#Mad men joan serial#

Actually, to be precise, Joan is calling Avon alongside pre-established sexist jerkhole Dennis, who practically scorches the whole relationship, prompting Joan to turn to another man in the office, Ferg, for help. Remember when she landed Avon, all by herself, and almost lost the account because she had edged Pete out of the process? (In that same season-six episode, 'A Tale of Two Cities,' the agency partners finally agreed to call their newly merged firm Sterling Cooper & Partners, a move Pete Campbell called 'a gravestone to our existence.' Kind of sounds prescient now, doesn't it?)Īnyway: It makes total sense, given her history with that client and Joan's struggle to be valued for her brain instead of her beauty, that when her death knell finally sounds, it comes because Avon is calling. Years later, when she became a partner, even though she had to prostitute herself to get there, she finally felt something else: emboldened, sometimes very nearly to her own detriment. She was even sleeping with one of the head honchos, Roger, which did not necessarily earn her any fat raises or promotions, but certainly made Joan feel protected. When we first met Joan seven seasons ago, she was the sort of woman who advised a young Peggy Olson to go home, cut some eyeholes in a paper bag, put it over her head, look at herself in the mirror, and 'really evaluate her strengths and weaknesses.' She put appearance first, because she knew appearance mattered to men and Joan Holloway had calculated circa 1960, if not earlier, that the only way to get ahead, in the office and in life, was by attracting men. Let's start with Joan, the onetime secretarial mother hen at Sterling Cooper who clawed her way through sexism and gross sex with a guy at Jaguar to become a partner. Their fates were confirmed, practically blessed, in a way, by the elder statesman of SC&P, the ultimate man's man: Roger Sterling. Both confronted horrible indignities, but Peggy seemed poised to overcome, while Joan, once again, suffered as a result of her own femininity. But what's really frightening is the charged atmosphere that makes members of both genders believe they have something legitimate to fear in each other.Īll of that was illustrated by what happened in 'Lost Horizon' to our two key ladies of Mad Men, Joan and Peggy.

Sometimes men, even the specter of a man's presence, can be, too. But more importantly, that scene spoke in meaningful, organ-swelling volume about the fragile relationships between men and women. It was great because it was funny, and because it created certain expectations and then completely flipped those expectations, which basically sums up everything about the SC&P/McCann merger. It was a truly great Mad Men moment, in an episode that was filled with them.

'Believe it or not,' she tells Roger as he clutches his faulty heart, 'I'm not scary. Then Peggy discovers the source of the creepy music-give it up for Roger Sterling and his mustache on the organ, everybody!-and confronts the source of her terror, startling him instead of being startled herself.

#Mad men joan serial#

Either way, the message seemed clear: Peggy-a woman temporarily abandoned in a flagrant act of McCann office neglect that presumed she was still a secretary-was probably going to be murdered by a serial killer, or at the very least, burglarized by Grandma Ida from season six. At first, we, the viewers, were not sure Peggy was actually hearing that music or whether it was just a suspenseful touch on the soundtrack. 'Is someone there?' The faint sound of ominous organ music begins to swell even louder. She stands all alone in the stripped-bare, dimly lit workspace at SC&P, when she suddenly hears a noise.

Spoilers for this week's Mad Men, 'Lost Horizon,' below.Īt one point in this week's episode of Mad Men, Peggy Olson looked like a potential victim.