The thing about Pearl Harbor, as Roger Sterling would have you believe it – even though it’s sacrilege – is that it was “an act of genius.” Where did it all go wrong? “The Japs won and they didn’t know what to do with it,” he claims. “Christmas Waltz” deals in familiar territory for Mad Men among the likes of Sterling, Harry Crane and Pete Campbell, those who have won but don’t know what to do with it. Bringing back Paul Kinsey, on the other hand, allowed them to explore the opposite. Kinsey is so sure he knows what he wants to do, just to earn a living and settle down, that he’s gone as far as throwing away his earthly possessions and following Hare Krishna for the woman he thinks he wants. It hasn’t worked out very well so far.
What’s the matter with consumerism when everybody’s a consumer? Already in 1966, was anybody really in a position to criticize materialism? Well, save for the Vaisnavas, I suppose – but even Kinsey is still a salesman. He’s their top recruiter. Like Lakschmi says: “Man, can that guy close.”
Don, for one, doesn’t quite understand. He doesn’t understand “America Hurrah” or those like Megan for enjoying it, and it causes problems. He’d rather be role-playing at a Jaguar dealership to take a test drive. And when this episode pairs Don and Joan together for it, it really pays off. Like Christmas, it only happens once a year, but it was excellent as ever. Don, perhaps still uncomfortable from the play he saw, goes for a drink with Joan, who was served with divorce papers that day. Mad Men displays a talent on rare occasion for making a happy occasion out of sad people, and “The Christmas Waltz” in the background (a Frank Sinatra song originally, though that was Doris Day’s cover featured) mixed well with the alcohol. Their conversation came to a head at one point as they imagined the life of the man sitting across from them, who they decided would probably leave his wife some day. Whose fault will it be? “Does he know what he wants?” asks Don. “He knows, it’s just the way he is,” she says. The scene was so saccharine and raw, it only made for a sharper contrast when he arrived home to a (rightfully) angry Megan.
But let’s be honest here – this was a Harry Crane/Paul Kinsey episode, and no matter how good Don and Joan were together, that’s what it will be remembered for. Kinsey manages to get Harry to come to a service, and it’s all a bit much for Harry – though he does briefly find the appeal in it. Kinsey explains he’s not trying to recruit him, nor is he asking for a job at the agency; he just needs help finding a job of his own. He gives Harry a Star Trek spec script and asks to pass it along to NBC. Sadly, “The Negron Complex” is terrible, and Harry knows it. Does he tell the truth?
Lakschmi shakes him down in his office like you might expect a one-episode female character on Mad Men would, and demands he tell Kinsey the truth afterward so he stays with the Vaisnavas. The leveraging seems a little strange to me, though – she uses a fling with him as leverage, but only offers the “ultimatum” after it happened? Harry was right to call her out for it (though he probably still deserved the slap too), and the illusion of the Hare Krishna as a safe haven from the world’s problems really starts to fall apart at this point.
Harry probably did the right thing lying to him. He knew Lakschmi was awful, he knew Kinsey was unhappy, he knew they were just using him to recruit. To tell him the script was terrible “but” anything would only serve to push him further to the cause he was wasting his life on. So he tells him it’s great, but he can’t do anything more than offer cash and encourage him to fly to Los Angeles to see what happens. “All these people said they’d do something for me” says Kinsey, “but you’re the first one who did.”
Elsewhere, Pete Campbell can’t stop congratulating himself for getting a seat for a chance at Jaguar months down the road. Sterling is too drunk too often. Oh, and suddenly, Lane Pryce needed to forge a check for $7,500 to keep himself out of jail. Did it seem a little abrupt to you, too? The Christmas bonus he offered in the first place to try to scam some quick cash ended up sealing his fate; with Mohawk under indefinitely, the partners can’t afford themselves a bonus along with the rest of the office. I wonder if Lane’s time on the show might be coming to an end over the next few episodes, but I can only hope that’s not the case. Somebody has got to keep Pete Campbell in line.