quote:
I took it as Don finally realizing that everything he felt was not something singular to him. I think he was relieved at that point. The guy was talking about how nobody really noticed him and that's exactly how Don was beginning to feel in this season. Sally was gone and didn't need him anymore, neither of his ex's gave a shite about him, he never really had any good friends, and so on. He didn't even feel like the big shot at work anymore...just look at how he was in that final meeting at ME when he walked out. He wasn't needed by anyone anymore. Not even the lowly waitress. I think that he finally realized who/what he was and he was at peace with it. He was no longer looking over his shoulder at the ghost of Dick Whitman or worrying about living up to the Don Draper name.

I had an epiphany that was on the tip of my tongue when I wrote my last post, but yours really clarified it. Leonard showing Don that he wasn't alone in feeling unwanted, unneeded, unloved, etc. was what Don needed to get to the place he described in the very first major pitch of the series (maybe the first pitch period)--the "toasted" presentation to Lucky Strike and how that pitch ends up. He essentially says that the fundamental human need is for people feel like they're "okay". Not exceptional. Not the best. But at the very least, okay. He felt that then. During the final scene when he and the rest of the hippies are meditating, it dawned on him that everybody up there was up there because they, like he, Leonard, and Stephanie felt like they were missing something or out of step--and therefore not okay. That center sold them meditation and idealism as a way to reach back to some nostalgic feelings of the peace and free love movements--something they felt.

He knew that the same feeling of okay they travelled all the way to California to get could be bottled and sold using those same themes.

This post was edited on 5/19/15 at 6:26 pm