Don would Never Not provide for Betty and the kids!
He has been seen to be very generous in the care of the widow of the real Don Draper.

Don is a highly functional/intelligent progeny of a very hard scrabble background devoid of love and nurturing. He has risen to this level of success completely on his own ingenuity while confronting his personal demons and containing his personal doubts.

Betty is his "Trophy Wife".
She represents to him everything that he wishes can be. She is a grad of an Ivy League college and has been a successful model but unfortunately, she has become a "Barbie" wife with blunted
emotional/intellectual systems at work.

This has evolved as a marriage of "oil and water" which has not been meeting the needs of each participant for a long time now.

I think that maybe emotionally, Betty Needs the Politician and Don Needs the Teacher.

Only time will tell.

I agree. Don would not leave his family penniless nor do I think he would try to take the children. But MW likes surprising people, who knows.

My take on Don is that he is a much better man than he thinks he. But he just never lets that nagging feeling of being a fraud (which he is) of being socially inferior, of being "a whore child", completely go. He always feels that beneath his expensive suit, he's wearing dirty underwear.

When I talk about Mad Men to a friend who is not a viewer, I have often said to her that the characters in this show are like real people in that one minute I love a character and in the next scene that same character does something that makes me despise them. That is most characteristic of Don, sometimes Pete and the others. I occasionally like Betty but more often it is just that I understand her but I just never warm to her.

I agree that I don't think Don would do that to Betty--but even if he was inclined to, it would make no sense for him to do so. Betty knows his big bad secret. If he does her wrong, she'll tell everyone.

In short, she has him over a barrel, not vice versa. Now whether she wants the kids or Don's money is another question. Remember what she said about Don "ruining" it all? The family, the home, the marriage? Maybe she wants to make a clean break of it and go off with Henry.

Knowing what she knows, she can screw him over. But given Henry's proposal, he can't do her any damage. She doesn't need the money. His only real threat to her is if she wants the kids and he threatens to take them. And that'd be hard for him to do if she sends him to jail for fraud.

@Pete: I couldn't have said that better myself. Don supports Anna. Given the flash-backs we've seen with her, Anna is not demanding that he do.

@bipolarbear: But Anna didn't break his heart. They had a friendship not a true marriage. I mean, I still agree that Don chivalry toward Anna speaks well of him and what he might do if Betty leaves, but I don't know that it's comparable.

@Thirteen: Good Point. I think about a Betty/Don divorce in practical terms. Say they divorce and he keeps the kids. He'd have to either re-marry immediately or hire a live-in nanny. I just wonder if the reality of being free to marry would really push him into the arms of SF. I think his attraction to her is based on the knowledge that it can't really go anywhere. Don probably doesn't see SF as "good enough" for the DD persona. What do you think?

@bi: I don't think the teacher is good enough for Don either. Don needs to stay single after Betty divorces him.

@ Polarbear> "I think his attraction to her is based on the knowledge that it can't really go anywhere. Don probably doesn't see SF as "good enough" for the DD persona. What do you think?"

It's a really good question. I think Don could marry Suzanne and be relatively happy, but would he ever get over Betty? The problem I see is that Betty embodies Don's treasured, all American dream. He'd have to change a lot to let her go and accept someone new as a wife rather than just a convenient step-mom for the kids.

Which brings up something I want to add. A lot of people are claiming that Betty is just Don's trophy wife. I'll grant there is some of that in their marriage, especially when he wants to show her off and urges her to get all dressed up for clients. He certainly does enjoy presenting her like a trophy. But the thing about real trophy wives is that they're easily replaced because their main purpose is to indicate that their husbands have lots of male mojo. This means that any sexy young thing will do (more or less). She hardly needs to be as refined, elegant, educated, etc. as Betty.

Betty is a hell-of-a-lot more than that to Don. She is the symbol of his achievements at work (she makes him look good to clients), of being part of the upper class (she is a WASP princess), of erasing his hillbilly past so successfully he won her hand in marriage (she never suspected the truth about him). Which is why (IMHO) she is irreplaceable.Don would have to re-think every dream he's ever had if he wanted to be honestly happy with a carrot-cake baking, civil-right's minded, barefoot dancing free-spirit like Suzanne.

Thirteen -
It may not be in Don's character to think deeply about what and how he would have to change to get Betty in love with him again. Frankly, I doubt she can or wants to. He has changed a lot in what we've seen about caring for the kids and surprisingly (in spite of his affair with SF) been caring for Betty.

Don's talking from experience when he tells Betty, "Things will look better in the morning," and "Everything's going to be okay." He's not ignoring the situation or what she's saying but he's taking the long view. Betty's all caught up in the moment. As Joan told Roger, "People are still dying. They're still having auto accidents and babies are getting born." Life goes on in spite of the national tragedy.

True, no one will ever replace Betty in his life. Can't be done. Not after eleven years and three kids. It would leave a huge gap if she divorces him. He'd regret everything he did wrong in the marriage for a long, long time. If she was killed in an auto accident, it would devastate him less.

But as Don has said, "It's your life. You have to move forward." And he would. Right now, outside of work, after Betty, and perhaps in spite of her, Miss Farrell is Don's support net. He could call on her about issues with Sally and even Bobby. She could be gradually integrated into their home life.

The barefoot-dancing, carrot cake-making school teacher can never bring the same trophy wife qualities Betty brings to every event. But Don's never going to put Suzanne on a Madonna pedestal like Betty's. He'd probably be happier with her because the were social "equals." Suzanne's well-educated (probably well beyond Betty's year(s) at Bryn Mawr) and the free-spirited type who can shrug off the "whore child" and alternate identity problems. Perhaps even talk them through with him, leaving him a better person.

How about this?
The rifle is the symbol of the death of the old order. Pete is out, Ken is in. Brits to sell SC and Don is running to Yoda Bert.
Don's LHO outfit, He assassinated his Camelot. He's now a patsy, Betty knows that he is a conspirator.
"What is going on?!"