This week on Mad Men, the writers played a big joke on us. In fact, the title of the episode even referenced a popular joke structure. It was called, "Guy Walks Into an Advertising Agency."
The Guy in question is Guy MacKendrick. He's the big change we've been expecting. That's him in the middle:
Guy is the hot young account man who Putnam, Powell and Lowe, Sterling Cooper's parent company across the pond, want to install as the new COO of Sterling Cooper. But nobody knows that at first.
It's announced that PPL will be visiting the office and everyone either panics or makes outlandish assumptions. Bert Cooper suggests that Don will be given a creative umbrella position that would put him in London. This excites Don. Betty likes the idea because she'll get to have a "pram and a real nanny." But, ha ha, Don. Joke's on you. Just look at this chart:
Don also finds out that the unassuming old timer he met a few episodes back is none other than Conrad Hilton, yes, that Conrad Hilton, the famous Hotelier. Fooled you again, Don.
Seriously, though. The writers did take the pull-the-rug-out-from-under-you, turn-on-a-dime structure of jokes and completely subvert it. All the while they've been prepping us for change, prepping the characters for change, holding out for the right moment to spring it on us. Half-way through the season seemed like the right time. And they lead us along through half of the episode. But about at that half-way point, various bombs are dropped, and things stay largely as they are, stagnant.
For no one else was this more true than Joan. She's been preparing for her husband to be appointed Cheif Resident at the hospital at which he works. She has put in her notice at Sterling Cooper, and has made all the preparations one makes when they leave a company they've been employed by for ten years. The night before her last day, her husband comes home drunk, having missed the dinner meant to celebrate his promotion. The promotion, we find out, was not his to get. He sits next to Joan, and we see them as a couple, sitting in the dark:
Joan is better than him. He, she finds out, "has no brains in [his] fingers." This means he'll never be a surgeon. "But you're still a doctor, right?" She asks. He is, but he's not a good one. Not the kind who works in Manhattan and keeps his wife comfortable. They remain in her apartment, on the sofa she paid for. "You are still a doctor," she assures Greg, who snaps at her attempts to comfort him. "I have another year of residency," he tells Joan, "you won't be able to lose your job." "That's over," Joan replies. "Then get another one." Greg, remember, raped Joan last season. For whatever reasons, the otherwise no-nonsense taking Joan stayed with him, undeserving as he was. Her goals to be a wife and to not work anymore blinded her to the fact that she would no longer be in control, this life was no longer about her wishes, but rested on the job and talents of her husband. "Doctor," she finds out, means nothing when you don't have the skills to back it up.
The producers drew a lot of attention to Joan's left hand and her wedding and engagement rings, like in the shot above and in these:
They are making sure we know why she is upset. It has nothing to do with leaving Sterling Cooper, per se, but with leaving it for a life of doldrum. Joan is larger than life. She is one of those rare people who is talented, smart, savvy, and attractive enough to get what she wants. As Peggy points out to Joan, "Not everyone can be you." It's just she wasn't sure what she wanted. Now that she has it, it's not good enough anymore. When Guy, who's new position was just announced, toasts her and wishes her "Caviar and children and everything good," a usually compsed Joan breaks down:
Everyone in the office then has a party to see her off and get to know Guy. Only they won't have the chance, because one of the secretaries runs his foot over with the John Deer tractor mower Ken Cosgrove rode into the office on when he landed their account. There's a lot of blood. Peggy faints into Pete's arms:
But Joan runs to Guy's aide, fashions a tourniquet, and proves her medical stuff is perhaps better than her husband's:
The lawnmower incident left Guy footless, thus rendering him unable to work because he'll "never be able to golf again," thus leaving things at Sterling Cooper pretty much untouched for the time being. Ha ha. You thought things were going to get shaken up, but Don still lives in Jersey and takes the train into the city, Joan still has to support her husband, and Lane Pryce (who earlier in the episode looked a gift snake in the mouth when he was told he would he transferred to India:
) will stay on as CFO in the Sterling Cooper office. Nothing's changing. Fooled you! Except, why then end the episode with this song?
Also in this episode: look at all the great faces Don made this week:
