Yup, my error. Betty is the former model who speaks Italian. Peggy is a former secretary; does she speak Norwegian?
Concerning Pete’s abuse of the au pair: Trudy seems OK with his unspecified confession that he strayed while she was out of town. But–might she be less tolerant if she learns some of the details? Quite a possibility, since Pete didn’t even pick a girl from another building…
Me too and I usually find some sympathy for him but last night he was just a dipshit without much in the way of redeemable qualities. “Handling” the dress situation just to get into the au pair’s pants, getting pissy about her not saying “Yay, a dress! Let’s screw!” and then falling apart in the aftermath. Hell, at least you can respect Don for keeping cool under fire after his affairs even if the affairs themselves are indefensible.
I thought for a half moment that Pete was feeling guilty but I think he was actually just scared. His neighbor knows what he did and now he has an upset au pair and a knowing neighbor both about 500ft away from his wife at all times. Will Trudy bump into the au pair in the hallway? Will the au pair tell the neighbor’s wife who goes to Trudy? Each day is a bundle of nerves.
Pete should have stuck with eating cold cereal and watching Davy & Goliath.
That’s the problem. You’re getting your history from AMC.
No jury in the country in 1963 would have convicted him of rape for doing what he did. He certainly took advantage of the girl, but he didn’t rape her.
Maybe. I hope not but maybe.
But at any rate, we’re judging him by today’s standards, just like Joan’s piece of shit husband and Betty’s stellar parenting.
Heh… as Don set down his beer and walked out the door, I said “Time to put in my 10 minutes of parenting and still make the wife’s look like shit.”
Why was Betty’s tail in a such a snit at the end when he gave her the bracelet charm? She had bitch radiating off her.
Why exactly is she supposed to be so unhappy? By objective standards of the time, other than her husband straying in the past, she’s doing pretty well. WTF is she unhappy about now? Is there no limit to her sense of lifestyle entitlement?
I suggest you read this book.
Post-vacation letdown? Living in some kind of ideal dreamworld (dressed to kill, freedom, admiration from strangers, no responsibilities. etc. etc.) Then it’s all over and back to the old grind! I’ve had the big letdown too, but I think Betty’s unhappiness goes deeper than just that. The vacation just emphasizes her unhappiness with her life.
Before Don gave her the tchotchke, she said that she hated her life, her home, the town they lived in, etc. To which Don said “We’ll take another vacation someday…”
Granted she was a raving bitch and I assume some of that had to do with getting called out by her friend but Don’s dismissal of her unhappiness couldn’t have helped.
She has no purpose, except to be a beautiful housewife and mother. Neither of which she particularly enjoys or is engaged by. My sense is that she did was expected of her and she resents the hell out of it. She’d much rather be a rich, kept woman who travels to London and Rome than an upper-middle class homemaker who has uninspiring friends, and a boring suburban life. The only thing she had to even get pumped up about was the resevoir, and now that’s done. On the one hand, she’s remarkably under-utilized. On the other, she doesn’t want any responsibilities that don’t interest her.
Lakai, I was also going to recommend The Femine Mystique!
That’s a pretty succinct synopsis of her personality. At first I thought she was kind of poorly educated and not that bright. As it come outs that she has a degree in archeology and speaks Italian etc., it’s even weirder to me how she maintains this childish, often petulant view of the world as an educated person vs being an airhead.
Well, understand that she was likely spoiled as a child. She was always expected to be educated but not encouraged, nor likely rewarded, for using it. It’s a real crap position to be in, to be a smart woman who was never allowed or expected to use her intelligence. Hell, even I was told (and I was born in 1969!) that it was important to choose my major carefully, but not place too much importance on it because eventually I’d give it up for my husband and children. It was expected by my father that I would be a smart woman who would happily give up any intellectual interests, hell any interests of my own, period. And this was told to me in 1987! I could easily tell my father to step off, because I was entering adulthood in a completely different time. I’ve suffered no ill consequences nor social sanction for doing what I wanted/needed to do.
Betty, OTH, was indoctrinated, I would say, to be an entitled show-piece.
ETA - I suspect she was sent to Bryn Mawr not to get an education, per se, but to prepare her to be a rich wife who would be expected to be smart enough to hold fascinating cocktail conversation and make her husband look good. And that’s all.
Okay, nobody’s said it, so I have to: how about that hairdo! She looked like she had a brioche on her head! We may be moving from weird hats to weird coiffure as the series progresses…
I was struck by how much Betty’s manner during the Rome interlude reminded me of Don’s out-of-time period in Palm Springs. She’d be pretty suited to that, I think. Jet-setting.
The tagline for this series should be: This never happened.
I think somebody or other said or implied it about 10 times last night alone.
I think in last week’s thread, someone suggested that the show was about Don’s existential crisis and whether he wanted to continue to be Don Draper or give it all up and run away. I was going to ask this then, but forgot. I can’t understand why Don would want to give it all up.
I mean, Dick Whitman didn’t have much to look forward to, except for returning to that horrible family. But as Don Draper, he’s achieved the American dream; beautiful wife, 2 1/2 kids, house in the suburbs (even if it is Ossining), good job and a pile of money in the bank. What’s not to like?
Because it’s all based on a lie. Dick Whitman didn’t achieve those things, Don Draper did. Besides, one person’s American dream can just as easily be another’s nightmare. Just because you’re told you should have 2.5 kids and a white picket fence doesn’t mean you’ll find happiness when you get there. Virtually every character on the show struggles with the image of what should make them happy versus the reality of what does, and this is before all the cultural upheavals of the 60s and 70s blew open those boundaries.
I thought Betty’s hair was terrific. She looked like she stepped right out of a 60’s Italian movie. I wonder how long she would’ve spent at the salon for that 'do?
Don’t discount the fact the Betty had also just learned that the development project likely would still be underway and I get the feeling that she is just fed up with being nobody important.
I disagree with this thought that Betty’s resentment stems from wanting to be some jet setting upper class woman. I’ve always felt like her resentment stems from the fact she feels so incredibly trapped in her role as a housewife. Remember when she started modeling for (I think) Coca-cola? Her mind started drifting into thoughts that she could branch out and develop a career of her own, yet last minute she lied to Don and said that it wasn’t what she wanted because I think deep down she felt like having a career of her own was impossible due to the social standards of the time. Everyone hates her and I totally think she is a crappy mom, but I feel sorry for her more than anything else.
She was dumped after Don turned down a job at that ad agency (though she didn’t know the reason) and telling Don she decided not to be a model was less humiliating than saying “I got canned”.