Mad Men Season Five Episode Three: The Return Of Betty, Recap & Spoilers
April 2, 2012 by Hollywoodite
Mad Men season five episode three Tea Leaves aired this Sunday, following episodes one and two airing in tandem last weekend.
WARNING: This post will probably also contain spoilers. Random thoughts on the episode in no particular order:
* The episode was directed by Jon Hamm, something of which you’re made aware as the opening credits roll.
* The season premiere was notably absent Betty Francis, with barely so much as a mention of the former Mrs Draper who’s since been replaced with what appears to be a social-climbing “actress” secretary. Episode three sees the return of Betty… all of her. “Fat Betty,” is January Jones wearing a fat suit and substantial facial prosthetics. Honestly, this is barely a spoiler for anyone who’s been paying attention because Jones was photographed wearing a fat suit back in October 2011 while filming this episode. Some are saying the fat suit was a cover for her real weight gain/ pregnancy, except Jones looked like this under the suit (anything Jones gained during pregnancy she’d lost before filming this episode, so the “fat” is all appendage).
* Betty is insecure because of the weight gain, and she no longer fits into the kinds of clothes she used to wear. If memory serves, Betty, as a character, was smaller when pregnant with all three children. Betty is hiding from social functions with her second husband; leaving him embarrassed by her absence, and her mother-in-law filling in the gap. Except her MIL is meddling, and talks Betty into seeing a doctor for weight loss help. The doctor insists on… doing his job… and notices a lump in Betty’s throat while checking for another reason for her malaise.
* So, as Don Draper phrases it while explaining to his second wife and to Roger Sterling, “Betty has cancer.” Well, she has a benign tumour on her thyroid that’s been partly responsible for her weight gain. Except, nearing the close of the episode, as her daughter tries not to become fat too, we see Betty remaining indulgent and unmotivated to lose the weight. Possibly because she’s isolated, even in her second marriage. Betty ran to Don for help, crying on the phone, in lieu of her own husband because Don remains her panacea.
* Everything else was secondary in the episode. Including the fake Rolling Stones being asked to shill Baked Beans and the Black secretary hired as a result of last week’s sardonic letter even though she’s not really welcome and her name rhymes with Don… Dawn.
