Wow, what an episode. “The Other Woman” kicked us right in the ass, then left us heartbroken wanting to cry (then turned around and curbed stomped us last minute): Joan prostituting herself for Jaguar, Peggy quitting. But in the end, Don won Jaguar; to most at SCDP that’s the only thing that really matters.

“The Other Woman,” ringing metaphorically true for the past few episodes and now the newly-adopted Jaguar slogan, “Jaguar: the mistress who will do the things your wife won’t,” then finalized to, “At last, something beautiful you can truly own,” really sums up the show’s entirety. Whether relating to the sexualization of advertising, or the contemporary situations these characters’ present lives have gotten them into, or the front they all put on and masks they try on, people will do crazy things to get what they want (not to mention, for a little cash), and never anywhere did it say there wouldn’t be a shit ton of lying and cheating along the way (and prostitution).

But all life circumstances set aside, SCDP has gotten ahold of Jaguar. Except for that they didn’t, really. Pete had to essentially sell off Joan to Herb “The Perve,” and while doing so shocked us all with the way he worded his proposition (but then again, after his shenanigans in “Lady Lazarus,” anything Pete does couldn’t be too much of a surprise)–calling it “business at a very high level.”

Joan: Talk about taking one for the team. We near died towards the end when all of it was about to “go down,” and simultaneously Don was narrating the pitch which synchronized perfectly with Joan and Herb’s every move; him being a married man, the whole “Other Woman” was more apparent here than ever. He even got her an emerald necklace, and after all was said and done, Joan had 5% stake in the agency. Not bad, if you’re OK with selling your body.

Don: You know what, as always, it’s “fuck you, Don!” And well, this time it’s still, “fuck you, Don!”, minus the fact we still feel bad Megan sort of ditched out on him to become an actress (but that doesn’t mean he still doesn’t go to her for help along the way). Towards the end when Megan mentions leaving for an extended period of time for a gig, he becomes irate and sarcastically tells her to, “Just keep doin’ whatever the hell you want!” And looking at how Don drank himself into a stupor pulling a late night at the office, we’re not sure how his happiness will enfold–we just hope he doesn’t crack (some of those lines were pretty bad).

Peggy: PEGGY! Damn it, Peggy. We love her so, so much and though were sad to see her quit, the fact Don would never treat her as his equal posed a huge problem for her career and therefore she pretty much had to take a new job (with a lofty new pay raise $19,000 a year!).  Our favorite Peggy moment was when she spit that line on the spot, without hesitation, “The right woman loves Chevalier Blanc” for the Valentine’s Day ad, but when she proposed the idea to Don, he was the least bit happy and ended up sarcastically throwing money in her face (we would’ve quit, too).

Pete: Pete is all business in this episode, trying to score the deal with Jaguar and persuading Joan to sleep with Herb, who is “kind of shy” (yeah right, dick!). But after Pete’s, um, interesting conversation with Herb, doing what Pete does best, he pretty much made a prostitutish deal that would sell off Joan to him. For sex. “One night,” Pete says, “We’ve all had nights in our lives where we’ve made mistakes for free.” But this was not free. No. This would make or break $50,000–3x as much as Joan makes–to seal the deal with Jaguar. He then goes home to his wife insisting it is “an epic poem” for him to get home from Manhattan, and he needs an apartment immediately (hmm… sounds awfully familiar).

Megan: When Megan came to the office to see Don, she didn’t do so without undergoing some heat from her ex co-workers. Michael seeks Megan out with ideas for the Jaguar slogan, and she sarcastically responds, “Jaguar: your problem, not mine,” definitely getting her some “looks.” Not fair. Not fair at all. She doesn’t seem to be OK with the whole Jaguar thing after her and Don’s conversation about his idea; she called the slogan “immoral,” saying that if a Jaguar is a “mistress,” then a Buick sitting in the garage a “housewife?” She did not sound pleased.

Quotables:

• “Well, we wanted to be in the car business.” – Ken
• “Jaguar: it’s your problem not mine.” – Megan
• “It’s an epic poem for me to go home.” – Pete
• “Just keep doin’ whatever the hell you want.” – Don
• “No guarantees in life, right?” – Herb
• “I’m talking business in a very high level.” – Pete
• “The right woman loves Chevalier Blanc.” – Peggy
• “Knock off the grab ass and give me some lines!” – Don
• “Save the fiction for your stories.” – Peggy
• “A wife is like a Buick in a garage?” – Megan
• “At last, something beautiful you can truly own.” – Michael 
• “They’re all a bunch of creeps!” – Peggy
• “It seems to me that there’s something that could be worth a sacrifice. We’re talking about a night in your life. We’ve all had nights in our lives where we’ve made mistakes for free.” – Pete
• “Do you consider Cleopatra a prostitute?” – Pete
• “You’re a hell of a gal.” – Herb
• “Jesus, Peggy, you know what, you want to go to Paris, here, go to Paris!” – Don

(sources: Rolling Stone & EW)