Mad Men

Betty's been cheating from the start.
She banged the guy in the bar when she found out she was preggers again.
I strongly suspect that wasn't the first time she's been with someone else either.
She's a Barbie doll for Don, that's all. Someone to look good with at country club outings and the rest. Yet she was raised to be a career wife, even though she could clearly be more — former model, fluent in Italian — she doesn't want to be.
She wants to be Mrs. Don Draper or insert the name of any handsome, rich and successful man.
Her entire world is crumbling. So now she's looking for a lifeboat and she thinks becoming Mrs. Henry Francis might be it.
It isn't so much that she's shallow, it was just the role some women were expected to play.

 

Great column by Richard Ouzounian, theatre critic for the Star. He was a teenager in Manhattan during the period. attending a Jesuit prep school on the Upper East Side.

http://www.thestar.com/entertainment/television/article/720107--time-in-a-mad-men-world

 

You're always good for an oddball reading or two. What evidence do you have that Betty cheated before?

 

She didn't. It's was made pretty clear that until she banged the stranger in the bar, the closest she came was sitting on the washing machine.

 

That would be my take as well, but Jay likes to hit us with strongly held opinions and analysis derived mostly from not paying that much attention.

 

There is no evidence.

It's idle speculation. And there's no evidence in any episode of the first two seasons that would point you in that direction.

Back in my university days I used to go to movies with a friend and and after it was over she wouldn't talk about the movie but wanted to know what happened to the characters after the credits rolled.

"Do you think he is going to marry Susie Q?"

"Do you think Joey ended up dying of an overdose?"

Used to drive me crazy.

Just used to say, "I don't know. It wasn't in the movie so I don't really care".

 

Don cheats with his dick, Betts cheats with her heart.

 

Don gave a lot more than that to Rachel Mencken and even, to some degree, Suzanne. Not that dick-only cheating is acceptable, anyway.

 

And I'm not sure how much "heart" there was when Betty screwed that guy in the bar.

 

Anybody else catch what seemed to be a slipped-in reference to Pee Wee Herman? When Duck called Peggy at the office, her secretary announced that it was "Mr. Herman" calling. Then she picks up, and seconds later he calls her "Pee Wee." I suppose it could be a coincidence.

 

According to what I read on Sepinwall's blog, Herman is Duck's real name. When he called before (not sure if it was Peggy or Pete), he said it was Uncle Herman calling.

 

Pee Wee Herman didn't exist in 1963