At home, Elizabeth tries to arouse her husband, as a way to both give their lovemaking some extra juice and to prove to Masters, who has been spending much of his night around the whorehouse, that she can be spontaneous.
We also spend more time with the giddy men and women at the fertility clinic who are yearning for sexual liberation and instant chemistry – that which the study cannot provide them. Jane Martin (Heléne Yorke) and Dr. Austin Langham (Teddy Sears) had a pleasant time fornicating for Masters and Johnson in last week’s episode, and both get a real thrill out of seeing each other for the second time in this week’s instalment.
Even though Dr. Langham is married, he tries to convince her to “continue the study… just the two of us.” (I should note that Sears is a series regular, meaning we will be seeing more from him in future weeks.) Meanwhile, Jane is reading the provocative feminist text The Second Sex, and tells some friends over a lunch that she has gleaned some ideas about how she can be happy without needing a man.
In another subplot, Betty reveals to Dr. Masters that she wants him to reverse her tubes and grant her the chance to be fertile and have kids. Maybe Betty has been reading The Second Sex too. Masters of Sex creator (and episode writer) Michelle Ashford does a fine job making the supporting characters accurate reflections of the era, whether they be curious for self-liberation (like Jane and Betty) or horrified by the carnal knowledge of the time (one of the nurses, petrified by Ethan’s request for her to perform oral sex on him).
There are even hints that Johnson wills to be even more autonomous and work in the upper periphery of a man’s domain. An early shot of her has the camera positioned inside her fridge, demonstrating how she is still enslaved to the devices in her home. This opening sequence, intercutting between Jonhnson rushing her kids out the door to school and a fantasy sequence where she impresses Dr. Masters by refusing his proposal, bridges the character’s feelings of submission and Johnson’s desire to impress at an elite level.
The only moments where the episode really falters is the last few minutes, which features symbolism so heavy-handed and obvious it reads, especially with the terrific period details, like a lacklustre Mad Men episode. It occurs when Virginia starts reading Race to Space, the comic-book that her son was obsessing over through the episode. She reads about that story’s protagonist, a boy lonely on earth and reaching out for more, hoping to soar into the future and find happiness when he gets there.
As if an audience could not already notice the similarities between that character and Dr. Masters, the book’s page fades into a shot of the doctor, looking pensively out his window. It is a disappointing ending to an excellent, character-driven sophomore episode of Masters of Sex.
