After waiting out an entire episode for the big confrontation, we finally saw Betty put the smackdown on Don for all his lies. This was a great episode for Betty, and we saw that she's not one to go off half-cocked into this kind of battle. I'm almost wondering if the visit to her brother's wasn't all a big ploy to nab some face time with the family lawyer.
Unfortunately, the message she heard from old Milton was pretty grim. While I'm always horrified by the rampant sexism on display, hearing Betty's future if she pursued divorce was bleaker than bleak. Milton basically said that, since Don's a good provider and she isn't afraid of him, she should go home and "give it a try". To be fair, she didn't enumerate the exact details of Don's crimes, but still, to be told to shut up and make it work gave me the shivers.
But before the final crisis, we saw our good friend Roger Sterling confront a ghost from his past on this Halloween-themed episode, with the return of Annabel, an old pre-World War II flame. They apparently had a wonderful time in those days, until Annabel left him for a hoity-toity, Dad-approved beau. She comes back, now a widow, begging to be let back into Roger's heart. Even though she literally threw herself at him (propelling Roger into a wall), he wants none of it. He's happy now, a newlywed, and seemingly committed to Jane. "This girl is different," he says. Really, Roger, really? I don't think he's any more committed to his matrimonial vows than he was with Mona (and we saw how well he kept those) but wants to break Annabel's heart the way she broke his, even if it means giving up a night of extramarital nookie.
To add to Roger's lady issues, Joan is suddenly back in the picture. After Dr. Petulant doesn't make the cut yet again - "I don't want to be a psychiatrist!" he whines - he decides to join the Army, since they're desperate for surgeons, and will take any old sawbones. And don't worry about him going overseas - the worst is that he'll be shipped to West Germany, or maybe Vietnam, "if that's still going on." Oh, Dr. Harris, you are so dead. Which is convenient, because it seems that Joan and Roger are about to rekindle that loving feeling, with Joan asking Roger for help finding a job. There's no way that Jane can hold a candle to Joan, and she won't seem so different after Joan is back in the picture.
But back to the Don and Betty confrontation! Don comes home to grab a few essentials on the way to a lover's getaway with Miss Farrell, when Betty corrals him into a sit down. Don sulks his way into his study, leaving Miss Farrell in the car. Betty takes on the sit down with a prosecutorial hardness that's shocking to witness. She shows almost no emotion throughout the entire talk, asking pointed questions and saying words that should be loaded with empathy, but with no expression on her face. Is she in shock after hearing about Don's deepest secrets? Maybe. I would have thought that Betty, in her discovery, had crafted a far worse backstory than the one Don told her, so would perhaps be relieved to her about its relative innocence. Of course, Don didn't mention the crucial fact that he switched dog tags with the original Don Draper, but instead, referred to a vague "accident" that resulted in the mix up.
For the rest of the episode, Betty maintains a granite facade, repeatedly asking Don if he wants anything like it's paradoxically the first time she's ever thought to ask and has been rehearsing it all day. They accompany the children trick-or-treating, with Sally as a gypsy and Billy as a hobo, standing stock still behind their children like a tableau of repression. Though the final line is over the top - "And who are you supposed to be?" - it's a valid question for the series as a whole.
With the largest question of the series answered (will Betty find out about Don? Yes.) what else is next? Don will, no doubt, enter into a period of forced monogamy, only to stray again, and Betty will put up with it, since the prospect of being a single mother with no financial support is too terrible to bear. Can Betty love Dick Whitman like she loved Don Draper? Well, she's sticking around for now, but will she feel more free to fool around with the Harry's of the world? If nothing else, I'm glad to see that the saccharine Miss Farrell is at least temporarily out of the picture.
No comments:
Post a Comment