'Mad Men' Recap: Flirting, Forging And A Face From The Past In 'Christmas Waltz'

Do not read on unless you've seen Season 5, Episode 10 of AMC's "Mad Men," entitled "Christmas Waltz."

I'm in New York for Monday's Peabody Awards ceremony (and feel free to follow my Twitter for updates on that event). But my weekend has been very busy with travel and other things, and then, as I settled in to my hotel on Sunday night to watch "Mad Men," I realized my hotel does not carry AMC.

So there was a moment of panic.

Thanks to some help from a fan of the show (thank you, Carla Day!), I was able to find a legal way to watch "Mad Men" on Sunday night. But due to time constraints and various other factors, I wasn't able to watch the episode twice, as I normally do, and I wasn't able to take copious notes on my second viewing, another thing I normally do when I'm writing about the show.

What follows, then, are five quick thoughts about the episode, which saw some financial naughtiness from Lane Pryce, the return of Paul Kinsey and the kind of sexual chemistry that could power a medium-sized city for several years.

1. Don and Joan, Don and Joan, Don and Joan. After a very dark and, at times, dour season, what a delight it was to watch these two hang out, revel in their friendship and play around with the attraction they undoubtedly feel for each other. There are so many delicious layers to their relationship; as their conversation reminded us, they have known each other for a very long time, and though they are both very private people, they're willing to confide in each other about the details of their personal lives. There's trust there, and there's attraction there, and those two have been through enough to know that if they ever gave in to the attraction, it would damage the trust, so they don't give in to temptation. But they think about it (as do we).

It's very, very rare to see a believable and interesting depiction of a friendship between a man and a woman who could easily bed each other, but choose not to. And I can't explain why, but, as an audience member, to be poised between the thoughts "Oh, just do it already" and "Please, never do it" is somehow incredibly enjoyable. Jon Hamm and Christina Hendricks played the hell out of their bar scene, which called back to Don's long night out with Peggy in "The Suitcase"; stories were told, compliments were given, truths came out and there was comfort in an old, familiar connection.

This episode wasn't on the level of "The Suitcase," but notice how perfectly Hamm and Hendricks calibrated the levels of drunkenness as Don and Joan progressed through the day, and how the possibility of a hookup was in the air, almost as a tangible thing (as tangible as that fire-engine red Jaguar parked out front). Don and Joan understand each other, they appreciate each other's good qualities, and they both know how much fun it can be to be rev the wrong engine. If they ever got together, the resulting sexual energy might incinerate all of New York, if not North America, but hot damn. It would probably be worth it.

It was very strange and faintly funny to see Paul back again, and he's not all that different from the Paul who exited stage left all that time ago. Ever the ad man, he really knows how to sell a lifestyle and close the deal, even if he's got very little hair during his "pitch meetings."

Truthfully, that whole storyline was a little hard to get into, given how little time the show has spent on Harry in the past two seasons, and given that we haven't seen Paul in years. But this season thematically returns again and again to the idea that when people get what they think they want, they're still usually resentful, lost and unhappy, and Paul was the countercultural version of the same tale we've seen various other characters go through this season. "Mad Men's" new interest in science-fiction is spot-on; the characters, from Michael to Ken to Paul, are using it to comment on or critique a world and aspirations they don't completely understand or agree with. So there was pathos and bittersweet humor in Paul's attempt to write for "Star Trek," and to get Harry to pass his script to NBC, but there was something about this storyline that didn't quite land; it wasn't one of the season's stronger offerings, though I was glad to see Michael Gladis again.

"Mad Men" airs on AMC at 10 p.m. ET on Sundays.