Yes they do, bless 'em.

::sets Tivo::

I checked out the Cleaner. I liked it, I will give it another shot. I'm not sure how they can keep it fresh, and I think that the storyline with the kids will get old quick. They really know how to tug at the heartstrings, though. When the little sister gave her brother money, I got a little verklempt .

And yet, there are documented cases in real life of that happening. You may not be happy with it, but it's not unrealistic.

Sure, but I could see random young woman #5 having this happen to her, but Peggy seemed to be a bit more with it than that. It is a character development issue, not that it doesn't factually happen. Peggy could have murdered Pete in the season finale and I think I would feel the exact same way.

I may have a different take on Peggy's pregnancy because of my gender, but I saw it as an extremely willful denial. Sure she knew, deep down, she was pregnant, like Betty knew for a long time that Don had mistresses, but some people have the ability to disbelieve reality with such intensity, that finding out they are actually pregnant can actually come as a shock. I've met people like that. Hell, I've represented people like that.

I saw it the way you did, Wolfram, and I thought the fact that she got the birth control pills at the beginning of the series could only add to that willful denial.

With the css flexibility we've given users, not everyone is using a white background anymore.

Sorry, Jon, I did not know that!

ETA: whitefont for questor as this post could give an idea of what has been whitefonted so far.

Sail, I'm the one to started the whitefont about the pregnancy.

quester (who needs a little spoiling, but not that kind)

But, thank you for that!

Really, I think we can all talk about it in the open now. I did miss a couple of episodes in the marathon, and I tried watching the first run a couple of times so I think I'm as up to date as I can be at this point!

sumi, I noticed Alejandro too! I kept going, there he is again!

The Cleaner is better than I was expecting. Not great, but it's something new.

...and I thought the fact that she got the birth control pills at the beginning of the series could only add to that willful denial.

I didn't even think of that, but it's consistent. So she's been taking these pills and either they didn't work or she didn't take them right, but she still believes that she can't possibly be pregnant - all obvious signs of pregnancy notwithstanding. People were certainly less informed about birth control back then.

she still believes that she can't possibly be pregnant - all obvious signs of pregnancy notwithstanding.

I think that this is it. Girls back then didn't realize the importance of things like taking it at the same time every day.

...and I thought the fact that she got the birth control pills at the beginning of the series could only add to that willful denial.

This was certainly how I saw it - and it* was set up from the first episode. I mean, now, you get this whole "start taking these on THIS day, and no later than THAT day, and back up with a barrier method for the rest of the cycle, and if you miss a pill, do this but if you miss two pills..." and on and on. With Peggy, it was "here's your magical script, don't be a whore."

* And I don't even think that the "it" here needs to be total ignorance that anything at all was going on -- just a route for her to deny, deny, deny.

And as the pregnancy advanced, she had more and more emotionally invested in sustaining that denial.

She was getting positive attention, praise, special assignments and scraps of privilege from the execs, and very badly didn't want to do anything that might jeopardize that (damn, "jeopardize" is a hard word to spell!). Her quasi-privileged position with the higher-ups completely isolated her from any of the women who might have been friends and confidantes, and, of course, despite her quasi-privilege, her femaleness nearly totally isolated her from the clubby world of the higher-ups.

And we got small hints that her mom wasn't thrilled to have her out there in the big city and wanted her safely home and married and domestic, adding yet another layer of "Everything in my universe depends on not admitting any weaknesses or screw-ups."

I don't find her very likable, but I still feel horrible for how utterly alone she is and how much she's having to fight her way through with no friends, no mentors, nobody really on her side but herself (and maybe, slightly, Don, but he seems more dog-dancing-on-its-hind-legs amused at her smarts than anything more seriously positive). And when that last plot twist hit, I found myself both personally repelled by it and nodding and saying, "Yeah, I can't believe it makes sense, but it completely does."