I think Joan’s too smart for that. Lady’s got a diaphragm and you can bet she uses it. But I’ve been wrong before. I didn’t believe Peggy was pregnant until she delivered. 
When I was in Seattle watching the show on my son’s high def TV, Joan looked very wide. Now that I’m home and watching on my crap TV, she doesn’t look any heavier than she was last season.
I must say, I don’t see a weight gain, either. She looks as 60’s voluptuous as ever.
She probably didn’t have it in when she was raped, though. How long ago was that (in terms of time elapsed during the show)? Is it conceivable (ha!) that a pregnancy could have resulted from that and she’s only starting to show?
It’s been 6 months since last season. Probably 7-8 months since the rape.
Re where the whole Dr Rape thing is headed, it’s pretty clear (IMO at least) he’s a whiny bitch and she rules the household roost. Her agreeing to play the accordion was only not to embarrass him in front of his friends. I think he will lose his shot at being chief resident, probably slap her around, and then some bad shit is in store for him.
Are we agreed that Dr. Rape telling Joan to play her accordion was his attempt at a putdown?
I don’t think so. I think he was desperate and well aware that she is quite possibly his only asset. She’s starting to know it too, along with the inkling that she’s probably not in for the cushy life she thought she was. I really don’t think Joan would have had anything to do with that guy if he weren’t a doctor, which is kind of crappy of her too.
I don’t. I think he was desperately trying to get the conversation off a botched operation.
I hadn’t thought of that interpretation. I thought he was trying to take Joan down a peg or two, because (in his opinion) the accordion is a bourgeois instrument.
I may be mistaken; I have to admit that I haven’t noticed her weight as much in the last episode as I did in the first couple, particularly the season opener.
Nah, that was just water weight.
I think he needed her as a distraction to save him from the awkwardness of having his failings openly discussed in mixed company. What could be a better distraction than Joan singing in French with her red accordion? She saved his ass, and I think he knows it. The boss’ wife even said that knowing Greg was able to win a wife like Joan makes her think more of him… or that he’d be “OK no matter what happened,” ie., even if he doesn’t make Chief Resident. Which I don’t think he will, by all appearances.
I got that, too. Joan didn’t end up with Sterling and knows she’s queen bee at work, but that the best thing she could do is marry a doctor. Now the shoe’s on the other foot and she’s realizing that he’s the one who got the prize.
Excellent episode, all around. The dancing, the singing, the perfectly realistic pothead conversations. I constantly marvel at how they can pick one or two themes every episode (on top of the always prevalent feminist bent) – class, race, family – and work it into almost every storyline without seeming like a bad parody.
Yeah. Whenever the guy feels inadequate he responds by trying to belittle Joan. In the rape scene he felt inadequate due to seeing Don’s office and what not. In this episode it was because everyone brought attention to his operation screw up.
Pretty much, the notion that a lot of people have that he’s trying to “punish” her by making her play is not borne out by the dynamic of the scene. As a side note while Dr. Rape may be scummy Joan is pretty manipulative in her own context and it appears she has married him for everything but love. She doesn’t deserve to get raped for that, but she’s hardly got clean hands in this scenario re who is controlling and manipulating who. I predict if hubby drops another notch or two in his anticipated professional advancement there will be a showdown between them which she will instigate.
I agree, and I am not seeing where he was trying to hurt her by bringing out that accordion. If she were a terrible player or singer, maybe one would get the sense that she was being set up for laughs as a distraction, but she was clearly very good, and everyone seemed genuinely charmed by her. Greg surely knew this, and knew she would be wonderful and distracting, thus making him look good again. So while he may have been using her and putting her on the spot, I don’t think the goal was punishment of her. It wasn’t about her at all-- it was all about him.
I think she married him out of hurt and abandonment after Roger’s whole thing with Jane came to light, and Paul Kinsey’s public display of her age. She was sick of being an old maid, watching other women enjoy being the wives of wealthy, handsome men, while she, with all her charms and talents, languishes into middle age, alone and underappreciated. Greg seemed like a good choice, being a handsome doctor and all, but he really isn’t, and now she’s stuck with him. She certainly doesn’t seem afraid of him, even after the rape, so it will be interesting to see what a confrontation between them will be like.
I’m not convinced he linked consciously that the accordion would be embarrassing for Joan. I think we were to assume - as Joan did? - that a surgeon, up for chief resident, would naturally be sophisticated, well-educated. And not realize that perhaps the accordion is not sophisticated dinner party fare. Remember how he didn’t know how to set a table? I think he realizes on a level that Joan is out of his league even if he’s a surgeon, but I think he was clueless in asking Joan to play her instrument. I don’t think he knows any better. I think the overall plot point is his rapidly diminishing value as a commodity for Joan. A) he’s a brute and a rapist, b) he’s not even the best surgeon, and c) he don’t know nuthin’ bout entertainin’ in the rarefied world Joan is used to. (Even if she’s not rich, she’s a satellite of the well-to-do.) I think Joan assumed she was getting access to a parallel world to the one Roger Sterling inhabits, and she’s not. Her husband can’t even be dashing in the home!
It’s complicated, for sure. There’s an extra at the website, and Weiner says (paraphrasing) that asking someone to perform can be a loving act but that it can also be controlling, and that “keeping up appearances to help himself and cover his own inadequacies is very painful.” But painful to whom? To Greg or to Joan? Or both? I guess both.
I can hear the discussion: “I saved your ass tonight, Zippy!” “Yeah, with an accordion. If you had some class, you’d know how to play the piano. Now I’ll never be chief resident!”
I think you are spot on. His utility as a means to her realizing her social ambitions is rapidly diminishing, and he’s even looking like a bit of a bumpkin. But, again, I’m not weeping too many tears for Joan. She has her eyes set firmly on the prize of advancing her social status, and has no compunctions about carrying on affairs with married men or anyone else. He is merely a stepping stone to her ultimate goal. She does not “love” him in any conventional sense, she only loves (IMO) what he can potentially do for her. He may be a brutal bumpkin, but she’s a big girl and has decided to continue playing with fire even after being molested by him prior to being married.
I guess I pity Joan because she despite her boldness, charm, and intelligence, she cannot think outside of the prescribed social roles of the Fifties. Unlike Peggy, she can only see herself as a secretary, albeit the BEST secretary in the whole firm, the queen of the secretaries, that’s all she can imagine herself being. Likewise, when she thinks of her future, all she can see is being a wife and mother, albeit the most charming, entertaining, graceful wife ever. If she were capable of seeing herself as more than that, she’d have a chance at fulfillment, but she isn’t, and so she’s miserable but she doesn’t know why. It’s a huge waste of talent and brains, and that’s sad for her. It is making her bitter too, which is unfortunate, and will probably only get worse as her marriage deteriorates.