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In the near final scene of the season finale of Mad Men, Don Draper (Jon Hamm) sits cross-legged with the Pacific Ocean behind him. He looks content, cleansed, and rejuvenated. His eyes open wide; he looks directly into the camera and smiles (a bit arrogantly), chanting “Ohm” as the cult guru instructs the congregation to “embrace the new you.” Perhaps that is exactly what Don Draper is doing. He is bidding farewell to his old, original self, Dick Whitman and embracing Don Draper 2.0, the new and improved version, the type of person that crosses a room to give a sad and lonely man a hug, but knows how to sell ice to an Eskimo.

In an earlier scene, as Dick Whitman, clad in jeans and a flannel shirt, he stares west into the Pacific Ocean, letting the sun’s rays cleanse him of his painful past. He appears in profile, his hair windblown, slightly askew from his confident and charming self. Don next appears on camera sitting cross legged, chanting to himself facing away from the crystal blue waters of the Pacific Ocean. He is dressed more handsomely in a pressed white button down shirt and clean khaki pants (call it hippie chic meets Madison Avenue) with his hair combed into place just the way he wears it as Don Draper. Rather than embracing the identity he was born into - Dick Whitman - Don looks forward. He literally sits with his back to the Pacific Ocean, turning his back on California and the roots of his tortured memories: from his childhood to his broken relationship with Megan.

Arguably, the implication is that Don Draper will return to McCann and create his swan song - the “Buy the World a Coke” campaign, which in reality proved to be one of the most influential and moving advertising campaigns in history. Even the chart topping song “We Are the World” was inspired by this campaign. Numerous clues and references suggest that Don’s fate aligns with this prophetic future. Peggy acts as a harbinger of Don’s return to McCann and his winning of the Coke campaign during their phone conversation earlier in the episode when she tries to convince Don to return to his life in New York City. She assures him that McCann will understand his disappearance, that it has happened before and that he could undoubtedly work on Coke (one of McCann’s biggest clients). In the first season’s episode “Shoot,” Jim Hobart offers Betty a Coca-Cola modeling job, which she then loses when Don turns down a job offer at McCann. In the second to last episode of the season “The Milk and Honey Route,” Don offers to fix a coke machine while staying at a remote motel.

In a poster released earlier this year in connection with the final season, Don is seated at his desk, looking out towards an unknown horizon with a Coca Cola can on his desk. Given that he usually can be seen with a highball, this image hints at a burgeoning idea that Don will soon bring into fruition. Indeed, as Don smiles knowingly into the camera in his final scene of the series, it appears that he has just come up with an explosive idea - the campaign of a lifetime. The scene cuts immediately to the Coca Cola commercial, with an array of smiling faces on a mountainside who look eerily similar to the members of the California cult. The singers represent a diverse cast of characters - young and old, women and men, various ethnicities - much like the yogis sitting beside Don as he chants “Ohm” into the camera. The camera pans to a blonde girl who looks quite similar to Anna’s niece, with blonde straggly hair, freckles and hippie-like clothing. Another young women in long braids with red ribbons is dressed almost identically to the girl at the front desk who Don approaches earlier in the episode when he is trying to leave the compound after Anna has absconded with his car.

This is one theory of many, but it seems consistent with the other storylines in the show. They are inconclusive. Mad Men follows a group of individuals and their stories during a period of time in their lives. Just like their lives, the answers aren’t readily apparent, it doesn’t simply end when the camera fades to black. They continue even if we can’t see them.

Check out the iconic Coke ad here: