Betty in the parking lot

I’ve really been trying to write this since before people started talking about it in comments.

The Grown-Ups. Betty meets Henry Francis in the parking lot.

It was my second viewing of the episode–from the opening shot of the scene it was suddenly looking very familiar.

I believe it to be a bookend to Betty and Glen in the parking lot in the Wheel.

Betty: Glen?
Glen: I’m not supposed to talk to you.
Betty: Who says–who said that?
Glen: My mother and my father.
Betty: I don’t care.
Glen: My mother is going to come out.
Betty: I don’t care. Glen, I can’t talk to anyone. It’s so horrible. I’m so sad.
(Glen reaches his mittened hand out the window, Betty puts her gloved hand in his.)
Glen: Don’t cry.
Betty: Please. Please tell me I’ll be okay.
Glen: I don’t know. I wish I was older.
Betty: Oh adults don’t know anything, Glen.
Glen: I don’t really know how long twenty minutes is.
Betty: Of course dear.

The Grown-Ups (who apparently don’t know anything):

Betty: I’m so glad you could see me.
Henry: Where does your husband think you are?
Betty: I don’t care. He’s been lying to me for years. I couldn’t be in that house. Then I saw you yesterday. I didn’t know you were going to be there.
Henry: I hoped you would be there.
Betty: Derby Day. Seems like a hundred years ago. And then this morning, seeing that man shot to death. What is going on?
Henry: It will be okay. We’ve lost a lot of presidents and we’re still standing.
Betty: I wish I could believe you. I can’t believe anything right now.
Henry: Have you thought that there are other ways to live? Listen, I’m not in love with the tragedy of this thing. It’s not Romeo and Juliet. I want it to happen.
Betty: I have three children.
Henry: I’ll know more when the primaries start to shake out in spring. But I can leave the campaign right now.
Betty: I don’t want you to do that.
Henry: You don’t have to answer me now. But I want to marry you.
Betty: I don’t know what to say.
Henry: You don’t have to say anything. I told you. But if you search your heart, you’ll know that I can make you happy.
(smooch)
Betty: I should go.
Henry: I wish I could take you to the movies right now. Some theater was playing your favorite movie.
Betty: Singin’ in the Rain.
Henry: Well, just think about that.

To me, “I don’t care” in the scene with Glen was beautifully strong. It was Betty’s first move back towards life. She was so sad (she hadn’t worked out that whole “my people are Nordic” thing yet) and really beaten, but “I don’t care” indicated a fierce pulse.

Three years later and she really means it.

In the Inheritance, Glen and Betty hold hands.

Glen: I came to rescue you we can go anywhere, I have money.

So what does this all mean? That our little Betty’s all growed up?

Or maybe that this is just a child’s fantasy. This is a terrifically immature move on her part.

Don’t get me wrong–leaving Don, getting out of that marriage, that is strong, mature action. And the Betty of season one–her hands went numb at the mere sight of a divorcee.

It is a schoolgirl’s crush that she has on Henry. That’s apparent with every blushy smile he brings to her face.

And there’s nothing wrong with a crush that makes you feel like a teenager (Trust me on this!). But you don’t marry it, for god’s sake–you don’t marry someone you don’t know. At the time of the parking lot meeting, Henry and Betty had barely spoken a thousand words to each other. She’s gonna marry this guy she hasn’t had sex with? Really? Who does that? (And I don’t want to hear “that’s how it was back then”. She is a married woman with a diaphragm. That is just bad planning.)

On the other hand, there was no cultural vocabulary yet for this being a bad idea. Today we are all understand that rolling from one committed relationship right into the next is a recipe for disaster–it doesn’t stop us all from doing it, but it stops some of us. But there was no language for it–nobody spoke of the “rebound relationship”. Francine might raise her eyebrows but will ultimately approve. It’s better than being a divorced mother of three, after all.

But Betty, who wanted out of that prison, still chooses the role of princess, and may be finding herself just changing towers.