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Masters Of Sex Review: “Mirror, Mirror” (Season 2, Episode 8)

After the exceptional time-propelling hour of last week’s Masters of Sex, Showtime’s drama was pointing in a brand new direction, as if it had started a brand new season. Well, it turns out the sophomore year of the prestigious period drama is still inconsistent, with great scenes improving messy episodes and messy subplots dragging down great hours. “Mirror, Mirror” is not a bad hour of Masters of Sex at all, but it feels weightless and of little consequence. With acting this superb and characters this absorbing, it should be hard to completely discredit the episode; however, many of the plots are not as fulfilled as they could be.

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Speaking of plots that may not entirely work, “Mirror, Mirror” has a couple of strange moments and developments. Dr. Langham and the Cal-O-Metric saleswoman joining forces seems like a strange direction to take the former character, especially given his soul-searching plea to his former wife in “Asterion.” Meanwhile, just when we thought that the polarizing storyline featuring Libby and some veiled racism had faltered, she sees Robert (Coral’s brother) outside of her husband’s office. Of course, this cannot be ignored. She tries to help him get to the root of who ran over a respected African-American history teacher – although not before they have some awkward glances and pedal around the sensitive subject of race. (A very apt costume choice: Libby’s chokehold necklace at the fundraiser, a potent image for her lack of freedom – with the exception of lending her husband a good name and a potential board of trustees.)

The last half of season one and the first part of this season were bolstered by the show’s two finest subplots: the fractured marriage between Barton and Margaret Scully, and DePaul’s struggle with cancer. However, with those characters either adrift or gone, the show writers have not yet found a strong emotional hook to tether our interest. The entrance of an estranged brother could do the trick, but the ending leaves one ambiguous as to what awaits next week. Barbara feels like a meek substitute for DePaul, only meant to spur Virginia into looking into going back to school. Similarly, Francis and Lester feels like characters that exist less as their own autonomous creations than a vehicle to push Bill forward into broadening his study, or help him realize a void that is missing.

This episode is not a misfire by any means, although it is certainly in need of some stronger direction. There is a nice underlying theme: at the root of many of the characters this week is a feeling of sexual inadequacy, from the aforementioned Lester and Barbara to the pained reception of Francis – as impotent as his brother, he tells Bill of plastic surgeons that “they think it’s enough to fix the outside… that’s the easy part.” As much as some characters can wander through their lives looking prim and proper, we still do not realize the pain underneath. This lack of sexual fulfillment haunts many of season two’s characters – Betty, Dr. Langham, and even Libby, if you consider her reluctance toward Robert a sign of sexual hesitation.

However, these thematic threads do not have the same resonance when shown in small spurts over a season. For an episode titled “Mirror, Mirror,” Masters of Sex is only showing us small glimpses of how the dissatisfied emotional and sexual journeys of this cast of characters reflect each other.