Mad Men Season 5 Episode 10: Christmas Waltz

 Joe Chiarenzelli is an editor at The Gadfly Press and wishes he was Don Draper.

             Taylor Smith has degrees in Mathematics and Psychology from Clarkson University. He works as a data analyst in Louisiana.




            (You will notice that for the past few weeks things have been hectic for these reviews with people coming in and out, that mostly has to do with college graduations and other things that are (arguably) more important than SCDP. So this week, I brought in my good friend Taylor to hone our skills for tackling Breaking Bad this summer, let us know what you think!)

Joe:

Firstly I’d like to just point out some great Rogering from this episode, from the horrible horrible shirt, to explaining how Pearl Harbor was an act of genius. The best joke being when Peggy starts reeling off the list of places that Kinsey worked after leaving SCDP culminating in her saying he worked at A&P, Roger assumes she is talking about another agency and asks who A&P is and she responds, “sorry ‘the’ A&P”. Oh how the mighty pot smoking, interracial dating, former lover of Joan Harris have fallen.

            Obviously however the main focus of this episode is the man formerly known as Dick Whitman. I know that you and I disagreed about this, but I personally thought that Don’s expression while watching "America Hurrah" in the theater with Megan was one of envy. I believe this emphatically not because of the expression on his face, though that is what brought the thought to mind, but because of how he reacts when they arrive back to the apartment. Megan’s jab about the advertising industry and the emptiness of consumerism echoes her father’s derision towards Don’s profession in “At the Codfish Ball” and it sets Don off. Not only does she seem to have a natural talent for advertising, but she actively thinks its negative for society and I think that Don secretly thinks so too. It was hard to gather from just watching the play, but “America Hurrah” opened on November 6^th of 1966 and is generally regarded as one of the first expressions of the counterculture undercurrents from the 60’s. This is, of course, way too on the nose but Mad Men doesn’t obey the rules of TV. On any other show I would very much hate the obviousness of this, but it works here because it encapsulates what’s driving Don and Megan apart. Megan wants genuineness and Don is incapable of smiling and not smirking, he has detached himself from his former identity and seems to want to preserve that mentality in all aspects of his life.

            Of course, the other thing we know about Don is his sadomasochistic streak and we see it in evidence again in this episode. When Don gets upset or feels distant from his significant other he doesn’t try to make it better, he just throws himself into deepening that distance by behaving in the worst possible way to improve the situation. This, of course, leads us to his outing with Joan. Pete, being Pete, has gotten them the new chance at landing Jaguar and immediately demands everyone pat him on the back and tell him what a good accounts man he is. But, he is legitimately good enough to recommend that the partners develop a working knowledge of the cars that the company makes. When Don sees Joan losing her mind on the front desk receptionist for letting her get served with divorce papers, Pete’s recommendation pops into his head and he brings Joan with him to the dealership. Once there, they play the part of a married couple and inspect the cars and Don asks if he can take himself and his “wife” out for a cruise. When the salesman says they can only go one at a time Don whips out his check book and writes a check for $6000 (over the sales price) and tells the salesman that if he and Joan don’t come back he can consider the car paid for.

Taylor:

Outside of Roger’s one-liners, there isn’t much room for humor in the Mad Men universe. Like the stoned burger eating of the past we are treated to a second helping of delicious visual humor courtesy of Mr. Harry Crane. Thanks to the return of a much missed Paul Kinsey we find Crane actively engaged in a shamanic Krishna chant and actively engorged by the chanting Lakshmi beside him. He awakes from the chant with his hair disheveled and wondering what time it is. He is assured that he must be hungry.

Kinsey’s new image is as shocking as actor Michael Gladis’s return itself.  “So Mr. Gladis, we know we inexplicably banished you from the series after three great seasons, but we would like you to come back for a single episode. Oh, and it says here that you’ve rid yourself of all your possessions and joined the Hare Krishna over a girl. You’ve also written a script for a special episode of Star Trek titled “The Negron Complex.” And it’s terrible. And you have to shave your head.”

“I’ll do it!”

An aside – Am I the only one who is incredibly underwhelmed by the fact that Harry cheated on his wife, even though he’s made the mistake and regretted it before with Hildy? He and Cosgrove are supposed to be the “nice guys” at SCDP and now that Harry isn’t, I don’t really care. That whole Lakshmi office visit scene felt contrived.

Joe:

After the dealership Don and Joan take off for the bar and once there dig into their personal relationship. Don tells her about how she terrified him and was warned by Burt Peterson (shout out to Burt Peterson, he of the epic firing shitstorm) to behave well around her. She, in turn, talks about how it was that long ago that she was getting flowers and not legal documents in the mail and how her mother raised her to be admired. Don cracks that when he used to see the massive influx of flowers for her he thought she was dating Ali Kahn. Joan puts a song on the jukebox (if mad men was "Twin Peaks" she would’ve put her own theme music on and danced seductively, damn your absence from TV David Lynch (and Mark Frost, the sane half of that)) and once it's over they remain at the bar. Don suggests that she attempt to hook up with a guy at the bar, pays for their drinks, and drunkenly drives home.

            Once there he knocks over a lamp trying to hang his coat on it and is confronted by a livid Megan. After playing discus with her dinner plate and breaking it against the wall she tells him that she knows he left work at noon and she demands to know where he was, he tells her the basic truth but doesn’t mention Joan. Don, being a sadomasochist, immediately gets turned on by this as we’ve seen other times in this season but Megan isn’t having any of it. The next morning we see Joan receiving flowers (brought to her by Roger, but not purchased by him, because the front desk receptionist is terrified of her), the accompanying card says, “Your mother did a good job, Ali Kahn”. When I saw that card I was amazed by how perfectly executed that gesture by Don was done and eerily reminded of the little love note to Megan that Betty saw last week. I have to worry about what Bobby Barrett said to Don, which he quoted at the bar, “I like being bad and going home and being good.” It’s obvious this is an accurate reflection of Don’s behavior, but Megan isn’t going to play that game as complicity as Betty did.

            Taylor:

Whenever I think about Joan I often wonder if actors ever develop jealousy over the characters they portray. I imagine Christina Hendricks lying in bed at night (don’t we all?) trying to dream up a version of herself that achieves the level of charm and poise of Joan Holloway. Joan’s canny ability of always knowing what to do or say has earned her the greatest honor at SCDP, Don’s respect. How many women, hell people, could pour their marital troubles over Don and receive a kind, honest response? Their bar-stool exchange revealed a sincere and jovial side of Don that we hardly ever see. Their conversation is littered with flirtation, but the more I think on the scene the more I become convinced that is was simply two good old friends, both of whom happen to be extremely attractive, sharing some drinks.

           

Initially, Lane’s money troubles had me questioning the financial viability of SCDP. How could a thriving ad agency’s finance partner be struggling for cash? It turns out I was right on the correlation, but had the causation backwards. The line of credit Lane received to solve his troubles was contingent on next year’s strong projections. However, thanks to an untimely mechanics strike at Mohawk Airlines, those projections are severely compromised (after Joan destroyed their model plane in the lobby). The fragility of the agency has never been so exposed. The obvious solution is of course to land Jaguar and luckily for Lane, as evidenced by his inspired office speech, he has a fully engaged Don Draper on his side. But this situation brings a number of interesting questions to the table. Does Lane go to Don and reveal the importance of winning the Jaguar account? Does Don fail? Or better yet, does Lane notice that Don is losing his edge and go straight to Ginsberg? 

            Will Lane be found out? Will Don get into BDSM? How goddamned attractive are Don and Joan as a couple? Let us know in the comments.