Masters of Sex #306 08/16/15 “Two Scents”

Virginia and Dan get closer.

'Like a Moth to a Flame"

by Catherine Giordano

Like moths are drawn to a flame, moths are drawn to a mate by pheromones. Our friends on Showtime’s Masters of Sex are discovering that pheromones work on people also. On episode 306, which aired on August 16, 2015, we see how chemistry has a lot to do with sexual attraction, working on an unconscious level.

 

All along Bill Masters and Virginia Johnson have assumed that their sexual relationship began purely from their desire to study the science of sex. Now, Bill reveals that he felt desire for Virginia from the moment he first saw her. It’s all part of the mystery of sexual attraction.

Bill and Virginia are forced to return to the lab for their sexual trysts. They can’t meet at Virginia’s house because Virginia’s parents are there for an extended visit. They can’t meet at a hotel because they have become too famous and the hotel clerk recognizes them. Virginia is not happy about meeting in the lab. She prefers the “silk sheet” experience of a hotel—the luxury probably makes her feel like this affair is less tawdry.  

 

Libby, Bill’s wife, has a little tawdry secret of her own. Her neighbor, Joy, suffered an aneurism and is now unable to speak or move. Libby visits Joy, who lies in bed like a rag doll attentively combing her hair and talking to her. Joy had told Libby that she intended to leave her husband. Joy had rented an apartment was going to live there, but the aneurism struck before she could actually tell her husband. Libby discovers the key to the apartment, and starts to stay there as much as she can. It gives her a feeling of liberation to sit alone with coffee and a cigarette in this bleak apartment. She’s drawn to this escape.

 

Joy’s husband, Paul, a former football star, coaches a youth football team. Bill asks to be an assistant coach and forces his reluctant son Johnny to sign up for the team. Libby is opposed because she fears her son will get hurt. Johnny sprains his ankle and Libby angrily tells Paul that her son will no longer be allowed to play on the team. Paul berates Libby for this telling her that she is being overprotective. Libby becomes so angry that she tells Paul that Joy was planning to leave him. The leaves Paul devastated. He had no idea that his marriage was not perfect.

 
Anger often masks sexual tension. Paul goes to Joy’s apartment and finds Libby there. It is like a magnetic force pulls them into a torrid embrace and (so we are led to assume) into sexual union.

Paul has referred a couple to Bill for sexual counseling. The husband is a football player and the wife is a glamorous movie star named Christina. They are there because the Christina is “frigid.” Yet a session in the lab with Ulysses (the dildo) shows that Christina is able to climax in less than a minute.

 

We learn that Christina’s husband was drawn to her—like a moth to a flame-- because she was an unattainable movie star. However, once he became a famous football star, she was no longer unattainable. He took her to prove to himself that he could. She was a conquest. Christina is devastated to learn that her husband no longer desires her and never loved her.

Virginia and Dan are also playing with fire. Dan is an executive of a company that produces scents for commercial purposes. He wants to get “sex in a bottle.” Their experiments have shown that certain scents, like a man’s sweat, produce physiological signs of sexual arousal in their female subjects, but the women report having no reaction to the scent at all. It’s the pheromones and it happens on an unconscious level.

Dan has been flirting with Virginia to no avail from their first meeting. In this episode, he draws Virginia close to him into a dance. They dance in the lab silently without music while pretending it is all about the science. (This feels like an echo of the start of Virginia and Bill’s sexual activity.) Dan keeps asking Virginia if she feels anything. Virginia keeps saying “No.” But eventually those pheromones kick in and sexual lust presumably ensues. In the next scene, the two are putting their clothes back on.

 

While the adults are fulfilling their sexual yearnings, the children are trying to fulfill their yearnings for the approval of their parents. Virginia is a gown woman, with children of her own, but she still is fighting to obtain her mother’s approval.

 

Yet Virginia totally misses her daughter Tessa’s yearning for approval from her. Tessa has had an article published in a teen magazine. She wants to show it to her mother, but when Tessa tries to do so, but Virginia is preoccupied. Tessa walks away and dumps the magazine in the trash.

 

And little Johnny, despite being too small to be a good player, now wants to play football. It feels it is the only way he might get the approval of his father. The problem is that during football practice, Bill has established a relationship with Dennis, the bully who beat up Johnny in an earlier episode. Dennis is a star quarterback and Bill always approves of a winner. Dennis, who is evidently ignored by his own parents, now sees Bill as a father figure. He comes to Bill’s house and the two of them sit together looking at Bill’s collection of football cards. It’s a tender father-son scene; if only Bill’s actual son were not peering into the room from a hidden spot mournfully watching his father give the attention that he so desperately wants to another boy.

 
Children seek parental approval like the moth seeks the light. It is the lucky child who gets that approval. Then the children become adults and yearn for love. It’s the lucky adult who gets that love.

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Masters of Sex #305 08/09/15 “Matters of Gravity”

Where is the Love?

by Catherine Giordano

Episode 305 of Showtime’s Masters of Sex asks us to look at love--sexual love, marital love, motherly love, fatherly love, sexual love, and more.

 

Bill Masters has been given a chance to erase the disgrace heaped upon him when he was fired years ago because of his sex work when he is invited to receive an award and speak at a dinner at Washington University. He’s invited because he is famous now. Also, because the man who fired him is the hospital chancellor who fired him now needs his services as a fertility specialist. His daughter-in-law needs to get pregnant in a hurry so his son can receive a draft deferment and avoid Vietnam.

After the speech, Bill takes a question. “Why is there no mention of love in the book?" He gives a magnificent poetic answer. "Love cannot be rendered into columns and graphs as if it were the same as blood pressure, or heart rate.” Alluding to gravity, he says. “Love is not a force exerted by one body onto another; it is the very fabric of those bodies. Love is that which carves the lines and grooves, the curvature of our desire."

Margaret is learning about love. She has learned that love is not about letting someone else’s desires rule over your own. She stands up to her lover Graham who has brought a third person, a young woman into their relationship, for a polyamorous relationship. She walks out on him, but still wonders if being alone is better than being demeaned.

Although Margaret divorced her husband, Barton, when she discovered that he was a homosexual, there is still love between them. It’s hard to und the habits of a 20-year marriage. She worries about him—is he taking care of himself, getting enough to eat, and the like. She also misses him. They had a sexless marriage, not a loveless one. Barton still cares for Margaret. At the end of the episode, we see him making a call to their daughter. He is going to tell her that her parent’s marriage ended not because her mother was unfaithful, but because he was unfaithful to Margaret…with men. Margaret sits alongside him like a loving wife, holding his hand, to give him the courage to make this confession to their daughter.

Virginia’s parents have come for an unexpected visit. There is a lot of tension between Virginia and her mother. Old resentments from Virginia’s childhood surface. Virginia berates her mother for forcing her to enter a child beauty pageant and pushing her to succeed while criticizing her for not being good enough. Her mother remembers it differently. Virginia was the one who entered the beauty pageant on her own. Her mother was only trying to help her succeed so that Virginia would not be disappointed. It seems Virginia’s mother’s version of events is the correct one

Bill has to deal with some issues from his childhood also. A larger older boy has been bullying Bill’s son. Bill finds the boy and gives him a talking to. Bill was bullied as a child, especially from his own father. He knows he must destroy this bully. Bill treats this boy as his father treated him, short of smacking him around, of course. He berates and frightens the boy so badly, it is a wonder the boy does not pee his pants. The boy tells his parents and now there will be consequences for Bill.

Virginia continues to have problems with her daughter Tessa. The girl has figured out that her Virginia is having an affair with Bill and she deliberately leaves clues so that Virginia’s mother can figure it out also. Virginia’s mother is shocked, but sees opportunity here. She gets a moment alone with Virginia and tells her to get Bill to leave his wife and marry her. She urges Virginia to “strike while the iron is hot. Act now because Bill may tire of her. Virginia’s professional success means nothing; she must secure her position in the world with marriage to a successful man.

Where is the love? It is in the very fabric of our lives. Love is that which carves the lines and grooves into all of our relationships.

 



 

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Masters of Sex #304 “Undue Influence”

Margaret has a new friend.

“Making Friends” 

by Catherine Giordano

This recap and review must begin with a spoiler alert. Season 3 of Showtime’s Masters of Sex seems to feel regular doses of shockers will make up for the heart the series has seemingly lost. Episode 304, which aired on August 2, 2015, will provide the requisite shock.

Bill Masters wants to boost the sales of his book in order to justify a second printing. He lurks in a book store (remember those) trying to figure out why his book is not getting sales. He complains to the book store owner because his book has been placed in the back of the store. The owner explains that people who want the book call ahead so the book is wrapped and waiting for them when they come in to pick it up. It seems no one wants to be buying a book called Human Sexual Response.

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Bill gets a great idea. He returns to the store with a roll of brown wrapping paper. He asks the bookstore owner to wrap his remaining copies of Human Sexual Response in the paper and put them in the window. The bookstore owner thinks Bill is nuts, but agrees to do it after Bill promised to buy all the copies that don’t sell. However, the sales go wild. It seems a little mystery in matters of sex can do wonders.


While in the book store Bill buys a copy of Dale Carnegie’s How to Win Friends and Influence People. The ideas in the book hit Bill like a thunderbolt. “Make people feel important” the book says. Bill decides to do this by buying a fur capelet for Virginia. The store places it in a box and the box is placed into a shopping bag. Bill keeps the bag in his office waiting for a suitable time to give it to Virginia.  

Awkward! Virginia seems embarrassed by this extravagant gift. Perhaps it seems like an attempt to manipulate her into going on the book tour that she does not want to go on. She has a new baby, remember. Later in the episode, Bill shows up at Virginias' home. Now that the brown paper wrapper thing is working, the book tour is not so important so he is no longer pressuring Virginia to go on the book tour. Virginia is still reluctant to accept the inappropriate gift. Only wives and mistresses get furs from men—Virginia is not his wife and she doesn’t want to think of herself as his mistresses. 

 

Bill still on his charm offensive, offers to take Virginia out to dinner. Then he mentions that it is a bit chilly outside. “If only you had something to keep you warm,” he says as he drapes the capelet over her shoulders.This is not the way to make friends and influence people; this is the way to dominate people.

The fur gambit will have another awkward consequence. Bill's wife Libby, showed up at Bill's office. He was busy with a patient so she goes into his office and sees the shopping bag with the store name on it. She opens the box, sees the fur and then replaces everything as she found it. Does she think that this is a surprise gift for her? What will happen when she realizes it is not for her?

Margaret, Barton’s ex-wife, seems interested in maintaining a friendly relationship with her ex-husband. She shows up at his apartment with a casserole. She finds out about Barton’s lady friend. She may be feeling a little jealous. She makes a bit of a scene because Barton is not telling this woman the truth about himself. Barton insists he and the woman are just friends. 

It turns out Margaret is right. The lady wants more than friendship from Barton. After a dinner at his apartment, she says that she could spend the night with him. Barton blanches and makes up a story. He has high blood pressure and his medication makes him unable to perform. Will the lady accept this? Will she want to attempt intimacy anyway or will she just go away. 

Margaret has another reason to be angry. She has been keeping Barton’s secret. She has taken the blame for the divorce, telling everyone that Barton divorced her because she was unfaithful. Her daughter is not talking to her because of this. She can’t even tell her new boyfriend, Graham the truth. 

I don’t think that her new boyfriend Graham is overly concerned about Margaret having cheated on her ex-husband. It seems he has another girlfriend in addition to Margaret. Shocker! But it gets worse. Margaret knows about it. In fact, the three of them are all great friends in a poly-amorous relationship. After years of a sexless marriage, Margaret apparently has some self-esteem issues. 

People are trying to be friends, but I doubt these friendships are healthy relationships. 


 

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Masters of Sex #303 07/26/15 “The Excitement of Release”



by Catherine Giordano

Love Sweet Love

 

As the credits roll at the end of Showtime’s’ Masters of Sex episode 303 “The Excitement of Release” which aired on July 26, 2015, the sound track plays a familiar song from the era, “Love Sweet Love.” It’s anything but love sweet love on this episode of the show.

 

Tessa

Virginia Johnston’s daughter Tessa is 16 years old and the daughter of the “Sex Mom.” It’s easy to see why boys at her school think she is sexually experienced and easy. Except she isn’t. She’s 16, she has a crush on a boy, and the boy seems to like her. He barely has the r thing down. Tessa is sitting in the boy’s car and Tessa may be hoping for a shy first kiss. Instead, the boy forces her to perform oral sex, forcing her head down into his lap area. Afterwards Tessa flees and vomits all over her new prom dress that her mother bought for her as a peace offering because there have been a lot of mother daughter squabbles. (Tessa seems to be all over the map with her sexuality—in the first episode of season three, she was trying to force herself on Bill Masters now sex play is making her ill.) Love, sweet love? Far from it.

 

Barton

Remember Barton, the medical director at the hospital where Dr. Masters used to work. Barton has hung onto his job, but lost his wife. Bill goes to see Barton and discovers Barton has a nice middle age lady with whom he is “keeping company.” Is this love sweet love? Far from it. Barton as you will remember is a homosexual, but he apparently is doing his best to stay in the closet. Does his lady friend want to do more than cook meals for him? What does Barton tell her.? Maybe something like, “I’m old-fashioned. I respect you too much for that.”

 

Bill wants to improve sales for the book. He thinks it should be a text book at medical schools for the sex-ed classes. However medical schools don’t teach doctors about sex. Bill enlists Barton to help him get to the executives at the hospital where Barton works and where Bill used to work. Barton brings him to a cocktail party. The executive treats Barton like a lackey; Barton has kept his job, but not his secret. His boss is contemptuous of him and treats him like a lackey. Bill can’t stand to see his old friend and mentor treated so badly, so he makes a scene and storms out. He invited Barton to join his medical practice. There is still some love left between these two.

 

Libby

There is no love between Bill and his wife Libby, although to the outside world they look like a happily married couple. They keep up the pretense, their marriage as much a marriage of convenience as the relationship between Barton and his new girlfriend. Libby has become friends with Joy, a woman who lives next door. The woman confides to Libby that she is going to leave her husband. Libby tries to talk her out of it--perhaps just she talked her own self out of it—but the woman insists she will leave.

 

Lester and Jane 

Remember Lester, the photographer and Jane, the subject in the early experiments of female sexual response. The two had run off together to Hollywood so Jan could become a star—it was true love, but not for long. Soon Lester returned because Jane had dumped him for the casting couch. Lester took up with the “incest girl.” When Lester said he was working late to avoid going home to a nagging wife, I thought he had married incest girl. Instead it turns out, Jane is his wife. No love sweet love there. But Jane is hired to respond to the tons of mail masters and Johnson are getting. One night she reads aloud one of the letters, a very salacious one, and that is the spark that lights Lester and Jane’s fire. Now that the sex has returned, will the love return?  

 

Dan Logan

Bill and Virginia are looking for investors. They take a meeting with Hugh Hefner at a bunny club. You never want to bring Virginia Johnson to a bunny club. No way she will get into bed with Heffner, and I mean get into business with him. Fortunately, Bill thinks that being associated with Hef is not the kind of thing that will give him and his work respect. So, pass!

 

Someone else is sniffing around. Dan Logan is an executive from a flavors and fragrances firm. He wants to get the smell of sex into a bottle. There is clearly sexual tension between him and Virginia. Will she be willing to get into bed with him? I mean that both ways--as a bed partner, as a sex partner, or both.

 

Masters and Johnston

There’s not much sex going on between Masters and Johnson. It has probably been at least a year since they had sex (or made love). Masters was squeamish about it while she was pregnant with another man’s baby. Or maybe he was just being extra-careful that there would be no scandal during the release of the book. Now the baby has been born and the book has been birthed. Time to hit the hay again.

 

In the first scene of the episode, Bill and Virginia are in bed together, but Virginia begs off saying her body still doesn’t feel right after the birth of the baby. “It’s been eight weeks since you had the baby,” Bill tersely says. “It’s OK for you to have sex now.” It’s clearly connects to the later scene between Tessa and her date when Tessa’s date demands that she gratify him. Bill is demanding the same of Virginia. I

 

The last scene takes us back to the first scene. Bill and Virginia are in bed. The baby cries and she has to get out of bed to tend to the baby. She brings the baby to bed with her, and places the baby between them. It is like they are a family. Bill must love her baby, if he is to love her.

 

Love sweet love. Not too much of that going on



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Masters of Sex #302 07 19 15 “Three’s a Crowd”

Virginia and Bill at the book launch party.

Bad Things Come in Threes
by Catherine Giordano

 

A friend of mine said that she stops watching a series after the second season because the writers usually only have enough good stories for two seasons. I think she is on to something. The first two episodes of season three of “Masters of Sex” have been disappointing. With episode 302, “Three’s a Crowd,” I’m beginning to see a trend.  

The problem may be that there has been too much focus on just our triad-Bill, Virginia, and Libby. The writers need to bring the stories of the other characters back to the foreground. Bill is cold, Virginia is defiant, and Libby is mopey. Ho-hum.

 

The Pregnancy
The plot has pretty much jumped the shark. Virginia is pregnant. It turns out that Bill is not the father. The father is Virginia’s ex-husband, George. At first I thought that George being the father was the cover story. No, George really is the father. It seems George and Virginia were so distraught over their son’s getting hit by a car and his decision to join the military that they had sex with each other. They had sex in that over-crowded house at the lake.  

Nothing in the plot line prior to this set us up for Virginia and George to have sex. There was no thawing in their relationship. Bill and Virginia were not fighting any more than usual. The writers just threw us a plot twist. I imagine them sitting around the room saying:  

“Hey,.How about if we make Virginia get pregnant?”

“Good one. And let’s make it be by her ex-husband.” 

“Well, we got nothing else, so why not?”

 Virginia tells Bill she has an abortion all arranged. She had been putting it off until after the press conference for the book. Is that believable?  Maybe, a little. But now we get to the totally unbelievable part. 

Virginia shows up for her appointment. She gets on the operating table. The doctor gives her the local anesthetic and asks her if she can feel anything.  She says, “I feel nothing.” End of scene. 

Next thing we know, we see Virginia still pregnant. She apparently on the spur of the moment, decided to just hop off that table and have the baby. Nothing before this showed us that she had the least bit of doubt about the abortion. She’s not married, she has a book tour to do, her 16 year old daughter, Tessa, is proving to be more than she can handle—it’s just a great time to have a baby.  

 

The Solution

The solution?  Virginia will marry her ex-husband. Virginia doesn’t like the idea very much. George wants to marry Virginia because he thinks they can have what they had when they were first married again, but he doesn’t want a sham marriage. Bill offers to write him a very big check.  

A short time later. the happy couple meet with a lawyer one morning to sign the pre-nup. There will be no co-habitation, no sexual relations, and no sharing of assets. The same afternoon, they go to the justice of the peace, and with Bill and Libby as witnesses, they get married. Libby is all smiles—she thinks this marriage may put an end to the affair that Bill is having with Virginia.  

The Speech

So far the plot twists are pretty bizarre, but things get worse. Virginia goes into labor and she can’t handle it. She falls apart emotionally—very out of character for her. Bill is at her side trying to talk her through it. He tells her, at great length, how she is part of a new chapter for women. Women can have both careers and children. Virginia will lead the way. Just as the two of them have broken down the barriers to sexual equality for men and women, they will now break down the barriers to equality in the home and the workplace.  

It is true that Bill and Virginia (along with the birth control pill) are ushering in a new era of equality for men and women. It is also true that the conversation between Bill and Virginia is totally unrealistic. One of the great things about Masters of Sex is that show reflects societal issues of the time. Usually, this is done indirectly-- the plot shows us these things, no one speechifies about it.  In this episode, Bill gave a 20 minute speech about it as Virginia dealt with her labor pains. This is more than unrealistic; it is boring and painful.  I was feeling desperate for the scene to be over, but it went on and on.

 

The Triads



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The rest of the episode showed both Bill and Virginia being difficult. Bill has hired, Dr. West, a female doctor to fill in for Virginia until after Virginia gives birth. He needed to have a female partner so he “won’t look like a pervert.” Dr. West talks directly to a patient, and this angers Bill. Despite the speech he will later give to Virginia about gender equality, he will not have a  woman being equal to him in his practice. She is there to assist and to be seen but not heard. 

 

This scene reminded me of the developments the previous episode. Virginia wants some time off to complete her studies and obtain her degree. Bill is angry because he needs Virginia to assist him as the book is edited and prepared for publication. Virginia is strong–willed and gets her way much to the good doctor’s chagrin. 

So third time is a charm? I hope so. I hope the show gets back on track for episode 3. While we wait we can contemplate the triads. Bill, Libby, and Virginia. Virginia, George, and the new baby. Bill, George, and Virginia. Maybe even Virginia, Tessa, and the new baby. Will there be sibling rivalry?

 



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Masters of Sex #301 07 12 15 “'Parliament of Owls”

One Big Happy Family

by Catherine Giordano

 

Season 3 picks up four years later after the end of Season 2 and nothing has changed and everything has changed. I call this review “One Big Happy Family” with more than a little sarcasm. 

Spoiler Alert: The recap and review of the Season 3 premiere of Masters of Sex which aired on July 12, 2015 discusses key plot points.  

 

The Book



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Human Sexual Response is about to be published. The episode begins with Bill Masters and Virginia Johnson holding a press conference. There is a lot of hostility in the room. For the most part, the reporters are scandalized even though the book is a very dry read of medical terminology and statistics. Masters and Johnson did everything they could to keep the book from being salacious.

 
The hostility is not just between Masters and Johnson and the reporters but also between Dr. Masters and Mrs.Johnson. Masters is the senior partner in this enterprise, but Johnson fights for equal billing. She makes sure that she takes half of the talking time, often jumping in with her answers before Masters can speak. When she is not doing that, she is adding to what he has said as it he had forgotten to mention some important points.


Their professional and private relationship resembles that of a contentious marriage; they have a strong bond to each other, but they fight for dominance in the relationship.

The Home Front

The Masters (Bill and his wife Libby and their two kids) and the Johnsons (Virginia and her two kids) are taking a vacation together at a lake house. It is apparently something they do every year. The action of the episode jumps back and forth between that summer vacation and the press conference. 

They may be on vacation but all Bill wants to do is work on the galley proofs of the book. The last thing he wants to do is be with his wife and kids He holes-up in one of the bedrooms all day, and at night he goes outside to sleep in a lawn chair. The room he is using as his office is the bedroom of Tessa, Virginia’s daughter, so he can’t sleep there. He won’t sleep with his wife, and so he ends up sleeping outside in a lawn chair. How hurt must Libby feel that he’d rather sleep outside and get eaten alive by mosquitoes that sleep in the same bed, or even room, with her? 

Libby has made her peace with it. She knows what is going on between Bill and Virginia, but it is something she never speaks of. Libby is very depressed (clinically depressed) and Virginia is probably her best, and only, friend. 

It is very much a ménage a trios although there are only two people in the same bed at one time. Libby comes into Virginia’s room to talk and gets into bed with her. It’s very chaste; she stays on her side of the double bed. She speaks cryptically, but Virginia knows what she is talking about. Libby talks about how important it is to her to keep her sham marriage intact. For the sake of the children. 

Then Libby leans over and kisses Virginia on the lips. Her husband won’t kiss her, so the next best thing is to kiss the lips that kiss her husband’s lips. Libby leaves the bed immediately after. In a way, it is a dominance play on Libby’s part.   

 

The Kids are Alright

No, the kids are NOT alright.

Virginia’s two sweet children, Tessa and Henry, are now 15 and 17 years old. They are rebellious and getting involved sexually. Virginia blames their bad behavior on their father who won custody of the children at the end of Season 2.  

Henry has is having sex with a local young woman, a single mother. He previously had an intellectual bent, but now he does not want to continue his schooling and he won’t keep a job. He has gone behind his parent’s back to meet with a military recruiter.  

Henry gets hit by a car, no serious damage is done, but he has to visit the emergency room and Virginia’s ex-husband is called. He comes out to the lake house  and the family is now bigger, if not happier. At the end of the episode, Henry’s parents have agreed to let him join the military, mainly because they can’t stop him. He will be 18 in a few months. 

Tessa has been having her own sexual experimentation. Virginia wants Bill to talk to her about boys and sex because the girl won’t listen to her. Besides, Bill is a gynecologist and knows about these things. (Virginia knows a thing or two herself, but she is backing away from her responsibility.) Bill wants no part of Tessa’s sex education. 

Unfortunately, Tessa forces him to get involved. She gets drunk and disrobes and kisses Bill. Perhaps this is her dominance play against her mother, trying to have sex with her mother’s lover. Bill recoils, but not before Bill’s young son sees the kiss. 

Bill is cold to his children and the children don’t like it. The kiss is the breaking point for Bill’s 8 year old son, Johnny. “You won’t kiss Mommy, but you kiss her, he screams. The boy grabs the galley proofs and runs out of the house with them. They are what his father loves more than him. He throws the papers into the lake.   

Bill, his face contorted with rage, raises his fist to his child. He catches himself before punching him. He is struck with the realization that he is treating his son the way his father treated him. He just walks away.  

I think we will see more problems with these kids in the future. Plus, another big shocker. There may be more kids coming to this family. Virginia is pregnant. 

At the end of the episode, the credits inform the viewers that these are fictional children. That is good because these kids are messed up.

Stay Tuned

One big happy family

It is a family of sorts. But happy has nothing to do with it.





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Masters of Sex # 212 09 28 14 “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised”

by Catherine Giordano

 

My review and recap of previous two episodes of Showtime’s Masters of Sex were titled “Fix Me” and “See Me”. The title for the review of the season finale is “Touch Me.” 

Virginia and Bill

 
Bill and Virginia

“Touch Me” because Masters and Jonson discover the cure for impotence is non-sexual touch. At least, it worked for Bill. As the season ends they are trying it on Lester and Barbara. Lester and Barbara have become a couple; they share a bed on occasion, but they never attempt sex. Bill tells them they must try because sex is too important to live your whole life without it. 

Libby and Robert

The breakthrough they have discovered through their self-experimentation is that a couple must  spend several weeks touching and holding each other, but no genital touching.  After that, they spend a few weeks where genital touching is allowed, but no actual sex acts even if the man achieves an erection. Finally, they may proceed to actual sexual.  By that time the man is no longer rendered impotent by the anxiety of fearing that he cannot achieve an erection. I also think that the intimacy of sloe physical contact over a period of many weeks strengthens the emotion bonds between the two people.

Libby and Robert

It’s ironic that bill tells Lester that sex is too important to forgo. His poor wife, Libby has not had sex in years. Not until she seduced Robert on her kitchen floor. Robert is very leery of a relationship with someone “so far out of his world.” Libby shows up at his apartment late one night and despite Robert’s protestations, that their last coupling was a mistake, she seduced him again.  She can no longer live without touch.

Flo and Austin

Flo and Austin

Flo and austinare doing plenty of touching and humping. Flo mentions that she has to go to a party in celebration of John F. Kennedy’s inauguration. It turns out she is from a very political family. Austin wants to go to this party because a lot of bigwigs will be there. He offers to do Flo the favor of being her date for the evening.  She turns him down. Austin is stunned—he considers himself to be a catch--very good looking and as he points out to Flo, a doctor. It doesn’t matter. Flo does now want him to meet her family because he is the male equivalent of the dumb blonde.  He is someone she can bed, but not be seen with in public.

The whole relationship between Flo and Austin has been about role-reversal--The female boss sexually harassing her male employee and forcing him to have sex with her as the price of keeping his job. And now the ultimate twist—he is nothing more than a “dumb blonde.” The writers have turned the tables on the stereotypes, and it is delicious fun.   

Virginia and George and the Kids

Just as I thought, Virginia has lost custody of her children. Her ex-husband  and father of her children, George has remarried. And reformed. He has a steady job and his new wife, Audrey, has a talent for parenting. First George insisted that Virginia allow the children to go with him and Audrey on a European trip for six weeks since he would be touring with a band and it would be a wonderful experience for the children to see Europe

Now George has decided that he wants the children full time. He intends to take her to court and argue that she is an unfit mother because she works long hours and is not spending enough time with the children, her work involves watching people fornicate, and she is having an affair with her boss. Virginia vigorously denies all three accusations, especially the one about the affair. Nonetheless, she realizes that she could very well lose if she goes to court because in addition to all of the above, George had never signed a legal custody agreement.  

Virginia decides it is best if she allows George to have custody and she will have a visit on Wednesday night and every other weekend. She convinces herself that this will be temporary. Once the interview with CBS airs her reputation will be restored. I think this was just a fantasy that she spun to ease the pain of letting the children go, but she strongly believed it.

The CBS Interview

Only the CBS interview did not air. It seems the rival doc in California got on TV first and CBS decided not to air the Masters and Johnson interview because now it was “old news.”   Virginia is devastated because she now realizes that she will never et her children back. And to really rub it in—who is the partner of this upstart doctor?—none other than Ethan. In a way, Ethan has had revenged on Bill for firing him and on Virginia for rejecting him.

Bill never wanted the interview he and Virginia did to air on TV. He thought it demeaned their work. His gambit was to let the other doctor go first with shoddy work and then he could still be “first” with his scientifically valid findings.

Barton is Back
The shocker comes in the last few minutes of the show. Bill is having a drink in a bar and is old friend and mentor, Dr. Barton Scully joins him.  We discover that Bill had gotten in touch with Barton and asked for two favors. The first favor was to see an advance copy of the rival’s new book, “Sex and Man” Bill read it and concluded it was not very good. The next favor was to arrange the TV interview with the rival doctor.     

Bill confides in Barton that he did this behind Virginia’s back, but he never meant to hurt her. Barton who has been hurt by Bill’s manipulative ways in the past says with great sadness, “You never do.”     

 

You Always Hurt the One You Love

Bill doesn’t mean to hurt people, but everyone he touches does get hurt as a result of his actions.

 

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Masters of Sex #211 "One for the Money..."

Bill on Virginia
do a TV interview

“See Me!”

by Catherine Giordano

 

My review and recap for episode 210 of Showtime’s “Masters of Sex” was titled “Fix Me.” The title for episode 211—“One for the Money, Two for the Show” has to be “See Me.”  A lot of the characters are feeling like they are invisible, like they are misunderstood, like they are not appreciated.

The TV Interview

The main event in the episode is a TV film crew at Dr. Masters’ offices.  In an effort to get publicity for their work, a P.R. consultant has arranged for them to be interviewed for “Sixty Minutes.”  Virginia is totally comfortable with this. Bill is not. He feels that he is being asked to be inauthentic because it will make for “better TV.” He wants to be seen as his real self; he wants his work to be portrayed honestly. 

Bill is particularly annoyed that during the warm up, he is told many times “You can’t say that on TV.” The clinical terms for sex, like “”orgasm”, are taboo. Bill protests that this is exactly what his work is about-abolishing the shame and secrecy concerning sex.  Masters and Johnson will largely succeed at that, but not this time.  The taboos remain in place for the interview.



Flo wants Austin to role play

Flo and Austin

Flo is also someone who wants to be seen for who she truly is. She and Austin are having sex twice a week, but they don’t see each other. Flo tells Austin about how Clark Gable in “Gone with the Wind” is every girls (and woman’s) fantasy. She wants him to role play with her—break into her home and drag her by her hair to the bedroom and ravish her. Austin makes a lame attempt—his job at Cal-O-Metric depends on his ability to keep his boss, Flo, happy in the bedroom, but he just can’t work up enough enthusiasm. Flo desperately wants to be the kind of woman who is so desirable that men lose all control around her. It how she sees her self—on the inside anyway—but no one else can see her that way. 

Libby and Robert



Robert and Libby and
one very pissed policeman.

Libby has spent her whole life being “the good girl.” She feels invisible. She works diligently at CORE, but she feels Robert, who heads up the office just sees her as a “do-gooder” with nothing much to contribute.  One night, Robert gives her a ride home and they are sitting outside her home in his car for a moment discussing Martin Luther King. A policeman comes by, none to happy to see a black man with a white woman. He is itching to cause trouble for Robert. All he can see is a black man with a white woman. Libby defies the policeman and says, Robert will not be on his way because she has invited him in. Robert goes in with her because it would be dangerous for him to be left alone with that policeman.

Robert is very wary about being alone with a white woman. He wants to leave, but Libby starts pouring her heart out to him about how she is invisible. She asks him to kiss her. If he kisses her then maybe she can feel as if she is seen. Robert is reluctant, so Libby kisses him.  And then nature takes its course—right on the living room floor.. It is the passionate love-making that Flo wanted from Austin and didn’t get.

We can’t blame Libby too much. She is a beautiful young woman and her husband has not made love to her in a year, maybe two years by now. I only hope this does not turn out badly for Robert. Remember back in season one when Libby invited a young black man into her home for dance lessons. All they did was dance, and any nosy neighbors thought he was just the handyman doing repairs. It may not work out so well this time.    



Compare this earlier scene
 to the scene in this episode.

Virginia and Bill

The most intense scene involved Bill and Virginia alone in the medical office.  Bill, after an exhausting day of pretending for the cameras, can’t contain his self-loathing anymore. He feels like a failure as a doctor because e hasn’t been able to cure anyone of sexual dysfunction. His sexual impotence has made him feel like less than a man. He can’t imagine what a beautiful woman like Virginia sees in him. He has a total emotional breakdown in front of the bewildered Virginia. 

All Virginia can do is cradle him in her arms as they sit on the floor, perhaps at the same moment that Libby and Robert are making love on the floor). She holds his head in her lap as he lays in fetal position, a scene that reminds me of an earlier episode when she embraced him post-coitus. “I’m here.” “I’m here.” She says it over and over. She is telling him and she knows him completely and sees him completely and accepts him completely.    

See Me
It’s what we all want and it is all we want: To be seen and to be loved.  

 

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