.....Honestly? I think people are overthinking this.....I could be wrong......

Maybe I'm a complete simpleton, but "Blowing up bridges behind us" seems like a very Don Draper thing to say.....it's practically his mantra in terms of how he has lived his life up until now, and is kind of the essence of brilliant advertising, also.

"Pretend we know what 1963 looks like....."

As so many on this forum have been wont to intone: "Don Draper has a life that moves in one direction - (forward)."

.....There is an echo in here.

It is just the ultimate CYA move. Nobody can follow you. And, I agree with Dry, you can't go back, either.

.....DavidM....Sometimes that's a good thing.....

I did not hear the " behind us " part.

When first meeting a man in a bar with the "Meditations" book, he is asked what he does for a living. Don replied "I blow up bridges..."

In the Sundays episode, during his "we know what 1963 is going to look like" speech, I thought he said ..."we are going to blow up bridges..."

Both got me to the River Kwai slant. Ok...maybe it was a stretch.

I have to agree about the River Kwai movie which was about the metaphor of blowing up a bridge to destroy your past actions/life. And also about vanity, which Don Draper has to rely on. He thinks being Don Draper is better than his true self. He pretends and pretends....

I think Don uses the term "blowing up bridges" because he has such total disdain for what he does, i.e., advertising. Even though he's good at it, he considers it shallow and non-productive work; even destructive at times. He just fell into it and had some success, and he'll stick with it until something better comes along, or something happens to make him move on; like his true identity coming out.

During the American Airlines pitch discussion, Don said "let's blow up some bridges" meaning to me, that by wooing American Airlines they were kissing the Mohawk Airlines account goodbye; giving up a sure thing for a "wink" as he said.

Despite his many faults, Don is a champion of the little guy, probably because in his own mind, he himself will always be the little guy, the outsider; despite the outward appearances to the contrary (his good looks, gorgeous wife, creativity).

I love that about Don...he always stands up for the downtrodden....

.....Gavin.....You are most probably right. I do not have the DVDs and have yet to review the two seasons in full.

And it's not a stretch at all..... if you go back a way (you can find it on the All Topics list at the top of the Talk page) you will see other people saying the same thing.

My take on his comments the two times was what I said, probably because I haven't SEEN Bridge on the River Kwai!

It's possible we are all saying the same thing.