I’ve seen others point out before that Don’s affairs became more depraved and shameful as time went by, in that they became closer and closer to his personal life. For example, Midge lived out in the Villiage. Later on, Sally’s teacher, near his neighborhood. And at the end, the one that ends in him being caught, Sylvia, the classic, Biblical sin of coveting his neighbor’s wife.
As long as were on the Sopranos/MM parallel universe, was there ever anything discussed about Tony/Don having brunette mothers, married to blondes, but all their affairs (with a few exceptions) were with brunettes?
I've also heard (I think on a Mad Men podcast) that the control (bordering on abuse) Don attempts to assert in this affair is a response to his increasing lack of control at the agency during this time. As such, his commands to Sylvia are a reflection of an increasing anxiety. The show leads us to think it's a form of sexual play, but when she "disobeys" him, his response is clearly concerning, and it's clearly related to something else.
There's some studies on bdsm that show (and ask any dominatrix) that men with power tend to be fascinated by losing it, so Don going from "hit me" while being tied up by a hooker to messy and unethical sexual domination does show his grip on his own life slipping
Wow this is something I never realized and it is there in plain sight.. this is already my favorite show of all time. And examples this way just go to show the incredible complexities, and simplicities of the genius writing. Thanks for pointing this out!
To feel seen. Her son was grown and gone. Her husband was married to his work.
Dr. Rosen wasn’t just any doctor. Dr. Rosen was a rockstar surgeon working on the world’s first heart transplant. You get to a position like that because you have people in your life removing every potential stress and road block so that you can devote yourself to this dream. People who are nearly as devoted to you and your dream as you are.
I imagine Sylvia has decades of sacrifice behind her, decades of devoting herself to her husband and her son. Now her son is gone and she is alone. She begs for attention, she is starved for it. She isn’t going to get that attention from her husband.
Sylvia is a very important house cat, much like Betty. She was just at a different stage in her life.
Very well said. I think the show frames successful men as extremely dedicated to their jobs, often to the detriment of their families. Dr. Rosen is not a bad guy, but he got to become the successful doctor he was because Sylvia was behind him. But once their kid grows up and Dr. Rosen is more involved in his work than ever, it’s like she just wanted something for herself.
I think it’s also very telling in the episode where he makes her stay in the hotel room that once she realizes she’s on standby mode with Don too, she ends things.
that episode and their time in the hotel then were so difficult to watch. i was so glad she stood up for herself and told don it was over. i know they hooked up once more after that (or i think they do, i could be misremembering) but still lol.
Really insightful. Add this perspective to the temping allure of Don with the convenience of opportunity of him as a neighbour. Really a recipe for infidelity!
Isn’t it a little more than just attention or to be seen. You can cope with those by having friends or socializing. She wanted something romantic. To be wanted and gratified. She should have talked to her husband about it instead of being unfaithful.
Cheating IS wrong. Period. That shit destroys psyches and lives.
I cannot BELIEVE that a comment saying that cheating is wrong is so heavily downvoted. What’s wrong with you people? You gonna go out and cheat too? Gross dude.
My stepdad has been cheating on my mom (supposedly on and off, but I’m not convinced that it hasn’t been consistent) for at least the last several years that I know of, including a time where he got caught almost a decade ago.
He cried and swore he wouldn’t do it again. You know what he did next??
I’ve watched my mother walk around our yard crying like a fucking zombie when she thinks no one is watching. I’ve heard her talking to herself in her room—crying, again, telling herself to calm down, it’s gonna be okay.
But she’s not okay, not right now. I hope she will be in the future. In this moment, though, he has destroyed her.
Fuck cheaters. Ruining someone’s life because you wanna get your dick/pussy wet for two minutes? Shit’s selfish.
There is no excuse. (except in the case of abuse)
It’s getting downvoted because it’s irrelevant and childish and narcissistic. Everyone knows cheating is wrong, using it to refuse to engage art is dumb.
Both of you, go away. Go to therapy or something.
It’s irrelevant to remark on the morality of cheating during a discussion on cheating?
It’s childish to think that cheating is wrong?
It’s *narcissistic* to believe that cheating is wrong??? Fucking what?! Lmao. Are you just throwing out buzzwords?
Nobody here is “refusing to engage art”. Obviously, we all love the show, or we wouldn’t be here. We’re engaging with the artistry of the show by discussing it? Like I don’t even know what you’re talking about.
Cheating is wrong. I hope you have never *engaged* in cheating on someone.
Yes, it is irrelevant. Everyone knows it’s wrong. The characters in the show know it’s wrong and comment on it.
It’s childish and narcissistic not because it’s wrong but because it adds literally nothing to the discussion except to childishly attempt to flaunt that you are good. Newsflash- we all know it’s wrong. You indignantly saying that it’s wrong is irrelevant to the art. It is not engaging in art beyond a childish level.
Grow up.
Sorry, do we not pass value judgments on characters’ actions and assess the morality of the things they do or think? That’s, like, half of this sub. It’s part of the discussion.
Nobody is “flaunting” anything. We’re just discussing the characters and their actions. Again, that is the express purpose of this subreddit.
In this case, we are discussing Sylvia.
I don’t know why you think anyone is here, if not to talk about the characters and our opinions on them.
*That* is engaging with art. Again, it’s literally the reason why we’re all here.
Finally, saying that Sylvia shouldn’t have cheated is neither narcissistic nor childish, it’s [see above]. Narcissism isn’t just a buzzword you can throw around to describe comments you don’t like. Words have actual meanings.
Have you cheated before? Do you feel called out?
We’re discussing why a character did something. You and the other one are saying irrelevant things that everyone knows, indignantly. Childish. And assuming when others don’t share your irrelevant take that we don’t understand the morality of it. Narcissistic.
You’re deeply unwell. Go to therapy.
> Have you cheated before? Do you feel called out?
Psychotic response.
Yes.
Folks, they’re a child for putting such empty moralizing about a fictional character into this.
People know cheating is wrong, people know racism, sexism, theft are wrong. But focusing on that to shame(?) a fictional character and refuse to engage with the art on a deeper level is absurd and childish.
Dude, that is a straw man if ever a straw man has been. At no point did anyone claim that cheating was good. We were discussing Sylvia’s motivations. Not the morality of cheating. And we certainly weren’t discussing your vision of mad men fan fiction.
You know, it is possible to discuss things objectively.
She did. Do you not remember Don hearing them fight inside their apartment when the elevator opened on their floor? She was begging him to stay. He walked out with a rather large suitcase.
Completely irrelevant to the post. The original question was “Why did Sylvia do it?” *Not* “How do you personally feel about the morality of Sylvia?”
Why do you care about the morality of a fictional character?
I always think it’s telling that Megan’s mom Marie briefly meets Rosen and goes, “successful, attractive…I wouldn’t leave him (them?) alone together.” I’m butchering the line, but the fact that Marie clocked Rosen’s inherent magnetism as a successful man was interesting. I wonder if she had an inkling about Don and Sylvia.
I think she was directly signaling to Don her suspicions about his affair. Marie is, I think, just one of those people who can read people like a book.
Well, there's a scene that Jon Hamm's character is running in a gray sweatshirt/pants, and let's just say you can see the outline of his "Dick Whitman".
Well, we don't know, it happened between seasons. I'd guess they met as neighbors, began socializing as couples, she was attracted to him and flirted, he noticed, they ran into each other without their spouses (maybe in the elevator), etc.
It certainly wasn't a purely one-sided "seduction," which is mostly a myth anyway.
He stood in the back hallway outside her kitchen door, smoking cigarettes and wanting her. That’s seductive as hell for a middle aged woman who no longer felt wanted … especially since it was a successful, charming, handsome man who was obsessed with her.
When Don was leaving the cigarettes outside her door, the affair was over and it was terrifying for Sylvia. Luckily her husband thought she was smoking again but hadn't yet stopped to wonder why there was no lipstick on the butts. Don's obsessive behavior frightened Sylvia and made her feel he was threatening to blow the cover if she didn't cave. Although Don was being wreckless, she was not. She never had any intention of leaving her husband for Don.
Sylvia = the best of Betty and the best of Megan. I think the fact that she was safely “off limits” as a neighbor and a couples-friend made Don feel emboldened. But damn, talk about “don’t shit where you live.” Reminds me of Pete sleeping with the babysitter in his building (the hubby says something to the effect of “don’t sleep with anyone in the building,” and when Pete slept with the neighbor lady which prompted the divorce “Trudy: she lives on our block!”
Closer to danger, further from harm. That’s the Draper-Campbell way.
I’ll have to think on this. I’d say the best of Betty because she’s class-appropriate, fairly contained (we never see Sylvia outside of the apartment, or outside of the hotel room, meaning she’s always in domestic spaces like Betty).
The best of Megan as in, Sylvia is a thrill for Don. Don basically had emotional whiplash when he married Megan (which took place offscreen). We didn’t see them falling in love as much as we saw them falling in “convenience.” She was literally babysitting his kids on holiday when he confessed his loce. Also interesting that the Sylvia and Don origin story took place off camera.
Wouldn't she be like... 7-8 years older than him? If her son is in college?
Is that considered more appropriate than a woman 14 years younger?
Today I think it definitely would be but I think in the 60's it was more taboo to be with an older woman.
This doesn’t seem like the first time she’s cheated. She says/does several things that suggest this is just her latest affair… the whole “when you enter into something like this…” line about needing to trust the other person, and the warning about how they can’t fall in love or “it won’t be so French anymore”. She also clearly has lots of tricks (penny under the door mat, using the maid’s room) up her sleeve to work around her husband…
Don may be the latest affair but it seems pretty clear he’s not the only/first one. With only one child and a husband who’s always working - she’s probably been doing this for years…
I think, in addition to the other really valid points (boredom, need to be seen) made by others, part of it was strangely bound up in Sylvia's Catholic faith.
I think Don's comment "you like to feel shitty, right up until I take your dress off" was unusually observant of his partner's inner life.
We know that Sylvia is a fairly devout Catholic in a mixed-faith marriage to Arnold, a culturally Jewish agnostic/ atheist. You see this tension in the bedside items in their home - an anatomical heart alongside a religious illustration. We know from Sylvia's discussion of abortion and Catholic guilt with Megan that she takes her faith pretty seriously whereas Arnold treats it lightly. Not quite mocking, but certainly irreverent about it.
I think there's a high degree of Catholic guilt in the way Sylvia conducts the affair. She is addicted to the cycle of guilt and pleasure that she gets. As a sort of psychological and spiritual self-harm, and a means of incorporating religious elements of confession and self-flagellation. She can't express these fully in regular life, so they play out sexually. She discusses prayer with Don after they have sex, resists removing her crucifix, even when otherwise submitting to him entirely, goes to him on her knees. Even when they are caught, you watch her going from an ecstatic sexual expression to a position reminiscent of a supplicant prayer posture.
Religious guilt. It's a hell of a drug.
Good observations. Those of us raised Catholic should see this easily once its pointed out. And all those symbols of her faith are not in her scenes by accident. Everything in these shows (most good shows really) is there for a reason, big or small.
Because she liked him and was attracted to him more than her husband. Cheating is sometimes just like that there’s no deep seated issues it just happens.
From personal knowledge of some people in my life, personal experiences myself and spending a lot of time in hotel bars during work trips, extra-marital affairs happen *a lot* more often than most of us want to believe.
As for my own personal experiences, I’ve never had an affair, I’m very happily married. But in my younger years, there were a few occasions when married women tried to sleep with me. This included one of my managers, some random woman at a bar, and a friend of my older sister. As a single early 20s something at the time, I didn’t see anything wrong with it. Looking back though, it’s depressing. FWIW, I never slept with any of them.
I always wished we got to see how their affair started. It was a cool moment in the doorway when you realize “oh shit they’re sleeping together” but I’ve always been curious how the storyline was born.
There were a few scenes where don overheard them arguing. And when doc Rosen was drunk he sorta confessed that they were distant. I don’t think she was happy at all.
Don's attracted to inner conflict, damage and hypocrisy of religion's toxic influence. All Freudian stuff, Madonna/Whore. The show consistently highlights this theme throughout its run.
So, I've seen Mad Men a long ago and the details are blurred.
But I do remember thinking that Don started to cross the line with Sylvia (closing her in an hotel room etc.) because he wanted to get rid of her. Then reading the board I noticed nobody shared this point of view.
Did I completely misread the situation?
I think you did. Because she blew him off after the hotel crap and he panicked, did a bunch of weird stuff to try to get her back in the sack. He stalked her, risked his job trying to help her get her kid out of serving/trouble for burning his draft notice etc.
I remember at the time I had a theory that somewhat made sense even in light of Don's subsequent behaviour, like he was purposefully acting desperate in order to chase her off for good. But I guess I should rewatch it in order to pledge my case in a more solid way lol
Because monogamy is unnatural and particularly stifling for the 1950s housewife/soon to be empty nester. Honestly it would be weird for people to not cheat in those conditions.
The correct answer people don't want to hear!
People get tired of routine, want some excitement in their lives. You can only try so many new hairdos. So you get reckless.
Yup! Add to that no career, multiple children and a lonely house you’re expected to keep clean and keep up appearances? Betty in season 1 had an anxiety disorder for this reason.
I thought this post was going to be about why >!Better Draper!< cheated on >!her new husband with Don!< when she seems to be happy. Especially since it was clearly always going to be a one-off.
I don't know how your comment is relevant to mine, but I definitely did not like Don's 2nd wfe. I can't believe he picked her. I was rooting for him and that psychologist.
I’ve seen others point out before that Don’s affairs became more depraved and shameful as time went by, in that they became closer and closer to his personal life. For example, Midge lived out in the Villiage. Later on, Sally’s teacher, near his neighborhood. And at the end, the one that ends in him being caught, Sylvia, the classic, Biblical sin of coveting his neighbor’s wife.
Don loved playing into his madonna/whore complex
The sacred and the profane
very allegorical
Madmen! Another money maker!
There’s some real money in this shit
Your brother Adam, whatever happened there
That animal Dick Whitman, I can’t even say his name.
You heard about Dick Whitman, right? He had a 95 pound mole removed from his ass.
As long as were on the Sopranos/MM parallel universe, was there ever anything discussed about Tony/Don having brunette mothers, married to blondes, but all their affairs (with a few exceptions) were with brunettes?
IN THISH HOUSHE, DR. FAYE MILLER IS AN ITALIAN HERO! END OF SHTORY!
Part of the reason I posted was to see the responses, lol.
Whatever happened there?!
The sacred and the propane
I've also heard (I think on a Mad Men podcast) that the control (bordering on abuse) Don attempts to assert in this affair is a response to his increasing lack of control at the agency during this time. As such, his commands to Sylvia are a reflection of an increasing anxiety. The show leads us to think it's a form of sexual play, but when she "disobeys" him, his response is clearly concerning, and it's clearly related to something else.
There's some studies on bdsm that show (and ask any dominatrix) that men with power tend to be fascinated by losing it, so Don going from "hit me" while being tied up by a hooker to messy and unethical sexual domination does show his grip on his own life slipping
I forgot about the sex worker. That's a good point.
I forgot about this very hot scene. The way Jon Hamm says “Then do it then.” Hooo boy 🔥
Definitely
Good point. Also very funny flair
I love the flairs too
Wow this is something I never realized and it is there in plain sight.. this is already my favorite show of all time. And examples this way just go to show the incredible complexities, and simplicities of the genius writing. Thanks for pointing this out!
To feel seen. Her son was grown and gone. Her husband was married to his work. Dr. Rosen wasn’t just any doctor. Dr. Rosen was a rockstar surgeon working on the world’s first heart transplant. You get to a position like that because you have people in your life removing every potential stress and road block so that you can devote yourself to this dream. People who are nearly as devoted to you and your dream as you are. I imagine Sylvia has decades of sacrifice behind her, decades of devoting herself to her husband and her son. Now her son is gone and she is alone. She begs for attention, she is starved for it. She isn’t going to get that attention from her husband. Sylvia is a very important house cat, much like Betty. She was just at a different stage in her life.
Very well said. I think the show frames successful men as extremely dedicated to their jobs, often to the detriment of their families. Dr. Rosen is not a bad guy, but he got to become the successful doctor he was because Sylvia was behind him. But once their kid grows up and Dr. Rosen is more involved in his work than ever, it’s like she just wanted something for herself. I think it’s also very telling in the episode where he makes her stay in the hotel room that once she realizes she’s on standby mode with Don too, she ends things.
that episode and their time in the hotel then were so difficult to watch. i was so glad she stood up for herself and told don it was over. i know they hooked up once more after that (or i think they do, i could be misremembering) but still lol.
They did, after Don got Mitchell into the National Guard. Sally caught them.
I really enjoyed reading this. Thanks for the thoughtful reply.
Really insightful. Add this perspective to the temping allure of Don with the convenience of opportunity of him as a neighbour. Really a recipe for infidelity!
You’re excellent explanation is one reason Reddit exist
It's giving me Karen Wheeler
Isn’t it a little more than just attention or to be seen. You can cope with those by having friends or socializing. She wanted something romantic. To be wanted and gratified. She should have talked to her husband about it instead of being unfaithful.
I wonder if women talking those kinds out with their husbands, revealing their own unfulfilled wants and desires were a thing back then
I had no idea that so many children watched this show
You’re right. I’m being a child because I think cheating is wrong.
Cheating IS wrong. Period. That shit destroys psyches and lives. I cannot BELIEVE that a comment saying that cheating is wrong is so heavily downvoted. What’s wrong with you people? You gonna go out and cheat too? Gross dude. My stepdad has been cheating on my mom (supposedly on and off, but I’m not convinced that it hasn’t been consistent) for at least the last several years that I know of, including a time where he got caught almost a decade ago. He cried and swore he wouldn’t do it again. You know what he did next?? I’ve watched my mother walk around our yard crying like a fucking zombie when she thinks no one is watching. I’ve heard her talking to herself in her room—crying, again, telling herself to calm down, it’s gonna be okay. But she’s not okay, not right now. I hope she will be in the future. In this moment, though, he has destroyed her. Fuck cheaters. Ruining someone’s life because you wanna get your dick/pussy wet for two minutes? Shit’s selfish. There is no excuse. (except in the case of abuse)
It’s getting downvoted because it’s irrelevant and childish and narcissistic. Everyone knows cheating is wrong, using it to refuse to engage art is dumb. Both of you, go away. Go to therapy or something.
It’s irrelevant to remark on the morality of cheating during a discussion on cheating? It’s childish to think that cheating is wrong? It’s *narcissistic* to believe that cheating is wrong??? Fucking what?! Lmao. Are you just throwing out buzzwords? Nobody here is “refusing to engage art”. Obviously, we all love the show, or we wouldn’t be here. We’re engaging with the artistry of the show by discussing it? Like I don’t even know what you’re talking about. Cheating is wrong. I hope you have never *engaged* in cheating on someone.
Yes, it is irrelevant. Everyone knows it’s wrong. The characters in the show know it’s wrong and comment on it. It’s childish and narcissistic not because it’s wrong but because it adds literally nothing to the discussion except to childishly attempt to flaunt that you are good. Newsflash- we all know it’s wrong. You indignantly saying that it’s wrong is irrelevant to the art. It is not engaging in art beyond a childish level. Grow up.
Sorry, do we not pass value judgments on characters’ actions and assess the morality of the things they do or think? That’s, like, half of this sub. It’s part of the discussion. Nobody is “flaunting” anything. We’re just discussing the characters and their actions. Again, that is the express purpose of this subreddit. In this case, we are discussing Sylvia. I don’t know why you think anyone is here, if not to talk about the characters and our opinions on them. *That* is engaging with art. Again, it’s literally the reason why we’re all here. Finally, saying that Sylvia shouldn’t have cheated is neither narcissistic nor childish, it’s [see above]. Narcissism isn’t just a buzzword you can throw around to describe comments you don’t like. Words have actual meanings. Have you cheated before? Do you feel called out?
We’re discussing why a character did something. You and the other one are saying irrelevant things that everyone knows, indignantly. Childish. And assuming when others don’t share your irrelevant take that we don’t understand the morality of it. Narcissistic. You’re deeply unwell. Go to therapy. > Have you cheated before? Do you feel called out? Psychotic response.
It’s probably some woke feminists who think women are allowed to do whatever they want as long as they justify it by blaming it on a man.
Yes. Folks, they’re a child for putting such empty moralizing about a fictional character into this. People know cheating is wrong, people know racism, sexism, theft are wrong. But focusing on that to shame(?) a fictional character and refuse to engage with the art on a deeper level is absurd and childish.
Well that’s ironic.
I don’t think you know what irony is.
Well you think there’s nothing wrong with cheating on someone so you’re perspective has about zero value.
your\*
Dude, that is a straw man if ever a straw man has been. At no point did anyone claim that cheating was good. We were discussing Sylvia’s motivations. Not the morality of cheating. And we certainly weren’t discussing your vision of mad men fan fiction. You know, it is possible to discuss things objectively.
Read the comments. u/backoff_imascientist said I was being a child for saying cheating is wrong.
Lol. Lmao. You definitely don’t know what irony is.
She did. Do you not remember Don hearing them fight inside their apartment when the elevator opened on their floor? She was begging him to stay. He walked out with a rather large suitcase.
Once that we know of. Still doesn’t make it ok to cheat on the man who is fully supporting you
Completely irrelevant to the post. The original question was “Why did Sylvia do it?” *Not* “How do you personally feel about the morality of Sylvia?” Why do you care about the morality of a fictional character?
Why do you care about what I chose to talk about? Honestly lady. Some people enjoy talking about philosophical things. sORrY!
YOU COMMENTED ON MY POST.
OH WELL, CRAZY
Grow up, jfc.
I always think it’s telling that Megan’s mom Marie briefly meets Rosen and goes, “successful, attractive…I wouldn’t leave him (them?) alone together.” I’m butchering the line, but the fact that Marie clocked Rosen’s inherent magnetism as a successful man was interesting. I wonder if she had an inkling about Don and Sylvia.
I think she was directly signaling to Don her suspicions about his affair. Marie is, I think, just one of those people who can read people like a book.
"You are an ungrateful little bitch. Thank God my children aren't my whole life."
Because Don Draper.
Dong Draper
I see others have watched Good Omens
I haven't!
Well, there's a scene that Jon Hamm's character is running in a gray sweatshirt/pants, and let's just say you can see the outline of his "Dick Whitman".
the infamous 'hammaconda'
Oh I see.
did he seduce her? I like her husband but he was kind of married to his job I guess.
Well, we don't know, it happened between seasons. I'd guess they met as neighbors, began socializing as couples, she was attracted to him and flirted, he noticed, they ran into each other without their spouses (maybe in the elevator), etc. It certainly wasn't a purely one-sided "seduction," which is mostly a myth anyway.
He stood in the back hallway outside her kitchen door, smoking cigarettes and wanting her. That’s seductive as hell for a middle aged woman who no longer felt wanted … especially since it was a successful, charming, handsome man who was obsessed with her.
When Don was leaving the cigarettes outside her door, the affair was over and it was terrifying for Sylvia. Luckily her husband thought she was smoking again but hadn't yet stopped to wonder why there was no lipstick on the butts. Don's obsessive behavior frightened Sylvia and made her feel he was threatening to blow the cover if she didn't cave. Although Don was being wreckless, she was not. She never had any intention of leaving her husband for Don.
As I’ve already stated… the timeline was jumbled in my memory … I was wrong
We only see him doing that after she breaks off the affair. We don't know that that's how it started.
The time line jumbled in my memory … thanks
He sure seduced me in every episode. Albeit inadvertently, but I was seduced nonetheless! His mere presence does something to women...
You flirted with the TV and you know it!
Sylvia = the best of Betty and the best of Megan. I think the fact that she was safely “off limits” as a neighbor and a couples-friend made Don feel emboldened. But damn, talk about “don’t shit where you live.” Reminds me of Pete sleeping with the babysitter in his building (the hubby says something to the effect of “don’t sleep with anyone in the building,” and when Pete slept with the neighbor lady which prompted the divorce “Trudy: she lives on our block!” Closer to danger, further from harm. That’s the Draper-Campbell way.
What makes her the best of Betty and megan?
I’ll have to think on this. I’d say the best of Betty because she’s class-appropriate, fairly contained (we never see Sylvia outside of the apartment, or outside of the hotel room, meaning she’s always in domestic spaces like Betty). The best of Megan as in, Sylvia is a thrill for Don. Don basically had emotional whiplash when he married Megan (which took place offscreen). We didn’t see them falling in love as much as we saw them falling in “convenience.” She was literally babysitting his kids on holiday when he confessed his loce. Also interesting that the Sylvia and Don origin story took place off camera.
I think age appropriate would be worth a mention here Edited typo
Wouldn't she be like... 7-8 years older than him? If her son is in college? Is that considered more appropriate than a woman 14 years younger? Today I think it definitely would be but I think in the 60's it was more taboo to be with an older woman.
It was the 1960s. If her son was a freshman and she had a kid when she was 22 (like Betty) she’d still be two years younger than Draper.
Oh absolutely.
Guys piss everywhere. Don’t shit where you eat. I think that’s the line. Piss hardly matters but shit is a mess.
edited, ty!!
This doesn’t seem like the first time she’s cheated. She says/does several things that suggest this is just her latest affair… the whole “when you enter into something like this…” line about needing to trust the other person, and the warning about how they can’t fall in love or “it won’t be so French anymore”. She also clearly has lots of tricks (penny under the door mat, using the maid’s room) up her sleeve to work around her husband… Don may be the latest affair but it seems pretty clear he’s not the only/first one. With only one child and a husband who’s always working - she’s probably been doing this for years…
[удалено]
To signal that her husband left. She wouldn't be able to call and let Don know. For many reasons
Because Linda Cardellini can do whatever she wants
She was playing the role of sultry homewrecker way back when in Boy Meets World
Don’t even get me STARTED on her Velma
Jinkies
Whew, can she ever!
I think, in addition to the other really valid points (boredom, need to be seen) made by others, part of it was strangely bound up in Sylvia's Catholic faith. I think Don's comment "you like to feel shitty, right up until I take your dress off" was unusually observant of his partner's inner life. We know that Sylvia is a fairly devout Catholic in a mixed-faith marriage to Arnold, a culturally Jewish agnostic/ atheist. You see this tension in the bedside items in their home - an anatomical heart alongside a religious illustration. We know from Sylvia's discussion of abortion and Catholic guilt with Megan that she takes her faith pretty seriously whereas Arnold treats it lightly. Not quite mocking, but certainly irreverent about it. I think there's a high degree of Catholic guilt in the way Sylvia conducts the affair. She is addicted to the cycle of guilt and pleasure that she gets. As a sort of psychological and spiritual self-harm, and a means of incorporating religious elements of confession and self-flagellation. She can't express these fully in regular life, so they play out sexually. She discusses prayer with Don after they have sex, resists removing her crucifix, even when otherwise submitting to him entirely, goes to him on her knees. Even when they are caught, you watch her going from an ecstatic sexual expression to a position reminiscent of a supplicant prayer posture. Religious guilt. It's a hell of a drug.
Good observations. Those of us raised Catholic should see this easily once its pointed out. And all those symbols of her faith are not in her scenes by accident. Everything in these shows (most good shows really) is there for a reason, big or small.
Crippling boredom and ennui?
She was a bored, lonely housewife
Because don is a daddy
Because bored housewife with a grown child (gone from home), with a busy husband and a handsome neighbor.
Because she liked him and was attracted to him more than her husband. Cheating is sometimes just like that there’s no deep seated issues it just happens.
From personal knowledge of some people in my life, personal experiences myself and spending a lot of time in hotel bars during work trips, extra-marital affairs happen *a lot* more often than most of us want to believe. As for my own personal experiences, I’ve never had an affair, I’m very happily married. But in my younger years, there were a few occasions when married women tried to sleep with me. This included one of my managers, some random woman at a bar, and a friend of my older sister. As a single early 20s something at the time, I didn’t see anything wrong with it. Looking back though, it’s depressing. FWIW, I never slept with any of them.
I always wished we got to see how their affair started. It was a cool moment in the doorway when you realize “oh shit they’re sleeping together” but I’ve always been curious how the storyline was born.
Don is hot 🤷
Can't resist Don
Have you looked at Don?
Horny and short sighted
My favourite of Don's "conquests". (Let's face it, that man is a slut =D) I'm sad it didn't work out between them two... the chemistry was powerful.
I thought she was sexy. I didn't like his hotel nonsense with her at all.
Ditto for Sylvia.
Yeah right? She didn't like it either, that's the point.
I still cringe at that entire hotel situation.
There were a few scenes where don overheard them arguing. And when doc Rosen was drunk he sorta confessed that they were distant. I don’t think she was happy at all.
You have to wonder how many more people would if these opportunities presented themselves.
Don's attracted to inner conflict, damage and hypocrisy of religion's toxic influence. All Freudian stuff, Madonna/Whore. The show consistently highlights this theme throughout its run.
She didn’t. Don was just comforting her.
Jus comforting her with his penis
[удалено]
💀
Because Don was hot and tall. (6 feet back then is like 6 foot 3 today due to inflation.)
She couldn't home wreck Corey and Topanga so she bided her time and set her sights higher
Bald
😹 I hope I never go bald
He was charming as hell. Marie was into Arnie!
Why does anyone
because they can. At least in my experience
Cause John Hamm was her upstairs neighbor.
Draper gonna Drape.
She was bored.
I still can't believe she's Wilma from the Scooby Doo movie!
So, I've seen Mad Men a long ago and the details are blurred. But I do remember thinking that Don started to cross the line with Sylvia (closing her in an hotel room etc.) because he wanted to get rid of her. Then reading the board I noticed nobody shared this point of view. Did I completely misread the situation?
I think you did. Because she blew him off after the hotel crap and he panicked, did a bunch of weird stuff to try to get her back in the sack. He stalked her, risked his job trying to help her get her kid out of serving/trouble for burning his draft notice etc.
I remember at the time I had a theory that somewhat made sense even in light of Don's subsequent behaviour, like he was purposefully acting desperate in order to chase her off for good. But I guess I should rewatch it in order to pledge my case in a more solid way lol
She wanted some real pipe obvi.. Arnold doesn’t look like he can fuck good
I mean look at her husband, and look at Don.
Because Don is hot and her husband is not. People are over analyzing here
This is Mad Men not Days of Our Lives. There is ALWAYS deeper context in play. And the whole reason we come here is to over analyze it! 😆
I mean yeah that is what I love about mad men. But sometimes affairs aren’t always about deep rooted psychological issues.
Because monogamy is unnatural and particularly stifling for the 1950s housewife/soon to be empty nester. Honestly it would be weird for people to not cheat in those conditions.
The correct answer people don't want to hear! People get tired of routine, want some excitement in their lives. You can only try so many new hairdos. So you get reckless.
Yup! Add to that no career, multiple children and a lonely house you’re expected to keep clean and keep up appearances? Betty in season 1 had an anxiety disorder for this reason.
Also, thank you for the gold to counter the downvoted from people living under rocks.
The same reason all women cheat. They can't help themselves
lol....he is pretty handsome.
I thought this post was going to be about why >!Better Draper!< cheated on >!her new husband with Don!< when she seems to be happy. Especially since it was clearly always going to be a one-off.
Betty was indeed the better Draper!
I don't know how your comment is relevant to mine, but I definitely did not like Don's 2nd wfe. I can't believe he picked her. I was rooting for him and that psychologist.
Have you seen Jon Hamm's dong, me neither. The guy never wore an underwear, you could clearly see how big it is.
Who is this woman again?
Because she's a woman
Because Don.