Have you watched the entire series? Do you know who Duck Phillips is and about his former association with Sterling Cooper? Do you know about his attempts to bring Peggy into his current agency and away from Sterling Cooper? If you in fact do, I wonder why you are asking the question that you did.
I am sure something will happen later concerning these two but it is no mystery why the previews you cited mentioned Peggy's questionable taste in men.

So neither of you saw anything wrong with Duck unplugging the TV after learning of the shooting in Dallas and proceeding with his rendezvous with Peggy? He only told her of the shooting after he got what he wanted from her. Pretty questionable behavior in my book.

@zerelda: Any man that throws his beloved family pet into the busy streets of Manhattan to be run over by a bus has more than questionable behavior. Duck is a lowlife and Peggy is out of her mind for sleeping with him. She's probably going to catch him in bed with someone else soon.

Zerelda: Apparently you did NOT read (or failed to comprehend) my post before replying. Of course I see that Duck is a questionable person! Not necessarily because of the TV incident alone but because of a great many things regarding Duck. That is why I asked the poster if they have watched the entire series. Sheesh!

Loves Mad Men: I agree completely! And just to clarify, I too agree that Duck is scum. Frankly, I thought I made that clear in my initial response to the OP, but I guess not, at least judging from Zerelda's posting. Not trying to shout out anyone but it seems we have a bit of miscommunication going on here. Again, I am in complete agreement that Duck is scum and Peggy made yet another bad choice in men!

But people,remember that once Peggy gets a whiff of Ducks cologne she loses it. That day he was wearing Aqua Velva. The first time she had her little tryst with Duck he was wearing his favorite Old Spice. So the girl can't help it.....

Was Peggy ever fully aware of Duck's "bad behavior"? I'm not so sure, and when Pete tried to explain it to her, she just blew it off as another one of Don's quirks. At that point, she didn't care about why Don didn't like Duck, particularly since she had just been rudely lectured by Don regarding the Hilton account.
Sleeping with Duck may be one way to get back at Don and SC, but it's also exciting and Duck's an older man who knows what to do in the sack. Peggy always seems so practical....a lunch hour tryst fits into the busy work schedule. It's funny that she's mirroring Don and Roger's illicit "nooners". She can also straddle the fence and run over to Grey's (sp?) if things get too confining at SC, so she doesn't want to burn any bridges with Duck the Scmuck.

Christopher - Now that's funny! Too bad neither was a SC client. Or are they Grey clients? Hmmm...

Jolie - I'm suspicious of the Grey/Duck arrangement. Perhaps it's because MW & Co. didn't want to build a Grey set but we've never seen him in the office. He explained it (I'm paraphrasing badly) as a "NY subway restroom with half the ambiance." He's always seen at either a restaurant or hotel room. The one scene of him in an office (with flying ducks mounted on the wall) could be a rented office. It feels a lot like he's a recruiter/subcontractor of some sort.

I may have misinterpreted her statements but Karen Erikson (Peggy's roomie) seemed to have said that the only reason for a guy to be sleeping over is if he was married. Interesting that she saw nothing wrong with that.

@jolie: Both Duck and Peggy threw their "family member" into the street. Both have no moral fiber. I can understand why Peggy's sister hates her. Peggy is Miss Self Righteous and then look at what she does. Duck showed his true colors when he threw his poor animal into the busy Manhattan streets. Anything could have happened to that baby. Anything could have happened to that dog.

Yes, I understand all of this and I have seen every episode, but I'm saying that nothing occurred IN THIS EPISODE that painted Duck in a bad light that would make Peggy's taste questionable. The preview synopsis is supposed to convey what is going to happen in a particular episode.

Hate Duck all you want, pine for karmic justice in the form of the ghost of Chauncey to bring him down, whatever. But his relationship with Peggy has yet to show anything negative, which is more than we can say for Roger and Jane, Joan and her husband, or Pete and the au pair. Replace "Peggy" in the preview sentence with "Joan" or "Trudi" and you'd have a stronger case... but again, not in this episode.

Even funnier, here's the full preview line from Episode 12: "A candidate makes an impression on Don; Peggy's taste in men proves questionable; and Pete faces a major decision about his career."

Well they were right about Pete, but unless they're referring to the seconds long conversation between Don and Lane about hiring a new art director, I can't figure out what they meant by "A candidate makes an impression on Don"

I'm getting sick and tired over the hullabaloo over that damn dog. The reason Duck kicked the critter out on the streets, was due to his own emotional crisis in the episode. It was the same reason why Don ordered Sally out of the bathroom, while he was shaving.

Duck Phillips is no better or worse than the other characters on that show. I could say the same about Peggy. She deliberately set out to sleep with Pete, despite him telling her that he was getting married the next day. She had decided not to take care of her baby and many fans applauded her for her "bold" decision. Both her and Pete had suspected that Duck was trying to recruit them in order to get even for being fired. Yet, after Don lost his temper with her, she went ahead and had sex with Duck. Duck doesn't seem to be trying to recruit her . . . at least not yet. Nor is Peggy making an effort to leave Sterling Cooper. Although in my opinion, she is a fool for staying there.

Will Weiner turn the Duck-Peggy affair into a disaster? I haven't the foggiest idea. If he does, it will be an act of bad writing on his part, considering that he hasn't bother to show any potential for disaster in previous episodes, this past season.

Spek1: I get where you're coming from. I agree on both counts. Duck didn't do anything specifically nauseating in this episode, and who the heck is the candidate making an impression on Don? V.v. strange.

The only "candidate" I can consider to "make an impression" on Don is JFK, though in a very roundabout way: JFK assassination --> Betty flipping out --> Don sleeping alone

I've always wondered if all the Chauncey love on this site was tongue-in-cheek, but I'm starting to see otherwise :) I half expected one of the pets in the dog food focus group last episode to be an Irish setter, just to create a buzz. And no, I don't hate dogs, but I can't hate Duck forever for what he did, and then give Pete a pass in this episode for being cozy with Trudi, when the last big thing we saw him do was force himself on the au pair.

@ dondraperesq , maybe they got their episode 12s mixed up :) Season 1 Episode 12 was about JFK the candidate.

I choose to believe that some nice stranger saw the beautiful Chauncey on the street and took him home with him. Otherwise, I'd just cry. Poor puppy!!!!

@Ritt1: Yes, now that you mention it...Duck never seems to be in his office, although because Peggy and Pete are still working for SC, discretion in a secret meeting place would keep tongues from wagging. Like you said, it does seem suspicious.

Back to Peggy's relationship with Duck, I don't really recall how much interaction these two really had at SC. I barely remember Duck speaking to Peggy, but I could be wrong. Apparently he never really stepped on her toes or showed himself to be much of a villain in her eyes. She wasn't aware of the whole Chauncey thing or even that Duck arranged the British invasion of SC.
The roommate's comment was funny....like why would a young woman be with an older man unless he was married. That seemed to fly over Peggy's head.

Hi Christopher!

Thanks for the Duck cologne post! I got a kick out of Peggy's roommate's comment about smelling his cologne in their apt., and on Peggy! Doesn't Peggy shower after her encounters with the Duckster? Ewwww...

My guess is he is a Hai Karate or Brut man!!!

I agree with some Maddicts' confusion about the lead in lines to this episode.

Peggy and her taste in men, and Don meets a candidate who makes an impression?

There used to be a poster named Chauncey with a beautiful Irish Setter as the avatar....
Are you out there Chauncey?

spek1 - i get what you are saying - nowhere in the epi does peggy reflect (negatively or positively) about her relationship with duck. she had a brief conversation with her roomie in the lobby when she seemed to do more justifying then reflecting.

in addition, peggy has never had an intimate and rewarding relationship with another man and even though she may have been "around the block" a few times, i think she may still be very naive when it comes to interpreting duck's motives - especially has her feeling become more entangled in the affair.

underneath peggy's self righteous armor is a very insecure girl, she feels unattractive and is alienated from other woman her age because of her career aspirations. she is socially inept and watching peggers awkwardly sing Bye Bye Birdie alone in her apartment captures it perfectly! desperate to make sense of how SOCIETY thinks a woman should behave might be a reason she keeps making such terrible decisions with men.

as far as duck is concerned - i wonder if PP&L might be behind duck's placement at Grey??? could PP&L have used duck to scout for a modest, on the rise, ad firm, willing to merge with an already established agency like SC. this could explain, why duck was brought back this season in the first place, the pressure from London to get don under contract, and his modest office at Grey!

I agree with Jolie that Peggy is practical and is probably sleeping with Duck because he is older AND experienced in bed and advertising.

@ j9mac, interesting theory about Duck still being somehow connected to PP&L, but Grey is no "modest, on the rise, ad firm." Grey, like all other agencies mentioned so far in Mad Men (except for SC and PP&L) is a real-life agency that still exists to this day. While I can't quite grasp how big SC is in terms of staff, Grey was well established by 1963 and probably bigger than SC.

But I think you're right; Duck is still around the show for a reason, other than to rock Peggy's world.

spek1 - i did know they were a real firm but not that they were already established. thanks for the info