Lane has to pay back taxes to the mothership right away. He gets the firm's line of credit extended and lobbies for Christmas bonuses, but runs into pushback from the other partners as to how soon the bonuses should be distributed. Lane forges Don's signature to get the money, but when the firm loses Mohawk Airlines, the other partners decide they should all defer their bonuses while giving them to staff, outvoting Lane.
Harry meets with Paul Kinsey for the first time in a hot minute and learns firsthand that Paul has gotten way into Hare Krishna. Paul has fallen in love with fellow worshiper Lakshmi, but is otherwise stymied by his inability to fully embrace the movement. He asks Harry to pass a Star Trek spec script he wrote along to NBC. Peggy and Lakshmi try to get Harry to tell Paul straight out that it's bad—the latter via carnal means—but Harry is reluctant to let him down so hard. In the end, Harry gives Paul $500 and a ticket to Los Angeles and encourages him to chase his dream.
Joan gets served divorce papers at the office. Don witnesses her going off on Meredith and redirects her, cutting out of work early to take her out and help her get over it. This includes pretending to be a married couple in order to test-drive a Jaguar E-Type and driving it to a bar. When Don finally makes it home, Megan gets upset with him for being uncommunicative about his plans and wonders why he is no longer passionate about his work. The next day, Don announces with renewed vigor that everyone will work every weekend over the next six weeks to nail the Jaguar pitch.
This episode contains examples of:
- Attractiveness Isolation: Don admits the reason that he never asked Joan out was because Joan "scared the shit out of him" when he first joined Sterling Cooper.
- Blatant Lies: Lane telling Rebecca that there's nothing wrong after learning from his accountant that he owes the tax man a lot of money.
- The Bus Came Back: Paul Kinsey returns to the show, having fallen on hard times.
- Cool Car: The E-Type. In the showroom, Joan is very impressed.
- Didn't Think This Through: Lane, whose plan to get the money he needs to pay his tax bill consists of getting a big loan to make it look like SCDP has a surplus of money and using this as an excuse to give everyone (including himself) a Christmas bonus. At first, his fellow-partners try to insist that the bonuses are paid later in the month. Lane, who needs the money now, forges Don's signature on a company check so he can get his in time to pay the tax man. Later on, the partners decide that they will forego their bonuses, outvoting Lane, who now has to hope that no-one will notice his subterfuge.
- Dumb Blonde: Meredith, much to Joan's rage.
- Fake Relationship: A mild example, with Don and Joan pretending to be a couple in the Jaguar showroom. Joan is even correct when she states the number of children that they have ... between them.
- Foreshadowing: Everything that happens in the Jaguar showroom, given what Joan will have to go through in order for SCDP to get the account.
- I Need a Freaking Drink: Not that Roger usually needs an excuse to start early, but it is Pearl Harbor Day and he is a US Navy veteran, so he gets stuck in before most people have arrived at the office. While wearing a Hawaiian shirt over his suit and tie, of course.
- Intimidating Revenue Service: Her Majesty's Inland Revenue is looking to make examples of expats who pay taxes in the country they live and work in while ignoring the fact that they owe taxes back home. Lane, who owes £2,900 (the equivalent of $8,000) in British back-taxes, is on their list. It's a lot — the equivalent of over $50,000 in purchasing power by 2012 (the year in which this episode was first broadcast) — but then, the highest rate of income tax in Britain in the 1960s was an eye-watering 95% note , and it's likely that Lane, who moved to the USA in 1963, hasn't been paying tax at home since then.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Downplayed with Lane and the Christmas bonuses — the other partners are surprised that the bean-counter is suddenly so keen to be generous with the company's largesse, but no more.
- Pet the Dog: Harry's willingness to help his old friend is the nicest he's been several seasons.
- Rousing Speech: Don gives one at the very end to psych everyone up for the Jaguar pitch.
- Ship Tease / Ship Sinking: Don and Joan flirt shamelessly while at the bar. Ironically, despite enjoying each others company, the scene makes clear why the two of them would never work as a couple.
- Shout-Out: The play Megan takes Don to see is America Hurrah by Jean-Claude van Itallie which was playing in New York's Pocket Theatre at the time when this episode is set (December 1966). Being an ad man, Don doesn't take kindly to the negative way in which the play presents American consumerism.
- So Proud of You: What Pete desperately wants to hear after salvaging the Jaguar opportunity. Also, it's what Paul wants to hear about his script.
- Stylistic Suck: While we don't get to hear any of Paul's Star Trek spec script, the title and premise alone ("The Negron Complex," about a world where whites are enslaved by blacks) tell us all we need to know.
