Episode Report Card Couch Baron: B+ | 514 USERS: A- YOU GRADE IT Half the Battle
By Couch Baron | Season 4 | Episode 8 | Aired on 2010.09.12
...and then we cut to Peggy and Joan getting on the elevator together. Peggy's got a smile on her face like she's expecting to have a moment of sisterly solidarity with Joan, but when Peggy can't hold it in any longer and asks Joan if she heard what she did, Joan coldly replies, "I did. Good for you." Peggy is not so tone-deaf as to miss this one, and asks Joan to come again, so Joan tells her that now everyone in the office will know she solved Joan's problem and think Peggy's important. Peggy claims that she defended Joan, but even though I don't think it's quite so black and white, Joan is certainly on to something when she counters that Peggy was defending herself, and Peggy at least seems to see what she means by not contesting the issue further. She does, however, try to explain her actions by opining that the cartoon was disgusting, but Joan acidly replies that she'd already handled it, "and if I'd wanted to go further, one dinner with Mr. Kreutzer from Sugarberry Ham, and Joey would have been off it and out of my hair." Hmm, I wonder what she's getting at here. Is it just that Joey's first account was Sugarberry? Or is it possible that she knows about the little PR stunt they pulled?
Either way, Peggy tries to claim that it's all the same result, which (a) no it isn't, because Joan said that she had already handled it, meaning she didn't intend to go the extra mile and have Joey fired, and (b) as she's already been telling you, that is NOT THE POINT. Of course, if Peggy hadn't chosen to be so obtuse, Joan wouldn't be able to hit the home run here: "You want to be a big shot. Well, no matter how powerful we get around here, they can still just draw a cartoon. So all you've done is prove to them that I'm a meaningless secretary, and you're another humorless bitch." Oh, damn if she didn't go there. Her point made, Joan wishes Peggy a nice weekend before getting off the elevator, and Peggy, baldly shocked, takes a couple seconds before following. Good luck with that "nice weekend" part, hon.