Here’s my prediction: Betty goes back to Henry. They have the affair.
Look, Betty is still a spoiled child, and she “wants what she wants when she wants it” (as she said of baby Gene). She lives in a fantasy. Last week, it was the Rome fantasy. This week, it’s the “swept off her feet by a new man” fantasy. And there’s the new man, and he’s handsome and he rescues her (by proxy) and he’s successful and he desires her and he’s a great kisser.
So when the romantic fantasy started, she deflected by having the Rome fantasy instead, but that didn’t last. And she, like her husband, is having her dreams disturbed by this fantasy person.
She’s deeply engaged now, in the Henry fantasy. But the thing is, when you have the romantic fantasy and you’re single, it can be fantastical. The rules of dating, especially at that time, are pretty romantic and oriented towards a woman being swept off her feet, which is what Betty wants.
Now, all along, Betty has played by the rules, and been the proper wife and mother, and humiliated Sarah Beth for being otherwise, and her only fling was one-time, anonymous, while she was separated, and during the end of the world. But now she’s increasingly clear that “proper wife and mother” is never going to make her happy no matter what (“I hate our life”), so she wants something else. Now, she’s willing to cheat in order to have it.
And that’s when she discovers that even cheating won’t do it. Because her romance with Henry will still be a romance as a married woman. The rules will be different. She will be less swept off her feet, more engaged; less a princess, more an active participant. It will be tawdry and dirty and full of details. Naturally, she recoils upon this realization.
Thing is, everyone does. Everyone who cheats has that moment of realizing it solves nothing, it’s not an escape, and it isn’t a return to the glory days of being single. They realize, they recoil, and then they cheat anyway. Because they really want to. They recoil because their choices are more limited than they realized, but they still want to choose.
“Tawdry” is one of the themes of Wee Small Hours. What we want and what we can have are so different. Betty realizing it’s tawdry with Henry is not very different from Sal in The Rambles or Washington Square Park or wherever with the leather boys. It’s not great, but it’s the best he can get.
If Betty was recoiling out of loyalty to Don or her marriage, she wouldn’t have driven to Albany. If Betty had decided she didn’t want an affair she wouldn’t have been angry. Betty is angry that the rules are different for a cheat than for a romance, but she still wants Henry. She’ll go back.
59 Responses to “Tawdry”
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I'm still on the fence, I kind of like that she didn't have the affair. It was sort of the opposite of Don and the teacher, Betty ended up doing the unpredictable thing. I keep getting the feeling that her character is heading toward a not-so-good ending this season.
I agree that Betty could have an affair with Henry; however, I do not see Betty having a tawdry "I want it [sex] when I want it" affair. Rather I see her setting Henry up as a second husband, whether or not it is a successful attempt. (Which would depend on Henry's willingness and respectful behavior.) He could be Transitional Man. I am one of those who have believed the Draper marriage was toast since the beginning of the series.
Aside: I was intrigued by Betty's response to Sally wanting a pencil holder for her looseleaf. Instead of the viewer-conditioned response of oh-she's-a-bad-mother, I thought ha-she's-not-interested-in-what-the-latest-and-greatest-is, meaning a little FY to advertising.
I didn't think Betty's backing away from the affair was unpredictable – it was just another example of her failing to follow through when the reality doesn't match up to her glittering expectations. I agree that more's definitely going to come of it – she'll either find a new fantasy angle or embrace the tawdry like she did when she was searching for proof of Don's affair and stopped caring about keeping up appearances (for about a minute).
Oh she's definitely going to consummate that relationship. I predict it will take a Nelson & Happy Rockefeller-style trajectory:
Betty is going to find out quick about Don's affair with the teacher. Then he's out of the house for good this time. She already knows she can get along just fine without him, as long as the checks keep coming in, which they most certainly will unless Don gets his ass fired from SC (I don't see that happening at the moment). And she gets everything on her terms – the house, the alimony, the kids, Carla's continued employment. If Don's lucky, he'll get out with the secret stash of cash from his desk drawer, that is, if Betty doesn't take an ax to it first.
The Wronged Wife can find a meaningful outlet for her grief as an aide to Henry Francis – you know, dedicating her life to a greater cause! What could be more honorable and frankly SELFLESS for the poor victimized Betty. And then, Henry already being single (is he divorced? I sort of forget if we know the circumstances of his being single) it will just make so much sense for Betty to pitch in by filling in as hostess for his events. And from there, well, Henry's hotel room is just a few flights up from the swanky hotel ballroom and….
Betty the aide to Henry Francis quits her job and becomes Betty Francis. Will people talk? Sure, but Rocky & Happy have already broken the sound barrier on that kind of scandal, so it will start to look more and more socially acceptable by the time Henry and Betty get married. (Did you hear what that poor woman's husband DID to her before their divorce? Their daughter's school teacher?)
Oh yeah. She'll have that affair.
Betty always bothered me. I saw her as indifferent to so many things. Or maybe unemotional? Even when Henry kissed her in the car, it seemed as though she was unmoved by it.
I think you nailed it, Deborah. Especially with the part about her not recoiling out of loyalty to Don. IMO, she's actively trying to find a way out of her marriage without it being tawdry or dirty or scandalous. She's realizing that cheating will not do that. But she's already "cheated" in the sense that she has emotionally abandonned Don and not committed to the marriage anymore.
I was amused that Don has affairs all the time seemingly without effort, yet when Betty even flirts with the idea (the guy at the bar notwithstanding) there are a zillion roadblocks and they can't even have a conversation without someone noticing or talking about it. The juxtaposition was brilliant to me. Although I do think Don's affair with Suzanne will end very badly.
I do think Betty is doing some soulsearching and is more introspective than we give her credit for sometimes. She could be having empty anonymous affairs in an attempt to end her boredom and have all the male attention she craves, but she's not doing that. She turned down the horse stable guy last season who was up for it. She wants something more fulfilling than that. But that's the problem with cheating, like you said, it's not fulfilling and it's ugly. How do you convince the person you're cheating with that you won't cheat on him, too? I think that's where Betty is. She can't find a way to be with Henry without cheating on Don even though she has zero interest, IMO, in keeping her marriage intact.
I think Betty's character flaw is that she's waiting for someone to do the deciding for her. She wants someone to tell her what to do, and she can face no repercussions of any bad decisions, because she wasn't the one who made them. But if she wants Henry, she'll have to do it on her own, figure out what she wants and live with the consequences of her decisions. But I don't know if she's going to do that.
Oh she’s definitely going to consummate that relationship. I predict it will take a Nelson & Happy Rockefeller-style trajectory…
Sounds like a probable trajectory. One small detail: Henry's last name is not "Rockefeller." Since he delivered furniture when he was young, there's probably no family money. And his job may not even pay as well as Don's. He was married–so he might be paying alimony & child support. Betty would probably get pretty good alimony–which would end if she remarries; she'd still get child support. (How many crappy 60's comedies sprang from an ex-husband trying to find a new hubbie for his ex-wife so he could afford to remarry?)
However, we haven't heard about Gene's estate. Betty ought to get a pretty good amount. Especially if she allows the house–That Treasured Monument to Her Beloved Mother–to be sold off.
(And Betty's little snit when Henry sent a woman to the fundraiser in his place doesn't speak well of Betty's ability as a political hostess.)
Ugh! I hope you're wrong about this because Henry Francis is milquetoast and I'd like to think Betty can set her sites higher. If she's going for a revenge affair, how about Roger? Don seething by Betty making a mark in his playground would make for fun TV.
sights, not sites.
Adrienne said above said that Betty is waiting for someone else to make decisions for her. I disagree. She wants what she wants, not some cheap imitation, so she backs off from Henry. Don, OTOH, is practically begging to get caught so it can be anyone's but his decision to end his marriage.
I hope you’re wrong about this because Henry Francis is milquetoast
I know. Gah! It reminds me of Gone With the Wind. He's Ashley Wilkes to Don's Rhett Butler. Oh well, to each her own, I suppose.
While Betty is obviously looking for some kind of fairy tale romance (oh aren't we all, on some level) I think ultimately what she really wants, and has never gotten from Don, is commitment. Can Henry can give that to her? I don't think we know enough about his motivations in all of this to answer that. But I guess Betty dreams that he will.
I'm growing tired o fthe Betty storylines. Part of it is that the more I know about Betty, the less I like her. She's a spoiled brat and a lousy mother. The other part is that January Jones isn't a very deep actress. She has her one persona and that's it.
Let's have more scenes in the office and start exploring how Dick Whitman car salesman became Don Draper an man.
Amen Dave!
And! We already know from the previews next week (for all you who just can't wait for your next MM fix) a little bit about how that happened.
I was sorting and filing at home yesterday and stumbled across this article:
Want more? Go read this "New York Times Sunday Magazine" article:
Can This Marriage Be Saved?
By Laurie Abraham, The New York Times, August 12, 2007
In a yearlong group exchange, a therapist and several troubled couples examine whether a crumbling union can be put back together again.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/12/magazine/12cple…
Oh, yeah, the affair is inevitable.
Yes please, a new topic — any topic — that is not about the Draper marriage!
I hear this article referenced on the radio today from Time Magazine in 1966, "A Good Man Is Hard to Find—So They Hire Women."
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,…
An excerpt: "The reason for this upswing in female employment is the shortage of skilled and semiskilled labor, which has become so acute that Federal Manpower Expert Howard Stambler says: "There are almost no men left." Unemployment is down to 3.8%—mostly unskilled—and job openings for trained people are increasing. The number of adult women at work rose in the past year by 2.3 million to 25.5 million, most of whom are married. Today, one out of every three married women has a job outside the home, and almost one in three adult U.S. workers is a woman."
Patroadtrip, great insight about the pencil case. I definitely did not think of it like that, but it makes complete sense that Betty would eschew everything having to do with advertising in her home life, especially after the Heiniken incident.
I have to say I am sort of loving the Betty cheating plot. After Don's numerous affairs (and his terrible behavior this season) I'm getting a vengeful thrill by seeing her betray him under his nose like that. While in real life I think cheating is absolutely deplorable, and almost sure to turn the relationship, I'm happy that in this fictional world at least the cuckquean gets to give her husband a taste of his own medicine. I really hope he finds out in a way that makes it impossible for him to confront her about it, and he'll have to continue living with the knowledge that she's strayed.
I really hope he finds out in a way that makes it impossible for him to confront her about it, and he’ll have to continue living with the knowledge that she’s strayed.
Or…. maybe the Drapers will jump willingly into The New Frontier experimenting with a really modern marriage, and decide that neither of them cares anymore if the other cheats. Nah. That won't happen. Don will go effin' ballistic if he finds out Betty cheats on him! Remember the air conditioner salesman? Remember how bent out of shape he got about the idea of sharing Midge with ROY for heaven's sakes? He stuffed his bonus down her blouse over that one.
Well, I hope the fireworks are fun. I'm as tired of boring old Ossining as Betty is.
Betty will find out about Don's affair, and cheat with Henry. But it will be the straw that breaks the camel's back. She'll go on another drinking binge, sleep in her dress, and wake up ashamed of herself and the situation that she has allowed to fester.
Solution: she calls Francine, arranges for Carla to take care of the kids, and takes off on a plane to "somewhere, anywhere. Miami."
There, she runs into a handsome count and his daughter Joy, and decides to take up with the Jet Set. Of course, she does not use the name Draper, and so they do not catch on that she is Don's wife until one evening, playing cities, when she mentions Rome and says she was there with her ex-husband….
brenda, I love that! And the difference is, unlike Don, Betty will feel fulfilled with our jetsetters. (Yeah, I know, I'm being mean to Betty again.)
Don will get his garage apartment, only it will actually be over Dick's Garage And Chop Shop, where, huffing paint fumes 24/7, he will discover the trade secret to that awesome red metallic paint.
#14 Peggy Joan,
I grew up reading those question-and-answer things ("Can This Marriage Be Saved?"). They were reprinted, as "marital problems", in Ladies Home Journal: my mom was a subscriber.
The view I received then was that a lot of people were in trouble. I was a kid, and reading rhse stories taught me that a lot of couples around my mom and dad (though not, of course, Mom and Dad!) were having a lot of problems staying together. These problems came from meeting other people, having important work, having children at the wrong times, or just being bad people.
What I've learned since (and what Mad Men captured, in a few lovely and wordless seconds at the start of Wee Small Hours) is that people are not inherently good or bad. There s not this shadow population of skulking villains out there, lurking in the darkness, waiting to nab the world's innocent spouses.
Betty's fantasy of escape is not about Henry at all. Her dream, on the fainting couch, where we see just a man's hands and Betty herself? That man could be anyone. It doesn't matter. Betty doesn't want Henry, poor shmuck: he may want her, that specific Ossining blonde, but she just WANTS. Wants out, actually.
It's all about Betty. I don't know how I can make this more clear.
I really believe than when adults look for comfort in the arms of another, we are looking for something only we can give ourselves. If we were smarter, kinder, more in touch with who we'd been back before we decided we couldn't live more simply, we might all just figure this out.
And stay the hell home. And get some rest.
*these* stories
*is* not this shadow population
… my kingdom for an editor. And an extra couple hours in the writing day, while we're at it
Anne, I remember those too. (They still run those in LHJ, btw) And my recollection (which may or may not be accurate) is that the clear message at te time was that with a little counseling and listening and hard work, all marriages could be saved. But, in the words of our handsome anti-hero, I'm not sure that's true.
One the one hand, it was probably helpful for frustrated housewives living inside a bad marriage to understand that they weren't alone, but surely a disservice to suggest that all marriages were worth saving or could be saved, if you just put a bit of energy into it.
Is the Draper's marriage worth saving? Last week, caught up in the romance of Rome, I thought maybe so. After this week, I just want it to be over.
Thank you, Gypsy. We have never actually seen the Drapers' courtship, only heard references to it. Betty was a model, Don got her a fur coat. Betty was beautiful, Don felt lucky he had found such a girl and could start life fresh (after he divorced Anna).
But there has to be more to it, because if Betty was from the Main Line, she could afford her own coat. Don is so handsome, any woman would want to be with him. We know pretty much what Don wanted from her: what did she want from Don? Until that's clear, it's hard to know whether they can go on.
"Don will go effin’ ballistic if he finds out Betty cheats on him! Remember the air conditioner salesman? Remember how bent out of shape he got about the idea of sharing Midge with ROY for heaven’s sakes? He stuffed his bonus down her blouse over that one."
It's true, Don's actions make no sense in relation to his beliefs. He would go psycho on her, which would be tragic.
Whenever people talk about Betty being swept up in her fantasies, all they do is remind me that all of the major characters are the same. Which is why I can't get excited when they complain about Betty's illusions or her being spoiled. They're all the same. At least to me. I just don't see how Betty is unique.
I think sometimes we overlook the name of the series. It's called "Mad Men" because, in some way, all of the characters are deeply troubled. That includes Betty.
The snapshots we've gotten of the Draper marriage prior to the show, like the photos from "The Carousel" do make us believe that at one point they were happy. The flashback scene where Dick told the real Don Draper's wife he was getting married showed that he was in love with her. It would be nice to see more about what was going on in their marriage prior to 1960 to learn how it became so toxic.
What pains us as viewers, is their marriage is so clearly unhealthy to us, yet we still want to root for them.
"It would be nice to see more about what was going on in their marriage prior to 1960 to learn how it became so toxic."
Well we know by he end of 1960 Betty was confessing to her therapist that she knew he cheated, so obviously that started in the 50's…which is kind of sad because Don gushing about Betty to Anna was the sweetest we've ever seen him.
I don't think we've seen the last of Henry.
Betty wants the moon. And sure, it would have been tawdry to get banged on top of a desk in Henry's office. But if Henry makes another offer, 'away for the weekend', let's see her response then.
But Henry .. He doesn't even have someone to open and filter his mail. That tells me that he is not as high on the Rockefeller food chain as some might think. He certainly cannot support her in the style to which she's accustomed.
Well we know by he end of 1960 Betty was confessing to her therapist that she knew he cheated, so obviously that started in the 50’s
Midge made a reference to "five years ago" regarding their relationship, so their affair had to have started soon after Sally was born. I always thought it was interesting that theirs was apparently a pretty long-term relationship. Nothing since then lasted very long for Don.
Was he ever faithful to Betty?
@ 30 gypsy howell- Does that mean it's possible that Don was with Midge the night Sally was born? It was clear when Don tried to tell the story to Sally, that he was out having an affair. It would make sense. The whole Madona/whore complex. Also, at the time wasn't it considerded a bad idea to have sex with someone pregnant?
Either they stay married or they divorce…my vote is that they stay married because that is a more dramatic story telling structure. I think Betty seeks her purpose in time when woman were not encouraged to look outside the role of wife and mother. There is less drama if she becomes the ex Mrs. Draper. There would be more drama with a divorce if there was an underlying deep love between them. Then we'd have the drama of them finding their way back to each other (or not). That is the stuff of infinite soap operas. All evidence, however, points in the direction of them falling in love with an image. This is suggested by Don's sentiment over family slides on a Kodak carousel. We need the Draper family to stay intact for them to find themselves. Don feels his feeling on the outside looking in. Betty feels her feelings on the inside looking out.
I don't think Don was perturbed by the idea of Midge seeing Roy as long as it wasn't serious. He saw them kiss earlier and it didn't freak him out. But as soon as he realized that Midge liked Roy better than him, THAT was what freaked him out.
But Betty is HIS. Everyone has to keep hands off her. He's like Elvis, having endless dalliances with Priscilla waiting back at Graceland, and as soon as he finds out Priscilla has given up and sought company elsewhere since she wasn't getting a whole lot of attention from the King and probably never would again…oh noes, she has betrayed him. The icky old double standard.
Question is, what would bother Don more: Betty screwing around with someone she didn't really care about, or Betty actually falling in love with someone else? You'd think it would be the latter, but the idea of his Betty having casual sex is probably something that would break his brain.
I've been wondering all season who would get to an affair first, Don or Betty. Don may have won, but I've been expecting season 3 to be the one where Betty gets hers. So sure, it'll happen. There's been nothing yet to indicate that it *won't* happen. Whether it happens because she finds out about Don's is yet to be seen.
@meowser – yes, you're right. When Don realized, (and only by looking at the polaroid — how telling!) that she was in love with Roy, that's when it was over.
@retrogirl – yeah, I've always wondered that myself. Or maybe Midge wasn't his first affair. Hard to say. She was definitely his muse – he went there when he needed inspiration, not just sex. Haven't really seen that since.
#b1965 – from a dramatic standpoint I think you're right. Just not sure how much more of Draper Marriage-On-The-Rocks I can take!
Hello, I've been lurking on this site for a while and have finally been moved to post! I will now commence blathering…
I must agree with b1965 – the Draper marriage will stay intact because firstly, there is a lot more drama to be mined out of that situation – two people trapped in a marriage where there may have once been love but has now grown to indifference – we haven’t reached actual hatred yet! Secondly, I simply don’t think divorce really is something Betty can conceive for herself. Yes, the social elite (Rockerfellas, Hiltons et al) might have been divorcing left, right and centre but for the middle-classes it is still a completely scandalous and anti-social prospect.
I think any scenario which has them divorcing, remarrying, shooting daggers at each other every time they meet – I think that’s veering too far into a soapy territory which Mad Men isn’t about. I think in the world MM portrays people stay married for the sake of appearances, the children, their financial well-being.
Also, I’ve been reading some comments about the inconsistency of Betty rejecting the affair with Henry because it’s “tawdryâ€, and her encounter on the couch in the bar. I think, for Betty, the anonymity of the couch sex keeps it mysterious and erotic and fantastical. She can project whatever she wants on to that man (making him more Don-like than Don, who seems to be a blank canvas for everyone around him). The tawdry nature of an affair would be for Betty the mundane routine that would creep in, domestic problems from “normal†home life, the scrabbling around for opportunities for sex, the inevitable loss of passion and interest. This would become the case with Henry. The realities of an affair will not measure up to that initial flirtation and chase. As Betty sees it herself, every kiss is an attempt to recapture the feeling of the first.
@GoWatchTV – is Betty doomed, then, to be unhappy in her marriage and unfulfilled by an affair outside of it? Not that it would be unrealistic in real life, but from a dramatic standpoint it seems that eventually you'd just reach a stalemate in the action and character development.
If that's the case, I wonder how Matt Weiner can keep it interesting enough to watch.
The show can remain interesting enough to watch if we have less time devoted to Betty in the 'Burbs. Married or not, Having affairs or not.
I'd love to see what's happening with those other characters in the Big City. Let's see them at work. And let's see some of their private lives, for a change.
@gypsy howell – Well, it would be true that if Betty chooses not to end her marriage and not to have an affair, she (and the show) could just end up stagnating. But there's one course of action that I could see her character moving towards. I'm not sure if it will happen this season, as I don't think she's at that level of desperation, but I'd say the question "Are you suicidal?" was a hint to Betty's fate. She's coming out of that twilight sleep and she's going to start feeling pretty desperate because she feels like she's exhausted her options of either ending the marriage or making it work.
I do wonder how many seasons there are left in Mad Men. By it's very nature – focusing on the lives of those on Madison Avenue during the 60s – it can't go on for years and years. Unless it becomes like this show we have in the UK, Heartbeat, which is set in the 1960s and just refuses to move forward in time. It just stays in 1969 year after year…
@ GoWTV- Yes, I remarked somewhere on here a while ago that I thought the "Are you suicidal" question was just kind of dropped into the dialog from out of the blue, so it MUST mean something. I had forgotten about it until you brought it up again.
Yeah, that could bring a new dimension, couldn't it? There's that shotgun she's got stashed away in the house somewhere (sort of an odd thing to own in Ossining, I should think) although that's not usually the method of choice for women.
Didn't Matt Weiner say at one point that he envisioned this as a 5 season series??
@ #39 & #40
While looking for another quote, I just ran across this one from Betty in Season 1's The Long Weekend:
" I know people say life goes on, and it does, and no one tells you that’s not a good thing. Why is that?"
Hmmm…
The public humiliation of your husband banging your daughter's teacher isn't going to help, is it Melville & GWTV?
I know we're just prognosticating, but is it even remotely possible that Don pulls off this affair with Suzanne undetected? Hard to imagine.
@ 40 gypsy howell- I think he wants the show to get to 1970 or 1972, but at this point he doesn't know how many seasons.
@Melville #41
Oh dear… I really think suicide, or attempted suicide, could be on the cards. It would move things up a gear, dramatically speaking, rather than focusing on yet another infidelity.
And yes indeed, a very public reveal of Don's affair with the teacher will hurt a lot. I don't think he will get away with it – in fact, he has never really gotten away with any of his affairs. Betty has always known, but I think this time not only will she be forced to see it, but her friends and neighbours are going to know too. The fact that he's diddling someone so close to home has to come in to play.
I think , if the aim is to get to the early seventies, there will be a big jump forward at some point. Five seasons sounds like it could be about right to me.
#42 Gypsy, it's not just Betty's public humiliation, it's Sally and Bobby's as well. Someone will spot Don's car over there, he's on a Kamakaze mission of destruction and has thrown all cover out the window. The owners of the house may know Betty. Phone calls will be made between the women of Ossining and their husbands and kids will know about it. The Draper family will be gossiped about. At some point, Teacher will be evil eyed out of the school by the Mothers … or she could have put her teaching license in jeopardy. Betty couldn't handle the humiliation of Bobby Barrett, let alone being the pitied housewife in Ossining. Short of MW borrowing Vampire Bill and/or Eric from Alan Ball to Glamour the whole town, I'm not sure how the Draper marriage could survive this. Don simply doesn't care about the ramifications of sleeping with his daughter's crush a few miles down the road from his sleeping wife and children.
And we've seen with Joan and Sal, that MW doesn't hesitate to move major characters off screen, so Betty's probably next to go.
I think if Vampire Eric AND Don Draper showed up on my screen at the same time, my TV would implode…and I'm not even straight! Damn!
# 21 Anne B, thanks for your response. I also remember the LHJ feature "Can This Marriage Be Saved?"
Although I tried the HMTL blockquote code above and it worked, I forgot to try emphasizing the part of the quote that struck me as relating most directly to Don and Betty and other couples on the show. So let me try again while incorporating the HTML bold code:
Next I'm going to try some Unordered List HTML code below, to emphasize my favorite points from the quote above:
people are, above all, driven to find meaning in their lives
couples collude to create their own misery, often … insist upon it
because of some unseen comfort the ostensible misery provides
how precious the deadness [of the marriage] is to them
Many unhappy couples are colluding to create their marital misery. The existence of the marriage imposes limits and boundaries on their bad behavior and gives them the discipline to avoid going too far, so far that they break their marriage and family irrevocably.
If only they applied that energy and creativity to improving their marriage! But if the marriage becomes happier and more fulfilling, the couple has fewer reasons to cheat or act out in other ways — overspending, drinking, complaining to others, etc.
When you're tempted to moan, "If only Don and Betty were more honest with each other about their dissatisfaction, couldn't they work out some of these issues and find happiness together?" — the above is a possible explanation for those existentialists driven to find meaning in the behavior of fictional characters. Need I add that Matt Weiner is in the driver's seat? The story will go where he wants it to go. Fasten your seat belts!
For those who wish to read the entire NYT article, here's the URL again: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/12/magazine/12cple…
FYI, my attempt at HTML code for Unordered Lists didn't work — drat!
Aran, bingo. *Very* public humiliation. But, maybe we've already seen a prelude to Betty's response. She's pick up that shotgun and use Don for target practice.
She'll get off with an temporary-insanity plea — her therapist will vouch for that! — and then she can live happily ever after, the merry and oh-so-very-rich widow, with men courting her at every turn.
After the preview for next week, the only MM character I'm worried about losing to suicide is Bert Cooper. Hope I'm wrong. Betty pulling a Sylvia Plath would be kinda obvious, wouldn't it?
Meowser, I don't think Don was ever freaked out by Midge. He's got the ownership thing over Betty and he didn't have it over Midge. I think he enjoyed and appreciated her Boho lifestyle, and was done with her when she realized she wouldn't put her money where her mouth & his money were. Turned out, HE was the "hobo," HE was the one able to drop everything and go to Paris. Even though she always said "no plans," she couldn't just leave like he could, and he was disgusted.
GWTV, welcome. Nice first foray.
Betty has already done tawdry (at the bar S2)
She's not through with Henry (I want the Belle of the Hudson River Valley) Francis.
Does anybody else think this Henry character is a poor man's version of Richard Gere?
"But Henry .. He doesn’t even have someone to open and filter his mail. That tells me that he is not as high on the Rockefeller food chain as some might think. He certainly cannot support her in the style to which she’s accustomed."
Henry answered in his letter, "not anymore." So, he removed his mail from his secretary. That being said, we don't know how much money he makes.
On the Betty front, it's now been established that Betty has invited the neihborhood into her home for the fundraiser, so any potential humiliation is set up. Sally's at school worrying about the pencil case (will she steal one and get covered by Miss Farrell?). The big ass blue Caddie is just too obvious. Will rumors fly that Carlton is having an affair with her? I think Betty will maneuver something so that Don is blackmailed, clearing the way for her to go with Henry. Roger also can have his sayso, as he wasn't a hypocrite. We'll see!
THAT'S why he looks so bloody familiar! Poor man's Richard Gere!
That being said, I cannot see Betty Draper trying to commit suicide. She's far too self-centered and shallow to contemplate her own destruction seriously. I can see her faking an attempt for dramatic effect, if the Don/Teacher affair explodes into an Ossining Chappaquidick, but not seriously meaning to kill herself.
I don't see suicide happening. They have already done that with Adam in S1. Plus January Jones is very valuable to this show. I think it would be better for the show overall to have Don and Betty call it quits on their marriage. Don't get me wrong — I love this show with all my heart and think Matt Weiner is a brilliant man, but we seem to be stuck in a bit of a rut this season as far the Draper marriage goes. Simmering anger and repeated affairs will only go so far. It would be very interesting to see these two in a different setting. Betty, the divorced mother of 3, who spent so many years living in the bubble and being the envy of Ossining — does she become the much maligned Helen Bishop? Or does she strike out in a different direction — for example, move with the kids back to NYC and get a job? Does she remarry? What's it like for her back on the dating scene? As for Don, once he is given his freedom to prowl, what does he do with it? Is his life filled with regret? Does he marry again? What is his relationship with the kids? The possibilities seem limitless.
"I know we’re just prognosticating, but is it even remotely possible that Don pulls off this affair with Suzanne undetected? Hard to imagine."
I'm guessing this affair will end badly and Betty could very well just explode and go crazy with her gun again.
Still, they could get divorced and with a time jump next season, get back together. It all has a way of working out since you never know how far Matt will jump.
Don's affair with Suzanne can't help but end badly. Sally is the one who will be most hurt by it, and that Don isn't able to even consider that is just another sign of his problem. He's actually putting his needs ahead of his child's, which makes him a worse father than Archie. It's especially sad to see him go down this destructive route after seeing how much his children meant to him last season when he and Betty were living apart.
Yep, I think it will be Sally who sets the merry-go-round in motion here. Don wants to get caught — he's not even bothering to cover his tracks — but he doesn't think of kids as having minds of their own. so he imagines it will be an adult (Betty? one of her friends?) who catches them and that the final showdown will take place strictly among adults. He doesn't know, or has forgotten, that kids see and kids talk and kids spread rumors, and there are more kids in this town than in the one he grew up in. There's no way Sally won't find out, and no way she won't be devastated. And Don is so narcissistic he just doesn't give a shit.
A few episodes ago in the Barbie episode Sally says to Don "Daddy what will happen when you turn the light out?"
Don is crazy to strike up with Miss Farrell and she questions him like Ms Menken did about his crazy ideas and attitude. Miss Farrell knows exactly where this will end up. Disaster. In these kind of affairs the husband usually ends up staying with the wife.
When Betty was talking to Gene about his will, Gene said he didn't want to watch her commit suicide (her smoking) but here is another mention of suicide regarding Betty.
Maybe we will see shades of "the Slender Thread" 1965 Movie with Anne Bancroft about a housewife who takes an overdose of barbiturates because her marriage is on rocky ground.