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Masters Of Sex Review: “Kyrie Eleison” (Season 2, Episode 2)

Fitting for its name, Masters of Sex has never been a show that shies away from the more explicit details of what goes on in the bedroom, or from showing the skin of its own stars. “Kyrie Eleison,” this week’s chapter in the Masters-Johnson bio-drama, may be the show’s first episode to subside with scintillating sex onscreen. Regardless, it is one of the most revealing episodes thus far. And, if industry rumors are correct, it is leading up to one heck of a “bottle episode” next week.

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Rose’s unruly mother, played by Melinda Page Hamilton, is almost hysterical. Her daughter’s reckless nymphomania brings her shame and she tries to persuade Bill to sterilize her daughter. Rose reacts poorly, just aching to know what is wrong with her constant drive for sex. As Bill realizes, this could just be the new pathway the study deserves. In a predictable but still moving scene, Betty comes in to give Rose some comfort and advice. Apted frames this dialogue mostly with Rose reflected in the mirror next to Betty, as if to show how it is like the prostitute talking to her younger self. (With Annaleigh Ashford now a regular in season two, perhaps we have witnessed the first glimpses of a more permanent bedside manner at Memorial Hospital.)

Speaking of another season regular, Teddy Sears’ Dr. Langham takes a swing at Virginia this week, noting how they are both “lone wolves driven from the pack because [they] refuse to conform.” While working on his metaphorical pick-up lines, he also seems to continue to embrace the call for casual sex – and considering his wife is now in the same city of the hotel where Bill and Virginia are continuing their fling, it is perhaps a bit too easy to see where this story is headed.

“Kyrie Eleison” is all about the different positions of power that women want – interestingly; this episode is credited to David Flebotte, a man from Ashford’s very female-oriented writers’ room. Coral and Rose are both coddled by parental figures that try to shame the younger woman’s parental or transgressive power. The episode also focuses on two other women trying to grip power while in a scattered state. The first is Barbara Sanderson, played by Breaking Bad’s Betsy Brandt. She is Bill’s secretary but is anxious and disorganized, clearly over her head for a man of such a standing. It is amusing to watch Brandt try to compose herself while in a disoriented, unprepared state.

The other woman failing to seize power is DePaul, whose cancer has metastasized. Virginia tries to get her boss to work on a public service announcement regarding the pap smears. However, DePaul fumbles the words, speaks inexpressively and looks completely stiff on camera. DePaul is having a hard time being the face of her crusade – and her lack of experience with make-up does not make an on-camera speech any easier to watch. Given Virginia’s confidence with the same material, it is strange that she does not just stand in for a doctor she knows has anxiety, but perhaps she does not want exposure – especially after the speculation from the arousing footage from her study. (Maybe Betty can help out here, as well?)

Nevertheless, Julianne Nicholson continues to remind us just how outstanding this subplot has turned out to be, giving a bruised performance as a woman trying and failing to stand upright and fight for her cause. Apted films DePaul at a few points as the characters hides her head or has her back to the camera, which only makes the character’s naked reactions even more heartbreaking when we see them in close-up.

“Kyrie Eleison” is an episode full of power struggles, one so superbly acted and filled with new characters and new shades of characterization that it almost makes us forget how infrequently Bill and Virginia – who, went together, are the main surge of electricity in the series – see each other. The study may be halted, but the character studies on Masters of Sex remain just as fascinating.