Showtime's Masters of Sex - Episode 2.09 "Story of My Life"
Masters bristles at Frank's insinuations about his and Estabrooks' demons. Virginia continues to impersonate a patient's case history to glean advice from a psychiatrist. Betty and Masters attempt to remedy Lester's impotence by hiring a prostitute. Barbara wrestles with an unsettling diagnosis that exposes a chain of secrets and causes Masters and Johnson to clash over their treatment strategy.
From the very beginning, Bill Masters has been a very buttoned-up personality. He has a tough exterior to crack. He's looking forward and not dwelling on the past. He has one singular focus: the study. And that also brought along with it an actual intimate connection to Virginia. "Story of My Life" deals with the struggles all of the characters face about knowing when to speak up. Bill has this very tragic backstory of abuse by his father. When Frank came back into his life last week, it was to be expected that there would be a shared connection. And yet, it angers Bill so much that Frank is open to talking about it. Bill hasn't dealt with his issues. His own wife doesn't even know what happened in his past that makes him so closed off to personal connection. Frank has found a way to deal with it. It's a struggle that he'll have to carry every day - and there will be good days and bad days - but he's coping with it. Bill doesn't see the necessity of rehashing things from the past. He looks at everything from a physical point of view. Fixing that side of thing won't fix everything but it will immensely help. But that idea strongly goes against the monologue Frank gave last week about plastic surgery only being able to fix the outside and not the inside.Similarly, it immediately felt like a bad idea when Virginia went to a psychiatrist posing as Barbara last week. She accounts the same exact story but without the emotional connection. She's given advice that she then wants to use on Barbara even though she's ill-equipped to deal with the fallout of said actions. Additionally, she struggles with keeping up the facade of Barbara when she's much more comfortable at looking towards her own past for material to discuss in their sessions. She has never discussed her intimate relationship with Bill with anyone else who she is willing to actually listen to. She is forced into self examination. She is hurting Libby. She can't be blinded by the name of the study any longer. They haven't been recording their sessions in a long time. They go to the hotel and she performs for Bill. He gets to go home to Libby and as long as she doesn't find out it's not wrong. But it is wrong. And yet, Bill has managed to spin a new way to keep the arrangement alive by revealing his sexual dysfunction to Virginia. It's hard for him to reveal that to the women he loves. He can't be with her in the sexual way he wants. And that story should offer up some fun back-and-forth between all the different pairings of impotency the show is currently dealing with.
And yet, Libby remains a vital piece of the equation. Virginia can't even stand to be around her when the two briefly bump into each other as Virginia is getting ready to confront Bill and Libby is getting the strength to go into the CORE offices to join. Libby is bound to get hurt eventually. But the show is not at that crossroads just yet. It seemed like she might have been going in that direction especially as Pauline went on about not noticing things about her husband and then finally making a decision that ultimately made her a much better person. That's exactly describing the position Libby is in. Bill and Libby are suffering from the exact same problems Frank and Pauline were. And yet, they found a way to deal with it while Bill and Libby are just at a loss. Libby can't do anything to help with the investigation of the guy dropped out of the car. But she also desires something in her life completely her own and which can make her a much better person. And CORE could be that for her.
Some more thoughts:
- "Story of My Life" was written by Amy Lippman and directed by Jeremy Webb.
- Bill, Virginia and Libby all working in the same building together could be very interesting very quickly.
- It doesn't seem like Barbara is improving any even though Virginia is trying her hardest to help. In fact, things only seem to be getting worse for her. Bill can't ease the physical symptoms and now she recalls that she was the one who initiated the incident with her brother from her youth.
- Similarly, Lester's problems aren't going away either despite Bill and Betty hiring a prostitute to help him overcome his issues. And yet, he's not comfortable with being a part of the study. He wants to maintain some professionalism.
- Lastly, Frank hints that Estabrooks may be drinking a bit too much lately. Whatever it takes to keep Ann Dowd on the show!
