Kitty Romano: Something’s wrong, isn’t it.
Salvatore Romano: No. No, no, no. Don’t say that. Don’t say that. I’m not myself.
Kitty: What does that mean?
I believe there can be a moment in any marriage when your spouse says or does something, and suddenly you see a stranger. And it rocks you to your core.*
I don’t know what Kitty saw.
I mean, of course I know what Kitty saw. I saw it too; watched it with her. But I have no idea if she has fully articulated for herself what it was exactly that she witnessed. I don’t know if she even has the vocabulary. What has she been exposed to on the subject of homosexuality?
Kitty’s face.
I don’t know if she’s worked it all out. For certain what she has worked out is, she does not know who this man is. And she is horrified.
And so now I can safely say, poor Kitty.
*And just in case you think that being influenced by television is a new thing for me, that belief is practically a word for word lift from something that Nancy says to Hope in Episode 2:16 of thirtysomething; Courting Nancy.
70 Responses to “Kitty's face”
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I don't think Sal's sexuality effected the patio ad, the reason the commercial failed is it was just a bad idea.
A little off topic, but my wife loved the look that Peggy gave Don as the failed patio meeting ended. No words exchanged but no words needed!
@40: "Was it just me, or was “Ho-ho†just a bit too man crushing on “Patchy�"
ho-ho was deeply worried about patchy– something about the thought of him taking balls to the face– THAT was the funniest line of the night.
Somehow I don't think Kitty knows yet, or wants to. This is a man she's in love with.
Cub …
That WAS the line of the night. LOL.
How long have Kitty and Sal been married? Has he just cooled to her in the past 6months? Maybe he is just realizing what he is, especially after the bellboy fiasco. Do we think he has had boy on boy before?
Couldnt stop thinking of the movie Far From Heaven.
I think she gets it-she puts the pieces together. Remember last season when they had Ken over and she was the third wheel? Kitty is perceptive and smart and probably knew Sal was a little different when they got married–now she has the final pieces of the jigsaw puzzle that was his interest in Ken, his domestic talents, and his lack of interest in sex.
@57 All indications are that Sal has never acted on his desires. If I had to guess, I think that the hotel incident caused his interest in Kitty to noticeably wane.
@50 I pretty much agree, but not sure he only married her as a cover — I think there was some hope and prayers involved that maybe the marriage would be okay, make him okay. I think we might be saying the same thing, but Kitty as only a beard seems more cynical and cruel that I think Sal is when it comes to his wife.
Nah, Sal is not that cold and calculated and I agree with Ms. Darkly that he didn't marry her thinking she'd make the perfect non-gay savvy beard so he could hide who he was because at that point HE didn't know exactly who he was, all he knew was that it terrified him. So I think he married her thinking she's a lovely woman he cares about and could be BFFs with, thinking that marriage could scare him straight and make him… right, chasing away the wrongness of it all.
I watched it again and I think Kitty believes, not that Sal is gay, rather that he is having an affair with the Patio actress doing the commercial. The truth is just not something she could ever allow herself to believe.
Interesting observation Glen, but I don't think that Kitty thinks that Sal is involved with the Patio actress. I thought this scene was amazing. I think that Kitty has sensed something 'off' about Sal since his return from Bal'more. As she watches him act out the commercial she sees that this isn't just a quick rehash of how the commercial would go, but a methodical note by note, nuance by nuance recreation of a young girl singing and purring like Ann-Margaret. I think Kitty knows that the performance is a little too convincing, too real, and definitely not a straight man's interpretation. I think if Sal was straight and he was describing the shot, he would not have completely embodied the actresses voice and sexiness that much–at least without doing it in a mocking manor, and he probably would have thrown in some "and them she does some more of this, blah-blah-blah". You know what I mean?
I think the horror/confusion in her face said it all. I don't think that she thinks he's been with a man, but I think she now realizes that she wasn't imagining things when Ken came to dinner. Poor Kitty. Poor Sal. I love these two.
I'm pretty sure that at that time, a lot of people believed that "the right woman" could turn a gay man straight (as opposed to awakening a bisexual man's previously dormant opposite-sex attraction capabilities, since that wasn't even on the radar). Even a lot of gay men bought it; I think Sal is one of those guys who thought that if he was married to a good woman, he'd just be able to "turn off" being gay like a switch, but the episode with the bellhop changed his mind about that pretty quick. Kitty, if she actually does realize what her husband's orientation is, may very well blame herself for it, and simply redouble her efforts to turn him on.
Wait… she can't?
Only Christina Hendricks has that power.
#67 And when Joan (Christina) kissed Sal, she didn't even bother to try.
Re above post, forgot to add as a reference point, Joan kissed Sal in Season 1 on election night
there are three gay icons I want to toch on. one is Paul Lynn – who was in Bye Bye Birdie as the befuddled Dad – and was gay enough that even in 1962/3 audiences could equate his femeninity with his ineffectiveness as a father/husband
another icon was Rock Hudson who a 7th grade classmate – in 1966 – told me his brother had seen kissing another man at a bar in The Village. I was 12 and knew all about 'queers' as my father called them. we learn – rightly or wrongly – from our parents and I learned about gays from my father – who hated them – luckily I also learned that my father was wrong about so many things that I never could accept his judgement on anything. my point is that Poor Kitty certainly would have been aware of gay men and may have thought of her husband in the same way as the third icon –
Liberace – who was as openly gay as one could have been back then – and may have said to herself 'OMG i'm married to a Liberace'