TV Recap: Masters of Sex - "Asterion"

Welcome to the weekly recaps of the Showtime series Masters of Sex that follows the history of Dr. William Masters (Michael Sheen) and Virginia Johnson's (Lizzy Caplan) actual studies of sex. Make sure to tune in every Wednesday for a dissection of the week's episode as well as thoughts of the show in general as well as potential thoughts of where things are headed. Also, please feel free to check out my recaps on Orange is the New Black every Saturday.

Plot: It is five months from the previous episode. Lester Linden (Kevin Christy) is returning from a hiatus to find Masters and Virginia working in a high class building that used to be a haberdashery. Betty DiMello (AnnaLeigh Ashford) is now their secretary. Things are going smoothly. Dr. Langham (Teddy Sears) has Lester record his friend's bachelor party for kicks, which Masters is in attendance of. While he is getting ready, Libby Masters (Caitlin Fitzgerald) argues with him about his desire not to take money from his mother (Ann Dowd). The bachelor party goes off without a hitch as Lester records and a novelty-sized cake is used for erotic goodies. This is sidetracked when Masters decides to have a conversation with Virginia in their hotel room about how she feels useless because she has nobody to go home to. Langham tries to get back with his wife, but it doesn't work out. During a birthday party, Masters reconnects with his mother and realizes that the reason he didn't get money was because she was proud of him and didn't want to seem desperate. Libby is planning a trip with plans to have Virginia and her family tag along. Barbara Sanderson (Betsy Brandt) wants to work for Masters because she is having physical problems.

Rating: 4.5 out of 5

Left to right: Michael Sheen and Lizzy Caplan

Just like that, Masters of Sex throws a curve ball. Where we have seen the story progress almost in a singular fashion, things don't take long to begin moving forward by months. Do we need to know how Masters and Virginia landed their new location? Nope. Do we need to know the final downfall of Betty's marriage? Nope. Everything is already assumed by the time that the scene opens up on Lester as he returns to do business and record footage of the sex studies. Things even seem to be all set in place with Betty doing secretary work and the whole operation having a nice new location. Even the fact that the Masters family now has TWO children is a jarring sign of how things are going. The Libby/Masters dynamic has to have had some progression in order to pull that off. Also, to have Virginia and Libby in the same scene is quite something.

It is also nice because the season so far has been great, but at times like a retread of the first. We see the operations crumble and the studies lose focus due to societal interference. The only real difference is that each frame now has a sense of purpose attached to it. The season has explored a lot of racial as well as personal politics for the time, and now it is time to focus on business. That is, until things quickly turn south with yet another theme for the episode: The anchor. There has to be something out there to ground us all and make us feel whole.

It comes clear in Libby's confrontation with Masters that states that "Everyone suffers." For Libby, it is the stubbornness of her husband not wishing to acknowledge his mother due to personal tiffs. For Virginia, it is the longing for companionship, which may get her back together with Masters. Even the rarely seen Dr. Langham gets his own conflict when he can't back together with his ex-wife, who is present in an erotic film that is shown at the bachelor party. Nobody is satisfied with their life. In fact, the only real resolution comes when Masters is confronted by his mother and is forced to discuss whether or not the money was a dismissal of his capabilities.

Kevin Christy

The drama present in this episode is a refreshing change of pace that continues to prove why the show is excellent. It jumps forward in time and ends up not having to answer questions. It lets us figure them out. While this may be complicated to those not attentive, they are profound statements on how time changes (or doesn't)  us. Yes, we are again faced with  a potential new study office yet again due to financial woes, but at least there is something else in the picture. Masters has two kids now and a wife who gets along with Virginia. There's a lot to be happy about and for the moment, everything seems fine at the end of the episode. Like Lester capturing the thoughts on camera, it looks wholesome and the resolution places almost cinematic as it fades into the credits. 

So what exactly is in store for Masters of Sex for the remaining four episodes? Maybe this will become the start of a series of jump cuts to the future. Since this history is already intricately chronicled, there is no need to worry about these being desperate time jumps. We may miss a few things as a result, but that doesn't mean that things are over. Maybe the whole season is building to Masters ditching Libby. That would be tragic, given that they now have two kids and look to be a happy family. However, it is what's in the history books. Nonetheless, it is exciting to see what happens and hopefully we'll get something new and exciting in a season that has been about the people behind the studies as opposed to the studies themselves.