Television Review: The Other Woman (Mad Men, S5x11, 2012)

The Other Woman (S5x11)

Airdate: 27 May 2012

Written by: Semi Chellas & Matthew Weiner
Directed by: Phil Abraham

Running Time: 48 minutes

Mad Men has long established itself as a titan of television, a show that conditioned its audience to anticipate the unpredictable and reward our patience with narrative shocks. However, Season 5 marked a significant escalation in this approach, delivering a "wham" episode in The Other Woman that carried the weight and consequence typically reserved for a season or series finale. It is a testament to the new paradigm of 21st-century high-quality television that such seismic shifts in the status quo could occur not in the final episode of a season, but in the penultimate one. This episode fundamentally reorients the trajectory of the show’s central narratives, leaving the audience gasping at the sheer audacity of the storytelling.

Set against the backdrop of January 1967, the episode opens with Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce (SCDP) on the precipice of a financial salvation: a lucrative long-term deal with Jaguar. The deal represents the lifeline the agency desperately needs. However, this commercial triumph is shadowed by deepening fissures within the Creative team. The campaign itself becomes a battleground for Don Draper’s evolving conservatism. Don vehemently opposes the idea of describing Jaguar as a "mistress," believing that drawing parallels between ordinary cars and "wives" would not resonate with the male-dominated market. He wants control, he wants predictability, and he wants to avoid the messy ambiguity of the "mistress" metaphor. Yet, it is in this moment of resistance that the agency finds its salvation. Michael Ginsberg, ever the desperate underdog, stumbles upon the slogan "At last. Something beautiful you can truly own." It is a pitch Don initially ultimately adopts, proving that even in his conservatism, he knows a winning idea when he sees one.

Peggy Olson, however, finds herself an unwitting casualty of this Jaguar campaign. She is deliberately sidelined from the project, a decision rooted in Don’s lingering gender bias. Don assumes that a woman would not fit well into a campaign dealing with masculine automobiles. While sidelined from Jaguar, Peggy is thrust into the Chevalier Blanc campaign, where she is tasked with subbing for Ginsberg. It is here that she proves her mettle, improving a brilliant idea during the pitch meeting and successfully closing the deal. When she returns to Don to complain about her lack of proper credit and the exclusion from the lucrative Jaguar work, the dynamic shifts. Faced with the pressure of the Jaguar deal, Don’s composure cracks. He throws money at her—a cold, impersonal gesture of dismissal—and then humiliation. Feeling the sting of this treatment, Peggy makes the long-brewing decision to leave SCDP and start a new chapter of her life. Her old friend Freddy Rumsen advises her to make the leap and arranges a meeting with Ted Chaough from the rival Cutler Gleason and Chaough agency. When Peggy asks for a salary of 18,000 US$, Chaough, impressed by her talent, agrees to pay her 19,000 US$. It is a symbolic victory for independence, a payout that buys her freedom.

In the meantime, the Jaguar deal hangs in the balance, threatened by Herb Rennet (Gary Basaraba), a senior Jaguar executive. He makes it clear that the price of the deal is not merely financial. During a lunch with Pete Campbell and Ken Cosgrove, Herb suggests he will throw his weight behind SCDP instead of other advertising firms, but only on one specific condition: he is allowed to spend a night with Joan Holloway. When Pete brings this ultimatum to Joan, she is visibly aghast, the weight of her current status as a single soon-to-be-divorced mother pressing down on her. Pete, ever the opportunist, attempts to rationalise it, suggesting it serves not only the company's interests but her own financial security.

The partners are convened to break the news. Don is visibly disgusted, leaving the meeting entirely, declaring the Jaguar deal "not worth it." He is reminded of his own mother’s history as a prostitute, a trauma that colours his disgust with Herb’s proposition. However, those who remain—the pragmatic partners—vote to support the arrangement. They instruct Lane Pryce to extend credit to 50,000 US$ to pay Joan for her service. Lane, however, is trapped in a web of his own making. He knows that the agency's credit accounts have already been overstretched and that his embezzlement might be exposed at any moment. Acting out of a complex mix of self-preservation and genuine friendship for Joan, Lane suggests a shrewd alternative. Instead of cash, Joan should demand actual partnership with voting rights. He argues that she would make significantly more money in the long run and thus secure her future as a divorced mother.

Joan accepts the deal, and the transaction is consummated. The next day, SCDP is officially told that it has secured the Jaguar deal, securing its financial future for years to come. There is a riotous celebration in the office, a moment of triumph that should have been Don’s crowning achievement. However, the mood is tempered when Peggy approaches him to tell him she is leaving. Her decision is final. Don’s attempts to change her mind fail, leaving him devastated in a moment that was supposed to be his greatest triumph. As Peggy walks towards the lift, she smiles—a smile that speaks to her newfound agency and relief.

The Other Woman is generally considered one of the best episodes of the series, and its premiere caused a significant stir because it dealt with themes of gender and power in a direct, unambiguous way. The central issue is ultimately the transactional nature of relationships in modern corporations, which in its rawest forms leads to the same moral choices Joan had to make. The script, co-written by Semi Chellas and Matthew Weiner, leaves few doubts about Joan's choice, despite the inclusion of a few red herrings. Joan doesn't do what she hasn't been doing before, whether it was her romance with Roger Sterling, her disastrous marriage to Greg Harris, or her final choice to pick a "man" in the bar that Don has left her in previous episode. For Joan, a woman in her 30s with a young son, the choice between a single night of inconvenience and a lifetime of financial security and professional standing is a rather easy choice.

The script is even better in the ways it shows how this decision affects her friends and superiors, highlighting the profound hypocrisy of their positions. Ken Cosgrove appears to be the only one who is truly revolted by Joan prostituting herself, though he is powerless to stop it. Pete Campbell, conversely, enthusiastically tries to talk her into it, confirming himself once again as morally repugnant. Roger Sterling supports the idea, despite being a father of Joan’s cild. Lane Pryce, while his advice ultimately works in Joan's favour, does so for the sake of his own self-preservation, desperately needing to cover his tracks. Don Draper is the most complex, opposing it not only because he thinks of Joan as a true friend but because he is forced to confront the history of his own mother, representing a dimension of his character that is often obscured by his veneer of sophistication.

The episode further explores this transactional nature through a side storyline involving Megan Draper and her acting career. She informs Don that she will be attending casting calls for Jules Feiffer's stage play Little Murders. She reveals that she might be absent when the show begins its ten-week run in Boston. Don is unhappy about this, feeling threatened by her independence, but he reluctantly agrees. The casting scene later unfolds to show casting directors making Megan turn around and inspect her, looking at her as a piece of meat rather than an actress. The interaction suggests that some kind of casting couch could be in store for her, mirroring Joan's situation and underscoring the objectification that women face in the industry.

Phil Abraham directs the episode very well, particularly in the scene where Don makes his grand pitch to the Jaguar executives. This scene is intercut with the scene in which Joan visits Herb Rennet in his hotel room. This is an excellent visual clue about both characters; it draws a direct metaphorical line between Don selling a dream and Joan selling her body. Both are performing, both are negotiating their worth, and both are engaging in a transaction that defines their current existence.

If there is a flaw in this episode, it is the scene in which Don visits Joan at her apartment in a last-ditch effort to talk her out of going with Herb’s scheme. This scene is only later established to have taken place before the deed was done, achieved through non-linear editing which is confusing and a little bit too "artsy" and pretentious for a show that usually grounds its drama in grounded realism. It feels like a narrative device used for effect rather than clarity, distracting slightly from the emotional weight of the moment.

Nevertheless, The Other Woman still serves as a very important and consequential episode of the series. It balances the professional triumph of the Jaguar deal with the personal tragedies of Joan and Peggy, creating a tapestry of human experience that is as painful as it is rewarding. It stands as a defining chapter in the show's legacy, forcing viewers to confront the harsh realities of the era while appreciating the subtle power dynamics at play.

RATING: 8/10 (+++)

IMDb link

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