Deconstructing Anna Draper

Disclaimer: MM fans who love Anna, take this thread as mostly tongue in cheek. Mostly!

Anna Draper is probably one of Mad Men's most beloved secondary characters. She is routinely praised as being a nonjudgmental, caring and decent well of salvation and trust for a man constantly living a gigantic lie. Fans love and appreciate her for what she did for Don, and Don clearly relied on her as a source of a stability. As her death approached, we clearly saw him come unhinged. When her spirit came to say goodbye, it gave him the impetus to try and turn his life around.

Now, for a moment here can I ask: Why?! Why is this woman considered to be so great? When you take a closer look at Anna, you realize that she is kind of a creepy, opportunistic weirdo.

First off, Anna is greedy. Her loyalty is only as good as the value of the greenback: Don had essentially been paying her off for over a decade. When she came and confronted him, the only way he was able to stop her from going to the police was by promising to support her for the rest of her life. In season 2 when he visited California and commented on how he loved the porch, she smirked and said "You paid for it". She knows that more luxury is to come because she holds all of his cards. Well, well.. blackmail! How do you like that, Dick?

By the mid 60s, Anna has become pretty used to her cushy life in California. We can safely assume that for the entirety of season three she was able to sit around her house without a job, smoke marijuana and play with tarot cards. When he visits in 1964, she looks at him and says, "I know everything about you, and I still love you". Really? Well would you still love him if you knew that he was broke and never going to be able to support you? Would you love him if you didn't have that porch?Its not like Dick murdered her ex-husband.. he was going to be dead anyway, and then where would she be? What if SCDP sucked up all of his expendable income and he had to put it all towards his kids and himself? I bet she'd get over Dick really fast..

Secondly, Anna is a terrible guardian and role model. Anna allows Don to drive her niece home without seeming to care at all about the potential consequences. She has no qualms about letting this young women be driven home by a man who is already lying to his kids about his entire life story, and had marital problems related to his infidelity. A man who can do lethal up-skirt grabs and abandon women tied to bedposts. She was also privy to their dance session at the bar, so I'm sure she knew what he was all about. Yes.. I'm sure he was just telling her to study hard and get a good job after college..

Not only that, Anna encourages her niece to smoke marijuana. What! What kind of role model is that? No wonder her sister is always second-guessing Anna's decisions.. they are always terrible! Thank goodness those Draper kids never got to meet her. Did we really want Sally to befriend someone who would give her drugs instead of candy and allow Glenn to drive her home? Thank goodness for Betty!

Finally, Anna is the main reason the Don Draper lie got as big as it did. This lady gave him cover to go on and be dishonest with Betty, his kids, his employers and clients. If she had turned him in, he may have gone to jail, but the consequences would have ended there. If Don's identity is revealed and SCDP fails because of it, then Pete, Peggy, Joans and many others will lose their livelihoods. Maybe Roger would suffer a fatal heart attack because of it. Had Anna Draper been alive, she would surely have been arrested for conspiracy. Put simply, she is directly responsible for ruining lives.

In conclusion, I would like to argue that Anna is possibly the most corrupt character on the entire show.

What do you think?