The Beautiful Girls (Mad Men)

"The Beautiful Girls"
Mad Men episode
The final shot of the episode, illustrating the paths of three very different 1960s women - Joan Harris (Christina Hendricks), Peggy Olson (Elisabeth Moss), and Faye Miller (Cara Buono).
Episode no.	Season 4 Episode 9
Directed by	Michael Uppendahl
Written by	Dahvi Waller Matthew Weiner
Original air date	September 19, 2010
Guest appearance(s)
Cara Buono as Faye Miller Jessica Pare as Megan Calvet Jay R. Ferguson as Stan Rizzo Zosia Mamet as Joyce Ramsay Charlie Hofheimer as Abe Drexler Randee Heller as Miss Blankenship David Warshofsky as Leonard Filmore
Episode chronology
← Previous "The Summer Man" Next → "Hands and Knees"
Mad Men (season 4) List of Mad Men episodes

"The Beautiful Girls" is the ninth episode of the fourth season of the American television drama series Mad Men and the 48th overall episode of the series. It first aired on the AMC channel in the United States on September 19, 2010. It was written by Dahvi Waller and Matthew Weiner and directed by Michael Uppendahl.

Don encounters multiple challenges at work, as his daughter shows up unannounced at the same time as his secretary dies. This situation puts a strain on his relationship with Dr. Faye Miller. Meanwhile, Joan, whose husband is about to be sent off to Vietnam, strikes up her old affair with Roger. Peggy meets up with Abe Drexler and becomes embroiled in a political debate that could threaten her standing at the agency. Randee Heller was nominated for Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series for this episode.

The episode opens with Don's negotiating a lunchtime meeting. In the next scene, he and Faye are having vigorous sex in his apartment. Each has a business meeting that afternoon; Don tells Faye his is with Secor Laxatives, but client confidentiality prevents Faye from satisfying Don's curiosity about whom she is meeting, as the client is another agency's.

With Joyce's help, Abe Drexler "bumps into" Peggy at the local bar, where the two engage in a conversation about race and feminism. After Abe reacts dismissively to Peggy's assertions that women have it as bad as African-Americans, she leaves angry. The next day, Abe arrives at Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce with an article he has written about corporate injustice towards women, titled "Nuremberg on Madison Avenue". When she reads the story, Peggy explodes in anger, as the article could get her fired.

After Roger learns that Joan's husband is being shipped off to Vietnam, Roger and Joan go to a diner to commiserate with each other. While walking through a dangerous part of town, on Broadway, Roger and Joan are mugged at gunpoint by an African-American mugger. The mugger takes Roger's wallet and watch, Joan's purse, and Roger and Joan's rings. Roger calms Joan in an alleyway, where in the heat of the moment, the two have sex.