Unfortunately, that about covers it, Nancy!

And, we'll all be watching even more of all that deliciousness tonight, won't we??? I know I will... tee hee

Yum....

; - P

Everytime I watch Don give his spiel for the Kodak Carousel, I wonder how he can sound so sincere, watch those pictures of his own supposedly loving family life and still treat his wife the way he did. He looks like he is seeing it all for the first time, instead of having lived that life with Betty. "It takes us to a place where we ache to go again," he says. That's when I want to slap him. He's the one who messed it up, not poor Betty. If he recognizes the value of that world he shows to the Kodak people, why did he do it, and will he continue to do so in the next Season? There is still so much about this Don Draper character we haven't seen.

As for the rest of the men, well, monkey see, monkey do.

In Season One, everybody had some type of secret to hide.

In Season Two, everybody was undergoing some type of "coming of age" or a metamorphosis of sorts.

And I too was watching the Carousel scene and wondering "wtf happened to them? How did this all go so bad?" They were married in '52 or '53; this was 1960.

Yes, z and Nancy....it's like Don has a split personality...able to switch from one to the other with ease, enabling him to feel no guilt or remorse as a result of his affairs....in effect "compartmentalizing" his life and the different women in it.

When he told Betty how he wished he had had a mother like her (called her an "angel"), and also gazed with awe (at the Kodak presentation) at even just the images of her...I think he thinks he loves her (as much as it is possible for a person with such a severe duality of personality is capable of loving anyone) since actually loving her---with his whole heart and mind---is not possible for him.

I've always thought Don feels "inferior" to Betty in his own mind and, feeling that way, he believes she will leave him if she ever finds out "the truth" ... so he does his "own thing" since he feels she will not be with him for the long haul anyway.

And, yes, z....since he is the "alpha male" all the others try to follow suit.

Don definitely has the Madonna/Whore thing going on where women are concerned. I think he loves Betty the ideal, but he doesn't want Betty the woman. That's why he also would rather have sex with near strangers, not his wife; she's the Madonna (with whom you don't have sex), they're Whores (with whom you do).

SC, your comment about Don's feeling inferior to Betty reminded of the scene where he got angry with her for telling Roger that the first boy she ever kissed was Jewish. This may have been discussed before I came on board, but do you think his irrational anger has to do with the fact that Don is hiding the fact that he's actually Jewish? There have been several comments about Jews that have made me think that. Don also seems very eager to let everyone know that he "won't hire Jews on his watch" etc, etc. I think he has so much self-hatred that he couldn't believe his wife/madonna would kiss a Jew.

Yes, Mambo, it has crossed my mind before about whether or not Don might be Jewish...my God, with all his secrets, one more would be no surprise at all. I am keeping an open mind as to that one.

Like Dry M. posted, just today, on a separate thread...MW is expert at tossing out those "red herrings"---little crumbs that make us say "Hmmmm...wonder if THAT "means" anything?"
He just loves to keep us all guessing.

That, to me, is one of the major charms of MM as a whole...the mental gymnastics one goes through watching even one episode.

.....He's not Jewish. Matt said so.

And "guessing" is putting mildly in terms of what Matt puts us through!