- Peter asks Joan to make an unspeakable sacrifice to help secure the Jaguar account, Peggy prepares to make a drastic move in response to Don's treatment, and Megan's acting career begins to create tension with her and Don.
- Tension is rising at the firm as the date for making their pitch to Jaguar approaches. Don and most of the creative team are huddling in the conference room trying to get it right. Another complication arises when one member of the three man panel who will select the winning agency makes it clear that if they want any chance of winning, it will be necessary for Joan to spend the night with him. Joan scoffs at the idea but in the end demands a high price for her cooperation. Peggy Olson meanwhile decides the time may be right to get a job elsewhere. Freddy Rumsen encourages her and helps her get the word out. Megan meanwhile is excited at getting a call-back for a stage play but Don is only now realizing what that implies.—garykmcd
- Most of those at SCDP are preoccupied by the upcoming presentation for the Jaguar account, that is except Peggy who has been given the task of managing all the other accounts in the interim. Not working on the high profile and lucrative Jaguar account and an incident with Don makes Peggy turn to an old colleague for advice, which in turn makes her reconsider her future at SCDP. As the Jaguar creative team - which consists of Don, Ginsberg, Stan and a few freelancers - brainstorm for ideas, which don't come easily, Pete and Ken schmooze with Herb Rennet, Jaguar's head of dealerships and one of three on the advertising account selection committee. Herb implies that SCDP will get the account if Joan as his plaything is thrown into the package. Pete takes this information directly to Joan and to the partners, which he tries to spin in a manner of Joan doing whatever is required for SCDP to get the account. Each of the partners is affected differently by the news either by their own relationship with Joan or their own personal situation. Joan, on the other hand, has to decide how offended she will ultimately be by the request even made of her. On the home front, Megan's fledgling acting career is again a potential sticking point in her and Don's relationship.—Huggo
- Mad Men - "The Other Woman" - May 27, 2012
A very pivotal episode this week as the firm works to woo Jaguar, Peggy and Joan make fateful decisions about their future, and Don and Megan experience more growing pains.
Don is in the conference room with Stan, Ginsberg, and several freelance hired hands spitballing on the theme of "mistress," i.e. Jaguar is your "other car." Don takes a break.
Peggy comes over to ask him to sign some paper on Secor and he reminds her she's in charge of all ongoing business until the Jaguar pitch is done. Just then Joan shows up with lunch for the Jaguar team ordered by Roger: lobsters from the Palm. Peggy looks wistfully into the conference room.
Ken and Pete take the head of Jaguar dealerships out to dinner. He is one of the three people voting on which advertising company will get the business. They say they'll give him whatever his heart desires. He says his heart desires Joan. He essentially says if Joan spends the night with him they have his vote and if not, he can't guarantee his vote. He is, in a word, a scumbag.
The next morning Pete goes to Joan and says he's sorry to tell her this but explains what the Jaguar dealership man wanted. She is appalled. He asks her to deliver the "bad" news to the partner's as if it's her fault she doesn't want to her whore herself out for the business. He asks what it would take. She says she doesn't think the firm could afford it.
Pete brings it up at the partner meeting. Everyone is appalled, especially Don, who says no way, they can win the business without it, based on his creative campaign alone and he leaves in a huff. Pete points out that Don is only one vote. Everyone else is grossed out but they do want to see what would happen if they found the "right" number to "afford" Joan, even Roger. Pete suggests $50,000, essentially a 10 percent finder's fee, using their bonuses. Lane doesn't want to and then Pete says to ask to extend their credit line. Lane says he'll see what he can do. The others sign off on him asking her without telling Don.
Lane goes to Joan ahead of this offer and tells her not to take it... and instead hold out for a partnership and a 5 percent stake in the business, which will be worth much more than $50,000 over her lifetime. (If she's going to be a whore, well, it should be worth her while he figures.) He tells her three years ago when the firm was launched he settled for much less than he should have. She shouldn't do the same.
At home, Joan is confronted by her mother who continues to be a piece of work, pushing all of Joan's buttons.
The next day she goes to Pete with Lane's idea and says there's no negotiation and she wants documents by the end of the day since she can't guarantee results. Pete awkwardly tries to work it out and Joan tells him to figure it out, exasperatedly wondering if she has to do all of it. She asks which one the dealer is. Pete tries to say he's not bad. Joan points out that he's doing this.
Meanwhile, in other news:
· Pete's dissatisfaction is growing.
Pete reads "Goodnight Moon" to his daughter. Later, Trudy enters and he's cranky. He says he wants to get an apartment in the city. He says it's an epic poem getting home. He grouses about living in this "cemetery." She says she wants to raise their child in the fresh air and wishes another was on the way and they're not even trying. He says he's using all his energy putting his foot down.
· Peggy's dissatisfaction is growing.
Peggy, Harry and Ken have a speaker phone conference with Chevalier Cologne who want to pull their ad because sales have leveled off. Peggy comes up with a new idea on the spot changing the ending of the "Hard Day's Night" ad with the leather jacketed hero being chased by girls. In the new spot he is still chased but he's rescued by Lady Godiva on a horse. The tagline is something like: "the right woman loves Chevalier Blanc" and they would shoot it in Paris instead of London. The client loves it. Harry and Ken silently applaud her.
When they go to tell, Don he's in the middle of his Jaguar frustration and doesn't seem very excited. In fact, he talks about putting Ginsberg on the spot and Peggy balks since it was her idea, Don gets angry and literally throws money in her face telling her to go to Paris and do what she wants. It is demoralizing to say the least. Ken comes to her to console her and reminds her of their pact. She rudely calls the pact stupid and says to save the fiction for his short stories.
Peggy has lunch with Freddy Rumsen and discusses her woes. He tells her it's time to move on and says he can help. She worries and frets but he points out it is what Don would do in her shoes.
She takes him up on this and has a meeting with the guy from Cutler, Gleason, and Shaw that Don hates. He not only agrees to her terms, he offers her more money than she asks for. Her title will be Copy Chief and she will make $19,000 a year. (She had asked for $18,000). To top it off the guy sweet talks her and says her book was beautiful and moving.
· Don's discomfort with Megan's career attempts are growing.
He tries to bounce Jaguar ideas off Megan but she's preoccupied with an auditon for a big Broadway show. She and a friend go to SCDP because Megan wants to get pumped up -- literally -- by Don before her audition. He knows she's doing it for herself but he doesn't seem to mind. Meanwhile, her buddy Julia is crawling across the table in front of the boys in the conference room.
After the audition she's very excited to have gotten a callback and explains to Don if she gets the part she'll go to Boston for 3 months for rehearsals and out of town tryout previews. He's livid that she would just leave like that. She's mad that he never considered that she might actually make it since this is what making it means. She storms out. He yells after her to keep doing what she wants.
At her callback the casting agents ask her to turn around. Apparently, they didn't like what they saw because later she tells Don she didn't get the part. She asks how his Jaguar presentation went. He says they're waiting. "I bet you were great," she tells him. (He was, more on that below). He says he bets she was great too. She says the difference is she really wants him to be successful. If he forces her to choose between acting success and him she'll choose him but she'll hate him for it. He says he doesn't want her to fail. She says that's good because she's not going to.
Back in the office, while Megan's friend is writhing on the table, Ginsberg is more interested in the fact that Megan just "comes and goes as she pleases." This gives him an idea. He goes to Don. Jaguar has been presented as "the other woman" of cars, the mistress so to speak but they haven't been able to come up with anything good on that theme. Since the whole idea is wanting something you can't have to a degree, his idea is that Jaguar is. Tagline: At last, something beautiful that you can truly own.
It is sexist and offensive and totally perfect. Pete also loves it and tells Don that they've "removed all other impediments" to the pitch, meaning that Joan has signed on for the tryst, making them all pimps. Don is livid, he wants to win on creative, not Joan's back.
Don goes to Joan's house to tell her it's not worth it.
Unfortunately, he doesn't know it, but it's too late. She wasn't preparing to go out, as it looked to Don, she had already come home from doing the deed. And it looked pretty repulsive. The Jaguar guy gave her an emerald necklace. She doesn't tell Don this though, and says "I was told everyone was on board." He says he said no and they voted when he left the room. She says she understands what he's saying and says she's alright.
Don goes in and sells the hell out of Ginsberg's idea.
So it's a shock to him the next day when Joan enters the room as a "partner" when they get the good news that they got the Jaguar business. It's hard to tell if he's sadder that they didn't get the business solely based on his pitch or if they did get it because Joan spread her legs for the dealer.
One person isn't participating in the celebration: Peggy. She goes and gives her notice to Don. At first he thinks she's angling for a raise and is impressed that she's actually picked the right time. When she makes it clear that she's really leaving he gets mad and takes responsibility for every good idea she's ever had.
But, when she goes to shake his hand he softens and takes it and kisses it for a long moment. It's sweet and yet not. She grabs a few things from her office, goes to the elevator, takes one last look, smiles and leaves.
Contribute to this page
Suggest an edit or add missing content