Barb - yes. I also keep waiting for Betty to have some sort of lightbulb moment and realize that she needs to figure out how to be herself before she can be happy but it just keeps not happening.

Barb - yes. I also keep waiting for Betty to have some sort of lightbulb moment and realize that she needs to figure out how to be herself before she can be happy but it just keeps not happening.

It's not even a lightbulb moment-- I'm waiting for her to completely and utterly lose it as well. She's like a beautiful vase with all these little fissures and hairline cracks and even a substantial one or two that she's managed to patch back together so she can continue to be useful, but she hasn't completely and utterly shattered yet. She hasn't hit that point of no return. Even Don's hit further bottom than she has, because she's always found a safety net. Let's face it, she would never have divorced Don had Henry not been right there. But now, she's at that point where to divorce a second man and remarry for a third time and she's not even in her mid-thirties, would really go against the grain for a woman of that era. She would either have to move away and completely start over, lying about her past (ironic, given Don's background) or she just has to figure out how to live with the situation she herself has created. And I think in living with the situation, she might completely break.

I hold out great hope for Dr. Edna to help her.

She has all the wherewithal to be a brilliant politician's wife, to find real meaning and purpose helping run all those fundraising campaigns and parties.

By our standards, Betty's options may be brutally limited, but she's still got options that could bring her real fulfillment, and she's not willing to go after them. No wonder I'm so frustrated by this character.

Betty's biggest problem is she doesn't know what she wants. She knows what she's supposed to want and she's twice tried to get it and twice wound up with it being supremely unsatisfying. The one thing she's had any control over has been her children and she's rapidly losing that and trying her damnedest to keep it through fear and intimidation which is already starting to lose some of its potency and is going to get that much worse when Megan becomes a more permanent fixture in the kids' lives. I know some people doubt if Don will make it to the altar, but he truly loves his kids and he loves who he can be with them when Megan's in the picture, so for that alone, I think he'll go through with marriage. It might wind up being his Achilles heel.

Rubicon did air this last episode on US tv, right? Then no need to spoilerfont.

Emily Nussbaum (who has criticized the portrayal of Betty) and Logan Hill hash out the finale.

They specifically address Weiner's post-finale comment.

E.N.: I read Weiner's remarks about her on Vulture and honestly, found them a bit disturbing! "We all had mothers like this?"

L.H.: I did not have a mother like that.

E.N.: Neither did I. The thing is, I don't take issue with the notion that being a suburban mother back then was stultifying or deforming. But Betty goes beyond that.

I hold out great hope for Dr. Edna to help her.

I don't. I kind of want her to completely lose it and bottom out. I want to see what happens when the public facade totally explodes.

But maybe I'm just a big meaniepants.

I think I was about Sally's age. My mother was extremely unhappy and bitter about being a suburban housewife. On top of that she was bitter about being Catholic and having no power over having 7 children.

But she was from the WWII generation and had gone to work and college and wanted a career, but instead she married my father and followed him all over the country trailing kids.

Me too. I think even dating back to when they first slept together. She knew she wasn't going to catch Don by putting any kind of relationship pressure on him, that it had to at least seem like it was all his decision. That being said, I'm not as convinced as everyone else seems to be that Don is making another bad decision.

I agree with all of this. I think Megan is really interesting -- smart and canny, without being outwardly ambitious, great with the kids and with Don, etc.

But I think she really does not know what she's getting. I think she has a fantasy of who Don is. I think Don has a fantasy of who Megan is. Worse he has a fantasy of who he is when he is with Megan. Of course, it makes for a more interesting show when main characters mostly make bad choices.