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Running the floor

medium confidence

Nineteen of ninety-two. Joan Holloway runs the office and everyone in it knows the building would stop without her; the question the series asks is what that is actually worth in a room where the titles belong to men. A thread through an ensemble show, not a way to watch Mad Men - the series cross-cuts less than most, which is why this works at all, but you will be missing everything happening in the other offices. If this is your first time, take The Essentials instead.

For following Joan, or rewatching the show for her.

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Where the story lives

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in the path skipped other arcnumbers below are seasons · hover any mark for the episode

The path

Tick episodes off to track where you are. Turn on spoiler hiding below if you have not seen it yet.

Season 11 in the path
9 skipped
A weekend in the city with her roommate. The first look at her life outside the office, and how carefully the office version is built.

Don is distraught about losing an important account, so Roger, stuck in the city on Labor Day, tries to cheer him up; Joan and her roommate paint the town.

Season 23 in the path
3 skipped
Where the new copy machine goes, and who decides. The whole floor runs on her and only she seems to know it.

The second season opens with Don butting heads about personnel matters with Duck, who wants "younger creative talent"; the staff is up in the air about its approach to an airline-company account; Betty bumps into a former roommate who has begun a surprising new career; Joan is at a loss about where to put the new copy machine.

3 skipped
Hiring Don a secretary, which means deciding what kind of woman survives on this floor.

Joan might have found Don a perfect secretary; Peggy comes to the rescue when Don finds himself in the middle of personal issues between a TV comedian and the man's wife; Pete and his wife see a fertility specialist to deal with her inability to conceive.

6 skipped
She brings her fiance in to meet everyone. The office reads him faster than she does.

An old friend and Don renew acquaintances; Pete's personal problems impact a major account; Joan introduces her fiancé around the office.

Season 33 in the path
3 skipped
A dinner party for her husband's colleagues, hosted to the standard she holds everything to.

A mandatory overtime session leaves the writers trying to stave off late-night boredom; Roger throws a party, and Joan and Greg host one of their own; and Sally and Grandpa have a run-in.

2 skipped
The English arrive, an accident reorganises the agency, and the news she gets is not the one she was expecting.

A surprise visitor shows up at Sterling Cooper; Sally gets spooked by something (or someone); and Joan is the recipient of some surprising news.

4 skipped
Plans for a future that depends entirely on somebody else's career.

Sterling Cooper welcomes back a prodigal client; Betty and the children take a trip; Joan and Greg make plans for their future.

Season 42 in the path
4 skipped
An empty office over a holiday, and an unlikely friendship with the one partner who also has nowhere to be.

Don plans a jaunt to Acapulco, while back at the office, Lane and Joan get into a serious disagreement.

4 skipped
A copywriter's joke goes too far. How she chooses to handle it and how Peggy chooses to handle it are the whole argument.

Peggy and Joan are forced to deal with some insulting office behavior; Don and his date Bethany (Anna Camp) have an uncomfortable encounter with Betty and her husband at a fancy restaurant. Later, during a late-night business meeting, Don invites Faye (Cara Buono) to dine with him, and dinner turns into a bit more than either had expected.

Season 53 in the path
5 skipped
A surprise party, a houseguest she cannot get rid of, and a marriage she is managing like an account.

Don is greeted with a surprise; Roger and Pete clash; and Joan has a run-in with a houseguest.

2 skipped
The decision she makes alone, in a hospital, and tells nobody about.

Don has an encounter with someone from the past; Joan comes to a momentous decision. Meanwhile, Roger increases Peggy's workload.

6 skipped
The Jaguar account. What the partners ask of her, what she asks in return, and the fact that she is the only one who negotiates.

Don deals with a challenging pitch, while Peggy ponders taking a trip.

Season 62 in the path
5 skipped
A client of her own, brought in without the men, and the trouble that causes upstairs.

The partners try to keep a secret campaign under wraps, while Joan gets a visit from an old friend.

5 skipped
Caught off guard in front of the partners, defending an account she is not supposed to have.

The agency works to keep a client; Joan is caught off guard.

Season 75 in the path
4 skipped
An awkward situation handled the way she handles everything, plus an office move that says exactly what she is worth here.

Peggy receives flowers at the office; Pete navigates the politics of new business; Joan is put in an awkward situation.

5 skipped
An account problem that turns into a room full of men who will not listen to her.

Don tries to track down a friend; Joan struggles to solve a problem with an account; Peggy is set up by an unlikely person.

1 skipped
A business trip, and the first version of her life that she chose rather than managed.

Roger pawns off a project onto Don; Joan goes on a business trip; Peggy and Pete clash over how to deal with an account emergency.

1 skipped
McCann, and a coworker who makes it immediately clear what the merger means for her.

Don receives a reward for his work; Joan butts heads with a coworker on an account; Roger dodges a big decision.

1 skipped
The finale. Of everyone in this path she is the one who ends up with exactly what she built.

The stories of Don Draper, his family and his coworkers come to an end in the series finale.

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