In that hotel room, Bill and Virginia behave more like a married couple than we have ever seen from Bill and Libby. The sex comes up spontaneously and the conversations about each other’s day have detail. He tells her candid details about the feminized genitals of the boy he just delivered, something he would not discuss explicitly with Libby. Of course, due to the preludes from the other scenes, it is tough to ignore the themes that make their way, often in a heavy-handed way, into the thrust of their conversations.
The apathy Mr. Bombeck had toward his son, as we find out, disgusts Bill even more since it reminds him of his relationship with his estranged father. Bill’s dad, Francis, left his son at boarding school at age 14 to fend for himself. The first thing Bill did when he got to that school, he reveals to Virginia, is that he signed up for boxing classes. “Was it something you enjoyed with your father?” Virginia asks him. “I just wanted to learn to hold my own,” he replies, hinting that he was hoping to define his own masculinity, not that dissimilar to what Bombeck’s child may have to put up with in many years’ time.
Meanwhile, Virginia’s conversation with her daughter makes her even more eager to assert herself sexually and empower Bill. She is a bit uneasy when he surprises her in the bathroom, throwing her against the wall for a quick screw. To get back at him for that and for a rather demeaning moment when he just wants to take her again after looking at her naked body, she steps back and starts masturbating. The prince does not have his princess anymore, she thinks.
That boxing metaphor also rears its way into this hour of Masters of Sex a few times, even launching into a faux fight in the middle of the room, as Bill teaches Virginia how to spar. It is one of the only times in the episode when both characters are on the same level. They are also both wearing robes, like the ones boxers wear on the way to the ring. If we continue with the metaphor even further, we notice that Bill is rooting for Archie Moore, an African-American fighter who wants to keep the title – or retire from fighting, in the process. He tells Virginia that Moore is revved by the hatred of the people who do not like him for his skin color, a feeling of being an outcast that Bill now knows too well.
Director Michael Apted blocks “Fight” like a one-scene play, ensuring that the characters are usually in different levels or positions. Usually, one character is standing as the other sits, with the former in the position of control. One wishes Apted had shown more restraint and not cut so often to Bombeck’s newborn at points of pain and pressure, as he goes into surgery to ‘repair’ his genitals. It only labors the point that Bill and Virginia are putting their own kids through pain by continuing with this affair. (Even though Bombeck is a despicable parent, Bill and Virginia are not much better.)
“Fight” is also the first major episode of the series to foreshadow what the sex scientists will be like as parents. Notice how Bill perks up when Virginia calls him “my husband” while on the phone with room service, or her smile when she tries on his wedding ring. Notice how she flirts with him about the kind of man she would marry, as he tries to figure out if she is describing him. (Also, notice how Sheen looks just off to the side when recounting a heartbreaking story about his dad, as if he is in a different space entirely. Please notice this if you are an Emmy voter.) These moments test the waters for what a potential marriage between them would actually look like. When the show lingers on these moments, it achieves a brisk sense of satisfaction, especially for those who know where their relationship went in real life.
However, during the playful moments of sparring between the lovers, Lippman makes the metaphor too central. Of course, the relationship between boxing and sex has to come up in an episode like this, but not in a way that is so obvious. “When you invite a punch, you’re saying you can take it,” Bill tells Virginia, alluding to their tryst earlier that evening. “By playing weak, you’re saying I’m stronger than you.” Masters of Sex is content to let these connections be made perfectly clear, leaving no room for subtlety. Mad Men also had one of its finest episodes, season four’s “The Suitcase,” feature a boxing rout in the background, between Sonny Liston and Cassius Clay. However, the match was a small part of the episode that only casually found its way into the episode. In comparison to that episode’s nuance and wit, “Fight” feels like a sucker punch of heavy-handed metaphor.
