Television Review: Christmas Waltz (Mad Men, S5x10, 2012)
Christmas Waltz (S5x10)
Airdate: 20 May 2012
Written by: Victor Levin & Matthew Weiner
Directed by: Michael Uppendahl
Running Time: 48 minutes
During the recent celebrations marking the 250th anniversary of the American Revolution, public debates were frequently dominated by the enduring narrative of British colonial tyranny. It remains a staple of historical discourse to recount how British colonists sought independence from their mother country over the perceived indignities of unfair and overrepressive taxation, famously crystallised in the slogan "no taxation without representation." While this historical struggle is typically framed through the lens of American grievances, the opening scene of the fifth season episode of Mad Men, +Christmas Waltz+" offers a poignant and unexpected counterpoint to this narrative. It illustrates that the burdens of taxation and the anxieties of financial obligation were were felt by British subjects in later eras. The episode immediately establishes this atmosphere of fiscal distress through the plight of Lane Pryce, the British comptroller of Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce. In an opening tension, Lane is talking to his attorney, Anthony Marsh (Nicholas Houl), who warns him that he must immediately cough up a substantial sum of 2,900 British pounds to satisfy his country’s Inland Revenue or face the very real prospect of imprisonment. This moment serves as a stark reminder that even in the mid-20th century, a British expatriate in America was not immune to the strictures of British law and the heavy hand of the state.
The episode, set in early December of 1966, is cleverly anchored in time by Roger Sterling’s remark about the 25th anniversary of the Pearl Harbor attack, a detail that firmly places the narrative in the past. The central plot of the episode is framed by Lane’s desperate attempts to extricate himself from the personal financial hole he has dug for himself. Having failed to secure the cash, Lane visits a bank and successfully obtains an additional 50,000 US$ line of credit for SCDP. His plan, however, is deeply criminal and desperate. He intends to embezzle these funds and cover his tracks by paying the partner bonuses early. This creates a dramatic irony where the company’s success in securing a lucrative new account with Edwin Baker’s replacement at Jaguar is supposed to be the saviour of the agency, but instead, it becomes the catalyst for Lane’s downfall.
When Pete Campbell triumphantly informs the partners of Baker's firing and the impending deal, Lane sees this as his golden opportunity to execute his plan. He calls a partners’ meeting and proposes the early payment of bonuses, a move he believes will solve his cash flow crisis. However, Don Draper, ever the cautious realist, is against such a move being made before the Christmas party, preferring to wait and gauge the company's true financial health. Undeterred and facing imminent financial ruin, Lane resorts to deception. In a moment of sheer desperation, he sneaks into Don’s office and forges his signature on a check intended to be paid to himself.
Lane’s carefully laid plans, however, are thwarted by the news of a mechanics’ strike at Mohawk Airlines. This is a crucial piece of narrative irony because Mohawk Airlines is one of SCDP’s most lucrative clients. The strike makes the early payment from this source virtually impossible. The partners, now faced with the reality of the strike, decide to give up on the bonuses entirely. When Lane protests, he is met not with sympathy, but with a decision to give the bonuses to the staff, who had been denied them for the last two years. A staff meeting is subsequently called, during which Don delivers a pep talk that is enthusiastically received by the employees. Yet, in a powerful visual counterpoint, Lane greets this moment of company solidarity with a visibly sour mood, his internal turmoil betraying his professional composure.
While the embezzlement storyline provides the skeleton of the episode, the flesh is filled with two other, more intimate and character-driven subplots that delve into the personal lives of past and present members of the SCDP staff. One of these storylines focuses on Joan Holloway Harris. Her life is upended when she is served divorce papers from her husband, Greg. Consumed by anger and frustration, she loses her usual cool and lashes out at the receptionist, Meredith (Samantha Drake). To cheer her up, Don decides to take her on a trip to a Jaguar dealership. There, they pretend to be a young, wealthy couple seeking a new car. This charade allows them to drive the vehicle and later leads them to a bar where they share a long, intimate conversation. In this scene, the chemistry between Joan and Don is palpable, offering a glimpse of a potential romance that never fully materialises. Don eventually leaves her to go try and find another man, but when he returns home, he is met with the disapproval of Megan, who scolds him for being late and fails to understand where he has been.
The second subplot involves Harry Crane and the return of Paul Kinsey, a character from the agency's early seasons who left to work at Sterling Price three years ago. Harry is initially surprised to receive a call from Paul, thinking he wants his old job back. However, he is even more stunned when he meets looking like a Hare Krishna devotee. This storyline serves as a fascinating cultural snapshot of the era, featuring a appearance of real life Hindu philosopher and guru, Prabhupada (Wajid), who was instrumental in popularising the movement in the West. At a movement gathering, Paul introduces Harry to his friend Lakshmi (Anna Wood), whose real name is Janet. It is revealed that Janet joined the movement after working as a prostitute. When they return from the meeting in a taxi, Paul admits that he isn't truly happy with the movement, but he is deeply worried about Lakshmi, with whom he is in love.
Paul believes that the solution to his problem is his script, "Negron Complex," a spec script for a new TV show. He wants Harry and Peggy's honest opinion about it. Peggy reads it and dismisses it as trash. Later, Lakshmi comes to Harry's office. In a scene that is notable for its directness, she seduces Harry. She then tells him not to contact Paul because he is the movement's best recruiter and she doesn't want him to become a "gross materialist." In the end, Harry meets Paul again, lies to him by saying the script was good but was rejected by executives, and gives him 500 US$ to start a new life in California.
Co-written by Victor Levin and Matthew Weiner, Christmas Waltz gives the impression of being another "filler episode" typical of the fifth season. While the prospect of the agency's main accountant embezzling company funds makes the plot of the episode potentially the most consequential of all, the storyline is explored in a manner that puts it firmly under the shadow of two other, slow-burn character pieces. These serve almost like fan service, prioritising the emotional arcs of Joan and Harry over the high-stakes mechanics of Lane's crime.
The storyline dealing with Joan and her divorce woes is admittedly used only to remind audiences of a lesser-used but popular character. It nevertheless allows Christina Hendricks to display her considerable talent and charm. The bar scene, in particular, is a highlight, with great interaction between Hendricks and Jon Hamm that showcases the depth of their unspoken connection.
Similarly, the storyline with Paul and his Hare Krishna adventures serves not only to bring back one of the more interesting characters from the series' early seasons but also to firmly set the episode in its historical context. The appearance of Prabhupada anchors the show in late 1960s counterculture, while the references to the recently started Star Trek franchise suggest a world where the future is uncertain and geek culture is beginning to seep into the mainstream. It looks much like fan service—a bone thrown to "trekkies" and the more geekish segments of the Mad Men fandom. In fact, based on the hints provided in this episode, it is possible to draw parallels between Paul Kinsey's script and the plot of Star Trek: The Original Series episode Let That Be Your Last Battlefield (1969).
This subplot is also notable for its sexual frankness, specifically the scene where Lakshmi seduces Harry in his office by leaning on table and telling him to take her from behind. While hardly explicit and, like most Mad Men, tame compared to HBO's later output, its directness was unimaginable for television standards of the time.
Ultimately, Christmas Waltz is a solid episode, but it is still far from the highest quality that made Mad Men an instant classic of the Golden Age of Television. It succeeds as a character study, offering deep insights into the psyche of Lane, Joan, and Harry, but it fails to fully integrate its disparate threads into a cohesive narrative. The embezzlement plot, while dramatic in theory, feels secondary to the emotional beats of the other two storylines, resulting in an episode that is enjoyable but hardly memorable.
RATING: 6/10 (++)
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