The Other Woman (27 May 2012)

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.

Director:

Phil Abraham

Writers:

Matthew Weiner (creator), Semi Chellas,

Stars:

Jon Hamm, Elisabeth Moss, Vincent Kartheiser

Cast

Episode cast overview, first billed only:
Jon Hamm	...	Don Draper
Elisabeth Moss	...	Peggy Olson
Vincent Kartheiser	...	Pete Campbell
January Jones	...	Betty Francis (credit only)
Christina Hendricks	...	Joan Harris
Jared Harris	...	Lane Pryce
Aaron Staton	...	Ken Cosgrove
Rich Sommer	...	Harry Crane
Kiernan Shipka	...	Sally Draper (credit only)
Jessica Paré	...	Megan Draper
Christopher Stanley	...	Henry Francis (credit only)
Jay R. Ferguson	...	Stan Rizzo
Robert Morse	...	Bertram Cooper
John Slattery	...	Roger Sterling
Joel Murray	...	Fred Rumsen

Storyline

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.

---

Genres:

Drama

---

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

27 May 2012 (USA)

Filming Locations:

Los Angeles Center Studios - 450 S. Bixel Street, Downtown, Los Angeles, California, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Lionsgate Television, Weiner Bros.

Technical Specs

Color:

Color

Did You Know?

Goofs

While Harry, Peggy, and Ken are on the phone with Chevalier Blanc Cologne, you can see a close up of the speaker phone that they are using. The speaker has a logo of the Bell System that was not introduced until 1969. This episode takes place in January of 1967.

---

Connections

References A Hard Day's Night (1964)

---

Soundtracks

"You Really Got Me"
(uncredited)
Music & lyrics by Ray Davies
Performed by The Kinks

User Reviews

On Tolerance for Ambiguity

The adroit juxtaposition of Don's presentation with Joan's aside...

How many of us were raised (taught, instructed, indoctrinated, trained) to tolerate ambiguity or unresolved conflict? If the conductors of our cult-ure promoted anything other than black and white, all or nothing, all good or all bad, all right or all wrong thinking, do you think our cult-ure(s) would survive in the contests against the similarly raised competition?

I've seen every last episode. And just when I thought that Matthew and his monumentally conscious collaborators could not outdo their previous efforts, they knock me in the head with a triple play like this.

Angry feminism is the "feminism" most of us either buy into (out of guilt?) or reject (out of hand). In the world of centerless, immoderate mental polarity most of us take for granted, it's all about "Hanoi Jane" or "hairy legged ragers" or "intellectual dominatrix's" ... and the "overweening" Helen Reddy, the "subversive" Betty Friedan, or the "castration-bent" Alanis Morissette.

Change does not go down easily with those who have been regimented so effectively that the majority of them will sit tight when the wealth accumulators elect to vacuum the pockets or slaughter the sons (and now daughters) of those they trained to make, consume and fight.

I've no idea if Matthew & Company understand all this, but it surely =looks= like they do in episodes like this. The hopeful, achievement- obsessed Cosmo Girls up against the wall, or perhaps more accurately, painted into the corners of their indoctrinated identities as objects accepting the rights of others to use them as they see fit.

The adolescent female of today loathes her mother for giving in. She can afford to. In today's world, the woman are =all= putting out. The dilemmas faced by Peggy, Megan and Joan are Just The Way It Is now.

Is our ardent willingness to sell out and be "all that we can be" abetted by better clarity and conscious resignation? Or are the Peggy's, Megan's and Joan's of today just as "snowed" by their instructors as their mothers and grandmothers were?

In 1966, most of us still believed in a "fairness" that was not yet so obviously a fairytale. It was part of the "glue" of our cult-ure then.

No; I do not expect to be widely understood. And neither, I think, does Matthew. (He knows he needs to make the characters, the plots and the scenery interesting.) But MM's niche success suggests, at least, that there are people out there who are least "fascinated" by The Way it Was (and Still Is?) and this ensemble's nuanced, perfectly articulated packaging of it.