The lights are also pretty low when Libby, now working as an assistant for Robert at CORE, heads out to help out tenants in the nearby projects. She is trying to patch up some of her more pitiful prejudices from earlier in her life, while also trying to warm up to Robert, who sees her white face as an affront to her efficiency with his campaign. “These folks take one look at you, they’ll close the door,” he asserts, giving Libby a taste of the medicine he is normally afforded. However, her success at that first canvassing effort could prove a big boon for the tired housewife.
Unfortunately, while that subplot keeps getting better by the week, the show now has a new low point of its season. The writers make the unfortunate decisions to have Flo force Dr. Langham into having a “special time” at her apartment. This wretched double standard brings an uncomfortable feeling throughout the episode – her exhaustive campaign to get Austin to submit to her sexually is indeed harassment. Had the genders in this scenario be reversed, it would be horrific; instead, we are treated to a groan-worthy coda of a cat on Flo’s couch, purring at Langham as he receives oral sex. For a series that has spent so much time recently going through how abuse, both violent and sexual, has long-lasting effects, it is utterly contemptible to feature a subplot featuring harassment that is played for comic relief.
Among all of the searing personal and family drama, mixed with the icky subplot involving Flo and Austin, there is one storyline that manages to mix the quirky humor with a more serious tone. It is in the sweet, mildly offbeat friendship between fellow “dysfunctional” patients Lester and Barbara. She talks openly about her sexual inhibitions, while he makes a confession of his own inadequacies to her. “I also have that condition,” she replies to Lester as he talks about his impotence. “I always thought it was God punishing me.” Pained and humiliated, the two characters have each other. Kevin Christy and Betsy Brandt give their damaged characters a lightness of touch that makes us root for the Godard-quoting filmmaker and the devout Christian to find greater companionship. Both are broken and looking for something more – she has abandoned some of her pure belief in God, he admits he wishes he could put his faith in something.
When the show interacts with the backstories of the damaged characters, Masters of Sex is haunting and heartbreaking. When it strains to find a comedic juxtaposition – the uncomfortable and deeply problematic sexual encounter between Flo and Langham, for instance – it doesn’t jibe with the rest of the tone or feel of the rest of the series. With two episodes of sexual intrigue and discovery primed to close off season two, can the Emmy-winning series find a way to blend both of its excellent qualities: the eccentric, liberating moments of comedy from season one, and the tragic consequences that curse many of the show’s “dysfunctional” characters this year?