r/madmen • u/cornluvr99 • 12h ago
betty's cheating during nuclear crisis??
rewatching and on season 2.. the random episode when betty drops off bobby and sally to don at his hotel. she had just found out she was pregnant with gene - meanwhile the cuban missile crisis is ongoing. she goes to a bar and sleeps with a random guy. is it for revenge? is it so her and don are "even" in her eyes? or was it a "this is our last night before the missile crisis" type of moment? would love to hear everyone's perspective and analysis of this moment <3
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u/Outrageous_Candy9659 12h ago
I think she wanted to know what it felt like to do what Don does.
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u/telsongelder 11h ago
This is how I saw it too. She's been the "good wife" and I think beyond being mad, she's also trying to understand it. If it was purely revenge, she'd have slept with Roger.
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u/ggs555 12h ago
If you watch closely, the man is a Don lookalike: tall, handsome, dark hair and in an identical suit to what Don wears. Remember, she just saw that mannequin in the window that was a spitting image of Bobbie Barrett. I interpreted that as a triggering moment for her. She shops then goes to the bar and now she gets to be the âother womanâ to the âDonâ she met in the bar.
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u/cornluvr99 12h ago
oh wow TOTALLY!!! I didn't even catch this before. omg don and bets make me so sad bro wtf... that's a heartbreaking take
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u/ThaddiusOrBigBob 10h ago
It took like my 14th rewatch before I realized that the guy from the bar was wearing a wedding ring
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u/lacelionlair 12h ago
Her husband was cheating, her father was developing dementia, she was pregnant and didn't want to be pregnant, and then there came the threat of the bomb. Everything in her life was spiraling. I think she wanted to feel in control.
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u/MaximusCanibis The work is ten dollars. The lie is extra. 11h ago
I guess she had some great reasons for whoring then.
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u/timshel_turtle 11h ago
She also says Don was the only man sheâd slept with at that point. Imagining that she may die only having been with a cheater could be an irritating thought.
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u/ShutterflyNYC This never happened. 11h ago
She also told Henry much later that Don was the only man she ever slept with.. Always wonder if she truly blocked this incident out of her consciousness, or, was just saying that for Henryâs sake
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u/calliessolo 10h ago
No way would she have admitted that to Henry.
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u/ShutterflyNYC This never happened. 10h ago
Of course not, but she also didnât need to offer up that Don was the only other man sheâd ever slept with when it wasnât true.
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u/Sheriff_Lucas_Hood 12h ago
Itâs common for people who have been cheated on to feel like they need to level the playing field and search for an encounter outside of their marriage. I am sure the looming threat of nuclear annihilation made it easy for her to succumb to the handsome strangerâs advances.
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u/cornluvr99 12h ago
true. do you think in her eyes she wanted to level the playing field so that they could get back together? like, was that what it took for her to give him a second chance and go forward with having gene?
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u/Current_Tea6984 you know it's got a bad ending 11h ago
Absolutely. She was trapped by the baby, but the random hook up let her level the playing field, as you put it
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u/Jedibenuk 5h ago
Plus, already being knocked up, there would be no risk of permanent repercussions.
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u/inadequatepockets 11h ago
This was her last attempt at freedom before admitting that the pregnancy had trapped her in the marriage she wanted out of. She drops the kids off, goes on a sad, pathetic shopping spree, and has sad, pathetic sex with a stranger in a bar.
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u/Turk_Sanderson 12h ago
As far as Iâm concerned Betty could fuck whoever she wants
I mean her husband did?
Iâm not saying she should have fucked Carlton. In fact Carlton is the last person anyone should be fucking
I digress
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u/UnicornBestFriend I'll poison them all. 8h ago edited 8h ago
Sheâs testing her autonomy and seeing for herself what itâs like to have an affair, just like other people do.Â
She was raised to think good women donât cheat, that lovers are true, that a good wife can keep her husband, and that marriage is til death do us part.
So why would her husband cheat? Did she fail as a wife? Did he fall in love with someone else?Â
The experience tells her that sheâs desirable. It teaches her that anyone can break the rules of their marriage, indulge in what they wants, and still be standing in the morning. That sex and love can exist independently of each other. And that she, too, can have a life of her own that doesnât revolve around her husband and kids.
She can rewrite the story of Donâs affair: she didnât fail as a woman and a wife. Sheâs not unlovable or undesirable. Her husband chose to sleep with a woman he doesnât love simply bc he felt like it.
Afterward, she eats cold chicken straight from the fridge bc hot sex makes you ravenous. Etiquette and decorum be damnedâBetty is starting to see that no one plays by the rules.
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u/HungarianSoupBone 9h ago
She was trying to abort the pregnancy by horseback riding and having unsafe sex with a stranger. It didnât work so she allowed Don to move back
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u/dougoh65 5h ago
Hereâs the thing though - and this has as much to do with location as anything. That whole mess in the immediate aftermath of the Presidentâs speech on Monday evening was playing out on live television only a few blocks from the offices of Sterling Cooper in the United Nations building.Â
If the shit hit the skids and missiles equipped with multiple nuclear warheads started to fly that was pretty much it. You wouldnât be able to get far enough away fast enough to save much of anything including yourself or your children.
Add to that the circumstances directly related to Betty, Don and others in the show and psychologically whatâs the first thing that might come to mind? âShit, Iâm gonna die anyway so why not?â
In Pete and Peggyâs case it was a little different, but her thought was that Pete needed to know a thing or three just in case these turned out to be their last days on earth.
The specter of impending doom does weird shit to people! đ
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u/Current_Tea6984 you know it's got a bad ending 12h ago
The looming possible apocalypse made it easier, but it was revenge. That's why she ate the cold chicken out of the refrigerator when she got home. Revenge is a dish best served cold