There’s a line in the sand approaching in terms of the seismic social events about to unfurl in the world of “Mad Men.” The characters in the show aren’t aware of it on a conscious level, but there are definitely subliminal hints all around to which they are reacting. The onset of Christmas and New Year’s Eve brings to mind the passage of time: another year gone, and all that’s gone with it. It’s one of the reasons I absolutely loathe the latter holiday: in what approximated my emo days in the 90’s, it signified nothing less than another year lost on the slow, rather mundane march towards death. And you wonder why I didn’t have more girlfriends back then.

But we’re not here to talk about me but those entrenched in or orbiting around the satellite that is Sterling, Cooper, Draper, and Pryce. Let’s take a quick glance at the three generations in play and how they are dealing with the advent of 1965.

The Eldest Generation

In this category, I’m placing everyone around Don Draper’s age and above. This covers the partners, Bert’s associate Dr. Atherton, and the company’s star client, Lucky Strike’s Lee Garner Jr.

In general, these characters are no longer misreading the cultural shifts around them so much as turning a blind eye. Don’s no longer the bulletproof lothario; Roger’s no longer has bottomless pockets, and everyone looks at the world at large in much the way that Freddie looks at Roger’s wall art: as if they might fall into it should they look too closely. Rather than stare into the abyss of their obsoleteness, they go through the motions as best they can.

Course, they go through these with diminishing returns: Roger is forced to play Santa for his supper (via Lee’s maniacal machinations at the holiday party throw by his behest, in his honor, and stained by the absence of Sal). Don, for his part, finally lands a sexual partner that doesn’t involve a transaction of cash…that is, until the following morning, during which he pays his secretary her promised bonus for services rendered both in and out of the office.

At one point, Bert and his colleague/friend (brought in to add motivational insight into their advertisements), lament the impending arrival of such evils as civil rights and Medicare, suggesting that such acts will lead to a socialist upheaval in the country. I’m not sure if we should be drawing a line between then and now (what with all the talks of death panels and that supposedly socialist president in the White House) or simply lamenting the fact that the more things change, the more many things stay absolutely in place. Dr. Atherton had a younger associate with him, and by turning to her, we’re turning into the next generation.

The Middle Generation

We could include Pete in this discussion, although the episode was far more concerned with Peggy’s place at this moment in time. I found Faye’s Miller’s placement equally effective, as both character signified smart women in the workplace with troubled relationships to the Old Boys’ Club. In Faye’s case, she’s seeking to bring what’s commonplace now (an explicit exploration into the innermost mindset of the customer) into the world of 1960’s advertising. As for Peggy, well, she’s running into the old work-life balance question. However, at the time she’s asking it, it’s not exactly an old question. Or, for that matter, really much of a question at all.

Early in the episode, Don asks his secretary/soon-to-be-pity-sex-partner to buy Sally some Beatles’ 45’s for Christmas. The show itself skipped over the British Invasion, and that’s all well an good. (I’d rather see civil rights/Vietnam play out than outrage over Ringo’s haircut.) But with The Beatles, some of the same psychological insights pushed by Faye reached the pop charts. Songs were no longer about second-hand events that happened to third-party people: songs such as “Love Me Do” and “From Me to You” explicitly put the listener into the song, either as subject, object, or both. It’s not as if Lennon/McCartney invented psychology or anything, but they applied it to the heretofore mundane level of a pop song. Faye simply took that lesson and applied it to advertising. It’s all part of this season’s trend (reflecting a larger cultural trend) of unspoken feelings now spoken and dissected in everyday life.

Now, obviously, Don and Co. have been mining psychological insight in order to sell their products. But inspiration came from either a personal experience or a bolt of mystical monologuing. Faye’s codified the experienced, given it variables, and assigned it an almost mathematical precision. It’s the start of a chain that leads Amazon to suggest things I might want to buy, which frankly scares the hell out of me. (Though not nearly as much as Glen Bishop, whom we’ll get to momentarily.) She wants Don’s respect for this work, not realizing that she’s offering to essentially turn the creative process into an assembly line.

As for Peggy…well, she’s been fibbing to boyfriend Mark, keeping him under the illusion that she’s a virgin. For all the advancements that she’s made in her career, she’s still stymied outside of it. I’m sure the trauma of her pregnancy, and its subsequent fallout, are feeding into her current insecurities. But surely there’s a middle ground between “virgin” and “I had a bastard baby and gave it away.” I’m not a professional woman of the mid-1960’s, but I’ll wager there’s some room for wiggling in there.

By dealing with Freddie Rumsen all episode (Freddie having brought in $2 million account to the company), she’s forced to deal with “old-fashioned” views on women in the workplace versus her own, nebulous, nascent views on choosing a new path while somehow avoiding the third rail. She wants to push advertising in new directions, but has no roadmap. She wants a man AND a career, but realizes there are more Freddies than Dons in her industry. She’s inherently sexual but yet feels the need to act prudish around Mark. Even after finally giving into Mark’s advances, she doesn’t look any more sure about what to do, as if she expected sex to give her the answers. It’s got to be difficult to want it all when you’re not even sure for how much is even possible.

But in terms of what’s possible, look out: that last generation will bust down all the doors.

The Youngest Generation

Look, people: we’re about two years away from Glen and Sally sneaking out to seeing “Bonnie and Clyde,” realizing that they’ve found their true purpose in life, and steal Betty’s car to go on a crime spree of their own. After tonight’s episode, it’s hard to see any other way in which this ends.

OK, so maybe I’m exaggerating a little bit. But after tonight, is anything off the table? Two children, both wise beyond their years, both broken beyond measure, both stuck in what feels like purgatory…they gravitated towards each other the way Oz and Veruca did in Season 4 of “Buffy the Vampire Slayer.” But instead of sensing a fellow werewolf, they sensed a fellow trapped soul.

I feel a bit weird saying that Matthew Weiner’s real-life son is the creepiest onscreen kid I’ve maybe ever see, but there you have it. I kept waiting for him to tell a 20-something girl in his basement well to put the lotion in the basket. The kid creeped me out in Season 1 with his overtures towards Betty, and age has only accentuated the creepiness. In some ways, the connection is really random, with absolutely no setup at all in the story between the two of them.

But, as a “Mad Man” fan/apologist, I can spin Christmas tree scene as seeing something familiar but in a new light: it’s as if the only way to react to the unexplainable is to commit an unexplainable act in return. Sally looks at the mess Glen made in the kitchen in much the same way she looks at that mess that is her life in general. In Glen, she sees a kindred spirit. A spirit that would make Freddy Krueger wet himself.

A few more thoughts about tonight’s episode:

*** Loved seeing a cavalcade of old faces in tonight’s episode, which made Sal’s absence all the more depressing. I am hoping that tonight planted a seed to get Lucky Strikes’ overall percentage of the firm’s business down, if not out entirely, which will lead to Sal’s reinstatement.

*** So much excellence in the Peggy/Freddie scenes. After all, he got her into the place she now is, and there’s a mutual respect tinged with sadness at what transpires that filled their scenes. And while sober, he’s still in many ways the old Freddie. Peggy’s right to call him old-fashioned: every time he walked in or out of a room, he resembled Willie Loman, an artifact of an older era.

*** For most of the ep, it was bothering me that I couldn’t place Peggy’s BF from where I’d seen him before. Turns out, he looks a lot different when not strapped into Room 23 on The Island.

*** Loved that Sally’s letter denoted that she knew Santa was fake, but wanted to keep up the ruse for Bobby. At this point, I want Bobby and Luke from “Modern Family” to have a show together, since both characters seem to have the same dim, but hysterical, viewpoint on life.

*** Not only do Faye’s techniques threaten Don’s creativity, but also serve as a reminder that his past, so skillfully hidden all these years, will only have more and more light shed on it as the years past. Rather than fade away, it will only be drawn into sharper relief.

*** Going to hold off judgment on Don’s nurse next-door neighbor for now. Hopefully she’s a recurring character. I tend to enjoy Nora Zehetner onscreen, especially in the little-seen but bloody brilliant film “Brick.” Which you should totally Netflix if you haven’t see it already.

*** Still not enough Joanie for my taste, but another great scene with Roger tonight. Then again, have these two characters EVER had a bad scene together in the history of the show?

*** So many great lines tonight. “You’re never going to get me to do anything Swedish people do.” “I don’t hate Christmas. I hate this Christmas.” “Nobody wants to think they’re a type.”

What did you think of tonight’s episode? Leave your thoughts below!