While Trudy went to visit family and friends in the country, Pete remained in town - a temporary bachelor. Don and Betty, on the other hand, had stayed together at home with the kids all summer, and were now taking advantage of one of Hilton's international meetings to spend a few days in Rome, just the two of them.
At the start of the episode, I was disposed to thinking highly of Pete. He and Hildy (Julie McNiven), his secretary, with whom he has never previously had a positive interaction, had a very pleasant chat as he told her to enjoy her weekend. Maybe he's stopped behaving like a (insert appropriate word here) for once, and his secretary was no longer treating him like one. Well that impression did not last long.
He was lonely, and after he helped a neighbouring nanny with a small problem, he expected what he wanted in return. She refused him at first, but he persisted. How many rapes went on in the 60s that no one admitted were rapes?
Betty was on the receiving end of such attention. She knew she was playing with fire when she asked Henry Francis (Christopher Stanley) to help out her women's group's cause, but she was so very unimpressed when he stopped acting the gentleman and went for what he wanted. Good thing she was able to drive away from the situation.
Then she and Don had the most romantic time together in Rome. They're love was in full blossom, so apparent. When I see Don and Betty together like that, I completely understand how their relationship began. They were happy. Truly and genuinely happy.
Of course, as soon as she got home, she was back to the Betty we've seen all season. Almost surly, she is as miserable as she was in season 1 but not nearly so concerned about showing it. Poor Don. He is very confused.
Trudy is also to be pitied. Pete felt extreme guilt over what he had done, though perhaps it was because he got called out for his behaviour by the father who had hired the nanny. She sensed something was really wrong, though he never actually said a word about it. And when he said that he no longer wanted her to go away without him...well, isn't that sweet. He can't be faithful to you when you two are apart. Guess that means you can't part.
With all the focus on these two marriages, my favourite scene had nothing to do with these couples (though I did adore the segment in Rome where Betty and Don pretended not to know each other at the restaurant). Betty, for once, was a proper mother to Sally (Kiernan Shipka). She gave her a very sweet lecture about the importance of every first kiss and how girls shouldn't kiss boys - they should let the boys kiss them.
What was your favourite part?
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