defunct Sterling Cooper agency all had trouble making the adjustment to being absorbed by a larger agency.
The episode also made reference to Miller Beer.
“We just bought an entire agency in Milwaukee to get Miller Beer,” Drapers new boss tells him.
He added: “Miller Beer is coming in tomorrow for handshakes on their new idea – diet beer.”
“For ladies,” Don asks?
No, for men watching their weight, he’s told, in a clear reference to the introduction of Miller Lite, which was introduced nationally in 1975.
But while listening to another ad man in the Miller meeting wax rhapsodic about average Joes mowing lawns and drinking beers, Don has a moment of clarity. It was the same kind of poetic client pitch he was known for. So he leaves the meeting, taking his box lunch with him, gets in his car and drives to … Racine.
Racine was home to the waitress Diana, a tragic beauty hiding from her past, with whom he had an affair earlier in the season. She was a look-alike for a character named Rachel, whom Don discovers has just died.
When Don went looking for Diana in a later episode she had disappeared.
So in Sunday’s episode he drove to Racine in a silver giant silver Cadillac that could be mistaken for a space capsule, to find her. He arrived at her old address posing as a contest rep, telling the woman who answered the door that Diana has won a refrigerator full of Miller beer and that he needs to find her.
But when her husband, who is Diana’s born again ex-husband, comes home, he calls Draper a liar and sends him on his way.
While he’s on that way he stops to pick up a hitch-hiker, a hippie with a guitar and a knapsack who is on his way to St. Paul. “I can go that way,” says Draper, taking off his sunglasses.
And off they go. To the finale.
It is not the first time Wisconsin has received a shout-out on the show. In 2013, there was a reference to Beloit College, where a minor character attended school; the Milwaukee-based Koss headphones were part of a major subplot and there was a mention of the Green Bay Packers.
In the episode called “Lost Horizon,” Draper and his colleagues at the now-defunct Sterling Cooper agency all had trouble making the adjustment to being absorbed by a larger agency.
The episode also made reference to Miller Beer.
“We just bought an entire agency in Milwaukee to get Miller Beer,” Drapers new boss tells him.
He added: “Miller Beer is coming in tomorrow for handshakes on their new idea – diet beer.”
“For ladies,” Don asks?
No, for men watching their weight, he’s told, in a clear reference to the introduction of Miller Lite, which was introduced nationally in 1975.
But while listening to another ad man in the Miller meeting wax rhapsodic about average Joes mowing lawns and drinking beers, Don has a moment of clarity. It was the same kind of poetic client pitch he was known for. So he leaves the meeting, taking his box lunch with him, gets in his car and drives to … Racine.
Racine was home to the waitress Diana, a tragic beauty hiding from her past, with whom he had an affair earlier in the season. She was a look-alike for a character named Rachel, whom Don discovers has just died.
When Don went looking for Diana in a later episode she had disappeared.
So in Sunday’s episode he drove to Racine in a silver giant silver Cadillac that could be mistaken for a space capsule, to find her. He arrived at her old address posing as a contest rep, telling the woman who answered the door that Diana has won a refrigerator full of Miller beer and that he needs to find her.
But when her husband, who is Diana’s born again ex-husband, comes home, he calls Draper a liar and sends him on his way.
While he’s on that way he stops to pick up a hitch-hiker, a hippie with a guitar and a knapsack who is on his way to St. Paul. “I can go that way,” says Draper, taking off his sunglasses.
And off they go. To the finale.
It is not the first time Wisconsin has received a shout-out on the show. In 2013, there was a reference to Beloit College, where a minor character attended school; the Milwaukee-based Koss headphones were part of a major subplot and there was a mention of the Green Bay Packers.
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