There’s loads to like about Joan on this interval. She develops a stunning, tender friendship with Lane Pryce (Jared Harris), and her relationship with Peggy has now firmly gone from frenemies to simply common outdated associates. That is additionally the season that offers us the “Shock, there’s an airplane right here to see you!” line, and that electrical scene of Joan and Don hanging out at a bar collectively. Joan and Don’s interactions all through the sequence are few and much between, however the writers actually made probably the most of them there.
However most notably, that is the season the place Joan goes from head secretary to a companion on the agency, with a 5% stake. She get this place after Herb Rennet, the creepy head of Jaguar, makes sleeping along with her his situation for working with the agency. It is even more durable for Joan as a result of all the opposite companions know in regards to the deal; it is not simply that she’s principally being pimped out by Pete Campbell, nevertheless it’s taking place to her in a quasi-public method. Jaguar’s account could be big for the agency, and Joan makes the tough option to go together with the deal.
When requested about Joan’s determination on the time, Weiner defined:
“Truthfully, numerous what occurs within the present is derived from what I’d name my very own private social-history challenge — that I am fortunate sufficient to have individuals inform me about their lives. This state of affairs was one thing that got here up so many instances that I stored pondering, ‘Nicely, we’ll should do it will definitely.’ So whereas I really like that folks suppose that Joan would not do this, all I can let you know is it actually occurred. Rather a lot. And it was so simple as, ‘He actually likes you!’ The half that is in all probability false is the partnership half. Most of them simply obtained a automobile or money or an house, generally a promotion.”
It is a fortunately nonjudgmental method to Joan’s selection, one which displays the principally variety responses of Joan’s new companions. Neither Pete nor Roger disgrace her for sleeping with Herb; her solely actual critics are Harry (who nobody likes) and Don (to a extra delicate extent). Most of them acknowledge her determination because the strategic transfer it was. Joan has not solely gotten herself a lifetime of monetary safety, however has lastly gotten herself a foot within the door to actual energy.
Harry later trashes Joan to her face about not getting her partnership on advantage, however us Joan stans do not forget that when she proved her advantage again in season 2, Harry did not even discover or admire it. Sadly, for a girl with Joan’s look within the sixties, her choices had been restricted, and nobody ought to blame her for taking part in the hand she was dealt. Weiner continued:
“There’s a Joan in numerous these businesses, and there nonetheless is — this very engaging lady who’s accountable for making the medication go down somewhat simpler. Truthfully, I believe that if I had not talked about the phrase ‘prostitution’ within the episode, I do not even know if the viewers would have actually realized that that is what it was. It is extra sophisticated than buying and selling intercourse for cash as a result of it is actually about this lady getting right into a place of energy.”