Lindsey Green on Medium, writing about Mad Men’s Don Draper and D.B. Cooper:
Don Draper has been shedding Don Draper ever since the death of Anna Draper in Season Four brought him to tears over the loss of “the only person who really knew me.” From that point on Don Draper had no more reason to exist, so Dick Whitman went back to trying on other skins: dedicated husband, team player, mentor. As nothing fit, he began to go backwards: back to cheating and being absent at home and heartless at work. When he puts a dead soldier’s dog tags around his neck to get out of a life he can no longer stand, he’s gone as close back to the beginning as we’ve ever seen him in the series.
[…]
Whether the series ends with Don Draper at the airport requesting a one-way ticket, answering the question “May I have your name, please?” and pausing, only to respond, “Dan Cooper,” or the series ends in another fashion, one thing seems certain: Don Draper will be gone without a trace.
Holy crap, my brain hurts.
Update: To be clear, I don’t think Matthew Weiner would do this. But it sure is a fun article.