Peggy Olson: Difference between revisions
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At the end of Season One, which takes place just before Thanksgiving 1960, Peggy begins to have severe stomach pains right after she is promoted to Junior Copywriter, heading up the new Clearasil account. Peggy attributes the stomach pain to bad office food "from the cart," and heads to St. Mary's Hospital in Brooklyn. She is shocked and in complete denial when the doctor tells her that she's actually in labor. Peggy does not believe him, especially since it is assumed that she has been taking the birth-control pill throughout her pregnancy. She gets up to leave, but immediately collapses, and the doctor orders her into the labor room. He also orders a psychiatrist to see her. She gives birth to a healthy baby boy. |
At the end of Season One, which takes place just before Thanksgiving 1960, Peggy begins to have severe stomach pains right after she is promoted to Junior Copywriter, heading up the new Clearasil account. Peggy attributes the stomach pain to bad office food "from the cart," and heads to St. Mary's Hospital in Brooklyn. She is shocked and in complete denial when the doctor tells her that she's actually in labor. Peggy does not believe him, especially since it is assumed that she has been taking the birth-control pill throughout her pregnancy. She gets up to leave, but immediately collapses, and the doctor orders her into the labor room. He also orders a psychiatrist to see her. She gives birth to a healthy baby boy. |
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Season Two begins 15 months later, on February 14, 1962, with a slim Peggy and no mention of the birth. Her long absence (which is not shown) is a mystery to the employees of Sterling Cooper. One co-worker cracks during a meeting that "Draper knocked her up and she's dropped nine pounds, eight ounces." Pete, however, has heard through office gossip that Peggy simply went to a |
Season Two begins 15 months later, on February 14, 1962, with a slim Peggy and no mention of the birth. Her long absence (which is not shown) is a mystery to the employees of Sterling Cooper. One co-worker cracks during a meeting that "Draper knocked her up and she's dropped nine pounds, eight ounces." Pete, however, has heard through office gossip that Peggy simply went to a [[Weight loss camp |fat farm]]. |
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Later during Season Two, it is revealed through a series of flashbacks that Peggy's mother and then very-pregnant sister have covered up Peggy's sudden disappearance from Sterling Cooper. They tell her worried boss, Don Draper, that Peggy is in [[quarantine]] with [[tuberculosis]]. Don becomes suspicious and seeks her out at the hospital, where he finds her in a terrible mental state (though it is not made immediately clear if he'd learned of her pregnancy), and realizes that her hospitalization is not due to tuberculosis. He encourages her to forget about the entire thing, giving her the advice he is often heard giving, to "move forward" and that "this" never happened. |
Later during Season Two, it is revealed through a series of flashbacks that Peggy's mother and then very-pregnant sister have covered up Peggy's sudden disappearance from Sterling Cooper. They tell her worried boss, Don Draper, that Peggy is in [[quarantine]] with [[tuberculosis]]. Don becomes suspicious and seeks her out at the hospital, where he finds her in a terrible mental state (though it is not made immediately clear if he'd learned of her pregnancy), and realizes that her hospitalization is not due to tuberculosis. He encourages her to forget about the entire thing, giving her the advice he is often heard giving, to "move forward" and that "this" never happened. |
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| Peggy Olson | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mad Men character | |||||||||||||
 Elisabeth Moss as Peggy Olson. | |||||||||||||
| Portrayed by | Elisabeth Moss | ||||||||||||
| First appearance | Smoke Gets in your Eyes (1.01) | ||||||||||||
| Created by | Matthew Weiner | ||||||||||||
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Margaret "Peggy" Olson is a fictional character in the AMC television series Mad Men, and is portrayed by actress Elisabeth Moss. Initially, Peggy is secretary to Don Draper (Jon Hamm), creative director of the advertising agency Sterling Cooper. Later, she is promoted to copywriter, the first female writer at the firm since World War II. She later joins Draper when he leaves Sterling Cooper to become a founding member of Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce. By the end of Season 4 she is effectively Draper's second-in-command in the creative department.
Biography
Peggy Olson is initially presented as an innocent but determined young woman, eager to be a success in her job at Sterling Cooper after having graduated from a respected secretarial school. She was brought up in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, New York in a Roman Catholic Norwegian-American family. Peggy has an immense dislike of the double standard in regard to the vices of men and women and appears to be quite feminist in her views.
At Sterling Cooper
In the first episode of Mad Men, "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes", which takes place in March 1960, Peggy's supervisor (office manager Joan Holloway, portrayed by actress Christina Hendricks) directs her in her duties as well as offering personal advice, which includes referring her to a gynecologist to obtain a prescription for the birth-control pill. When she meets Pete Campbell (portrayed by actor Vincent Kartheiser) for the first time, he makes rude comments to Peggy about her dowdy appearance. Later that night, after his bachelor party, Pete shows up at Peggy's apartment drunk. Despite his offensive remarks earlier at the office, Peggy sleeps with Pete that night. Months later, Peggy and Pete have another sexual encounter, this time on Pete's office couch, early one morning before other employees arrive.
In the fall of 1960, Peggy rips her skirt trying to pick something up off of the floor, which prompts her to begin to wearing baggy dress and jacket outfits. Ken Cosgrove jokes to his male co-workers that Peggy looks like a lobster, because all her "meat" is in her "tail." Pete, while feeling a mixture of embarrassment for his involvement with Peggy but still holding a secret attachment to her, reacts strongly to Ken's remark and punches him in the face (ironically, Cosgrove will become one of Peggy's key allies years later).
Joan makes snide remarks to Peggy about her weight gain, warning her that she will remain a virgin because of her appearance. Peggy informs Joan that she is, in fact, not a virgin.
At the end of Season One, which takes place just before Thanksgiving 1960, Peggy begins to have severe stomach pains right after she is promoted to Junior Copywriter, heading up the new Clearasil account. Peggy attributes the stomach pain to bad office food "from the cart," and heads to St. Mary's Hospital in Brooklyn. She is shocked and in complete denial when the doctor tells her that she's actually in labor. Peggy does not believe him, especially since it is assumed that she has been taking the birth-control pill throughout her pregnancy. She gets up to leave, but immediately collapses, and the doctor orders her into the labor room. He also orders a psychiatrist to see her. She gives birth to a healthy baby boy.
Season Two begins 15 months later, on February 14, 1962, with a slim Peggy and no mention of the birth. Her long absence (which is not shown) is a mystery to the employees of Sterling Cooper. One co-worker cracks during a meeting that "Draper knocked her up and she's dropped nine pounds, eight ounces." Pete, however, has heard through office gossip that Peggy simply went to a fat farm.
Later during Season Two, it is revealed through a series of flashbacks that Peggy's mother and then very-pregnant sister have covered up Peggy's sudden disappearance from Sterling Cooper. They tell her worried boss, Don Draper, that Peggy is in quarantine with tuberculosis. Don becomes suspicious and seeks her out at the hospital, where he finds her in a terrible mental state (though it is not made immediately clear if he'd learned of her pregnancy), and realizes that her hospitalization is not due to tuberculosis. He encourages her to forget about the entire thing, giving her the advice he is often heard giving, to "move forward" and that "this" never happened.
Meanwhile, Peggy's sister, who has since given birth herself, is resentful of Peggy and tells their young new parish priest that Peggy seduced a married man, got pregnant, and was forced to give up the baby (it is later revealed that because Don visited her at the hospital, her family believed him to be the father of her illegitimate child). Throughout Season Two, we see the priest repeatedly trying to persuade Peggy to admit her sins in confession, but Peggy never does.
In the Season Two episode "The Jet Set," Peggy gets her hair cut from her demure ponytail into a shorter, more modern hair style. This was said to represent the upcoming change for women's style in the 60s.
During the Season Two finale, Pete asks Peggy to come into his office and sit down with him. Pete has come to the realization that he never should have married Trudy, and should have married Peggy, instead, when he "had the chance." Peggy reveals that she had his baby and gave it away two years ago (it is now October 1962, the same week as the Cuban Missile Crisis). This admission is particularly shocking and hurtful to Pete, as his wife appears to be infertile. Trudy wishes to adopt, an idea that Pete initially rejects, reconsiders, and then rejects again. Peggy finally walks out on Pete, feeling like the burden of guilt has finally been lifted. Everyone has left the office for the weekend and Pete is last seen sitting alone in his dark office, holding a rifle on his lap—the same rifle he bought on store credit in Season One, when he returned a ceramic chip-and-dip he and Trudy received as a wedding gift.
Peggy's sharp mind and creativity are recognized by Fred "Freddy" Rumsen, another executive at Sterling Cooper, and she is promoted to writing copy for advertising. She is ambitious and her approach is compared to that of Don Draper. After Rumsen is fired, Peggy convinces Roger Sterling to give her his office,[1] which includes Freddy's much-envied bar.
In Season Three (1963), Peggy's ideas for advertising, while respected, are frequently ignored. In particular, her comment that the proposed ad campaign for Pepsi's new diet cola Patio, involving a shot-for-shot remake of Ann-Margret's opening scene in Bye Bye Birdie would not actually appeal to the female target audience of the drink, is dismissed. When the ad in question is shot down by Pepsi (whose idea it was in the first place), she smiles a bit.[2]
Due to the difficulties of commuting from Brooklyn, Peggy decides to move to an apartment in Manhattan; her mother regards this as an affront. Paul Kinsey, conspiring with one of the secretaries, pulls a prank on Peggy during her first attempt to find a roommate, after which Joan advises Peggy to make her ad about fun and good times. She finds a prospective roommate in Karen Erikson; her conversation with Karen reveals that Peggy is Norwegian, at least on her father's side (Karen is Swedish American, though Peggy tells her mother that Karen is Norwegian).[2]
Peggy becomes involved with Duck Phillips at this time, and he makes a nearly-successful effort to lure her away to his firm. But she joins Don Draper and others in their new ad agency after Draper reassures her that he values her work.
At SCDP
In the fourth season (1964–65) Peggy perseveres as a trusted member of the SCDP creative staff, despite lingering resentment and patronizing from most of the men she works with. Her affair with Duck has ended and, she has begun dating a man named Mark. However, Peggy is clearly dissatisfied with the relationship and dumps Mark when he becomes too clingy. Peggy then becomes friends with Joyce, a Life magazine employee and a lesbian. Though Joyce develops a crush on Peggy, both accept the reality that nothing can come of it. Instead, Peggy develops feelings for one of Joyce's beatnik friends, Abe Drexler; their relationship is almost derailed because of his conspiracy theories and rants, but eventually blooms into a romance. And through it all, she must deal with the news that Pete and Trudy Campbell are having a baby.
Peggy's Relationship with Don Draper
During Season Four (1964–65), Peggy's complex working relationship with Draper continues to evolve as he relies on her to handle important accounts. Peggy is often openly resentful of Don's demanding requirements and his refusal to express appreciation for her work, but is also conscious that he is the only one in the firm who views her as an equal to her fellow copywriters, notwithstanding her gender. Their relationship begins to take on a personal tenor despite their sometimes acrimonious exchanges and his increasingly heavy drinking.
Their relationship is solidified when Don forces Peggy to work all night on her birthday. Though she is initially angry at Don for having to cancel dinner plans with her boyfriend to accommodate his work demands, they spend the night discussing their lives and Don reveals to her details of his past. Peggy helps Don through another drunken binge and defuses a confrontation between him and Duck Phillips, who shows up at the office searching for Peggy in a drunken stupor of his own. The two fall asleep on Don's office couch as he lies down with his head in Peggy's lap. Later that morning, a distraught Don weeps in Peggy's presence after he learns of Anna's death over the telephone. When Don tells Peggy that he has lost the only one in the world who truly knew him, Peggy tenderly places her hand on his shoulder and replies, "That's not true." Later that day, Don conveys his gratitude to Peggy by pausing during a advertisement-related conversation and embracing her hand, briefly shedding his emotional unavailability and confirming their bond.
Peggy appears surprised and disappointed when Don announces his engagement to Megan Calvet, his secretary. Peggy congratulates Don, to which Don replies that Megan admires Peggy and considers her a role model of sorts. Peggy interprets the gesture as a backhanded compliment and in a private chat with Joan, she remarks indignantly that Don seems more excited about marrying his secretary than about her own success. Joan tells Peggy that Don is no less superficial and shallow than any of their other male superiors and that his engagement to Megan should come as no surprise.
