Peggy Olson starts the series as a secretary on her first day, and this is the thread that follows what she does about it - the cleanest arc in the show, and the only one with a real beginning, middle and end. 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 Peggy Olson, or rewatching the show for her.
in the path skipped other arcnumbers below are seasons · hover any mark for the episode
The path
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Season 15 in the path
🔒S01E01Smoke Gets in Your Eyes
Her first day, as Don Draper's secretary. Everything about the character starts from how little anybody in the room expects of her.
🔒S01E02Ladies Room
The office's attention, none of it welcome, and the first sign she has read the place faster than it has read her.
3 skipped
🔒S01E06Babylon
A focus group for lipstick, a wastebasket of samples, and the line that gets her noticed by the only person whose notice counts.
1 skipped
🔒S01E08The Hobo Code
Her first copy gets bought. The celebration afterwards shows exactly how the men she works with intend to take it.
4 skipped
🔒S01E13The Wheel
Promoted to copywriter, and given an office. The last five minutes of the season are hers, and they recontextualise the whole year.
Season 23 in the path
4 skipped
🔒S02E05The New Girl
The favour Don calls in, and the reason he owes her one. What happened at the end of the first season is finally said between them.
🔒S02E06Maidenform
Shut out of the meetings where the work actually happens, and working out what it would cost to be let in.
1 skipped
🔒S02E08A Night to Remember
Her family, her parish and a priest who wants her talent for the church. The half of her life the office never sees.
Season 31 in the path
17 skipped
🔒S03E13Shut the Door. Have a Seat.
The new agency is assembled overnight from the people who matter. She has to be asked, and she makes them ask properly.
Season 43 in the path
5 skipped
🔒S04E06Waldorf Stories
A creative partner she did not choose and does not like, in an office too small for the argument.
🔒S04E07The Suitcase
One long night with Don and a suitcase of Samsonite. The best hour the show ever made, and the one that defines what these two are to each other.
3 skipped
🔒S04E11Chinese Wall
A client crisis, a pitch made on no notice, and a relationship she is running alongside a career that keeps expanding.
Season 53 in the path
4 skipped
🔒S05E03Tea Leaves
More responsibility, less credit, and the first real sense that the ceiling in this building is lower than her ambition.
2 skipped
🔒S05E06Far Away Places
A pitch that goes badly wrong in front of a client, and a day that keeps restarting from three points of view.
4 skipped
🔒S05E11The Other Woman
She resigns. The handshake in Don's office is the show's most quietly devastating scene and the end of its first half.
Season 62 in the path
4 skipped
🔒S06E03The Collaborators
At a rival agency, running her own people, and discovering the job looks the same from the other chair.
2 skipped
🔒S06E06For Immediate Release
The merger that puts her back in a building with Don, on terms neither of them chose.
Season 76 in the path
10 skipped
🔒S07E04The Monolith
Given a team and undermined by the person on it who least wants to report to her.
1 skipped
🔒S07E06The Strategy
Burger Chef. The research, the argument about who should present it, and a dance in a diner.
🔒S07E07Waterloo
The pitch itself, delivered by her, and the future it buys her.
3 skipped
🔒S07E11Time & Life
The agency's end arrives as a phone call. What she is offered next is the question the last two episodes answer.
🔒S07E12Lost Horizon
Sunglasses, a cigarette and an octopus painting under one arm. Her entrance into McCann is the show's best sight gag and its truest statement about her.
1 skipped
🔒S07E14Person to Person
The finale. Her last scene is the one the whole path has been walking toward, and it is not about advertising.
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