Peggy Olson
Portrayed by	Elisabeth Moss
First appearance	Smoke Gets in Your Eyes
Final appearance	Recurring
Details
Gender	Female
Employer	Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce
Occupation	Copywriter
Residence	Bay Ridge, Brooklyn
Relations
Romantic Partners	Pete Campbell (ex-lover) Duck Phillips (ex-lover) Mark Kearney (ex-boyfriend) Abe Drexler (boyfriend)
Child(ren)	Unnamed child

Margaret "Peggy" Olson is a copywriter at Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce advertising agency. Peggy started her career at the Sterling Cooper Advertising Agency as Don Draper's secretary.^[1]

At Sterling Cooper

Peggy begins work at Sterling Cooper as Don Draper's secretary. She is given a tour of the company by Joan Holloway. With her first day nearly complete, Don chastises her for letting Pete Campbell go through his garbage to find report but tells her that she has a fresh start tomorrow. That night, Pete shows up at Peggy's door, drunk. "I wanted to see you tonight," he says. Without a moment of hesitation, she lets him in.^[1]

Peggy begins her job at Sterling Cooper fending off advances from not only Pete but Paul (who later nicknames Peggy "Mouse Ears"); Paul tries to move in on her after giving her a tour of the office and its various departments.^[2]

When Pete returns from his honeymoon, he remains conflicted about his involvement with Peggy. Feeling guilty, Pete brings Peggy into a meeting with the creative team. Before joining Harry Crane, Paul Kinsey and Salvatore Romano, he tries to explain that their relationship can not happen. Peggy appears disappointed, but understands.^[3]

Because she is aware of Don's frequent "lunch" meetings with Midge Daniels, Peggy mistakes a meeting between Don and Adam Whitman as another encounter with Midge since she is unaware that Adam is Don's brother. Betty arrives with the kids and Peggy attempts to stall them, believing that Don is currently with another woman. Peggy asks Joan to help; Joan covers for Don to Betty. Joan later tells Peggy that she is not happy that Peggy confided in her that Don may be sleeping with other women and that keeping Don's confidences is part of the job.^[4]

After impressing Draper with feedback and copy for the Belle Jolie account, Peggy begins to get noticed.^[5] She is promoted to copywriter for the Rejuvenator account.

Pete and Peggy once again become involved, this time as they both end up being the first people to arrive at work. "Do you know how hard it is to see you walking around here everyday?" Pete says, kissing her. Once they have finished, Peggy notices that her collar is ripped. Pete then offers to take a look at her Belle Jolie copy.

Peggy soon begins to gain weight. She splits one of her dresses one day, forcing her to borrow one of Joan's more form fitting dresses.^[6] She is brought into a meeting to test a "weight loss" tool, which is a pink plastic belt shaped like women's panties with a small control box and electric cord. She tests it one day, and discovers that it does little for weight loss, but causes a great deal of stimulation.

Pete is not impressed with Peggy's work, and complains to Don; Don retaliates by telling Peggy that she has been promoted to junior copywriter and that Clearasil is her first project. Soon after the promotion, Peggy (who had no idea that she was pregnant) gives birth to Pete's child.^[7]

After giving birth to her child, Peggy is kept in the hospital; her state of mind is not what it should be and she remains bedridden and almost comatose. Don visits her in the hospital and gives her advice; this advice bolsters Peggy and ultimately enables her to leave the hospital and resume life. She returns to work with renewed determination.  Co-workers speculate that Peggy spent her leave of absence at a fat camp.

A New Company

When rumors of the purchase of parent company of Sterling Cooper reached Don Draper, he pushed the senior partners to attempt a purchase of the company. When that failed, they secretly rounded up a list of clients loyal to them and stole important documentation that would smooth the transition. Peggy Olson, Pete Campbell, Joan Holloway, and Harry Crane were selected as the first employees.

One Year Later

Peggy was working hard as a copy writer a year after the start of SCDP.

One morning Peggy met Joyce Ramsay on an elevator ride. Peggy noticed that Joyce had a pile of rejected photographs and inquired about them. Joyce invited Peggy to a party that her photographer friend is holding downtown. At the party, she offerd Peggy a joint and began to hit on her. "I have a boyfriend," Peggy said. She then was introduced to Davey Kellogg, who was less than impressed with Peggy's suggestion to sell his talent so that he could have money to pursue his art. When the cops raided the event, Abe and Peggy hid in a closet where they shared a kiss.^[8]

Months later, Joyce and Peggy go to grab drinks at a bar in midtown Manhattan. Abe had not wanted to visit her at work and thought looking up her home address was odd, so he had Joyce help arrange a second meeting. At the bar Abe criticizes corporations and Peggy's work not understanding that patronizing and belittling a young career woman does not work as flirting. Peggy later pretended she would not have been interested in working on the Barry Goldwater campaign. After being through being insulted, she left. The following day, Abe came to SCDP to apologize. He had written her a story called "Nuremberg on Madison Avenue." After reading it, Peggy asked that he not publish it since it could cost her career. He said that her job was a waste and that she could be so much more, to which Peggy countered telling him that she was not a political person. Defeated, he told her that he would not bother her again.^[9]

Joyce and Peggy visit Jones Beach. While packing up the car and preparing to head home, a few other people joined them in the car, including Abe, who insisted he didn't plan their meeting. Arriving back in the city, they headed to her place. Abe and her began to kiss, and spent the night together. He told Peggy that he didn't "usually do anything," after which Peggy told him she didn't want him to leave. Later, he brings by a package to her office, pretending to be a delivery boy. She comes into work late, and only then discovers the problems with losing the Lucky Strike account. Stan came onto Peggy, who rejected him. He later took some enjoyment when she embarrassingly had lipstick on her teeth during a client meeting.^[10]

Peggy suggested to Don that the company should change its name, noting that they sometimes did this with products they were working on. Peggy was upset to hear that Faye was forced to resign, and told her that she would miss working with her. She asked if they could get drinks sometime. Faye shakes her hand and said that they may work together sometime in the future. Not long later, Peggy and Stan sit and watch as various SCDP employees are fired from the firm. On his way out, Bertram tells Peggy and Stan that "It's been a pleasure," to slightly confused faces, unaware that he just declared he was leaving the firm to the rest of the partners.^[11]

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References