Masters of Sex #210 “Below the Belt”

"Fix Me"


Bill and Virginia at the hotel for sex-therapy.

by Catherine Giordano

“Fix Me” is the theme of this review and recap of Masters of Sex, episode 210, named “Below the Belt” which aired on Showtime on September 14, 2014. Sometimes when we are broken all we can do is beg, “Fix me.” 

Virginia

Virginia is continuing to see the psychiatrist. She has told the doctor that she has ben lying, trying to get therapy for Barbara by Proxy. She admits that it was a totally disaster. She couldn’t fix Barbara this way. The psychiatrist says that maybe she has continued to see him because she feels a little in the need of fixing herself. Virginia is slowly coming to the realization that the doctor is right. 

Barbara and Lester

In the meantime Barbara is continuing her treatment with Dr. Masters who doesn’t appear to be fixing her with his approach. Barbara needs emotional healing, and it looks like she and Lester may be able to fix each other.   

Lester meets Barbara when she nearly faints in the lobby after a treatment. Lester invites her into his office to sit down for a while. They get into a conversation. She brings up how God is punishing her and Lester tells her there is no old man in the sky.  She is offended and leaves. 

Later, Lester finds Barbara at the lunch counter.  He sits down and tells her he wants to apologize. They talk and they agree that the only sin is despair-giving up hope. They find although they may not have religion in common they have something else in common—sexual dysfunction and ineffective treatment from Dr, Masters. I have to object here. Call me a prude, but I think discussions of sexual dysfunction should not take place until the third date. Nonetheless, I think they may fix each other. 

 

Flo and Dr. Austin Langham

Flo, the Cal-O-Metric Lady

Flo, the Cal-O-Metric lady, is looking for a fix of her own, and she has decided Dr. Austin Langham is the man to give it to her. He rebuffed her advance several episodes ago. She seemed to accept the rejection, but she was only biding her time. She hired Austin to be the Cal-O-Metric spokesperson. Austin is liking the money, the TV appearances, and the adulation of the lady sales force. Flo demands that he meet her at his apartment and she is brutally honest about what she wants. If she doesn't get it, Austin is fired. Austin tries to tell her that he won’t be able to “perform” because he is not attracted to her; the body can’t lie. Flo knows how to fix that. Flo may be fat, but she also appears to be as expert as Betty in the sexual arts. It’s ironic—half of the characters have sexual impotence and the one person who wants to be impotent, can’t seem to manage it. Afterwards Austin says that now that “they have gotten this out of the way”, they can go back to being colleagues. Flo is hurt, but steely.  She has Austin where she wants him and he won’t escape her clutches.    

 

LIbby

Betty continues to work at CORE.

Libby needs a fix too. Everyone at CORE considers her a bored housewife. She wants to make a difference. Robert is trying to organize a rent strike. He tells Libby she can’t be involved—the Negro tenants will not listen to a white lady. She goes anyway and is effective in persuading some of the residents to join the strike, maybe even more effective than Robert. 

 

The PR Consultant

Meanwhile Dr. Masters’ finances are still in need of a fix. Betty is robbing Peter to pay Paul as she tries to pay the bills. The electricity even gets turned off because the payment was late. Betty insists that they must rent half of the floor where bill has his office.   

Dr. Masters also feels his rise to fame and fortune as a sexual researcher needs a fix.  Another doctor has published an article in a journal about sexuality and masters and Johnson are cited in a footnote.  He discusses this with Virginia and she says , “do you want him to be a footnote in your study or do you want to be a footnote in his.?  Bill wants to win a Nobel prize, and you only win the Nobel prize by being FIRST. 

A public relations consultant is called in and he suggests that bill and Virginia be interviewed on 60 Minutes. They bicker like a husband and wife and the audience will relate to this. Virginia wants to do it, but Bill is very hesitant. He is still smarting from the negative reaction he got when he presented to the doctors at the hospital. It cost him his job.

Bill and Frank

Frank, Bill's brother, still wants to fix his relationship with Bill. The two have a big fight.  There is no one more sanctimonious than a reformed ... fill in the blank.  Bill is angry because Frank, a one-year-sober member of AA, is trying to convince both Bill and Essie, their mother, that having one drink a day means that they are alcoholics too. 

Bill begins to scream at Frank, You’re weak! You’re weak. You are a coward.  He provokes Frank until Frank punches him. Bill doesn’t punch back. He has already won the fight by getting Frank to punch him. 

Bill is so proud that he never begged his father to stop beating him.  He despises his brother for finding another way to deal with their monster of a father. Frank used charm, and yes, he would beg his father to stop hitting him. Frank is now dealing with it by forgiving his father and by forgiving bill for leaving him. Bill feels guilty about not trying to protect his younger brother and that enrages him all the more. Bill needs his anger to hold his psyche together; Frank needs forgiveness and love to hold his psyche together. Symbolically each is asking the other, “Fix me.” 

Bill and Virginia

After Bill’s fight with his brother, Bill goes to the hotel to meet Virginia.  They have been meeting to try to cure Bill. Virginia is methodically going through a list of “treatments” and each has proven ineffective. Bill arrives at the hotel room  bloody and emotionally devastated. He lies down on the bed. Virginia lies down next to him to comfort him.  They begin to kiss first gently, then passionately.  It looks like Bill ‘s sexual dysfunction is about to get fixed. 

CLICK HERE
to look inside

 

Fix Me

 

Only two more episodes of this outstanding drama before the season ends. Where will I get  my fix of beautifully-told, emotionally-complex, socially-relevant stories.

 

The critically acclaimed show has been picked up for a third season.

 

Thank you for liking, sharing, and tweeting this post.


CLICK HERE
to look inside




CLICK HERE
to buy DVD

Masters of Sex #208 "Mirror, Mirror"

"Dysfunction"

Virginia and Libby at the Veiled Prophet's Ball

by Catherine Giordano

Dysfunction in the lab, dysfunction in the bedroom, dysfunction in the family, and dysfunction in society—dysfunction is the theme for Showtime’s Masters of Sex, episode 208, titled “Mirror, Mirror” which aired on Sunday, August 31, 2014. Dysfunction is the theme of tis review and recap.

Virginia Johnson and Bill Masters continue to work on the sex research study. Bill wants to obtain legitimacy for his work as well as tax advantages, and he determines that he must have a board of directors comprised of community leaders. Despite their dysfunctional marriage, Masters’ wife, Libby, remains the dutiful helpmate. Bill and Libby have dinner with a man Bill wants on his board and the man’s wife.  When the wife mentions that she is involved with the Veiled Prophet charity gala dinner, Libby volunteers to help raise money. Virginia is invited to attend wit Libby and Bill to help persuade the prospective board member. (At the ball, Virginia is mistaken for Bill’s wife, a nice bit for viewers who know what Libby does not yet know.)

Jocko Sims plays Robert

 

The Veiled Prophet Ball is a real St. Louis that began in 1878 and continues to this day, albeit renamed the “Fair St. Louis” and no longer restricted to white male Christians. This event is dysfunctional and disturbing in so many ways.  A man dressed in robes with his face covered by a white veil escorts debutantes. His costume reminds us of the Ku Klux Klan.  At the dinner, the guests are served by black men in tuxedos wearing a white mask across their eyes. I found this get-up very unsettling. But the whole prophet and debutante thing was the most disturbing. It seemed like some icky perverted sexual ritual of droit de seigneur.  (P.S. Libby’s hard work for the Veiled Prophet pays off--the man agrees to be on Bill’s board.)

 

There are other references to race in the episode. CORE, The Congress for Racial Equality, has offices in the same building as Dr. Master’s office. Libby witnesses an act of violence in the street against one of the leaders of CORE at the hands of white men.  It turns out that Robert, the brother of Libby’s former nanny, is involved with CORE and he goes to Libby’s house to ask her if she saw anything. The only witnesses are blacks and the police will not consider the testimony of a black person. Libby, at first. claims that she did not see anything, but later. changes her mind. Perhaps the Veiled Prophet event was as disturbing to her as it was to me, because it is after that event that Libby goes to Robert’s apartment and says that she will testify.

Bill is still sexually dysfunctional, suffering from impotence--no sex for the wife or for Virginia. Bill is hiding his impotence from Virginia coming up with excuses to avoid sexual intercourse.

While Virginia may be unaware of Bill’s impotence, she is starting to take an interest in sexual dysfunction. She tells Bill that over a third of the volunteers for the research have to be turned away as NV-- non-viable—because of some sexual “abnormality.” Virginia thinks that should try to treat as well as study. 

Bill agrees and wants to start with impotence. He selects this malady because it is the most common. Even, Lester, the videographer, who works with Masters and Johnson on the sex research suffers from impotence dating from the time of Jane’s rejection of him. Does Bill have a more personal reason for wanting to treat impotence? What do you think?

Virginia tells Bill she thinks each sexual dysfunction manifests in both men and women. Men have impotence and women have vaginismus—involuntary muscle spasm that prevent sexual penetration. Barbara, Bill’s former secretary, suffers from this condition. Virginia takes it upon herself to visit Barbara to discuss her condition with her.

 

This conversation has some unfortunate consequences.  Barbara goes to Virginia’s house late at night, distraught, because the conversation has brought up some repressed memories of childhood sex games with her brother. Barbara believes that God has “closed her up” as punishment.  

Virginia tells Dr. Masters about her discussions with Barbara and he recommends a psychiatrist. Barbara says she could never talk about her issues with a stranger, especially not a man, and refuses to go. Virginia goes in her stead and tells Barbara’s story as if it were her own. Barbara is feeling a calling to become a clinical psychologist and this may be her start. (Bill is trying to discourage her telling her it will involve many years of schooling, especially since she would first have to graduate college before she could even begin to study to be a psychologist.) I’m afraid Virginia’s meddling is going to have some bad repercussions. 

Christian Bole plays Bill's brother,
Dr. Francis Mason.

I think this may be related in a curious way to a new patient of Bill’s. Dr. Francis (Frank)  Mason has sought Bill’s help with infertility treatment even though he lives in another state. Bill does some tests and determines that Frank has a low sperm count. (The same problem that Bill has.)  He gives Bill a referral, but Frank reuses. He insists that Bill do the treatments.  At the very end of the episode, we learn why Frank is so insistent.  Frank is Bill’s younger brother! The two have been estranged for many years--we don’t yet know why—but now Frank “wants his brother back.” 

Frank is a plastic surgeon. He chose this line of work because of an incident during his residency.  A young woman had a terrible car accident and her face was horribly disfigured. The plastic surgeons at the hospital “gave her a new face.”  Frank was so impressed that he wanted to do this life-changing work.  

However, this young woman’s story did not have a happy ending.  It turned out that the car crash was not an accident, and six months later the woman finished what she had started with an overdose of sleeping pills. What are we to make of this story? Is it foreshadowing another suicide because medicine can fix the outside, but not the inside.  

One last bit of dysfunction in the episode involved not a sexual disorder, but an eating disorder. As the physician on call at the Alford Hotel, Dr. Masters is asked to treat a man at the hotel. The man is already dead—he died, perhaps a suicide, from a rupture of the stomach lining or a heart attack, caused by overeating—binge eating of epic proportions judging by the many plates of food scattered around the room.
 

It turned out that the dead man was a radio personality who was supposed to be the keynote speaker at the Cal-O-Metric conference.  Virginia was once a sales lady for the Cal-O-Metric diet pills, and the company now has its offices in the same building as the master practice. Ironically, Cal-O-Metric is owned by a short fat lady, Flo. She had been to see our friend, Dr. Austin Langston, who is a podiatrist.  His advice was to tell her to lose weight to relieve the pressure on her feet. Her response was to flirt with him. His response was that he has given up his Lothario ways She says he would accept her offer of sex if she were thin. 

Despite his rejection of her sexual favors, Flo apparently makes him an offer of a different kind. Towards the end of the episode Austin is seen bounding into the Cal-O-Metric conference as the replacement speaker.  

 

A member of the Veiled Prophet's court
 removes  the veil in this true story
CLICK HERE

Remember all of this is taking place in the early 60’s. History tells us that there will be major strides in curing sexual dysfunction and societal dysfunction.  But for now, just about all of the characters in Masters of Sex are mired in dysfunction.

 

 

 Thank you for liking, sharing, and tweeting.