Is dumping supposed to give you an ego boost?

Watching the season finale of Six Feet Under on HBO tonight, one of the main characters (the mom) was dumped by her boyfriend after he took her out for a nice meal. The woman, surprising him and herself, didn’t really react too much, taking the man’s decision (he met someone else) without any significantly negative emotion. The man was flabbergasted by this, expecting her to cry or beg him to change his mind, and when she didn’t he had second thoughts. She had none, moving right on with her emotional life.

I thought about this for awhile and wonder if the man was so upset be the lack of reaction because it was a blow to his ego. Was he expecting, even if subconciously, to get a power boost from the little drama? How have you felt when you broke up a relationship? When someone broke up with you and you didn’t take it too hard?