Mad Men: The Price is Right

Recaps

By McWeanis | Friday, June 1, 2012 | 11:46 pm | 10 Comments
Posted in: Game of Thrones, Recaps

… in which women are for sale. Literally. And figuratively, since this Mad Men after all.

Well, for those of complaining about the lack of plot development, we got a break this week. This episode had a LOT going on, so let’s get right into it.

How much is that secretary in the window?

We open on a table of dudes, including Don, Ginsburg, Stan, and some temps we haven’t seen before. They’re brainstorming on how to compare a car to a mistress and enjoying a lobster dinner, while Peggy looks on longingly. There’s a vagina joke in there somewhere.

While the creative team works on the pitch, expert suck-ups Pete and Kenny work on how to ‘please’ Herb Rennet. They’re thinking of ‘pleasing’ in more of the extravagant dinners, nights on the town, introducing to easy young actresses sense. Herb is thinking of ‘pleasing’ in the sense that he wants Joan to please him. Sexually.

That’s right, he comes right out and says that his vote on the Jaguar deal is more or less contingent on his ability to penetrate Joanie. Kenny is immediately horrified (of course he is, I love him!) Pete, being a smarmy douchebag, doesn’t let it go, and immediately starts scheming.

First stop on the douchebag parade: visiting Joan, and telling her about the ‘offer’ in the guise of asking advice for how to break the news on Jaguar’s rejection. AKA, he’s pinning the loss of Jaguar on her refusal to give it up. Joan sees through Pete’s talk of a “sacrifice” of one night: “You’re talking about prostitution!” “I’m talking about business at a very high level.” He even compares her to Cleopatra’s use of her bod as a political tool. “What would it take to make you a queen?” I don’t think you could afford it.”

Rather than viewing this as a rejection, Pete takes the “no means yes” approach and brings the matter to a partners’ meeting to discuss Joan’s ‘price.’ The most interesting thing about this discussion to me was how everyone kept saying, “but she’s married!” “but she has a kid!” I guess it’s okay to pimp out your coworker/business savior at various times/ex-mistress as long as she’s single? Even Don harps on this point, and he knows she’s getting divorced.

Don storms out of the room, and since I’m pretty sure he doesn’t think people exist when he’s not in the room, he assumes the discussion is over.

screw you guys, i’m going home

Pete continues it, getting Burt on his side; Roger won’t stand in the way. Layne is horrified at several levels, the most pressing probably being that the other partners want to use the fictional “Christmas bonuses” to pay Joan – which means no bonuses after all. Not that they existed anyway. You know what I mean. They also want to extend their credit line, which Layne has already secretly pushed as far as it will go. Oh, Layne. How far you have fallen.

He goes to talk Joan out of doing Herb – but if she is going to do it, she should ask for a 5% stake in the company, not straight up cash. After all, that offers more long term power and money. Supposedly. He claims to be “looking out for your interests over the company.” Here’s my prediction: the company goes under due to Layne’s machinations and losing Peggy. Joan finds out that Layne convinced her to take a partner share instead of money, even though he knew the company was at risk – and that the risk was his fault. She destroys his life and he kills himself. Of course, I hope this doesn’t happen because these are my two favorite characters and I don’t want them to suffer that much. Maybe they’re pulling an Ally McBeal and Layne has a brain tumor and that’s why he’s acting like such a dick.

Anyway, Joan goes to Pete and demands the 5%; the partners approve it; and it’s ON. Pete is so incompetent he even asks Joan for tips on how to pimp herself. Gahhh. Pete makes a mistake in dropping by Don’s office to rub in his victory, assuring him that all the squeaky wheels (i.e. Joan’s vag) have been oiled. Don immediately freaks out and rushes to Joan’s house to tell her she doesn’t have to go through with it – that she’s better than that.

no better time to look like a blow up doll.

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McWeanis
About

first thing's first: the origin of "mcweanis."

It is not because I have a giant weanis (look it up) although it is usually unusually bulbous and crusty.

it is in fact because as a child i was dubbed Weanie (it rhymes with my first name, because i'm awesomely named)  by my older sister Drunk, which my friends co-opted and which eventually evolved into weanis and finally mcweanis or MC weanis depending on how gangster i am at the time.

i am a huge nerd of all kinds, especially tv, books, and school. i'll be going to harvard law school in the fall cause i'm so SCHMANCY! i plan to put my excellent time management skills to work in balancing my courseload and my must-watch-tv-load.

10 Comments

  1. 1
    Derek Hazelton
    Posted June 2, 2012 at 3:27 am

    Don is still an asshole. The only reason he didn’t want Joan to sleep with Herb was because he thought his work would be “good enough” to earn the campaign. And, remember Sal and the Lucky Strike guy in Season 2? Don isn’t above trying to use his employees to meet their client’s sexual needs. He just wanted to prove with Jaguar that he still had the chops he’s had in the earlier seasons, but Joan’s move to sleep with Herb muddied those waters. Don wasn’t thoughtful or kind; he wanted to reassert his status as the Number 1 Pitchman at SCDP without Joan’s interference.

  2. 2
    Tiffa_Leah
    Posted June 2, 2012 at 9:18 am

    @Derek – I don’t think I completely agree with you on that front. Sure, he’s trying to reassert himself as top dog, but he did seem to have some true horror about the pimping of Joan. It’s very clear that he respects her a great deal (How many women has he taken out, bought drinks for to cheer them up with NO INTENTION of sleeping with them? I can’t name any) and truly believes she IS better than that. Don, while an ass, is also evolving as a person.

    Pete though, will have to hit absolute rock bottom before we see any positive change in him. And perhaps that may not even be enough… Pete almost has the mindset on how Don USED to think about women, Don seems as though that idea he had is changing and maturing. It’s a struggle for him, but he’s not fighting it either.

  3. 3
    Elmstreet
    Posted June 2, 2012 at 9:44 am

    There is so much I want to say about the whole Joan situation (and all I feel is sympathy for her), but I’ll spare the essay and say this: I hope she shoots Pete with that rifle from season 1. I hope she remembers to double tap, too. That smarmy little shit has it coming.

    Peggy is amazing. The last five minutes of this episode were amazing. And I fist pumped when Peggy stepped in the elevator and “Girl, you really got me” started playing. I’m not ashamed.

  4. 4
    BlueCanary
    Posted June 2, 2012 at 9:58 am

    “Don storms out of the room, and since I’m pretty sure he doesn’t think people exist when he’s not in the room, he assumes the discussion is over.”

    That may be the single most accurate summary of Don Draper I’ve ever read. I can’t help but love him, but the man is so far up his own ass I’m amazed he can see daylight.

    The husband and I also noted Pete’s ugly baby. I felt bad about it at the time, but not anymore. Pete is a world class turd. We all know it, but every time I think he can’t get any worse, he goes and ups the ante. I think I actually screamed “Oh fuck you, Pete, you fucking pig!” at the TV when jaguar guy went to the bathroom and I saw that gleam in Pete’s eye.

    Love me some Cosgrove, though. I hope his feelings aren’t hurt when he realizes Peggy broke their pact.

  5. 5
    TalldrinkofH2O
    Posted June 2, 2012 at 2:36 pm

    This was a very disturbing episode. It showed how beauty and desirability can both empower and at the same time entrap a woman. Joan. I seem to recall that she’s a college graduate on top of her bodacious bod and people savvy. Peggy, on the other hand, is a graduate of secretarial school and a bit of a plain jane, naive to the ways of the world and men. She has probably envied Joan (and now Megan) for the “spell” that they cast over men. But, at the same time, I doubt she would have ever been pressed with a devil’s bargain the way that Joan was in this episode.
    I recently re-watched the very first episode of “Mad Men” and was appalled at how Ken leered at Peggy just as much as Pete. So, he certainly has evolved as a person to be in a pact with her and attempt to comfort her over the humiliation of Don barking at her after her big coup.

  6. 6
    MrsMiaWallace
    Posted June 3, 2012 at 12:22 am

    Well done McW- love the show and usually find nothing amusing in it until I read the snark.

    I do hope your predictions are wrong-for the sole reason that a failure of SDCP means Peggy did that horrible toad for nothing and loses her stake and all reward. That is a continuation of her season-long downward spiral and I want more for her.

    Also if Lane paid himself around $8k to settle his debts he should have$42k of the loan left? Is that enough to sink them? Did they pay out the “surplus” 50k to the non partners already? Tad confused here!

    Where is Betty!!??

  7. 7
    lagitha
    Posted June 3, 2012 at 7:55 am

    It’s important to remember that Joan tried hard to make it up the ranks with her brains, but no one would let her. She was the scriptreader (on her own time) who made Harry’s TV department first successful, but they wouldn’t hire her; they hired a man instead. And when she was essentially appointed as office manager, they wouldn’t give her any financial reward for the extra work.

    Last week we learned how difficult it was for Joan to recognize that she thought that in terms of desirability her better years were behind her, and thought that she had no more power. There is no way that Joan would have even acknowledged this deal two years ago. We saw a decision that was made by a woman who has been told that ther brains and her body have no more intrinsic worth, and she had to stoop to wringing out what little she had left in terms of power before it was completely sapped.

  8. 8
    maryedith
    Posted June 3, 2012 at 5:32 pm

    I think Elizabeth Moss really is leaving the show, at least as a regular. That would explain a lot about this season that kind of confused me. If they knew they had to write Peggy out it explains her descent into bitchiness and cynicism (which seemed kind of sudden to me) and also explains what Ginsberg is doing on the show. At first I thought he was there for Peggy in some capacity but now I see that he’s a pretty good replacement for her in that he has a minority/outsider perspective on the firm and an imaginative mind.
    I think SCDP is about to fall apart, but what the hell do I know? If not, the doom and gloom of this whole season will have seemed over the top, don’t you think?

  9. 9
    ChaCha
    Posted June 3, 2012 at 8:13 pm

    I heard Elizabeth Moss was filming a mini-series and that was one of the presumed reasons that she was written around, and may be into the next season. But then, with this show anything is possible. And once they realize how popular Peggy is, I suspect that they’ll keep her on the show somehow someway.

  10. 10
    LAC LAC
    Posted June 4, 2012 at 8:29 am

    Thank you for the recap!

    It was a sad and strange episode. It is a squalid way to get into the boardroom, but I agree with Lagitha’s assessment of why Joan did it.

    Good for Peggy – I am glad that she could rattle Don with her departure.

    God, this season is depressing and oppressive.

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