Also, Pete's in the closet this season about his marriage. He's lying about his life too. If Bob's spending a lot of time with him he could totally have picked up on that and think the marriage is a sham for different reasons. Also Pete's incredibly lonely. In MW's description of the scene he said Pete wasn't shocked…

They're shaving it (and covering it with make-up) and yes, it's very messed up!

In an ep with a lot of explosions, Pete's mother's judgment of Pete (and baby!Pete at that) was just about the coldest thing in it.

That's exactly what seemed bizarre about the show to me too. Culminating in that ep where Carol and Susan announce that they're planning to give Ben a last name that's a hyphenate of Susan and Carol's last names.

Of course he didn't have to do that since Cutler's a partner. It's just Bob's extinct to take the fall for anybody even when it's one partner talking to another partner. But it probably endeared him to Cutler when he learned Bob would cover up for any shady things he was doing.

I didn't get that attitude from her, exactly. She tried to deflect and get out of it by claiming it was a mistake. By the end of the scene she was on the verge of tears and relieved that Peggy saved her. I don't think she was truly prepared for being that in the wrong, even if she didn't regret it.

I think it was that both Joan and Lane wanted to do it themselves and didn't want anyone else doing it with them/for them. Pete was the best target for Lane to take out his frustrations on since he'd been steadily annoying him and he was the one person in the room Lane could see himself beating up. Joan probably would…

Oh I agree—and I think that probably worked in their favor at the second meeting as well.

Why would Joan really know how Don or Pete do things? She doesn't attend these kinds of meetings. Her cutting Peggy off may have just been about her social skills. In Joan's world you don't let some girl babble on about her boring family in Brooklyn when the man wants to talk business.

Why would it be relevant that this one guy didn't want to go to a whorehouse? If Joan had been dealing with Lane's friend she would have fared the same as Lane unless she found a way to get him to that whorehouse.

I think she praised Harry because he was the one thing she knew about from working with him. She basically translated her old job working for him into "this is what our agency does." She could certainly learn how to be an accounts person, but she's not one now.

Which isn't that different from the way anybody would probably have been talked to if they did something like that. She made a really ballsy move, impersonating an accounts exec with a potentially huge client. The others have been on the receiving end of getting yelled at before. You can't do something like that and…

Wasn't Pete dressed down when he pulled his own attempt to get himself into Creative? I wouldn't be surprised if he got hit a lot harder than Joan (and also fired).

I think it's more hoping that it indicates some kind of change in attitude and trying something new. Which could be a bad thing. But given that this is Pete and he's been twisting himself into knots all season, maybe it could be better.

I think if Sal had anything to do with Stonewall he'd be a completely different character.

That made me kind of love Bob more than ever.

Exactly. And I disagree with @avclub-e329caccd50119a7e020cb5532f30569:disqus —the client didn't pull her into it. The client made it clear to her that he was looking for an ad agency in that first meeting but the "right" thing to do then would be for her to give it to accounts. Pete was trying to get himself into a…

Also he feels like the company's just takin' another little piece of his heart every day.

He does ask Joan about how he's coming across at work—basically asking if Duck's right about his impression. And then he finds a way to deal with his mother, which is part of fixing his life—just not the big part.

But to be fair, he has been flagged as having a hidden agenda as well so he's not completely a blank slate.