If last week’s premiere was like reuniting with an old friend, this episode was more like the point where you start to remember all the things you don’t like about them. The honeymoon period’s over, and the reality of Christmas at Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce is altogether more downbeat than their triumphant previous holiday season. It is fitting, though, that Mad Men’s first true Christmas episode is really more of a Christmas party episode.
We began with the Francises (which looks wrong, much like the marriage itself) buying a Christmas tree, and the return of creepy, creepy, creepy Glen Bishop, who seems to have transferred his obsessive affections from mother to daughter. Sally, like Betty before her, seems a lot less disturbed by his advances than many might be, and later opens up to Glen by describing how much she hates living in their old house without Don. Sad. And Glen, who we know has a bit of a knight-in-shining-armour complex, helps out by initiating a one-sided food fight with the Francis house, presumably in hopes of making Betty finally want to move out. Whether or not he’ll succeed, only time will tell. But, like a true serial killer in the making, he leaves a piece of severed twine on her bed. Run, Sally. RUN.
Much though Glen's resurfacing was an unexpected little twist, the Ossining-Manhattan divide felt really pronounced in this episode. I hope they can find a way to make these strands feel less extraneous, because otherwise I can see them getting very tiresome, no matter how good Kiernan Shipka is (and she is).
Freddy Rumsen also makes a return, and in a much less disturbing and more useful way than Glen – not only is he clean and sober, in AA no less, but he’s bringing a $2m account with him. Roger naturally takes him back with open arms though he is, I think, working for them only on a freelance basis. This could actually be a great way for them to sporadically reintroduce old characters (like Ken, who we know from the credits will be back) as and when they want to use them, without having to commit to their being in the office full time. That said, I don’t know why Ken would want to freelance for SCDP unless he leaves McCann for some reason, but he strikes me as the type who wouldn’t mind being a cog in a corporate machine.
While Freddy and Peggy are happily reunited at first they clash over strategy, with Peggy accusing Freddy of being old fashioned after he suggests the promise of marriage is the best way to market cold cream to women. Great to see Peggy asserting herself against a dismissive Freddy, not least because she is right. His ideas are dated, and out of step with the new agency which is specifically trying to keep “looking forward” – it's significant that he voiced his dislike for Pete, who has previously been singled out as forward-thinking.
Moving onto Peggy, we finally meet her “fiancée” properly and their relationship already seems pretty doomed. Having been warned by Joan back in the first season that “there’s no money in virginity”, and responding with some pride that she wasn’t one, Peggy’s ironically now pretending to be a virgin and the episode culminates with what is, to Mark’s mind, her first time. I’m no form of shipper, but I did think it was interesting that her boyfriend bore a certain physical resemblance to Pete – is she in some way trying to recreate her actual first time, but to re-do it “right” and within the context of a relationship? Or maybe she just has a type, though I don't know where Duck fits into that...
Meanwhile at the office, Lane’s plans for a penny-pinching Christmas party get a last minute do-over, as everybody’s favourite walking sexual harassment lawsuit Lee Garner Jr calls and gets himself an invite. With Lucky Strike now 70% of SCDP’s billings, it’s more imperative than ever for them to keep him happy – and that, kids, is how we end up with Roger Sterling in a Santa Claus outfit, taking photographs with staff members on his lap. Hee. Hee. Hee. A totally dick move on Lee’s part, but to Roger’s credit he swallowed the humiliation well and went along with it, despite the fact that Lee was clearly just asserting his power for its own sake. Better than hitting on Roger and getting him fired, I suppose.
It was nice to see Joan in her element this week, handling the party situation like the level-headed pro she is, keeping Lee in check, and working that conga line like nobody’s business. And sharing a lovely, quiet scene with Roger…I’ll never quite stop holding out hope for those two. Still no conclusive word on where Greg is, though, only that he’s “saving lives”. It seems weird that Roger would ask where he was if he had been posted somewhere, unless Joan had kept it quiet for whatever reason.
Don, on the other hand, was a complete mess. I almost want to say he’s hit rock bottom, but something tells me he can still go lower. He’s getting sloppy, crossing boundaries he used to hold sacred (nib, meet office ink), and at this rate is it only a matter of time before he slips and reveals something about his past? He used to be so meticulous and careful, but between the loss of his family and the seemingly constant boozing, things are definitely slipping.
Interestingly though, he also seems to have softened and become a little bit more fun – his “Merry Christmas, sweetheart” to Peggy was sweet, and he seemed to be having a better time at the party than he has before at office shindigs, even putting a playful arm around Joan at one point. Not to mention my favourite exchange of the episode, his “Did you enjoy ze Fuhrer’s birthday?” bit with Roger which seemed almost out of character in its levity. Again, maybe it’s the constant booze talking.
What Don actually seems to want, in this episode at least, is a caretaker or mother more than a partner. The women around him vacillate from maternal figures to sexual figures (or, if you like, from madonnas to whores) almost seamlessly. I mentioned last week the idea that Don getting slapped by the prostitute might be a reaction to his mother. Here, Phoebe the nurse (played by Brick’s Laura Zehetner) came on very strong in their initial scene together, but later rejected his drunken advances, opting instead to take off his shoes and put him to bed. Allison, who completely embodies Joan’s view of a secretary’s role as “something between a mother and a waitress”, takes a drunken Don his keys, gets him aspirin and offers to make him food, only for him to seduce her and later make her feel like a hooker.
Sexual economy plays a big role in this episode overall – most notably in that awful ending with Don and Allison, where he (unintentionally, I think) gives her the bonus he’d promised in a way that makes it seem like payment for sex. But it emerges with Peggy and Mark, too. When he comes over to see her, he's impatient about her reluctance to sleep with him, and she indignantly says she’s sorry if he feels he’s put in enough time – the implication being that he has paid his dues, and now expects something in return. He then says “I brought you cookies” in a mock-accusatory tone, and while he’s joking the implication is still there, offering something in exchange for something else. But of course, he’s not actually getting what he thinks he is, and Peggy's false advertising will surely come back to bite her in one way or another.
Other thoughts:
- I’m enjoying Lane enormously this season – not a huge presence, but he’s always ready with a dry riposte at the most opportune moment, like his pained “Yes, we did” in response to Lee Garner’s entirely false “Oh, you didn’t have to do this.”
- Much though he is creepifying and I don’t enjoy the Ossining stuff really, Glen’s “My mom said that would happen” was hilarious. Can we have Helen Bishop back, please?
- Peggy saying she didn’t want to worry Freddy would start drinking every time she hurt his feelings was very, very true to life with an alcoholic. Horrible cycle to get into, and she’s right to try and avoid it.
- Pete was again showing a lot of newfound maturity, I was especially surprised he didn’t make any kind of fuss when Roger said he’d be handling the Palm’s account. Boy is growing. Though not into his Santa suit, alas.
- On the subject of the Campbells – I can’t fault their conga skills, but what the heck were they thinking outfit wise? Pete’s burgundy velvet thing was bad enough, but Trudy then wore pale pink? Clashy clashy. And those two always seem so coordinated.
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