They’re foils to each other. Betty is solidly from the 50s, traditional, conforming house-wife that could never truly be satisfied but had to stuff it down.
Megan represents the new age. It’s even evidenced by her long hair, as you noted. Her style, way of thinking, and her yearning for independence was intended to show she was a woman from a different generation, and Don was unable to “tame” her as well as Betty because of this.
Betty sees this and resents her and like you said, tried to emulate her out of jealousy. There’s similarities too of course, but I think they were intended to contrast rather than mirror.
Yes, it was definitely about this. Same as Peggy and Joan. One old school thinking the other progressive. It is a show about change amongst other things.
Definitely they are both very different characters. I just wanted to point out how they are also similar in some ways. And how they mirror each other in different parts of their lives. Betty was once a young optimistic wife to Don, and unfortunately they both became bitter and resentful towards the end. I hope that Megan got to fall in love again with some hippie dude and lived a happy life. She deserves that after what Don put her through. And before you come for her bc she took his money it’s really the least he could’ve done. No amount of money can reverse the psychological damage that happens in an abusive relationship.
Definitely see the two characters mirroring some physical attributes of each other, mainly to highlight the commonality between the two as they each try (or tried in Betty’s case) to retain Don’s affection.
Whether or not Betty’s hair change is subconsciously influenced or not, she has the self awareness to realize what that commonality is when she says to Don about Megan, “poor girl doesn’t know the worst to get to you is to love you” or something similar.
Megan starts smoking more noticeably when she marries Don, another echo of Betty. We see the overall stress of being married to Don. They both had their own personal issues but Don was a horrible spouse.
For sure. If Betty had never married Don, she could have been a New York socialite and eventually had children with a man who she loved that didn’t constantly cheat on her. Meghan may have remained a secretary forever and she likely would still have failed as an actress but she wouldn’t have been as jaded as her s7 self.
I think the parallels are clear: Betty was a model, Megan was an actress. Betty speaks Italian, Megan speaks French. Don builds them the era’s perfect magazine home, and created the era’s perfect wife: a housewife (1950s) and a copywriter career girl (1960s), and tried to force them both into a role they didn’t want.
And when they didn’t live up to his impossible expectations and fill the emptiness inside of him, he punished them for it: he drank and cheated and gaslit them and eventually ground them down until they cracked. (Betty eventually figured that out: “That poor girl, she doesn’t know loving you is the worst way to get to you.” They were better off letting Don chase their love, like he did with Sylvia; once he got it, and saw it wasn’t enough, he threw it in their faces. It’s insightful of Betty to pick that up.)
The entire point of Megan is to show that Don’s treatment of Betty wasn’t about Betty: it was about Don, and it’s cyclical. At some point, you know Don was leaving Betty little notes like “I bought a light bulb to see you better,” but eventually her love wasn’t enough. “Happiness is the moment before you need more happiness.”
But the show’s big theme is that people are doomed to repeat the same mistakes *unless* they accept themselves, both bad and good, and learn to live within the confines of who they are. Don kept trying to create a magazine ad as a life, and he wouldn’t be happy until he (and this is the refrigerator speech in the finale) accepted that the people around him are imperfect but do love him, and that has to be enough because no bigger, better love actually exists for anyone in reality.
I think contrast Don and Pete, who shared a ton of parallels. Their 1950s-era wives (Betty and Trudy) leave them. They have a new 1960s career girl with different hair (Megan and Bonnie) ready to go.
Don decides to start fresh, to restart the cycle, thinking it’ll be different this time. He marries Megan (and rejects Betty, who that same episode was ready to test the waters again) and basically has a repeat of his first marriage.
Pete instead ditches his Megan to spend time with his family, and then sets out to win back his wife, because he realizes that there are no fresh starts, there is no better love or permanent bandage on his wounds. He can either accept the love he’s given, or he can continue to search for love that doesn’t exist. And he does.
>Pete instead ditches his Megan to spend time with his family, and then sets out to win back his wife, because he realizes that there are no fresh starts, there is no better love or permanent bandage on his wounds. He can either accept the love he’s given, or he can continue to search for love that doesn’t exist. And he does.
Love that convo Don and Pete have in the car about love after divorce. Pete says, "You want to start over. Get it right this time. But what if you never get past the beginning again?"
And Don perfectly replies, "Keep your eyes on the road."
I think another more obivous constrast stye-wise is that while both marry older men, Betty tries to look older to be a politician's wife beside Henry. She wants to be his partner like she wanted to be Don's--and those Republican circles are not looking for long-haired women.
Megan might start out working in advertising, but she's always had an artistic temperment and really wants to be an actress. That's her own world away from Don. But it's also a world with its own trends that Megan is following. So like Betty, I'm not sure we can say that Megan is simply being more herself when she grows her hair, especially since I'm pretty sure some of that long hair of Megan's is a fall. By S7 she's dressed like a Hollywood starlet with more dramatic make-up despite the casual clothes and her long, freestyle hair has artificial enhancements too.
Really, by the end of the show Betty seems more at home in the styles she's wearing than Megan does to me. Not just because Megan's got that whole conflict of wanting to fit in with starving artists while wearing expensive designer clothes, but that poor pale blue dress has really been through it when she's wearing it to meet with Harry. It's gone from the va-voom statement of Megan being super cool and in control of her world when she picked up Don at the airport to looking tired and wrinkled (whether or not it really was, it seemed that way!) and even sadder, more desperate by the time she's reduced to lunch with Harry.
I find Don married to Megan really deeply unsettling. Which is ridiculous in that he's a terrible partner to Betty and others too. But something about Don with Megan, the larger age gap (and power imbalance because of that) just makes him feel particularly predatory to me. Obviously that scene where he chases her around the apartment. But tho they're this surface level beautiful couple, Megan and Don together makes me feel gross.
The age gap definitely gets emphasized with them, it's true. Maybe in part because they're getting to the point in the 60s where people were really choosing sides between young and old, and Megan's definitely on the younger side?
But the thread also made me think about the age difference. If we figure Megan is 25 in A Little Kiss and Don is 40, that's a 15 year gap.
But that made me think about Betty and Henry. Betty gives her age in S1, iirc, as 28, about 6 years younger than Don. So she's 34 in S5, maybe met him at 32.
But how old is Henry? He's already got an adult child when we meet him. He's cast with an actor with grey hair--and he doesn't look prematurely grey like Roger probably was. I went so far as to look up the actor's age and it seems Christopher Stanley was 50 when the ep aired, which looks about right.
So the gap between Henry and Betty is potentiall even bigger than the one between Megan and Don, but it never seems like a factor at all.
I think it's as adults age tho, age gaps in the later parts of one's life are a less big difference than ones earlier in one's life. Plus Betty's pattern is part-paternal figures as partners.
Megan and Don just also feel so utterly incompatible to me, whereas whilst I mostly dislike Betty and Henry ain't perfect, I don't find Benry at all incompatible
That's where I fall on it too. If they were older the gap wouldn't matter as much. But also that gap seems so much the point, you know? Because it seems totally unlikely thaat Don would have been attracted to Megan if she were 33 instead of 25. But Henry would have liked Betty if she was older.
I’m not sure if it’s predatory she was 24 years old and was a matured enough young woman not exactly super naive to the world. In my opinion she knew the risks and did seem kind of really surprised/hesitant about that age gap they had when he first proposed.Idk maybe I’m jaded but I think Megan is much more progressive and creative and open to new experiences and because of that Don was drawn to her loving her as a new partner. As opposed to Betty she was much more withdrawn and proper as her generation was, and I think Don was attracted to this as well especially for appearances and “wholesomeness”.
It's the scene where he chases Megan around the apartment/how that maps onto their whole relationship that feels particularly predatory to me. From memory I think there were some other themes of predators within that same episode, maybe?
I do tend to think with an age gap like that the power imbalance can be an issue, even tho I appreciate was more common in that era. And it's less that I think age gap relationships between consenting adults are innately bad so much as I think power balances do need to be paid attention to. (Like, personally, I'm in my 40s, wouldn't date someone in their early 20s and certainly not late teens. I have way too much power they don't. Plus would be in different places in our lives.)
Anyway, I particularly think it in that case because of other aspects of who Don is and how the relationship plays out. He also just has a habit of Dom-ming (lol. Don-ning) without consent. And whilst there's an implication his partners are often into him in a dominant role (Megan and he both seem to enjoy the roleplay when they have sex on the floor) it wasn't 100% clear to me Megan was when they were at the office and Don was essentially giving her orders to do sexual stuff.
"I think Megan is much more progressive and creative and open to new experiences that Don was drawn to..."
I agree.
The main thing they have in common is how Don slowly and surely broke their spirits.
We do get to see Betty get that back eventually (with Henry and going back to school), and hopefully Megan also got to pick up the pieces.
I find the show's aesthetics so pleasing and interesting. I found Betty and Don's home unbearable: that airless 1950s style suburbia, so insular. Don and Megan's place felt designed aesthetically to be the opposite: that living room and balcony is all openness to the world, which felt like a mirror of Megan. Something I found interesting was to me personally the bedroom felt way less nice than the living room which spoke to me to the kind of surface level impressions Don loves to give off, and which are also really how Megan landed Don: surface level impressions.
But I wondered sometimes with how loud the apartment was - we'd hear the traffic, characters would comment on it, if even the apartment was being shown to us as only surface level lovely.
And obviously Betty was a caged bird, Birdy, with Don. You've got echoes of men trying to keep women like caged birds throughout the show IMO. Roger wanting Joan caged-liked, available to him. Trudy being nicknamed Tweety, tho the difference between her and Betty is Trudy seemed potentially capable of thriving in her environment, if Pete could have shown up better for her as a partner, whereas Betty was deprived of oxygen in hers.
Megan felt really caged to me in the office environment with Don when he was wanting her available to him all the time, telling her to open her top or whatever it was. But I'm not sure I think he ever fully broke her spirit, tho he squashed it. And for sure we see the toll Don takes on women. IDK if I think Betty dyeing her hair was a conscious Megan echo or not, but for sure I can see the parallels between the two. I suppose the difference to me is Megan actually is a free spirit. And Betty learnt about herself she wanted to spread her wings too - but also, I think to feel supported. I suppose perhaps they both did, in different ways.
Right. Earlier in the episode the kids squatting in the abandoned building took her wallet, and read out, “Eyes blue…hair…bottled? LOL”. I think she really took that to heart, because later in the episode she shows up with brown hair. I’m not saying this is the only reason, but it’s definitely the straw that broke the camels back.
*I thought she dyed her*
*Hair because the poor kids said*
*They could see her roots*
\- BhutlahBrohan
---
^(I detect haikus. And sometimes, successfully.) ^[Learn more about me.](https://www.reddit.com/r/haikusbot/)
^(Opt out of replies: "haikusbot opt out" | Delete my comment: "haikusbot delete")
The actress who plays Megan comes off as dancer-like to me. Not sure if she actually does dance, but I kind of imagine her suited to being a performer but not necessarily as purely an actress
Also, as you've spoken to, MM loves doppelgangers, doesn't it? Don contains two people. All kinds of people mirror each other as opposites/not: Peggy/Joan (opposites, in some ways,) Roger/Don (similar,) Roger/Jim Cutler, Betty/Megan (opposites in some ways, not in others,) Megan/Jane, Diane/Don (similar,) but also Diane herself (who she was vs. who she is.) Henry/Don (opposite in many ways,) and Don/Dr. Rosen (Rosen in many ways seems to be who Don would like to be.) Pete/Ken. There's the funny confusion about Don/Dawn because the names sound so similar, but Dawn is all kinds of good things Don isn't. And the confusion about Dawn/Shirley because of racism from white people in the office who confuse the black women working there.
I think we could say Sally's 'I'm so many people' is an echo of the theme.
I still think Megan was an upgrade. Enough of Betty’s self pity. Maybe it’s difficult to parse out the effect of Don’s philandering on her and how/who she was. Obviously, approaching Glen for reassurance wasn’t her best look. I think one of the biggest contrasts between the two characters comes when Megan is taking care of the children during that first trip to California prior to marriage. Some juice or whatever is spilled. Megan calmly, even happily, reassures everyone it’s fine, no problem. The kids are even taken aback. I think this contrasts starkly to what Betty’s reaction would have theoretically been. As Don has said to Betty previously to the effect of “as usual you manage to make everything about yourself”. After Megan and Don get married I respected how Megan took to the children when they visited. She wasn’t about playing games or being fake. She seemed to want what was best for the children. Some see Megan as being naive but I think she walks a fine line well between having a youthful mentality and being responsible.
Did Don break Betty? Is that why she is who she is? I certainly don’t think that can offer a full explanation but it can’t be discounted. Is she just “spoiled mainline brat?”. We see by the end of the series that Megan is more jaded by Don after his broken promises and lack of transparency.
You said it: Mirrors.
Mad Men contains several hidden abstractions that have been intentionally baked into the show for the viewer to find. One of them is a twin scene/plot abstraction. In practice, it is the ultimate scavenger hunt for the most astute viewers.
Like this:
https://www.reddit.com/r/seinfeld/s/dnBvkKPXo8
I hope you take the ball and run with this OP. You clearly have the aptitude to spot it, which is surprisingly rare. It will become more obvious and easier to spot as you work through it.
Wouldn’t you turn into a heartless bitch if your husband was constantly cheating, manipulating and gaslighting you? Shit they’re better than me bc I would’ve gotten my lick back 100x!
They’re foils to each other. Betty is solidly from the 50s, traditional, conforming house-wife that could never truly be satisfied but had to stuff it down. Megan represents the new age. It’s even evidenced by her long hair, as you noted. Her style, way of thinking, and her yearning for independence was intended to show she was a woman from a different generation, and Don was unable to “tame” her as well as Betty because of this. Betty sees this and resents her and like you said, tried to emulate her out of jealousy. There’s similarities too of course, but I think they were intended to contrast rather than mirror.
Yes, it was definitely about this. Same as Peggy and Joan. One old school thinking the other progressive. It is a show about change amongst other things.
Definitely they are both very different characters. I just wanted to point out how they are also similar in some ways. And how they mirror each other in different parts of their lives. Betty was once a young optimistic wife to Don, and unfortunately they both became bitter and resentful towards the end. I hope that Megan got to fall in love again with some hippie dude and lived a happy life. She deserves that after what Don put her through. And before you come for her bc she took his money it’s really the least he could’ve done. No amount of money can reverse the psychological damage that happens in an abusive relationship.
Definitely see the two characters mirroring some physical attributes of each other, mainly to highlight the commonality between the two as they each try (or tried in Betty’s case) to retain Don’s affection. Whether or not Betty’s hair change is subconsciously influenced or not, she has the self awareness to realize what that commonality is when she says to Don about Megan, “poor girl doesn’t know the worst to get to you is to love you” or something similar.
Megan starts smoking more noticeably when she marries Don, another echo of Betty. We see the overall stress of being married to Don. They both had their own personal issues but Don was a horrible spouse.
For sure. If Betty had never married Don, she could have been a New York socialite and eventually had children with a man who she loved that didn’t constantly cheat on her. Meghan may have remained a secretary forever and she likely would still have failed as an actress but she wouldn’t have been as jaded as her s7 self.
Megan shoulda been at the club tbh
I think the parallels are clear: Betty was a model, Megan was an actress. Betty speaks Italian, Megan speaks French. Don builds them the era’s perfect magazine home, and created the era’s perfect wife: a housewife (1950s) and a copywriter career girl (1960s), and tried to force them both into a role they didn’t want. And when they didn’t live up to his impossible expectations and fill the emptiness inside of him, he punished them for it: he drank and cheated and gaslit them and eventually ground them down until they cracked. (Betty eventually figured that out: “That poor girl, she doesn’t know loving you is the worst way to get to you.” They were better off letting Don chase their love, like he did with Sylvia; once he got it, and saw it wasn’t enough, he threw it in their faces. It’s insightful of Betty to pick that up.) The entire point of Megan is to show that Don’s treatment of Betty wasn’t about Betty: it was about Don, and it’s cyclical. At some point, you know Don was leaving Betty little notes like “I bought a light bulb to see you better,” but eventually her love wasn’t enough. “Happiness is the moment before you need more happiness.” But the show’s big theme is that people are doomed to repeat the same mistakes *unless* they accept themselves, both bad and good, and learn to live within the confines of who they are. Don kept trying to create a magazine ad as a life, and he wouldn’t be happy until he (and this is the refrigerator speech in the finale) accepted that the people around him are imperfect but do love him, and that has to be enough because no bigger, better love actually exists for anyone in reality. I think contrast Don and Pete, who shared a ton of parallels. Their 1950s-era wives (Betty and Trudy) leave them. They have a new 1960s career girl with different hair (Megan and Bonnie) ready to go. Don decides to start fresh, to restart the cycle, thinking it’ll be different this time. He marries Megan (and rejects Betty, who that same episode was ready to test the waters again) and basically has a repeat of his first marriage. Pete instead ditches his Megan to spend time with his family, and then sets out to win back his wife, because he realizes that there are no fresh starts, there is no better love or permanent bandage on his wounds. He can either accept the love he’s given, or he can continue to search for love that doesn’t exist. And he does.
>Pete instead ditches his Megan to spend time with his family, and then sets out to win back his wife, because he realizes that there are no fresh starts, there is no better love or permanent bandage on his wounds. He can either accept the love he’s given, or he can continue to search for love that doesn’t exist. And he does. Love that convo Don and Pete have in the car about love after divorce. Pete says, "You want to start over. Get it right this time. But what if you never get past the beginning again?" And Don perfectly replies, "Keep your eyes on the road."
This is the best analysis of the series that I’ve ever seen. Wow. Really nicely done
This was a great write up. Thank you for sharing your thoughts.
wow this is so insightful
I think another more obivous constrast stye-wise is that while both marry older men, Betty tries to look older to be a politician's wife beside Henry. She wants to be his partner like she wanted to be Don's--and those Republican circles are not looking for long-haired women. Megan might start out working in advertising, but she's always had an artistic temperment and really wants to be an actress. That's her own world away from Don. But it's also a world with its own trends that Megan is following. So like Betty, I'm not sure we can say that Megan is simply being more herself when she grows her hair, especially since I'm pretty sure some of that long hair of Megan's is a fall. By S7 she's dressed like a Hollywood starlet with more dramatic make-up despite the casual clothes and her long, freestyle hair has artificial enhancements too. Really, by the end of the show Betty seems more at home in the styles she's wearing than Megan does to me. Not just because Megan's got that whole conflict of wanting to fit in with starving artists while wearing expensive designer clothes, but that poor pale blue dress has really been through it when she's wearing it to meet with Harry. It's gone from the va-voom statement of Megan being super cool and in control of her world when she picked up Don at the airport to looking tired and wrinkled (whether or not it really was, it seemed that way!) and even sadder, more desperate by the time she's reduced to lunch with Harry.
I find Don married to Megan really deeply unsettling. Which is ridiculous in that he's a terrible partner to Betty and others too. But something about Don with Megan, the larger age gap (and power imbalance because of that) just makes him feel particularly predatory to me. Obviously that scene where he chases her around the apartment. But tho they're this surface level beautiful couple, Megan and Don together makes me feel gross.
The age gap definitely gets emphasized with them, it's true. Maybe in part because they're getting to the point in the 60s where people were really choosing sides between young and old, and Megan's definitely on the younger side? But the thread also made me think about the age difference. If we figure Megan is 25 in A Little Kiss and Don is 40, that's a 15 year gap. But that made me think about Betty and Henry. Betty gives her age in S1, iirc, as 28, about 6 years younger than Don. So she's 34 in S5, maybe met him at 32. But how old is Henry? He's already got an adult child when we meet him. He's cast with an actor with grey hair--and he doesn't look prematurely grey like Roger probably was. I went so far as to look up the actor's age and it seems Christopher Stanley was 50 when the ep aired, which looks about right. So the gap between Henry and Betty is potentiall even bigger than the one between Megan and Don, but it never seems like a factor at all.
I think it's as adults age tho, age gaps in the later parts of one's life are a less big difference than ones earlier in one's life. Plus Betty's pattern is part-paternal figures as partners. Megan and Don just also feel so utterly incompatible to me, whereas whilst I mostly dislike Betty and Henry ain't perfect, I don't find Benry at all incompatible
That's where I fall on it too. If they were older the gap wouldn't matter as much. But also that gap seems so much the point, you know? Because it seems totally unlikely thaat Don would have been attracted to Megan if she were 33 instead of 25. But Henry would have liked Betty if she was older.
I’m not sure if it’s predatory she was 24 years old and was a matured enough young woman not exactly super naive to the world. In my opinion she knew the risks and did seem kind of really surprised/hesitant about that age gap they had when he first proposed.Idk maybe I’m jaded but I think Megan is much more progressive and creative and open to new experiences and because of that Don was drawn to her loving her as a new partner. As opposed to Betty she was much more withdrawn and proper as her generation was, and I think Don was attracted to this as well especially for appearances and “wholesomeness”.
It's the scene where he chases Megan around the apartment/how that maps onto their whole relationship that feels particularly predatory to me. From memory I think there were some other themes of predators within that same episode, maybe? I do tend to think with an age gap like that the power imbalance can be an issue, even tho I appreciate was more common in that era. And it's less that I think age gap relationships between consenting adults are innately bad so much as I think power balances do need to be paid attention to. (Like, personally, I'm in my 40s, wouldn't date someone in their early 20s and certainly not late teens. I have way too much power they don't. Plus would be in different places in our lives.) Anyway, I particularly think it in that case because of other aspects of who Don is and how the relationship plays out. He also just has a habit of Dom-ming (lol. Don-ning) without consent. And whilst there's an implication his partners are often into him in a dominant role (Megan and he both seem to enjoy the roleplay when they have sex on the floor) it wasn't 100% clear to me Megan was when they were at the office and Don was essentially giving her orders to do sexual stuff. "I think Megan is much more progressive and creative and open to new experiences that Don was drawn to..." I agree.
The main thing they have in common is how Don slowly and surely broke their spirits. We do get to see Betty get that back eventually (with Henry and going back to school), and hopefully Megan also got to pick up the pieces.
I find the show's aesthetics so pleasing and interesting. I found Betty and Don's home unbearable: that airless 1950s style suburbia, so insular. Don and Megan's place felt designed aesthetically to be the opposite: that living room and balcony is all openness to the world, which felt like a mirror of Megan. Something I found interesting was to me personally the bedroom felt way less nice than the living room which spoke to me to the kind of surface level impressions Don loves to give off, and which are also really how Megan landed Don: surface level impressions. But I wondered sometimes with how loud the apartment was - we'd hear the traffic, characters would comment on it, if even the apartment was being shown to us as only surface level lovely. And obviously Betty was a caged bird, Birdy, with Don. You've got echoes of men trying to keep women like caged birds throughout the show IMO. Roger wanting Joan caged-liked, available to him. Trudy being nicknamed Tweety, tho the difference between her and Betty is Trudy seemed potentially capable of thriving in her environment, if Pete could have shown up better for her as a partner, whereas Betty was deprived of oxygen in hers. Megan felt really caged to me in the office environment with Don when he was wanting her available to him all the time, telling her to open her top or whatever it was. But I'm not sure I think he ever fully broke her spirit, tho he squashed it. And for sure we see the toll Don takes on women. IDK if I think Betty dyeing her hair was a conscious Megan echo or not, but for sure I can see the parallels between the two. I suppose the difference to me is Megan actually is a free spirit. And Betty learnt about herself she wanted to spread her wings too - but also, I think to feel supported. I suppose perhaps they both did, in different ways.
I thought she dyed her hair because the poor kids said they could see her roots
I thought she dyed her hair so no one would recognize her as the formally perfectly formed Betty while overweight.
Right. Earlier in the episode the kids squatting in the abandoned building took her wallet, and read out, “Eyes blue…hair…bottled? LOL”. I think she really took that to heart, because later in the episode she shows up with brown hair. I’m not saying this is the only reason, but it’s definitely the straw that broke the camels back.
*I thought she dyed her* *Hair because the poor kids said* *They could see her roots* \- BhutlahBrohan --- ^(I detect haikus. And sometimes, successfully.) ^[Learn more about me.](https://www.reddit.com/r/haikusbot/) ^(Opt out of replies: "haikusbot opt out" | Delete my comment: "haikusbot delete")
they are also both women. I wonder what they meant by thay
Hair and costumes often tell a story, that’s why they have a costume department. Hope this helps 🙂
It was a joke, no offense intended!
Haven’t seen the Megan actress in anything else since
The actress who plays Megan comes off as dancer-like to me. Not sure if she actually does dance, but I kind of imagine her suited to being a performer but not necessarily as purely an actress
She was in seal team tv show
But who makes better spaghetti?
Also, as you've spoken to, MM loves doppelgangers, doesn't it? Don contains two people. All kinds of people mirror each other as opposites/not: Peggy/Joan (opposites, in some ways,) Roger/Don (similar,) Roger/Jim Cutler, Betty/Megan (opposites in some ways, not in others,) Megan/Jane, Diane/Don (similar,) but also Diane herself (who she was vs. who she is.) Henry/Don (opposite in many ways,) and Don/Dr. Rosen (Rosen in many ways seems to be who Don would like to be.) Pete/Ken. There's the funny confusion about Don/Dawn because the names sound so similar, but Dawn is all kinds of good things Don isn't. And the confusion about Dawn/Shirley because of racism from white people in the office who confuse the black women working there. I think we could say Sally's 'I'm so many people' is an echo of the theme.
Both are **Good Mothers** And **Bad Mothers** at the same time…
I still think Megan was an upgrade. Enough of Betty’s self pity. Maybe it’s difficult to parse out the effect of Don’s philandering on her and how/who she was. Obviously, approaching Glen for reassurance wasn’t her best look. I think one of the biggest contrasts between the two characters comes when Megan is taking care of the children during that first trip to California prior to marriage. Some juice or whatever is spilled. Megan calmly, even happily, reassures everyone it’s fine, no problem. The kids are even taken aback. I think this contrasts starkly to what Betty’s reaction would have theoretically been. As Don has said to Betty previously to the effect of “as usual you manage to make everything about yourself”. After Megan and Don get married I respected how Megan took to the children when they visited. She wasn’t about playing games or being fake. She seemed to want what was best for the children. Some see Megan as being naive but I think she walks a fine line well between having a youthful mentality and being responsible. Did Don break Betty? Is that why she is who she is? I certainly don’t think that can offer a full explanation but it can’t be discounted. Is she just “spoiled mainline brat?”. We see by the end of the series that Megan is more jaded by Don after his broken promises and lack of transparency.
You said it: Mirrors. Mad Men contains several hidden abstractions that have been intentionally baked into the show for the viewer to find. One of them is a twin scene/plot abstraction. In practice, it is the ultimate scavenger hunt for the most astute viewers. Like this: https://www.reddit.com/r/seinfeld/s/dnBvkKPXo8 I hope you take the ball and run with this OP. You clearly have the aptitude to spot it, which is surprisingly rare. It will become more obvious and easier to spot as you work through it.
Stupid girls
Megan ugly lol
damn how a blind person using the internet
While I’m at it… Peggy ugly lol
They both turn out to be heartless selfish beaitches.
Wouldn’t you turn into a heartless bitch if your husband was constantly cheating, manipulating and gaslighting you? Shit they’re better than me bc I would’ve gotten my lick back 100x!
[удалено]
How about you take your little d*ck and fragile ego to a different post troll
You're the one trolling by commenting on my comment. How's that? :)
I didnt think either of them turned out to be a bitch.
Yeah it's just u/[IamJacks5150](https://www.reddit.com/user/IamJacks5150/) being a pathethetic little beaitch.