Ok, I get that she's upset with DD over his affairs, maybe wants to try it out for herself.  But someone please give me a deeper read than just selfish, spoiled rich girl..."I hate this place.." come on, I would kill for a beautiful home of my own like that!!

She was an archaeology major and graduated from Bryn Mawr or someplace like that. She probably had dreams of a different life, one where she'd "do more" than raise kids. Being a housewife is great for people who want to be a housewife, but it can be a decades long prison sentence for someone who has other plans for their life.

We really don't know what Betty wanted for herself or why/when she started having kids. But I think it's clear that, whether she wanted all of that or not, she's not happy with it now. There was excitement in her eyes as she told Don of her win at City Council. There was fire in her when she was in Rome and away from her responsibilities. But those were just tastes of the freedom and mental challenge that she dreams of. And it was all snapped away from her the second she walked through the door of her home.

Betty knows she has more in her than it's possible to give in her current situation. In 1963, her place was in the home. But a woman with a top-tier education most likely envisioned walking some other path in her life... perhaps more like working moms walk in today's society.

I don't think the kiss "did it" for her.  She kinda rolled her eyes afterward.  Later she told Sally the first kiss should be special.  I think Henry and the fainting couch are both history.

Yes, but wasn't Betty just a model when she met Don? I could see if he plucked her out of school or some museum where she was working, but lets not get too starry-eyed about her. 

I agree with Adgal - Betty's disenchantment seems to be a gradual and bitter realization of the hollowness of the dream life she was taught to desire.

The thing I like about this series is that no one gets away with anything. All down the line (and up) we see there is some demon riding someone - and everybody is dependent on someone for something.

Talk about fully developed characters that you can immediately recognize as real people even if you can't relate to their situations.

This is definitely true.  I wouldn't say Betty KNOWS she has more in her, she just feels it and doesn't see a way to fulfill those needs in her current situation.  I wonder how she and her family will deal with this...

hey adgal, a small correction.  Betty told Henry she was an anthropology major.  She was never digging in a work site in the middle east.  My mom was Betty's age in 1963.  She was angry her whole life that her brother got to go to college and she didn't because "she would just get married anyway."  Mom did the whole June Cleaver exterior, but privately I think she had a lot of disappointments.  Womens options really were pretty limited then.

Anthropology? Oh, ok. I didn't say she was digging in a site, though.

No, you didn't. I was just trying to picture Betty digging in a hole in the hot sun.  In those days I think anthropology was a kind of high culture type of major that I might expect Betty to be involved in.  I get the impression she is very well and broadly read, but has no outlet for it.  I wonder what Francine's major wold have been?

Francine would have been a theater major, no?!?!

Dunno - French maybe?