Masters of Sex Season 2 Finale Review: Couples Therapy
Masters of Sex S02E12: "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised"
Much has happened since we last checked in with Masters of Sex way back at the start of Season 2. So much. I can't remember another TV show that's had so much cast turnover between its first and second seasons; in the case of Masters of Sex, Beau Bridges, Allison Janney, Rose McIver, and Hélene Yorke all moved on soon after the Season 2 premiere, and semi-regular guest star Greg Grunberg was out the door by midway through the season. Perhaps even more weirdly, many of the new big-name guests that were announced before Season 2 began—Danny Huston, Sarah Silverman, and Courtney B. Vance—only stuck around for a few episodes each. All this cast movement, combined with the show's predisposed desire (or necessity) to constantly jump forward in time, resulted in kind of a choppy 12-episode run.
At worst, this choppiness meant that Season 2 didn't spend much time with stories that seemed potentially very compelling (including Masters and Johnson running the study at the African-American hospital), but even when the show found a bit of stability in the back half, it took some time to rebuild the key arcs featuring the supporting players. Regardless, the center of Masters of Sex will always be the relationship between Masters and Johnson, and that never really faltered—cast departures and time jumps be damned. And frankly, many of the resolutions in the Season 2 finale, "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised," were so good that it's relatively easy to chalk up some of the earlier issues to growing pains and external conditions (it's not the show's fault that Bridges, Janney, and McIver all landed series regular jobs elsewhere after Season 1, after all).
As Season 2 neared its conclusion, Masters of Sex started humming thanks to a clear concentration on four central relationships: 1) Masters and Johnson, 2) Lester (Kevin Christy), the documentarian who returned from L.A. halfway through the season, and Barb (Betsy Brandt), a secretary at one of the hospitals the study called home earlier in Season 2, 3) Libby and Robert (Jocko Sims), leader of an African-American rights group in town, and 4) Austin and Flo (Artemis Pebdani), the bosslady at Calometric, the diet pill company that briefly employed Virginia. See, a lot has changed over these 11 episodes, right?
Masters and Johnson veered away from each other only to slowly work their way back, once again through the thinly veiled prism of "research." This time the focus was on solving the former's sudden impotence in the aftermath of their split; for a show that is, on the surface, focused on the body, many of Season 2's stories tackled issues of the mind and heart. Bill and Virginia had spent so much time lying without really lying about the purpose of their personal participation in the research that the break-up really did a number on them. Bill specifically struggled because he couldn't perform with any woman other than Virginia (and even then, there were some issues). The opening of "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised" efficiently illustrated how their emotional connection was key; as much it was occasionally difficult to watch Bill and Virginia B.S. themselves and everyone around them with regard to the nature of their relationship, it was twice as satisfying to see them start to admit that it's about more than the study for both of them.
Unfortunately, the progress made in the bedroom/laboratory wasn't also present in Masters and Johnson's other professional and personal engagements. Much of Season 2 displayed how the two of them were growing disconnected from everything else because of their ever-complicated personal relationship, and it all came to a head here. Virginia's commitment to the job (and to Bill) came at the expense of time with her kids, so much so that her ex-husband George was able to convince her to swap their custody arrangement so that he and his new wife would have them the majority of the time. While Virginia certainly hasn't purposefully ignored her children, the last few episodes of the season nicely showed how George was actually A) fit to take on the responsibility now that he has a new, loving wife, and B) right to question Virginia's attention to motherhood given her long hours and attachment to Bill.
Of course, Virginia thought she'd be able to get the kids back once her and Bill's big-time CBS News interview aired, only for that to come crashing down as well. Her gambit was that national attention would give her work the prestige necessary to fight George in court, which was always a terrible plan. Although Bill certainly cares about Virginia, he managed—through Bridges' Barton, who returned for the first time in ages—to kill the admittedly misguided and awful CBS report by funneling attention toward a less detailed but more accessible-to-the-mainstream research project at UCLA. And wouldn't you know, said project involves our long-lost buddy Ethan, who would surely love to ruin Bill and Virginia's life, kind of like they did to him at the end of Season 1.
In short, Bill destroyed what Virginia viewed as her only shot to keep her kids, without telling her, and almost entirely to keep the perception of the study under his control. It was a risk that signaled his dedication to the work, but as Barton mentioned, it was also one that acknowledged that he's still a selfish, somewhat detached asshole. Bill managed to reel Virginia back in by getting her to focus on the work, particularly their newfound directive to help couples with their various dysfunctions, and by giving her a white lab coat that's sort of representative of her role in that work, but damn, she's not going to be happy when she discovers he killed the story. They might be making it work in the bedroom, but those two have a long way to go to before they can call themselves a functional couple of any kind.
The stories with the other three couples were bumpier at times throughout Season 2, but like I mentioned above, they really found their groove by the end. Libby's political awakening with Robert grew into a sexual one last week, and this week, she couldn't sit idly by while he tried to break it off—especially as Virginia, the woman she knows is sleeping with her husband, complained about her familial problems. It was great to see the show start figure out what to do with Libby and Caitlin Fitzgerald, and it was even better to see the character finally openly admit to Robert that she knows about Bill and Virginia—and has known for a very long time. Libby's slow move toward independence and some semblance of personal satisfaction had to have been a tricky thing to pull off given that she's the third party in what is absolutely a very unfair love triangle, but it was one of the best parts of Season 2. Good stuff from both Fitzgerald and the guesting Sims.
Elsewhere, Masters of Sex had to find new stories for some of its straggling supporting players. With everyone else gone from the original hospital, Austin ended up in an odd but entertaining romance with Flo, a woman who took almost all of the power away from him in a nice turning of the tables for the once-serial cheater. That story was out on an island for much of its duration, but the scene in the finale where Flo admitted that she was a little embarrassed to show off her dumb blonde of a boytoy to her powerful, educated, and connected family was very funny. But the show probably found its most successful new pairing with the returning Lester and Brandt's Barb, two lonely people struggling with sexual dysfunctions that neither they—nor Masters or Johnson—could really do much about. You could see the show angling to put the two of them together from a mile away, but Kevin Christy and Betsy Brandt were so good as these lovable but (literally) broken people that it didn't matter. Their courtship was very sweet, and certainly better once the show allowed them to play off one another as opposed to just being devices in a larger story about sexual dysfunction. The final moments of the episode suggested big things for them, so hopefully they'll return.
Masters of Sex covered a lot of ground in its second season, burning through characters, subplots, and time, with a real fervor that we didn't quite see in Season 1. It didn't all come off without a hitch—the weird sequence of episodes with Virginia in therapy, pretending to be Barb but also mixing in her own issues, was kind of a mess—but it definitely showed great ambition. Most importantly, the back half of the season managed to rediscover that this is a show that works best when it digs into the fascinating, sometimes odd, and very personal relationship that two people share, whoever that pair may be. Until Season 3!
NOTES
– After Silverman and Grunberg left near the middle of the season, Annaleigh Ashford's Betty had almost nothing to do but deliver exposition and be charmingly funny. She's great at that stuff, but let's hope Masters of Sex finds an improved spot for her in what might be a less busy Season 3.
– Hugh Hefner called Bill. Now that would be a conversation I'd like to see.
– I loved how Bill and Virginia were disappointed in the edit of the CBS story, while Lester was mostly disgusted at the formal elements—the shots, the voiceover, etc. He later snobbishly argued to Barb that film shouldn't entertain, it should reveal the truth. Dude has definitely been reading some film theory late at night.
– Bill had a weird dream where he was JFK, Virginia was Jackie O, and Libby showed up in the middle of the street in a blood-red dress to literally ruin their parade. That was ominous, to say the least.
– I praised some of the supporting actors above, and even though it should go without saying: Michael Sheen and Lizzy Caplan are tremendous on this show. The scene where Virginia realized that she'd lost her kids and Bill comforted her while talking about the work was outstanding.
– There was really so much to cover with the season and even this episode, so if I missed anything crucial, don't be shy; bring it up in the comments.
What'd you guys think of the finale, and Season 2 as a whole?
