Aaron Tracy

Charles Marsh does not agree.

He thinks the problem with Dahl's career is the discord in his marriage.

Dahl has told Marsh that Neil is hanging out with her theater friends way too much.

She isn't serving his needs enough.

Marsh seems to completely understand, writing back with a line that feels ripped out of Mad Men.

You want a woman to think of you 80% of the time and to work like hell on the 80% without asking you for direction.

He invites D'Alenil to Jamaica, where they can work on the marriage.

Marsh brings along his newest, youngest wife yet, Claudia, who, you'll be shocked to learn, used to be his secretary.

Yeah, just when you think Marsh can't be any more of a mid-century cliché, the guy marries his secretary.

In Jamaica, Marsh gives Dahl and Neil a good talking to about finding compromise in their relationship.

Why he thinks they would respect his opinion on marriage is anybody's guess, but Dahl takes it to heart.

One reason is the last advice he's ever gonna get from Marsh.

On this trip to Jamaica, Marsh is bitten by a mosquito and contracts cerebral malaria, setting off a decline in health from which he'll never fully recover.

For Dahl, it's like losing the only father he's ever known.

He's inconsolable, and it's the first in a long line of tragedies that will unfold over the next few years.

Another obstacle for Dahl and Neil is the fact that unlike almost all marriages in this period, Neil is making way more money than her husband.

It makes Dahl feel totally inadequate, which Neil does sympathize with.

So she sets out to become more like the kind of wife Dahl wants, which, sadly, is a doting, cooking, cleaning, obedient one.

Take a guess how well that's going to go.

After a while, Dahl does at least partially accept the reality that Neil is not his mother.