I've typed it before that Don is acting like Betty and Betty is acting like Don.

The teacher is a scheming nut job.She hates people who live a good live in the burbs. She lives over a garage. She's hateful and resentful, a sociopath who hides her real personality very well. Just the way she talks about the people who live there is enough to show me how envious she is.

Don will get his just desserts.

I've typed it before that Don is acting like Betty and Betty is acting like Don.

The teacher is a scheming nut job.She hates people who live a good life in the burbs. She lives over a garage. She's hateful and resentful; a sociopath who hides her real personality very well. Just the way she talks about the people who live there is enough to show me how envious she is.

Don will get his just desserts.

I agree with your last sentence, Loves MM.

LMM, absolutely. I never thought of that, that Don's and Betty's roles are switched this season, but you've hit the nail on the head, and given me something new to digest. It's perfectly put, and connects a lot of the dots for me.

Yeah, I'm with you LMM. I fear for Don. The teacher is nuts, and reminds me of Jennifer Jason Leigh's character in 'Single White Female'. I worry that Miss Farrell may see what a fiduciary catch she has in her net, and may try to blackmail Don, if he tries to pull away from her. God help us if Don falls in love with the bunny boiler!

Doesn't Don know that you just don't s**t in your own backyard?!

Like you said LMM, Don will get his, but I fear it will be too late.

Hi everyone!

In my humble opinion, I think Ms Farrell represents the yet to be born counter culture.
I wonder if she will be the one to help Don leave the world he's in, and start a new life with a new sense of values.

I think that's why in 1963 she seems to be nuts.

@60sChild: hmmmm....you think Miss Farrell will have Don living in the commune with Timothy Leary? That would be the perfect Dick Whitman escape!

monte - i have suggested on a previous post there may be an act of violence in don's future, but i don't think it will be murder. i speculated that he might discover betty's affair and beat henry to near death. after all, those letters could be damaging evidence if betts doesn't ditch them soon. however, don's behavior in the last episode seemed unusual even for him (blatant lie about the phone call, slowing down in the car to look for MF, engaging in an affair with someone in betty's world), seems to me he fit the description of "sociopathic nut job" more than miss farell.

i may be wrong, but i don't think don killed the real drapper, watching the scene, i perceived it to be an accidental death and don, being the opportunist he is, grabbed his shot at another life.

as for archibald whitman, jury is still out on that one. don had the motive fit for murder, but it is just wild speculation at this point.

60's child you make a great point. She is progressive in her thinking. (contrast Miss Farrells desire to play the "I Have A Dream" speech broadcast to her students to Betty's thoughts that the US must "not be ready for Civil Rights" The 60's counter culture was well underway by 63. By most accounts it can be traced back to the late 40's (When Jack Kerouac and Neal Cassidy were having the adventures that would become "On The Road" 1957) Perhaps Don and Miss Farrell will tune in turn on and drop out but I can't imagine Don giving it all up theres a strong touch of "old school man" in him regardless of how progressive.

From "The Apartment", Deny Deny Deny

My question is why is Don such a humorless prick?

@EMD: Funny, we all get so caught up in Don's power and good looks; plus he is the show's pro and antagonist, so we allow so many liberties, did I mention how good looking he is?, but you are right at least about the first part,. he does not ever seem to enjoy a joke, tell one or generally have fun, just fun.

I'm surprised a number of mothers haven't picked up on lil Miss Farrell, even vaguely. She seems to have an experienced low opinion of married men which tells me she's had more than a passing acquaintance with married men before Don. Given that she's pretty and young and how attuned those woman are to potential "trouble" I'm surprised there hasn't been an eyebrow or two raised in her direction already.

Who knows? Maybe she's got more than one going at a time and maybe some night on his way to "work" he sees an unfamiliar car in the driveway. Carleton? Another neighbor? That'd put him right off her.

"Deny, deny, deny" won't work for Don any more with Betty. She's ready to believe there's fire without any smoke (once bitten, twice shy.)

Miss Farrell is clearly not into teaching or she wouldn't risk losing her job over Don or any other father. Whether she's a forshadowing of the coming culture change or not, it's still 1963 with all its conventional expectations and Don is bound/constricted/heavily influenced by the mores of his own upbringing. He does love his children and in his own way Betty, or his ideal of what he thought Betty was,and will not throw that over as easily as Roger did Mona for a chippy.

Don's a split personality in many ways: he craves the respectable upper middle class life he wanted as a child and saw that others had, but there's a part of him that would say (and has said) "screw it" and take off for elsewhere if/when he feels threatened or suffocatingly stifled. His first instinct is to bolt. I can see him if threatened by Suzanne to gather Betty and the kids together and say "Guess what? We're moving to California!" Or the London office if PPL still owns SC at the time.

Don cannot have fun or let down his guard because his whole life is a lie. He can't take a chance that he'll slip up. The only time he can be himself is with "outliers". Or the one person he was truly in love with: Rachel. MF is an outlier.

Also he could be himself with Anna, since she knows him. Remember how happy and natural he was with her? He could laugh.

I agree that the school teacher could be big trouble. She seems to be very bitter about married men. Don treated her like a slut saying "I want you - I don't care- Doesn't that mean something to SOMEONE LIKE YOU." Someone like you sounds like a huge insult to me.

Don is really stressed out right now. The Hilton account turned out to be more than he bargained for yet he desperately wants Connie's approval. Then the Sal incident, which he turned on Sal for. Sal is now fired and Don just doesn't care. He tried to make it work with Betty in Rome, but she is still not over her knowledge of his cheating ways.

However, I don't think Don will ever willingly leave Betty. He makes sure every woman he sleeps with knows he's married and has no intention ot leaving his wife. He told Roger he was foolish for doing just that. And there have been times when Don has lovingly looked at Betty and times when he's tried to help her. I thought it was especially nice of him to take her father in to live with them not knowing he would die so suddenly and soon. How many husbands would do that without a fight? I believe Don does love Betty as much as he's capable of loving anyone.

If the school teacher goes berserk, I hope she doesn't hurt Betty or the kids. I think she is capable of ending the Draper's marriage by calling Betty and telling everything. Betty will walk out - that's the only way the Draper's marriage will end because Don will never leave her. Remember, we don't know how much money Betty is getting from her father's inheritance yet. If it's enough to support herself and the kids, start a business or whatever, she will kick him out again - this time for good.

Betty kick Don out permanently? Uh-uh. Well, not unless JJ wants to explore other roles. If Don isn't coming home/trying to get back home on a regular basis, they don't bother writing for Betty any more. Once a week visitation on a permanent basis isn't going to get Betty many more lines than Olive or Lois have. This series is centered on DD and the boys and girls of SC, not the home front.

I suspect we will find out how much Daddy Gene left her when they go back to Philly for Thanksgiving. Hint: A lot less than she wants which is why Daddy told her to get the fur coats before he died.

If Betty walks out, with or without the kids (probably back to Philly), Don will have the house in Osinning and Carla to keep it up. And who knows, maybe Miss Farrell, depending on how things fall out. We already know Sally really likes her and apparently vice versa. A permanent relationship with Miss Farrell could be... very interesting.

Wouldn't bet on that Ritt. MW has a thing for JJ.

Be mindful the Season 3 poster has Don sitting in a chair as the water around him creeps higher and higher. He definitely is in over his head.

I saw a video clip for next week's episode where Sally answers the phone at home. Our nut-case teacher will probably go out of control and Sally will be the one who realizes what her Dad is doing before her mother does. It may be via such a call (but, we know how MW likes to mislead and titilate our imaginations!) (Sad to say...that was the way my niece found out her Dad was fooling around with one of her elementary school administrators...)

I'm also less impressed by Don's approach to each woman he pursues. It was no 'accident' that he ran into Miss Farrell or coincidence. Carlton told him just where he could find her running alone in the "wee small hours." Have you noticed Don uses the same lines on each conquest? "Who are you?" "What do you want?" "Tell me you haven't thought of me every time you [fill in the blank].." If every one of these women knew they weren't unique in this regard, he would have a lot more problems that he currently has. He's being very careless taking up with a woman two blocks from home and parking that easily identifiable blue Cadillac right outside.

He's an alcoholic right along with his wife. Every nite he comes home he can't throw his hat in the corner fast enough to get to his glass and his bottle. He and Hilton throw them back and talk in circles about God, ambition, love, obsession, and loneliness. Don is being dragged by the hairy b_lls into the sunlight. Connie has probably dug up every bit of data on Don and is wise enough to hold his cards (like Burt) until it is to his advantage to play it. I feel he's just as crazy as Miss Farrell.

But, we all know it's coming....right?

Greytone: Miss Farrell is not dumb. She says to Don, "Why? Because I'm new and different? Or maybe I'm just the same." She's been down this road before (with married men). She's got Don pegged as a serial adulturer. I don't think she does think she's that unique in Don's eyes -- just another in a long line of notches on his belt.

She also says she knows "how it's going to end." So maybe she doesn't really have any long term expectations about their "future." On the other hand, she may become so emotionally involved that she does a "Fatal Attraction" number on the Draper family.

Last year I would have sworn that Don and Betty had to stay together for life. Now I'm not so sure. I did think that having them divorce would ruin the show. But I don't see how Betty could possibly put up with another affair flaunted in her face.

I can't tell yet whether Miss Farrell is a total nutjob or will turn out to be Don's true soul mate. I do think she's an example of the college-educated, free-thinking, liberal-minded woman who's a generation behind Betty.

I'm not sure Ms. Farrell is free-thinking and liberal minded as much as she is confused, conflicted and rebellious. Sleeping with a student's father is definitely not an activity that a serious teacher would engage in. So, I think Ms. Farrell is not a professional at all, but a lost girl trying to find her way. "Looking for love in all the wrong places."
She's not just betraying the school board with this fling with Don, but betraying Sally who loves and admires her, and I think that will be the real tragedy of this fling of Don's. I don't think Betty will ever know, and she won't leave him, but Sally will discover this and it will alter her relationship with her father forever. This will break his heart.

I am new to this, but am watching with keen eyes on the idealistic teacher. A year or so ago I would have agreed that a teacher might not want to jeapordize her job so - but it just might be in keeping with the time frame and be the "eve of destruction" for all... I agree with the writer that this season is a bit more harsh. I gave Don some leeway with his philandering because of his confused /sad past but more so because he always stepped up to the plate to help others out - ie visited Peggy in the hospital after she gave birth and gave her good advice - tried to steer the son of a client to impress his father in other ways other than the JaLai (sp?) extravaganza, etc. and even told Sal to keep it on the down lo - but here again what would he have said if the victim of the cigarette account bully was Peggy and not Sal?
One last thing - Joan is a star - woman of many talents - goes from great hostess to tying tournequets! Go Joan!

ritt1, Matt Weiner will never write JJ out of the show. He likes her too much. JJ could very well have a storyline of her own without Don. Since Don is cheating again, I don't see how they can stay together unless something drastic happens to open Don's eyes and compel him to change his evil ways. Who knows? Maybe that "something" will involve Anna and Dick Whitman. Maybe he will change and maybe, by the end of the series, Don and Betty will live happily ever after. Ha-Ha!

60schild, you make a very interesting point. I like it. It's completely a different take on Ms. Farrell, a much more complex look at her character, and I like it. I like layers, and Miss Farrell may have a layer I never considered....however, it was 1963, and forward thinking or not, there were harsher rules and a stronger code back then. My mom tells me that there was much more pressure to follow what was "done" and what "wasn't done". My mom and I discussed this debacle Don is placing himself in, with the teacher, and she finds it incredibly indiscreet of Don to play so close to home, and a giant no-no, that his daughter's teacher accepted an affair with Don. She tsk'd, tsk'd, tsk'd, and said it was "sooo indiscreet, and it just wasn't done!"

Something is unsettling about her...perhaps it's because she signals the progressive tsunami that was on it's way. But, it's more: there is something in her eyes that deeply unsettles me. Miss Farrell, in my opinion, is a sleeping giant of desperation and a longing to have what the young mothers around her have. She looks hungry, and not in a good way. I've seen actor friends of mine with that same look Ms. Farrell has, who have been struggling for years to live their dream of being an actor, only to taste the boot heel of rejection repeatedly.
I think Joan, to a very small degree, had the glimmers of this same look that Ms. Farrell is floundering in. It's an edge. Remember when Joanie had just the smatterings of this, in the first season, and the first half of the second season? Joanie then was awash in a contented glow, after Greg asked her to marry him. It's like Joan couldn't really relax until her future had been settled.
In my opinion, Ms. Farrell is unsettled and hungry for what the ladies around her have. Like Joan was, Ms. Farrell seems to have been passed around by the husbands, and still, I feel, she is holding out for her opportunity. But, the more she waits, the more frantic and unsettled she becomes. I can only imagine what it was like to be a single girl in her mid-20s back then, living over a garage, teaching in an upscale community, and watching the women around me have what I've been led to believe is the right direction to take for my life.
The frightening thing is, I think Ms. Farrell is about to hitch her dream to Don, who is now completely out of his depth, and has no idea what he's walked into and the kind of person Ms. Farrell is. Ms. Farrell has been 'on simmer' for years, and I fear her pot is about to boil over, and steamroll right over Don, Betty, and their family. I'm really frightened of what's to come for the Draper family, but to quote 'No Country For Old Men': "You can't stop what's comin'."

You read it here first. I predict:

July '65 time frame (next season presumably). The song at the end of the episode will be "Eve of Destruction" by Barry McGuire.

Stagekiss:
I agree Miss Farrell is hungry, just as Joan was hungry for something permanent in her life, a husband. An apartment over a garage is so now where it's at. Both are college grads (presumably) and "experienced" but neither have found "Mr. Right," even if Joan thinks she has. Miss Farrell challenges Don as no one since Rachel Menken has because she can already see the end of the relationship. As Roger said about life: "You don't know how it's going to end but it's going to be bad."

"You're in over your head!" as Roger warned in this episode. In viewing the AMC clip about the shooting of the Mad Men poster, apparently Jon was first up to his ankles, then knees, then chest... I bet it's also going to be part of a Don Draper dream sequence later in the season as he's oblivious to the water rising around him.

re: My thoughts on Betty leaving Don and therefore not being a regular on the series. As I said, that is if JJ wants to explore other roles (meaning different characters in movies, etc.) JJ's decision and MW can write her into episodes when she's available. If he wants. He has a limited time frame to film episodes.

Jogging in the early AM hours as it gets darker in fall may be hazardous to Ms. Suzanne....especially with all the drinking drivers and lack of street lights in the area....

Season 3 has sped by and like many posters, I want to see Joan and Sal around...they do spice things up!

I agree with a lot of you about Miss Farrell. She is a lost little girl and hungry for attention from a man. Remember she said she lost her father when she was eight years old. If she didn't have a father figure in her life she is desperately looking for someone to fill that void. when little girls don't have a good relationship with the father or don't have a father....they seek that male attention anywhere they can get it...whether it is with someone who is good to her or mostly end up picking the wrong types. And she is going about it all wrong! It sounds as if she is stuck in the same rut of the type of men she is attracted to. (Married men). This could all be because she wants that type of lifestyle, but it is just out of reach. She is on the outside looking in.

jeffe64- i think your comment about women hungry for attention because of daddy issues is a very broad generalization. i know a few girls that had absent fathers and are not at all like MF but rather well adjusted people in healthy relationships. just my 2cents.

auburn annie - many have posted that miss farell is trouble - even a bunny boiler! I too, agree she is trouble with a capital T. Just curious to why you think "mothers" haven't picked up this vibe or were you referring to me? If you were referring to me, i was simply pointing out don's erradic behavior, behavior that seems get worse as S3 progresses.

spelled erratic wrong - must preview next time :-(

@auburn: Sociopaths are charming and deceitful. No one suspects them. That is why this teacher can make her moves on married men and their wives don't know or even suspect.

Gail Klein, maybe Miss Farrell "knows how it's going to end" because, in the past, she has been the one to end it, one way or another. They could uncover several dead bodies buried in the backyard of the house where she's living in the garage apt.

JeanM, you above comment will be gone in a flash and rightly so.

@ Jean M why are your here...please be kind...........

I was always taught ...Beauty is skin deep, but ugly is to the bone...

Are you that ugly...please ...

We all just want to enjoy a nice conversation....

Wow, it looks like someone *cough Mean Jean* forgot to take their meds.

Sad little Mean Jean. Sad. Sad. Sad.

wouldnt it be great if Betty finds out of the affair and drives one night to find Don and she sees Ms. Farrell running down the street while Don lies in her bed exhausted from sex, and so Betty hits Ms. Farrell in her dad's black car. That would be amazing, I think Betty needs some blood on her hands, just like Don has his brother's hands, granted he didnt kill his brother, but his rejection and his cold words did. I could totally see Betty doing Ms. F. in.

but I dont think the writers will go with that. I agree with the poster above that it will be Sally who finds out, and instead of telling her mother, she will keep it to herself and be mean to Don, and hate him. When Don asks her whats wrong, all little Sally needs to do is show him her sad expressive eyes, and Don will know, and that will be the clincher. Sally will give Don an ultimatium, stay in misery here with me and bobby who love you, or leave with Ms. Farrell and I will hate you forever. Thats my theory on what will happen

Jean M. Far be it from me to try to censor anything but are such angry and hateful posts really necessary in this forum?

"Don't feed the trolls."
Ignore him and he will be gone.

Re: Miss Farrell - it's like watching Titanic. You want to TELL them to get on a lifeboat, and pronto.

It's like watching a Bugs Bunny cartoon and the piano is dangling over his head while he munches a carrot.

It's like the careening-down-the-stairs babybuggy scene in Potemkin.

It's time-honored SUSPENSE. I love it!

There are elements of Suzanne Farrell’s personality that are real. Unlike Betty she understands children, as shown the day they had the parent-teacher meeting about Sally’s behavior problem. She is independent of the power struggles in the business world. When he walked into her apartment for the first time he actually smiled and said “This is nice!” Like Don she has survived a poor background. She was orphaned when she was eight (Rachel’s mother died giving birth to her, and after that Don felt like they were soulmates). He WAS sleeping with his arm around her. There will be trouble, but I empathize with SF. Oh if only it would work out between them. But I want Don/Betty to work out too!

I am not quite sure why everyone seems convinced that the teacher is a total whack job. I wonder if it is merely that Wiener is leading viewers once again down a path but will pull a switcheroo like he did with Grandpa Gene who he killed off rather quickly. There were many who predicted over and over that Grandpa Gene was going to molest Sally or burn down the house but those things obviously never occurred. I think it would be too easy to have the teacher suddenly pull a Glen Close/Fatal Attraction type of move on Don or his family. Much too obvious. I don't think the teacher will turn out to be a total whack job. Lusty for Don, yes indeed, but not crazy.

Hi Figaro! Well, you definitely have a point... (and I will say that I've been on the "Bunny-Boiler" path -thinking she is "off" and big trouble).... Weiner is wonderful in many ways, not the least of which is mis-direction. Thanks for the reminder....

And even the way Farrell more or less assumed kids are all dummies: she made a comment that went "Oh, they don't understand the word anyway" when she was making that speech about "they're all alike with the philandering and fooking around."

Don is looking to get caught. And he probably will, too.

That teacher overstepped her professional and ethical boundaries when she drunk dialed Don – she had positively no business phoning a parent at home in regard to something not a school matter.

Figaro: Many people here see MM as a soap opera and make predictions akin to their experiences watching soaps. Nothing they predict ever happens. I'm not sure what I think of Suzanne yet... let's just wait and see.

madmensuze - don't they all overstep their professional boundaries on this show :-)

I think that the teacher represents the freedom and independence that Don craves. Remember the school event where he first saw the teacher? She was running around with the kids and smiling and Don was touching the grass with his hand, back and forth, and seeming to imagine himself joining in? And he was so intent on not signing a three year contract with the firm? He desperately wants to be accepted into society but at the same time resents it and feels suffocated by it. He both admires and despises the life he's made for himself. Betty represents societal acceptance and the teacher represents individuality. There is a clash coming. Don is trying to play in both worlds and he's going to find himself having to make a decision.

I was in high school in 63 and the counter culture was already underway. Everyone did not participate in the drugs and sex. The sixties brought us a start on civil rights but it still has a way to go. The freedoms were not all good and most of my friends that joined the counter culture werejust lost and rebellous not really looking for change in a good way. Remember many OD'ed and don't forget that this was the age that produced Manson and his cult followers. Teacher is more the bunny boiler cult follower than progressive the only change she is looking for is a rich husband to live like her students mothers. Nice lady? This is no Lady this is evil.

I most closely agree with KnowThyself. However, my take on what Ms. Farrell represents for Don is different. When Don was first watching Ms. Farrell dancing around a Maypole with her students, she represented to Don the "real" values he is missing in his life. He envies the beauty and joy she finds in life's simple pleasures such as the celebration of spring or a lunar eclipse. He sees that in his climb to success, that he has placed his emphasis on false values and his life has become complicated-he can't be "free" because he is confined by the demands of his career and upper-class life. Also, Ms. Farrell is the nurturing type and in her, Don finds a mother figure he never really had. Think about what he said about her dark curly hair and how nobody has that anymore and how he indulges in that date nut bread she made-you never see him love something he eats. She provides a "warmth" that Don is missing in life. I don't think she is a "nut job." I think she is tough with men because she does not want to be hurt and is independent. Finally, remember that Don made a comment to her about her being the only person he knows whose work truly makes the world a better place (or something like that).

What I find hard to understand is Don's attachment to Miss Farrell. Not because she's a "bad" character (she's not my favorite, but she certainly is attractive), but I don't think that the writers justified Don's and Miss Farrell's relation well or strongly enough. Why are they so into each other now? Frankly.. I'm not sure. Remember Rachel Menken from season 1? Well... in that case.. wow! that relation was not only "justified", but so well constructed throughout so many episodes! Don and Rachel had so many connections on so many levels, and when they finally spend the night together, well, it made sense! With Miss Farrell.. yes, I understand why Don at the end of last week's episode goes look for her, but the attachment of last night's episode...? no.. I don't buy it.

Also.. and that kind of bothered me... Miss Farrell's "troubled brother" in last night's episode reminded me too much of Brenda's brother Billy in Six Feet Under.... as you can tell, I'm not liking where the story is going....

As you recall, Pete Campbell was scolded by his neighbor for having a fling with their next door au pair ( a bit too close to home). Roger Sterling, also may have been a bit too close to home by leaving his wife for Don's secretary, losing the respect of virtually everyone around him. I imagine Don's fate will be a bit different, as it doesn't serve the show well to emasculate him in the same manner they have done with Roger or the cowardice Pete Campbell.
There are so many avenues that this can go up. My guess is that Miss Farrell does not really have a brother, as she was so intent for Don to be seen by someone who was introduced as her brother. Either way they will team up part Fatal Attraction, part economic extortion and Sally (not Betty), who was taught by grandpa to drive the Lincoln will finish her off by ditching and rolling before the car collides into the school teacher's apartment above the garage, on Nov. 22, 1963, while everyone else is glued to the television. So when Sally is asked, where were you when JFK was Shot, she can say that she was out for a drive.

I don't think Don's "into" Miss Farrell in the way he's letting on. Not that he's faking it. I think he's trying to prove to himself that he's a caring person, and since Betty is not receptive anymore (understandably), he's taking that behavior elsewhere. I think their (Don and Farrell) relationship is intentionally underdeveloped; the point is they don't really know each other - that's what makes their relationship hollow and a bit unsettling. While he's engaged in this sham, he's letting his guard down and will probably get screwed over by Farrell in some way. But I doubt he'll utterly collapse. His 'value' (business-wise) is pretty solid and that's the part of him (the exterior) that will keep getting ahead. The wrist slap from Roger was petty and the complaint from Hilton was more a reflection of Hilton's eccentric personality. All in all, I think Don will weather these storms and stay on top. Deception will win out.

I think Miss Farrell is a nurturing figure that Don thinks he needs. He has pushed his wife away and disrespected her at every turn that she doesn't even realize when he is trying to be kind to her. Don's misery is brought on by himself and his actions. He wants soacial acceptance but he also wants freedom. He wantshis family but he also wants to run away. But he jumped into the affair with Suzanne without thinking. This obviously isn't her first rodeo with a married man. I think she has done a few father in her day. But her drunk dialing Don't house is a preview of things to come. This woman is gouing to put Don in a difficult position.

I don't think Don would ever leave Betty, especially now that she knows some of his secrets. And I don't think Betty would leave Don either. I think Don loves Betty as much as he can love anyone really. But a part of him believes he doesn't deserve to be happy and so he is self destructive and his "misery" spills off into his family. Either way I have a sick feeling that Miss Farrell is going to be a liability he cannot afford. He'll fix it somehow because he always does but she is going to do some damage.