According to Deadline, Mad Men showrunner Matthew Weiner is taking Jon Hamm, Jessica Pare, and a small crew to Hawaii to film scenes for the show’s Season 6 premiere, a move that may or may not have been approved by Lionsgate TV, who produces the show and therefore controls the purse strings.
I’ve learned that the New York-set drama series is headed for a secretive two-day shoot on the islands. Sources say it will involve actors Jon Hamm and Jessica Pare, who play husband and wife Don and Megan Draper on the ad agency show. The two, joined by a very small crew, are expected to leave Sunday. As usual, Mad Men mastermind Matt Weiner is keeping things close to the vest, but I hear that the scenes will be part of Mad Men‘s sixth-season premiere. [Deadline]
As that blockquote says, details are pretty hard to come by right now, which isn’t exactly a surprise given Weiner’s obsession with secrecy. But if I had to guess, here’s how I imagine it will play out:
Don and Megan will go to Hawaii for what they think will be a nice relaxing vacation at Megan’s grandfather’s hotel, away from all the mainland drama, but then they’ll find out that his hotel is about to be bought out by a giant chain on the island and they’ll decide to round up the gang to try to save it by tricking Bert Cooper and the other attendees of an important bow tie conference to switch their reservations from the big chain to Megan’s grandfather’s hotel, which the gang is now working at for free in an attempt to help him make his next loan payment. Lots of hijinks. LOTS. Many involving wigs and/or awful fake accents.
But then they’ll find out that the plan to buy out her grandfather’s hotel was actually a nefarious plot organized by the big chain’s executives and her grandfather’s lawyer (who is a total weasel), so Don will foil it by making a fake deed that says a local Hawaiian tribe — who thinks Pete is a descendent of their legendary leader — has rights to the land BOTH hotels are built on, and catching the executives in the act of burning the deed. Bing bang boom, the good guys win, everybody learns important life lessons, and Pete convinces his devoted tribesman to go to work at Megan’s grandfather’s hotel so he can keep it afloat after the gang heads back to New York.
Because Pete is Screech.
