Mad Men Roundtable: “Christmas Comes But Once a Year”

And how poorly did he handle that? Well, he never mentioned it to a clearly smitten Allison. And then she presented the gifts that she bought and wrapped for his children. His response was to thank her for the hard work (with a card) and give her a hundred dollar bonus. She’s lucky he didn’t just leave it on the nightstand. That was about as literal an evocation of the Madonna/Whore complex as you’ll ever see, with Don forcing her into both roles in the same scene. And the thing is, he knows exactly what he’s doing. The only way to make sure this doesn’t come up again is to destroy her emotionally.