Masters of Sex - Recap: You Have to Trust Me

Whereas "Fight" confined Bill (Michael Sheen) and Virginia (Lizzy Caplan) to a room to work out the trust issues they have with each other, "Dirty Jobs" mostly keeps them separate as they fight through the trust issues they have with other people. On the one hand, Bill has to deal with Libby (Caitlin FitzGerald) rightly calling his priorities into question despite his insistence that she needs to trust him, while Libby herself must deal with her own mistrust of Coral (Keke Palmer). Meanwhile, Virginia finds herself facing trust issues on two fronts: from Lillian (Julianne Nicholson) and Langham (Teddy Sears), both of whom want her to admit to her affair with Bill. Virginia denies her affair with Bill to both, and in the case of Lillian, it costs her a friend and a job. In the case of Teddy, however, it simply shifts the responsibility of coming clean to Bill, who must deal with Langham's probing inquiries and unsolicited marriage advice. It's strange, then, how it all comes together by the end of the episode, as all these collapsing matters of trust result in Bill taking the sex study to an all-black hospital. "Dirty Jobs" ultimately proves to be a worthy successor to "Fight," and a winning installment in a stellar second season for Masters of Sex.

Credit: Showtime

So the difficulties this week all start when Langham sees Bill and Virginia at the hotel one night and deduces that they're having an affair. Virginia is able to nimbly explain to him that they're merely working on the study in private, but a series of miscommunications between a drunk Langham and a drunker Lillian brings him to the conclusion that Virginia and Bill have been together since the beginning. This miscommunication not only leads to Langham assuming the worst about Bill and Virginia, it also results in Lillian discovering the truth -- a truth that leaves her feeling betrayed by her one and only friend. Lillian had respected Virginia for being like her, a woman who didn't need to hitch her wagon to a man to get ahead in life.

But upon discovering that Virginia has been sleeping with Bill, Lillian feels she's been fundamentally misled about the kind of person Virginia really is, which makes her leery about leaving her the Pap Smear study. Lillian even gives Virginia a chance to come clean about Bill, desperately looking for Virginia to show the same trust in her that she's shown in Virginia. But nothing comes of it, as Virginia clings to her secret, and it's a great bit of acting from both Nicholson and Caplan. We can see just how badly Lillian wants Virginia to come clean, and we can see just how hard Virginia is fighting the urge to let it all out. The trust, however, is irretrievably lost, and so Lillian hands over the study to Dr. Georgios Papanikolaou (Rene Auberjonois). When Virginia learns of this, she feels betrayed and -- most of all -- perplexed, since now Lillian won't get any credit for her work in the history books. But, in one of the most stinging digs of the episode, Lillian tells Virginia that she's not in medicine simply to see her name on a study. The trust between Lillian and Virginia has been broken, and the gloves are off.

Credit: Showtime

And things aren't going much better for Bill either. His study is being compromised by the lusty, prurient gaze of Dr. Greathouse (Danny Huston), who insists on sitting in on the female masturbation sessions. His sexual interest in these sessions unsettled Masters, and downright infuriates him once Greathouse brings in a bunch of fellow doctors to watch later when a pretty girl's turn comes. Bill is incensed and tells Greathouse that his work is a scientific study, not some stag film for a fraternity. However, Greathouse puts his foot down, saying that the colleagues will be allowed to stay, and he will also drop all future talk of bringing Virginia on-board the project, since she's a glorified secretary. Of course, Greathouse tries to argue he's refusing to recommend Virginia to the board for his own good, since Bill's desperation to have Virginia on the study makes him look like a man who thinks with his penis instead of his head. But things quickly get out of hand when one of Bill's colleagues in the observation room offers him some Chinese food to go with the show, causing Bill to snap. He shoves the food in the man's face, then hauls off and strikes Greathouse twice, leaving him with a bloody lip. Bill is immediately fired, as Greathouse has lost his trust in Bill's willingness to play ball, every bit as much as Bill has lost whatever trust he had in Greathouse not to be a massive jerk about this study.

But the bigger trust issues are at home, as Libby flips out on Bill upon discovering he's lost yet another job. She feels he's prioritizing the study above providing for his family, and having been confronted the night before by Langham -- who warns Bill about letting his affair with Virginia consume him -- Bill fears he might be losing his family. In one of Sheen's best moments in the show, Masters has an outright panic attack, hyperventilating and fighting back tears as he promises that all he ever thinks about is how to provide for Libby and little Johnny. He needs her to trust him, to have faith that everything will work out for them, and it's clear, at some level, that he's saying this as much for himself as for Libby. Despite my issues with the sudden, inexplicable change in her character, I thought FitzGerald did a great job as well in making Libby justified in her anger. In the argument with Bill, Libby goes from blindingly furious (to the point of frantic tears) to suddenly reassuring once Bill starts to break down. In this moment, her trust in him seems to be restored, albeit begrudgingly. She reassures him that he'll find a new job and that everything will be alright. And much like Bill, she seems to be saying it as much for herself as for the other person. Reassurance is hard to come by, and trust is even harder won, especially when you feel like you're losing control over your own life.

Credit: Showtime

It's similar, somewhat, to the difficulty Libby is having in exercising control over Coral. Libby insists on continuing to correct Coral's grammar, but when Libby is rude to Coral in front of guests, Coral retorts by openly flaunting her mispronunciation of the word "ask" ("aks"). Things get worse once Johnny contracts lice. Libby decides that Coral is the source of the outbreak, despite her insistence (backed up by Bill, surprisingly) that black people rarely get lice. So Coral refuses to use Libby's medicated shampoo, both out of pride and because she spends four dollars every week to get her hair done, and can't afford to get it done again. But Libby insists, giving Coral an ultimatum: either put the shampoo in now, or lose her job. So Coral gives in and allows Libby to wash her hair, all while Libby uses the insulting rhetoric of how they need to stick together and be on the same side. As a final indignity, Libby stuffs a five dollar bill into her hand so she can get her hair redone. Seeing Coral there with the money and her sopping, wet hair is a heartbreaking visual, but it shows how broken Libby has become over the lack of control in her own life, and the recognition that a baby wasn't going to fix things with her and Bill like she'd hoped.

In fact, this episode featured another couple that recognized how babies weren't actually going to fix things. Betty (Annaleigh Ashford) finally comes clean to Gene (Greg Grunberg) about her infertility, and the result is one of the most poignant scenes of the episode. Over dinner, Betty rationalizes her lie about saying Gene wouldn't have married her otherwise, since he just saw a "good, Christian woman" who would birth him "good, Christian babies." But Gene disabuses her of that notion by revealing that he's known all along about her past as a prostitute, since he went to her when he was younger. In doing so, he fell in love with her and took it as a sign that they were meant to be together when he ran into her several years later. In essence, Betty has gotten it all wrong: Gene loved the real her, and wouldn't have cared about her inability to have kids. But now Betty's lie has compromised that love, to where Gene might not stick around, even though he described Betty as the love of his life. It's a storyline whose moral suggests that honesty really is the best policy, since you can never know another person's reaction to what you tell them until you actually do tell them. Both Ashford and Grunberg are terrific here, and I kind of hope we get more from this couple, even though they're only tangentially related to what's going on with Bill and Virginia. At the very least, they're more interesting than Virginia's ongoing subplot selling diet pills to housewives and working women by making them feel bad about themselves. That said, it does illustrate Virginia's easygoing ability to win the trust and confidence of others. It makes her invaluable to the study, in fact, as Bill finds that women suddenly aren't as willing to participate if it's just Bill alone. So it's certainly a good thing that Bill has seemingly secured a hospital in which he and Virginia can work without issue, even if it is an all-black hospital.

Credit: Showtime

"Dirty Jobs" is a worthy follow-up to "Fight," and if I had any doubts about the direction of Masters of Sex Season 2, the past two weeks have put those fears to be. Sure, we might not be back to the study just yet, but it feels we're en route to finally getting there, and that means a path fraught with complications for both Bill and Virginia. And that should make for some excellent drama. Put simply, Masters of Sex continues to be great TV.