Masters of Sex S2E12 (Season 2 Finale) - "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised" Recap

Bill and Virginia have have made substantial strides in their goal of curing Bill's impotence, through a process of seven nights of nonsexual touching, seven of sexual touching, and then seven of successful coitus. Bill is thrilled at this, dreaming that he is JFK, with Virginia as Jackie O. The dream is a great power fantasy that has them travelling down a street in a parade, until Libby appears, blocking the road and causing Bill to wake up.

Libby is thinking back to her passionate affair with Robert. Her feelings are conflicted, having enjoyed it a great deal, but feeling guilty just the same. When she heads into the CORE office, Robert stays discrete by not reacting any differently upon seeing her.

George has returned with the kids and tells Virginia he wants time with them. The trip went over well and he considers his new wife to be the ideal mother as opposed to Virginia and her long working hours. Now they'll have to reexamine their original custody agreement and unfortunately for Virginia, George never signed the original one so it is void. Virginia asks Herb for advice again and it's not looking too good since George has already contacted a lawyer and plans to smear her name and work in court to make her seem like an unfit mother so he can get his way.

Shep brings in a rough cut of the CBS documentary to show Bill, Virginia, and Lester. Bill and Lester are angered by its focusing on improving marital bliss instead of the biological and physiological findings on sex, while Virginia is more inclined to focus on the positive aspects of it, like it giving them an audience. Bill is further stressed by the fact that Dr. Kaufman has plans to release his book on a similar study in two months. Virginia believes that the audience they attract will be interested and then choose to read their work. In secret, Bill decides to try to call someone to dig up some dirt on Kaufman.

Libby visits Robert in the middle of the night. He's alone because Coral is in Atlanta to help fight for civil rights. Robert apologises for their affair but Libby gets upset by this. He suggests that he was only with her for the danger, and Libby counters this by saying that perhaps he was with her because he wanted her. He gives in and they go at it once more.

Virginia asks Libby for advice regarding her custody battle. Virginia thinks she'll have to quit her job to be with the kids but Libby thinks that this won't help her case with the judge. Libby begins to fear what would happen if she and Bill were to split up and how a custody battle would play out between them. The ladies agree that the most important thing is that children be safe, happy, and know they are loved.

Bill is still aiming to stop the documentary. He tries to get Lester to get back into the study to treat his sexual dysfunction. Lester doesn't see the need, as he now as Barb as his girlfriend. They go on dates together and have found their own way to be together without being sexual. Bill implores him to reconsider, saying that sex is as basic as breathing and that one's body will rebel if it is denied that. Bill then reaves Kaufman's draft of his book, Man and Sex. He doesn't seem that threatened by the content, as he doesn't see it as being particularly scientific. He becomes more confident that his study will outdo Kaufman's.

Bill is shocked to learn that Virginia has reversed her custody agreement with George. She will now only get her kids once a week and every other weekend. She has risked her claim to them on the success of their documentary. To make matters worse, they learn that another network will be airing a film about Kaufman and his "groundbreaking study on human sexuality and the book he will be publishing. Also, Kaufman's partner is Ethan, Virginia's ex. Virginia is emotionally distraught, blaming herself for the fact that they lost the documentary and that CBS won't be airing the film they shot. Her giving away her children will not be temporary as she had originally thought. The documentary was supposed to provide some legitimacy to her work. Bill does is best to comfort her, but only has himself to blame, as his actions led to CBS pulling the plug on the documentary. He had Kaufman's work leaked to another network.

Bill later meets with Barton, who as it turns out, was the one who got hold of the manuscript and leaked it on Bill's behalf. He didn't know that Bill hadn't told Virginia and scolds him for being bullheaded in his single-mindedness, thus hurting the people around him. Bill has done this before, in his blackmailing Barton to keep his study going while at Maternity, and says he'll likely do it again. Bill insists that he never meant to hurt Virginia and Barton simply tells him that he never does. Barton's back at work and still with Margaret. Though it's not easy, the couple is working through his being gay together.

When Robert tries to tell Libby that their affair must end, she laughs him off. She tells him Bill has been having an affair for years and she just always looked the other way. But now that she has met Robert, she wants to feel. This is quite the revelation, as we were always led to believe that Libby naively didn't know about Bill and Virginia.

But now Bill and Virginia are back to work, side-by-side, preparing to help Lester and Barb. They tell the couple that it will take the two of them working together and that will be the key to curing their dysfunctions.

Masters of Sex will return on Showtime for season 3.