"MAD MEN: Wanted or Not - An 'Emancipated' Divorcee"
The article below was first written following the original airing of the final Season Three episode of AMC' "MAD MEN":
"MAD MEN: WANTED OR NOT - AN 'EMANCIPATED' DIVORCEE"
One of the events of THE Season Three finale of ”MAD MEN”, (3.13) “Shut the Door. Have a Seat”, turned out to be Betty Draper’s decision to file a divorce from the series’ main protagonist, Don Draper. Acting as Betty’s main supporter throughout this upheaval was her almost paramour Henry Francis.
Betty had first met the aide to New York’s Republican governor, Nelson Rockefeller, in the season's third episode, (3.03) “My Old Kentucky Home”. In the episode, Henry he had asked to touched her belly, while she was still pregnant with her third child, Eugene. Betty gave him permission and a silent spark of attraction ignited between the two. They met for the second time in (3.07) “Seven Twenty-Three”, when Betty was asked by her colleagues in her local Junior League to seek his help in preventing the installation of a huge water tank that will drain the scenic local reservoir and mar the landscape. Henry managed to briefly come to her aid in the following episode, (3.08) “Souvenirs”. By the ninth episode, (3.09) “Wee Small Hours”, the pair was ready to have an affair. Until Betty realized that she did not want to engage in a tawdry affair that involved sex in hotel rooms or behind the closed doors of Henry’s office. When they had met at the wedding reception for Roger Sterling’s daughter, Margaret, in (3.12) “The Grown Ups”; it was apparent that the two had remained attracted with one another.
When Betty finally decided to seek a divorce from Don in this season finale, many noticed that Henry was by her side when she visited a divorce lawyer and when she flew to Reno, Nevada for a divorce. The hostility toward Henry’s presence was strong among the fans. It was not long before assumptions about the relationship between Betty and Henry appeared on various blogs and message boards about ”MAD MEN”. Many fans insulted Henry with a variety of names. Others insulted Betty. Fans expressed belief that Henry would end up treating her as a trophy wife, just as Don had during the past decade. More importantly, many accused Betty of being nothing more than a spoiled Daddy’s girl who turned to Henry, because she needed a "father figure" to dictate her life. The fact that Henry had been seen at her side during a meeting with a divorce lawyer and during the flight to Reno seemed to be solid evidence to them. And Henry’s advice that Betty dismiss any divorce settlement from Don in order to keep him out her life was another piece of evidence in their eyes. But I wonder. Did any of these fans really knew what Betty wanted? Or were they merely expressing their disappointment that she had failed to follow a path that they had desired? Was their hostility based upon their disappointment that she had failed to become a single divorcee like Helen Bishop . . . or that she failed to reconcile with Don and try to repair their heavily damaged marriage?
I find it interesting that fans had heaped a great deal of disappointment and hostility upon Betty for failing to become the epitome of the new "independent" woman. No one had complained when Joan Hollway had married her doctor fiancé, Greg Harris, after he had raped her in (2.12) “The Mountain King”. Nor did they bash Joan’s character when she finally left Sterling Cooper to become only a wife in (3.06) “Guy Walks Into an Advertising Agency” The ironic thing is that Joan had expressed a desire for a life with kids and a husband in the suburbs ever since the series had begun. She had wanted to be a pampered housewife adored by her husband. Instead, she ended up with Greg Harris, who turned out to be a less than talented surgeon. Worse, he was incapable of kick starting a career in psychiatry after failing a job interview. Now, Joan is now forced to become a career woman, again. In (2.11) “The Gypsy and the Hobo”, Greg had decided to continue his career in surgery . . . as a U.S. Army officer. And there is a chance that he might end up in Vietnam. Although Joan expressed relief that she managed to find a permanent job again with the newly formed Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce Agency, I cannot help but wonder how she felt about her failure to become a suburban housewife of a successful careerist. Perhaps deep down, Joan had always wanted to remain a career woman. But she had allowed society to dictate her wants, just as Betty had.
And what about Betty? I believe it had seemed unrealistic to expect her to become the "liberated" woman so soon after her breakup with Don. Considering Betty’s upper class background and conformist personality, I never saw this happening this soon in the series. Certainly not by the end of Season Three. In the end, it took the Women's Movement, which began around the end of the 1960s for Betty to make the attempt to become that woman - another Betty Ford, an activist who also managed to have a lasting marriage with a Republican politician.
And if I must be honest, I believe there is nothing wrong with a woman wanting another man in one’s life. Many of the divorced or separated female characters on the show managed to move on with new men in their lives. Helen Bishop’s new paramour ended up creating resentment within her son, Glen. Mona Sterling, Roger's first wife, had already found someone new by (3.02) “Love Among the Ruins”. And the Season Two episode, (2.06) “Maidenform”, revealed that Duck Phillips’ ex-wife was about to remarry.
That Betty ended up hooking with Henry Francis did not seem all that surprising, considering their initial history in Season Three. Many fans had assumed Henry would prove to be another Don Draper who ends up treating her as a trophy wife. In some ways, Henry reminded me of Don. In other ways, he seemed a lot different. In the end, only Matt Weiner truly knew how this relationship will turn out.