Season 5: Episode 11 - “The Other Woman”
“Jaguar! Finally, a car that makes you want to kill yourself.”
Season 5, Episode 11
“The Other Woman”
Written by Semi Chellas & Matthew Weiner
Directed by Phil Abraham
Setting: January 1967
“The Other Woman” is perhaps Mad Men’s most controversial episode. What fascinates me about being a fan of the show is that you still enter an episode with the absolute hope for better.
Don will stop cheating on his wife.
Betty will treat the kids better.
Chauncey the dog will return after all this time and be alright.. anyone?
We’ve had five seasons of these people drinking enough alcohol at breakfast to kill an elephant and destroying each other for the fun of it. Many of them feel it is too late to do better. Why not just embrace the tragedy of life and benefit from it?
The controversial aspect of this episode is that Joan prostitutes herself to gain a partnership with SCDP. The landmark of a woman partner at the firm is tainted by what was done to get there.
You feel disgust watching this episode, just as Joan does, but what is so impactful about the decision is that it is entirely hers. She knows that she will have to live with that disgust but realizes what this opportunity can do for her life. Don comes to her apartment to convince her not to go through with the act, but he is already too late.
Joan’s career and bank account may have benefitted from the prostitution, but the emerald in her jewelry drawer is now a constant reminder that there was a point her morals broke. “Everyone has a price.”
Breaking them once may mean being less afraid to break them in the future.
The core message of Season 5 is about what it takes to sell your soul. I don’t think it is a coincidence that Season 6 opens with Don reading Dante’s Inferno. Lost souls looking for an escape from their personal hells is something everyone on Mad Men can relate to.
After sacrificing your morals, any action taken after will feel the same.
Soulless.
Getting Jaguar’s business has tainted the agency for Don because he doesn’t feel they truly earned it. He was putting in all-night hours, torturing his employees to deliver exceptional work, and now he must pay an additional price.
For Peggy Olson, selling her soul would mean staying with Don Draper at SCDP.
In a beautiful and emotional moment representing a stark contrast to the rest of the episode, Peggy informs Don that she is quitting. He takes her hand in both tenderness and desperation, planting his lips upon it. Almost seven years ago, Peggy assumed she was just a lowly secretary, which meant she was expected to begin an affair with Don. Being denied this changed her entire life for the better. Now, in 1967, Don kisses her goodbye.
While not romantic, they love each other. This is why Peggy had to leave. She could not allow someone she loved so deeply to treat her the way that Don had.
The titular “other woman” refers to the “mistress” pitch being devised to win over the rich sleezebags who would buy a Jaguar. Peggy would have come up with something better that may not have won them the account because these are… well, rich sleezebags. It became less about the work being good and more about “How do we get these assholes to sign with us?”
But “the other woman” in Don’s life now is Peggy Olson. Without him, she would not even have the opportunity to move to a new agency. He fostered her and admired the potential she displayed.
Ginsberg’s winning Jaguar pitch, “At Last, Something Beautiful You Can Truly Own” impresses Don as much as it haunts him.
He has a beautiful wife at home, but she wants to be an actress who flies off to other cities to do plays.
He can go back to meaningless affairs, but those women will never be more than a temporary happiness. Even if he did marry someone new, the same cycle would begin again.
He has a prodigy who grew under his guidance and now wants to leave because of him. Don feels entitled to her talent until she says this:
There is no money that can buy out this mindset. Don did the same thing in Season 1 when he turned down McCann. His happiness is found in not having a price. His unhappiness is present in his attempts to own others and the belief that everything besides himself has its price.
To deny their happiness so that his can prosper, no matter what it costs.
It took everything to gain Jaguar, but in their most triumphant moment, Don lost the person who meant everything to him.
Peggy was something beautiful he could never own, and deep down, he always knew that because she was just like him.
