Season 7 Finale: Don Draper as Bodhisattva (spoiler)

So I just watched the whole thing for the first time (late to the party) and I can't get the finale out of my head.

In Buddhism the bodhisattva is someone who reaches enlightenment but instead of just staying in that state, goes back into the world to share what they found. They don't check out, they re-engage. That's Don at the end.

Leonard's monologue at the retreat is the breakthrough. Don finally hears someone else describe exactly how he's felt his entire life, invisible, unloved, disconnected and realizes he's not uniquely broken. He's just being human. Something cracks open in him in that moment.

But he doesn't stay on the cliff. He goes back to work and writes the Coke ad. And not just any ad, but an ad about universal human connection and belonging. The exact thing he spent seven seasons unable to feel himself.

Just like the bodhisattva doesn't escape the world. He re-enages with and serves it. I doubt that's what Weiner was thinking specifically but it's what I got from that episode.

Anyhow, I slept on this show for years and it's now one of my top 3 favorites.