‘Mad Men’ season 6 spoilers: The latest incarnation of the Sharon Tate – Megan theory
For a show that is continually as frustrating as “Mad Men” can be, we have to give Matthew Weiner and his team a little sliver of credit at the same time. We don’t know what other show out there would really yield itself to the same sort of rampant speculation as this one has.
Take for instance last week, when the show first ventured into territory that Megan Draper could be Sharon Tate based on the shirt that she is wearing in the attached image, along with the parallels between her as a budding young actress and Jessica Pare’s character. There was some evidence there, but it could also be either misdirection or just flat-out coincidence.
This time around, the theory that we are looking at is one that was first brought to our attention by Dustin Rowles over at Uproxx, and it’s an interesting one. Megan may already be dead, and what we are seeing at this point is some sort of illusion of her alive. There are some interesting suggestions made in this article, including analysis of the words Megan says to Don during his hallucination in the episode. The word “home” seems to be particularly worth noting, as is the fact that Megan is joined by a dead relative of Don’s during the dream, and is gone when he wakes up.
In taking our own spin on the theory, think about this: Police, riots, and street violence have been a recurring theme for weeks. We saw the home invasion, what happened with Abe, and even the discussion about the riots between Don and Megan. This is clearly building somewhere, especially as there has been a question about Don’s own mortality. Could Megan dying be the event to fundamental change something deep inside Don Draper?
From a television perspective, we must also look at two recent shows that pulled off a similar stunt: “Dexter” (with Edward James Olmos as the deceased), and “Scrubs” (with Brendan Fraser). One of the keys to figuring this out is always finding the moment when external conversations tilt. We haven’t seen Megan interact with anyone since wearing that famous shirt above except for Don, which to us suggests that if this “Megan is dead” theory holds water, she was either dead when he arrived back to New York City after the camping trip, or something happened to her while he was in Los Angeles.
As interesting as this theory is for now, we don’t completely buy the idea of her being already dead, though we do still think she could be later on. Why? She is still in the previews for next week, and this whole “being seen with Don only or in hallucinations” stunt would get old fast. Plus, wouldn’t someone have said something at the newly-named SC&P? The only explanation would be if nobody knew she was dead, and that seems very unlikely. The same goes for Don’s family.
What’s your take on this theory: Interesting, or just strange? If you want to check out a preview for Sunday’s new episode, all you have to do is click here.
Photo: AMC