MovieChat Forums > Mad Men (2007) Discussion > Sal

Sal

posted 7 years ago by ADBruns
4 replies | jump to latest

Always wonder what happened to him. I feel like of all the characters, he's the one who got the least amount of closure. Given the times and the direction of his story, makes sense, but still. Was sad/funny. A few weeks ago I was hanging out with some friends who have recently gotten into this show. The last episode they had watched was Sal's final episode. We were in the car and they were chatting about how they were excited to see where that one went. And I'm all, "So, you know I'm not big on spoilers, and sorry to do this to you, but..."

[–] Thomasina 7 years ago

I feel like of all the characters, he's the one who got the least amount of closure.

I know that lots of people really wanted to see Sal come back onto the show and felt very strongly that his story was unresolved. I disagree with this.

While I agree that it was hard not to feel sympathy for Sal, and I like the actor who played him, I thought his story arc was complete as it was. Furthermore, I thought that of all the characters on Mad Men, Sal was the one who skirted closest to being a clichéd archetype instead of a fully developed character. His storyline ticked off all the expected, stereotypical boxes for a gay character living in the mid-twentieth century: deeply closeted (even, to some extent, to himself); married to a long-suffering woman who had no idea going into the marriage that she was just a "beard"; had fruitless, moony crushes on straight men; and ended up trawling for anonymous sex in a public park. Given that his whole storyline was a list of the most obvious and over-used possible plot points for a gay character of his time period, there wasn't much left that they could have done that wasn't also trite, hackneyed, and completely predictable.

[–] ADBruns 7 years ago

Agreed. I also feel like they had done what they could with that story. And it was definitely fitting for the times. But it was still rather abrupt. They could have given him another scene or two a few episodes later, just something to really show the finality of the character. Something so that my friends could've figured that on their own that he was done, instead of wondering (because I'm sure they're not alone in that). Could've been him coming in the office to pick up a few final things, or a throwaway line from another character about how he'd gotten divorced or moved away or something. The latter would be less likely though. Without internet and cell phones, people would then be less likely to keep in touch with a disgraced former coworker.

[–] Tyalt (280) 7 years ago

I thought it was interesting that he'd fuck anything with a swinging dick before that episode, and then all of a sudden he had a crisis of conscience.

[–] Catbookss (13664) 7 years ago

I'm not sure what you mean by Sal all of a sudden having a crisis of conscience. Can you expand on that?