Can we all just bask in the gloriousness of Joan & Peggy's power lunch for a second? In the Mad Men series finale, Joan asks Peggy to start a company with her, making her the unexpected queen of the series final ride. If there is anything that I would have written into my nonexistent Mad Men fan fiction, it would be a boss combination of our two powerful ladies: Joan & Peggy, captains of industry. Peggy ultimately decides McCann-Erickson is where her career will flourish best, but Joan forges on in creating her own empire. Unfortunately for Joan, this new venture comes at a price.
After Joan and her beau Richard take a beach vacation, during which she tries cocaine for the first time, Joan is flying high. She's flying so high that she decides to start this company with Peggy, telling Ms. Olson over lunch, "We won't answer to anyone. It will be something of ours with our name on it." Peggy naturally hesitates — she'd have to strike out on her own, but she might finally be her own boss before 1988 like Pete suggested. Everything seems like it will all fall into place: Joan tells Peggy that she needs to know by the end of the week and while she doesn't take the gig, Joan has a vision she can carry all on her own and she knows it.
Unfortunately, everything isn't OK. When Joan sees Richard, he is furious that she wants to start a new company for herself. "Don't you wanna be with me?" he says. "I wanna be with you and I don't want to be rooting for you to fail for it to happen." Jesus, bro. That is so ridiculously uncool.
He says that she is making a choice to not be with him, because the company will be her whole life. Needy much? First the guy couldn't handle her being a mom and now he expects her to give up her dreams too?
"I can't just turn off that part of myself," says Joan. "I'd never dream of making you choose." It's the perfect thing for Joan to say before she gets dumped by this jerk. I don't like watching her heart break, but there's nothing better than knowing that she stuck to her guns, despite the pain.
Of course, I do wish Joan could have everything she wanted. Including a man who loves her enough to let her follow her professional dreams. But if there's one thing Joan really needed to learn, it was that she doesn't actually need a man to succeed or be happy. And in the end, that's exactly what she finds out.
Image: Justina Mintz/AMC
