'Mad Men' recap: Christmas waltz, Jaguars and Aly Khan

"Mad Men's" "Christmas Waltz": Late in the year, early in the morning, and Lane Pryce's phone rings. He answers, and a plot is set in motion. The lawyer at the other end tells Lane the news is good, but of course the news is not: Lane has to find $8,000 fast to settle a tax debt.

And there is your basic framework for this puzzling episode.

Here are the basic vectors of a slightly unusual, slightly disconnected "Men," tied so specifically to a day in time -- Dec. 7, 1966, the 25th anniversary of Pearl Harbor. Walt Disney would be dead in a week -- 'course, sort of irrelevant in the reality of this episode -- while a new company called British Motor Holdings would be incorporated the following week as well.

That's not so irrelevant given the fact that BMC had just bought Jaguar, which had fired the ad manager of the U.S. account (after he'd thrown up in someone’s lap at a trade convention). The account is loose again, and there are just a handful of agencies that will mount a pitch: SCDP is one of them.

Meanwhile, International Society for Krishna Consciousness -- just founded in NYC -- had attracted a new member, one Paul Kinsey -- long gone goofball pipe-puffing copywriter (Michael Gladis) who had never been invited to join the new agency a season or two back, which is the same way of saying: he got fired.

Another vector: "Star Trek" had started a couple months earlier, and an avant-garde play,  "America Hurrah," by Jean-Claude van Itallie, is staged at LaMama.

Tie all these threats together and what do we have? Nothing, sorry to say, immediately obvious.

"Christmas Waltz": Based, of course, on the holiday song popularized by everyone from Sinatra to Rosemary Clooney. Seemed to me more of a cultural snapshot of a moment in time rather than a carefully developed episode with elements pointing to or refracting larger themes -- other than the obvious and usual suspects: alienation, self-delusion, narcissism, isolation and so forth.

What's the point of, say, Dec. 7 instead of, say, Dec. 8 -- other than a convenient occasion for Roger to fall in his cups before 8 a.m.? (Important, see below.) Why the return of Paul, other than to further debauch the thoroughly debauched Harry Crane (Rich Sommer)? Why a play that pilloried American consumerism (also Vietnam, though not in that brief stage snapshot we saw last night) other than to establish another wedge between Don and Megan? Why Lane's tax crisis other than to push him further into "Mad Men's" viper pit of lies and deceit?

A few possible answers, below…

Whatever. Harry’s horny sad little scam -- if that's what it is -- will have the same practical effect. This whole funny/strange side plot with Harry and Paul reveals a whole bunch of things, notably Harry's depravity and Paul's desperation. Peggy's great line that traces Paul's career descent through an alphabet soup of agencies until he ends up at one called "A & P"... "Which agency's A & P?" asks Harry. "THE A & P," she answers.

Meanwhile, Joan and Don later spend some quality time together at a local watering hole. Calling it a night, a soused Don slaps down some bills and heads for the exit while a man across the bar admires Joan... Don roars off into the night in a car that "never starts" (Bert’s funny line) and that the agency now owns, assuming the check clears.