Now that the research between Masters and Johnson has begun in earnest. Johnson, within five minutes of the opening of the episode, is informing Masters that she didn’t orgasm because of the position; the missionary, as it turns out, is not “optimal for clitoral stimulation.” These scenes, in which Sheen and Caplan face off and discuss with attempted clinical detachment the, er, procedural elements of the study, are some of the best this show has to offer. Both of them are pretty good with poker face and carefully-chosen words; the sex, meanwhile, has all the sort of uncomfortable semi-tension you might expect should you ever find yourself having sex with your boss in the office not because you’re particularly attracted to him but because he’s asked you to as part of your job. One of the problems Masters of Sex will have, it seems to me, is making this particular kind of sex all that much fun to watch, but for now the awkwardness of it will do.
Libby, meanwhile, plots with Haas. She still wants to do the cervical capping because she’d like a baby. Haas, skeptical, can do it because he still has some frozen sperm. “I also want us to love something together,” she tells him, “to worry and take pride in something we have together.” The anvil drops; of course he has this with Johnson. But anyway Haas agrees to do it, on condition that Libby make sure she and Masters are getting it on, so that he doesn’t suspect Haas of interference. It doesn’t end up being that hard, because Gini tells Masters she won’t keep sleeping with him for the research if it ends up eventually costing him his marriage. So masters seems to use Gini to bring up his libido, and then take that home. It’s all a bit weird. I really wish they’d cut it out with Libby calling him “Daddy.”
Haas finds Johnson at a car dealership and offers to co-sign a loan for Gini’s new car; he’s still got the Scully girl kicking around as proof that he’s in another committed relationship, though in truth he mostly seems to like the way the Scully girl serves him and his brother dinner.
Margaret, meanwhile, has found Miscellaneous Blond Doctor (hereinafter “MBD”) again at a bar. Naturally, they end up hoofing it again; but thinking that her husband is away on a trip, she brings him home. In fact Scully has stopped to meet his lover in an alley. An extremely stereotypical, and possibly anachronistic, gay bashing ensues. “It’s where faggots come to get fucked,” a random tough tells Scully, before beating him. Luckily, Scully’s lover shows up at just that moment, all gay saviour with a broken bottle. Scully ends up patching himself up in the hospital, where Bill finds and helps him. And Scully grows closer to his lover, as a result.
Scully goes home and finds Margaret there with MBD. Instead of shoving MBD out a back door with pants in hand, Margaret goes out to meet Scully on the staircase and tells him to go to his own bedroom, signalling she has someone else in the house with her. Scully complies, but he tries to be stoic about it when Margaret confronts him the next day. She’s frustrated, but also falling in love with MBD: who hates and is alarmed by that, as he tells his analyst. My guess is he’s going to disappear soon, as they haven’t bothered imbuing him with a personality, in spite of this random psychologist scene.
Bonus: at the end of the episode, is that Masters and Johnson manage to have a simultaneous orgasm! That seems a little fast, but okay.