That's an interesting question. It actually never occurred to me that Betty was going to bring up the tryst but rather break the news about the pregnancy. Can you imagine Don's reaction if he ever finds out about Betty's infidelity? Remember how mad he got about her letting in the air conditioner man? Whew!

Betty never intended to tell Don about the Don-clone Man at the Bar. As Double mentioned above, that is the one thing that would drive Don bonkers.

Only he wouldn't hit or shove her. He'd go cold. Ice-cold. Whether she was pregnant with his child or not, he'd be out of there and on his way back to the Land of Fruits and Nuts as soon as he could cash his portion of the partnership sale check. She's been married to him long enough to know that.

It's not chickening out. It's called survival. She knows now how he can disappear and that is on the bottom of her list of "Things I want in life." Especially when his paycheck stops coming. If Helen had it rough as a divorced mother of one, think how much worse it would be for someone like Betty. At least Helen's ex- wanted to get back together with her. Don wouldn't.

For the briefest moment I thought Betty was going to tell him about random guy. But then I realized that Betty had grown up A LOT while evaluating her marriage to Don. She liked having her own private, personal revenge. As mentioned above it was also about survival. She had no choice in telling him about the pregnancy but random guy, never. Look how he reacted in the yellow swimsuit scene. She still loves Don and what’s left to her fantasy lifestyle.

All valid observations, and I may be reading more into it than is there because I am desperate for the new season and watching Seasons 1&2 every night, but just watch her face. There is just that brief hint of power that she still has before she lets him back into her bed and accepts "the full Don Draper treatment." A woman in control of the situation as Betty has been, and who has already broken the pregnancy news to her husband twice, does not display that mixture of fear and triumph on her face before she hesitates, loudly clears her throat, then flatly declares,"I'm pregnant." She may be weighing the odds on the survival of her marriage or even her life if Don ever finds out, but powerful Betty in the riding habit definitely battled housewife Betty for a brief moment.

I've been trying to come up with a reason Betty would pick some guy up in a bar because it's so out of character for her, and it occurred to me that maybe she did it because she knew, due to her pregnancy, she and Don would have to get back together, and it would be her only fling with another man; plus it was a real dig at Don, even if only she knew about it, it would be her little secret. I'm sure Don is probably the only man she's ever slept with. I think she was starting to get comfortable with the idea of divorcing Don, but once she was pregnant, it was impossible. She could handle being a single mother of two, but a single PREGNANT woman was just too much for her. Plus, times were different then; in Betty's circles (in fact, most circles) single pregnant women were hidden away. This pregnancy ruined her plans.

Wouldn't it be a twist if Betty had picked up
a std and lost the baby as a result? I wonder if the physicians respected women's privacy enought at that time to "not tell her husband"

.....Watching that bar-then-lounge scene again, I think it was a whole "We're all gonna die, so what the hell" thing.

Instead of spending it with her husband and children, and taking care of this unborn baby, she hits the bar, drinks, smokes, boinks a stranger, then goes home and devours an unreheated chicken leg, straight from the fridge.....

(I've heard that is supposed to endanger a fetus. Pretty sure that is an old wives' tale, isn't it?)

I mean, throw in a little heroin and crack, and she pretty much covered it.

I was trying to figure out what she was thinking, as she stood at the storefront window, gazing wistfully at an outfit I couldn't picture her buying.

Was she examining her silhouette in anticipation of the pregnancy? Whatever she was thinking is what made her go down that road.

The guy in the bar was pretty cute, actually, but also married, if you notice the ring on his left hand.

Honestly, as horrible as her actions were, in terms of the pregnancy, it was really something to me that she decided to spend the evening - what could be one of her last - alone, without her family.

It's not an indication of Betty maturing, per se, but it did seem like she was finally wrapping herself around the whole "being in charge" thing that Helen Bishop talked about.

I mean, I'm pretty independent, but even I wanted to cry "Wee! wee! wee!" all the way home.

.....And also, Mambo, what you said.

New-found independence and courage can be dangerous, because the sparkling fresh will and energy are there, but not always the wisdom.

That usually comes after the regrettable mistakes.

Also, I kinda sorta agree with those who say she wouldn't tell Don about the fling. She is pretty bucolic, and tends to play her cards close to the chest.

I think she would do it if it suited a greater advantage or plan, or possibly in a hot rage, but otherwise, she doesn't give up much.

She is "Safety Girl....."

What did Don say in the pilot episode, that he was living like there was no tomorrow because there isn't one? Yet when it turned out there really might not be a tomorrow after all thanks to the missile crisis Don is with the kids and trying to get his wife back, while Betty is the one who is at a bar, drinking, having sex with someone else... living like there is no tomorrow. How the worm turns!

You said it, jane!

.....I just know he hasn't changed.

I know it.

.....Just one place Don Juan Draper hasn't been yet is the whole "I love you, no I love you, let's divorce our spouses and get married" type of thing.

And I don't mean a Jane/Roger thing, because that honestly strikes me more as a fling that won't last. He's delusional, she doesn't really love him, and I can't see how it can possibly have any longevity.

Don's affairs, with the exception of Rachel, haven't been exactly deep water.

The one I'm dreading is the one where Don Draper is truly, deeply in love with an amazing, fabulous woman of excellent character and repute, and he is agonizingly torn.

I see her as a Sela Ward type - head of her own company, beautiful, intelligent, classy and a lady.

Don's been in the "lavender haze," but he's never lost his heart to anyone.

What is the "lavender haze?" MM is the only time I've heard the term. I googled it and I got nothing. I'm assuming it is like the first flush of love? Or wearing rose colored glasses? Given how glowing and gushing Don was in the flashback, I'm going to guess that's what it is.

When you mentioned Sela Ward, Dry, I seem to recall someone posting about her ages ago and hoping she'd have dealings with Sterling Cooper....was that you? She is all you said, plus elegant....that would be cool if she did get on the show someway. Also, Jaclyn Smith would be another good possibility. I wonder why Don married a blonde when he so obviously goes for brunettes? Oh well...I think he did think he loved Betty when he proposed to her...but, I wonder, too if he's ever really been head over heels (truly-deeply-madly-love) maybe by the time he realized he loved Betty ~~ but wasn't "in love" with her ~~ he already had two kids and a mortgage and the whole bit going....

He sure acted like it (in love/lavender haze) when he was talking to Anna, didn't he? I wonder if that conversation was before or after he had knocked her up and they ended up "having" to get married? I know she mentioned that to Dr. Wayne once, didn't she? .... that she was pregnant when they married?

.....jane.....In The Mountain King there is a flashback to the upbeat, sunny, open and fey Dick Whitman / Donald Draper - the one we've never met.

He is visiting Anna Draper at Christmastime, a tradition which had apparently been going on for at least a few years, and describing his new love, Betty, to her.

Dick/Don waxes poetic for a bit, and Anna remarks that he is "in the lavender haze....." and he was.

SCfan, yes it was me, and for whatever reason, I just get the feeling she would have some amazing chemistry with Jon Hamm in that capacity.

And when I said a "Sela type," really I mean Sela herself. She is pretty inimitable.

She's a tad older than Jon but, if anything, I think that only enhances that equation, and I can completely see Donald Draper falling deeply in love with the character I've created in my mind for her.

Things were different then, I think.....and the writers like to portray that, which I love.

Like Midge, with her unbobbed nose.....and yet she is sexy as hell, and it matters not at all to Don Draper.

They called it "sex appeal," and "charisma," and it didn't come from a cosmetic surgeon's office.