Christmas Comes But Once a Year (S4x02)
Airdate: 1 August 2010
Written by: Matthew Weiner & Tracy McMillan
Directed by: Michael Uppendahl
Running Time: 48 minutes
Of all the ways in which the modern conception of Christmas has been hollowed out, few are as thoroughly documented as its utter commercialisation. A holiday that once served as a moment of religious reflection and familial gathering has, in the popular imagination, become little more than an engine of consumption, driven in no small part by the very industry that Mad Men spent seven seasons dramatising. It is therefore almost inevitable that the series would eventually turn its attention to the season of goodwill, and the fourth season’s second episode, Christmas Comes But Once a Year, represents the first serious attempt to do so. The previous three seasons had concluded in late autumn, but the fourth begins in November 1964, allowing the show’s creators to place their characters in the thick of the holiday season for the first time. What emerges is an episode that is less a critique of Christmas as a commercial construct and more a character study of a man whose personal and professional life has unravelled to the point where the season’s enforced jollity becomes a source of genuine pain.
The episode opens with Don Draper in a state of profound dislocation. For the first time after long time, he is spending Christmas without his family, and the loneliness that this engenders is something he is manifestly ill-equipped to handle. His attempts to deny the reality of his situation—that he is a man in his late thirties, newly divorced, living in a sparsely furnished Manhattan apartment, and dependent on the charity of his secretary to remember where he left his keys—are increasingly pathetic. The bottle becomes his refuge, and the consequences are predictable. His professional judgement suffers, and the awe that once surrounded him among the junior staff of Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce gives way to something far more corrosive: mockery. It is a striking reversal for a character who has, for three seasons, been presented as the unassailable genius of the advertising world, and Jon Hamm’s performance captures every nuance of this decline with remarkable precision.
The central plot of the episode revolves around the SCDP Christmas party, and it is here that the show’s writers, Matthew Weiner and Tracy McMillan, deploy their sharpest observations about the intersection of commerce and celebration. Roger Sterling and Lane Pryce, acutely aware of the firm’s precarious financial position, have planned a modest, low-budget affair. But when Lee Garner Jr. of Lucky Strike calls Roger to announce his attendance, the calculus changes instantly. The party must be expanded, the budget increased, and the tone shifted from collegial to sycophantic. It masterfully shows dynamics of power within the advertising industry: the client is king, and the king’s whims must be indulged, no matter how degrading they may be to those who serve him.
The return of Freddy Rumsen (Joel Murray), provides a counterpoint to the excesses of the party. Freddy, who was fired from Sterling Cooper for his alcoholism, has spent the intervening eighteen months rebuilding his life. He is sober, he has secured a two-million-dollar account through his AA network, and he has bought his way back into the firm. Yet his reunion with Peggy Olson is not entirely comfortable. She finds him “old fashioned,” and their relationship, once that of mentor and protégé, has become strained. Freddy’s refusal to attend the office party, for fear of temptation, is a poignant reminder of the fragility of recovery, and his subsequent advice to Peggy—that she should not sleep with her new boyfriend Mark (Blake Blashoff) if she wants to marry him—is both wise and anachronistic. Peggy, for her part, ignores the advice, unwilling to face New Year’s Eve alone.
Don’s encounters with two women during the episode serve to underscore his diminished state. Phoebe (Norah Zehetner), the nurse who lives in his building, helps him to bed when he is too drunk to manage on his own, but there is no hint of the predatory charm that characterised his earlier seductions. Dr. Faye Miller (Cara Buono), a consultant who administers a psychological test to the SCDP staff, is similarly immune to his advances, and his refusal to complete the test—because it asks questions about his father—reveals a vulnerability that he is unable to articulate. These are not women to be conquered; they are witnesses to his decline.
The subplot involving Sally Draper and Glen Bishop is, perhaps, the weakest element of the episode. Glen’s obsession with Sally, mirroring his earlier obsession with her mother, feels less like psychological depth and more like a narrative convenience. His decision to break into the Francis home and trash it, leaving only Sally’s bed untouched, is genuinely disturbing, but it is also somewhat gratuitous. The episode does not have the time to explore the implications of this act, and it remains an unresolved thread.
The party itself descends into the expected chaos. Lee Garner Jr. bullies Roger into playing Santa Claus and delivering a series of humiliating remarks, and the evening becomes a study in the degradation of the powerful by the even more powerful. Don, who has drunk too much, leaves early but forgets his keys. In desperation, he calls the office, and his secretary Allison retrieves the keys and accompanies him home. What follows is one of the most uncomfortable scenes in the episode: Don kisses her, they have sex, and the next morning he pretends that nothing happened. Allison’s transition from romantic elation to heartbreak is handled with devastating economy by Alexa Alemani, who delivers a performance that is all the more powerful for its restraint.
Christmas Comes But Once a Year is a solid episode, but it is not a great one. Weiner seems more comfortable depicting the old, static world of the Eisenhower era than the rapidly changing landscape of the mid-1960s. The focus on Don’s personal issues, while effective in isolation, threatens to turn Mad Men into a soap opera rather than a period piece. The Christmas theme is addressed through predictable musical choices—the 1950s standard “I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus” makes an appearance—and Phoebe’s observation that people get depressed at Christmas, which brings her extra work as a nurse, is a rare moment of genuine insight.
What saves the episode is the quality of the performances. Jon Hamm continues to demonstrate his remarkable range, finding new depths in a character who has been defined by his surface-level competence. Joel Murray’s Freddy Rumsen is a welcome return, and he manages to retain the sympathy he earned in the first two seasons. Marten Holden Weiner, the showrunner’s son, is considerably more unsettling as Glen Bishop than he was in previous appearances, and his actions carry a weight that the episode does not fully earns. But it is Alexa Alemani who delivers the episode’s most memorable performance, capturing the precise moment when a woman realises that the man she has just slept with is not going to remember her name in the morning. It is a small, cruel moment, and it is the one that lingers longest after the credits roll.
RATING: 6/10 (++)
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