So that's what ruined the institution of marriage - I was told it was the gays...

Who cares about the divorce rates of the population as a whole? Betty is essentially a personality-less window dressing of a woman who could never suffer the horror of having the neighbors talk about her or have to fend for herself

Speaking of which, whatever happened to that divorced woman who lived across the street? I understand that the focus on this show shifts a lot over the seasons, but some storylines are just dropped completely, a lot of which are Betty's subplots (and I assume a factor for all dropped storylines is in part due to the passage of time between seasons).

Also the whole "most cast members have 2 bye weeks" thing is really really noticeable. I don't remember characters not being in as many episodes last season, though I could be mistaken.

Overall though, I am enjoying this season, and this was a good ep.

Yeah, what happened to Betty's issue with her hands shaking in the first season? I can't remember if there was an explanation or a proper resolution to it. I think it was just dropped and never referred to again, but S1 was so long ago.

This is my thinking, as well. The prospect of being a divorcee, with two young children and an infant, is worse for Betty than coming to terms with Don.

And, really, did she find out anything all that bad? So Don grew up poor and wanted to reinvent himself, had an ill-advised marriage (that no one else knows about), and owns some land Betty didn't know about. That's not nearly as bad as an affair. Don should be able to talk his way out of this easily.

I've wondered about that too. I thought maybe it come up again when she had the latest kid.

Actually, Dick Whitman never was married to Anna (as Don Draper)....Anna was married to the real Don Draper - who died - and Dick Whitman came to terms with Anna and Anna granted the new Don Draper a divorce.

As far as Betty - she didn't seem too concerned about raising two children alone last season, when she refused to let Don back in the house. She's cold enough to not really care one way or the other whether Don is a stay-at-home husband or not. So long as she's got her cigarettes.

I think the point is that Betty couldnt possibly know that

Didn't Betts find her son in her kids playhouse in their yard and bought him in and fed him.. he proclaimed his love to her ... they kinda hung around the house all afternoon (for one minute, I thought Betts was going to go to the dark side.. but she didn't) until his mother came for him and Betts told his mother "nothing happened" his mother then told Betts to stay away from him. Not sure what became of them after that... maybe he'll pop up again?

I think the divorced woman character served the purpose of showing why Betty would never consider divorcing Don. Divorced women were just not accepted. In a way, she is stuck in this role as a wife and mother even though she is clearly unhappy.

I've been reading people's opinions of Don and Betty, as individuals, as husband and wife, as father and mother........I think they are criticized too much.

Look, as individuals, nobody is perfect - right? Don has his strengths of character (sympathy for the underdog, as displayed for the teacher's brother), as well as his flaws (philandering). We don't get to explore Betty's traits as closely as we do Don's, but maybe that will change through the years. But from what I've been able to gleam, she is loyal to her family (in that she will stand up for them, as displayed when she shot her neighbor's pet birds et al).

As far as their relationship with one another - I see Don as a patient husband to Betty's neurosis wife, I see Don as loving to both Betty and the children - in some ways, Don is more nurturing than Betty when it comes to Sally.

Which brings me to their roles as parents. Everyone is basically saying what awful parents they both are. I've seen worse - of course, we all have - between physical abuse, sexual abuse, neglect, etc. Of course, it doesn't excuse the Draper's essential cold-front, but a lot of us grew up with distant parents. Not everyone is going to be, or even could be, Ward and June Cleaver.

Even the then-President of the United States, John Kennedy, was both a distant husband and father. He was hiding from his wife his true-self (the drugs, the sex), while way too busy at work to be much of a hands-on parent. How much more different is Don Draper from the President of the United States? Aside from the power and wealth.....I'd say not much.

Seriously? You've been a memeber here for 7 years and you STILL don't get that talking about next week's previews are considered spoiler material?

It was shown in the previews, so don't yell at me.

Right. And previews are skipped by a lot of viewers (including me) that don't want to know what is coming next week. Thus, spoiler material. Seriously, you don't know this by now?

saying that XXX will appear in the next episode is hardly a spoiler.

Actually, it's the very definition of a spoiler.

It's also against forum rules.

He also spoiled some plot points from The Sopranos in last week's Mad Men thread, which...makes no sense to do. Even if the show is older, doesn't mean that everybody has seen it, even if there's a connection.

It's good to see that will be in the next episode.

In some ways, the Draper's kitchen table is more nurturing than Betty when it comes to Sally.

Betty is being exactly like her mother, all of Betty's remembrances of her mother begin and end with "She was so beautiful and young looking for her age"

What she doesn't realize is that Don is NOT Betty's dad. While Don is better than Betty with Sally he has absolutely no 'daddy's little girl' relationship with Sally.

Betty meanwhile smokes cigarettes and STARES at her children.

Betty has evolved into feeling that her children keep her from the life she wants to have and the person she could/would be. The birth of Gene just prolonged her sentence.

She's a fucking cast-member! How is it a fucking spoiler that she's going to be in an upcoming episode? Are you people fucking kidding me with this shit?

I didn't actually know who he was talking about. If it's a cast member then yeah, people are overreacting.

I'm referring to stuff like "Holy shit! JFK is going to visit Sterling Cooper in the season finale!" (he's actually not because he gonna get shot, sorry for the spoiler)

A cast member who as far as the story has unfolded left S/C and has been absent from the show. It's obnoxious to reveal plot points of future episodes without spoiler tags.