In 1966 (not that much has changed here), it’s totally likely Pete thinks of Joan as sort of a ho already simply because she does so know how to work her sex appeal (unlike the “good,” but boring girls in his life), so he probably thinks it’s all the more convenient, but if the woman in question were anyone else, shit yeah, he’d find a way to do the exact same thing. (I’d love to know if he’d pimp out Trudy for American Airlines.) It’s not that Pete doesn’t respect Joan–I think he very much does–but her cooperation is a means to an end, and he’ll do whatever he must to seal the Jaguar deal. I don’t think he fundamentally sees her agreeing to sleep with the guy as much different than Roger getting shitfaced with all the alkie clients. At least Pete didn’t make half-assed reservations about the whole thing, unlike the other partners, who pussyfooted around with “how dare you!”s for a minute, only to ultimately agree in record time.

At the same time, I think it’s no coincidence that the show’s writers put the Joan and Peggy storylines in the same episode. We see two women faced with similarly difficult career decisions and who go about achieving them in very different ways, but in the end they’re really just playing two sides of the same coin. Joan knows and we know she can’t leave the agency to find a better position than the one she’s in at SCDP, like, say, Peggy can. She really does go through with the arrangement to not only take a huge leap forward in her career, an opportunity she would not have otherwise had, but also out of loyalty to the business she’s been with for 13 years. When Lane approaches her about the situation and considers that maybe they don’t really need the Jaguar business–before she knows he knows–she still puts on her professional hat and sincerely asserts that Jaguar is a game changer for the agency, even if she knows she’s got to sleep with a big fat greaseball in order to make it happen. On the other hand, when Peggy makes her decision to quit, she acts out of sheer personal gain and moves on to a rival agency, a knife which clearly twists in Don’s heart. I see both women’s choices as valid and necessary, but is Peggy’s so much more admirable than Joan’s? One quietly slips out the door, the other up to the table. They both make the tough decisions that they need to with the circumstances they are given.

I know I’m commenting way after the fact here, but in the season finale, my favorite part is the short scene in which the five remaining partners go to check out their new office space. The last shot in that scene, in which they stand in a line and gaze profoundly out the windows, the four men in their dark suits adopt masculine stances on either side of the powerful siren at its fulcrum: Joan in a signature red pencil dress and feminine stance. This is a beautiful picture of the new power dynamic.

I agree about Don’s visit to Joan – and we see it repeated in the season finale with the visit to Lane’s widow, who tells him exactly what she thinks of him showing up and trying to make nice.

This is a phenomenal rundown and very thoughtful, I wish you all did this for every episode!

I thought the same thing for a while, that it was cowardly and cheap and disingenuous for him to leave. But then I thought about it a little more and it seemed plausible for his character (narcissistic, increasingly disconnected from the workplace) to genuinely think his leaving would put a halt to the whole thing. Also, to be fair, it was Pete bringing it up. Pete! I’m still surprised when the other partners take him seriously about anything.

I did think that Don’s last minute visit to Joan’s apartment was kind of gross and manipulative, and infinitely more selfish than it was self-less, but I also have a constitutional distrust/dislike of men who try to meddle in the sexual decisions of women, whether it’s transactional or not.

As for Joan though: yay for making the most of a shitty work environment!

Did anyone else think that the Hare Krishna thing in ‘A Christmas Waltz’ was weird? I mean specifically the (ex?)prostitute black mailing Harry?

I do think there was something very sad about that inner dialogue. “I’m nearing 40, I’m a divorcee, a woman with a baby will never get married again, my mother is a nightmare, my life is broken, my bosses think I’m a whore, I work with Pete Cambell oh god how can my life get any worse” ect. But I think the prostitution itself could, if the writers handle it well, be her phoenix moment. Joan wiggling into the all male, all gray partner’s meeting in her turquoise dress and red hair was amazing. She now has the POWER to do what she wants, her voice (aka share holdings) MATTERS. She has been getting her self-worth from the men around her since season 1, and this time she got it all in one lump sum, to do with as she pleases. I really really hope to see more Joan story lines that aren’t about trying to make her look sad and pathetic.

I also hope this doesn’t turn into some Joan on a downward spiral piece of crap.

I think the two best non-Joan’s face moments in the show were when Don threw money at Peggy because he was morally outraged at the Jaguar guy, and when Lane told Joan to take a 5% stake to cover his embezzling ass.

Personally, Joan’s choice to be a one-time prostitute made me sad, simply because it was so clear that she didn’t really want to do it. I think Bubbles made a good point when she said that Joan seems to have decided to marry the agency, but marriage hasn’t treated her well. After all, Dr. Harris raped her before they were married, and certainly seemed to view their entire marriage as something he ran with no say from Joan herself. I can imagine that she views marriage as a system within which one accepts coercion and extreme sacrifice as the price one pays for security.