What “All Together Now” does best, even disregarding the credit sequence, is sex-related humour. There is joy watching a flushed Dr. Masters mention the Kama Sutra to Virginia, and some playful banter when Virginia and Dr. Haas discuss the details of their first time. Of all places, this latter scene takes place in the backseat of a car that our female protagonist buys (and which may make a steamy appearance in episode eight).
However, it is likely that the dirty jokes and crude dialogue maybe stuck a bit harder this week since much of the rest of the episode was so mawkish. A moment where some homophobes provoke and attack the Provost for parking in an alleyway where homosexuals frequent, only to have his prostitute friend save him, was cartoonish and laughable. Another scene that looked forced was when Libby approaches Dr. Haas, sullen and desperate to use some of her husband’s frozen sperm and give another shot at being a mother.
As I have argued since episode two, Caitlin FitzGerald is the show’s most valuable actor. Although she transcends this stilted, exposition-heavy scene because she brings such poise and empathy to the part, there is little point of reiterating what the viewer already knows. A long-winded plea to Dr. Haas does not quite have the poignancy that her stares at adorable children have had in past episodes.
This moment did not need to be so clunky, nor do other confrontations between other couples – the Scullys, Masters and Johnson – where they go over aspects of each other’s lives the audience is privy to already. It seems as if the characters are just reiterating the plot points to catch up new viewers. When Dr. Langham starts speaking about his Freudian relationship to his therapist at the end, it feels too easy. Why can’t the writers mine the cores of these characters in a more creative way?
When Virginia tells Bill that she has “always been able to separate sex from love,” it does not reveal anything that we (or Dr. Masters) were not informed about already. Some of the dialogue, as a result, lies there and slackens the momentum of the scenes. The performances on Masters of Sex are so finely tuned that some (but not all) of the writing miscues may be forgiven. However, “All Together Now” is an episode with an inadequate title to fit how one would evaluate the quality of the series.
