Masters of Sex S2E5 - "Giants" Recap

Libby visits Virginia and brings the baby along. Libby is struggling with Bill's decision to take a job at a "negro hospital" and asks Virginia if they know what the two of them are doing. Virginia appears shocked at first, thinking she's asking about the affair. In actuality, it's whether or not the doctors at Maternity Hospital know that Bill and Virginia will be taking their study to Buell Green. Libby thinks that this job will look bad and she cares a great deal about the opinions of others.

Virginia meets Bill at the hotel and he gives her a key to her new office at Buell Green. She is offended by the fact that he made this decision without speaking with her first. She won't jump in blindly without him laying out the specifics in a contract. She has her children to think about and given how quickly he's been hopping hospitals, she is not about to risk her financial stability. Virginia tries to say that she could easily keep up her work with Lillian but Bill then drops the bomb on her: Lillian knows about their affair.

Betty and her husband, the Pretzel King, take their first steps towards mending their relationship. They make plans to adopt children and love them as if they were their own.

When Virginia next meets Lillian, she initially passive-aggressively refuses to answer the phone. She then asks Lillian what it matters what she does outside the office since it doesn't affect the quality of her work. Lillian says it would matter to Libby and Virginia insists that they're simply participating in the study. The argument culminates in Lilian saying that Virginia would have always walked out on her research in favour of Bill's.

Virginia goes to meet Bill at his new office. It's much smaller then he would like but he was also given the adjacent room to use as an exam room, which angers his new colleague Dr. Franklin. The room had been his office before Bill came along. Bill tells her he has gotten the employment contract for her. She asks if their personal participation in the study is an unwritten condition of her employment there. He tells her yes, it's part of the job. Virginia keeps her cool but she seems shaken by how right Lillian was. She then says that their research should continue at the hotel instead of the exam room.

Bill and Virginia's next meeting at the hotel is all business, as Virginia is determined to prove a point. She sits in a chair with a clipboard in hand, telling Bill to strip off his clothing, stay standing, and touch himself. She tells him to begin as she clicks on a stopwatch and times him, taking notes all the while, asking if his closing his eyes is standard behaviour. She's talking to him like a proper participant in the study. She asks what he's thinking about and he replies, "You." She then tells him to stop and calls him forward. She stands and puts him on his knees, telling him to remove her garters and stockings, and has him go down on her. The next day at the office, things are awkward.

Libby is visited by Coral's boyfriend Robert. He brings up the lice incident in which Libby had forcibly washed Coral's hair. He is calm, polite, but is able to communicate to her that she not mistreat Coral again, and will continue to ask Coral how her day is going, expecting to hear "fine" every time.

Bill is struggling with his patients. One woman is scared to park her car in "this neighbourhood." Bill and Virginia do their best to reassure her and keep her focused on the priority at hand, which is her fertility treatment.

Libby tells Coral about her boyfriend visiting and "threatening" her. Libby patronisingly tries to play the role of mother-figure. She suggests that Coral stop seeing this boy. Coral admits that Robert has a temper but then says that when it's late at night, all the bad stuff just "goes away." She makes it clear that Robert is a skilled lover and says that surely she can understand that that is hard to leave. She's not about to let Libby try to manipulate her. Coral is able to throw in a sly dig over the fact that Bill and Libby sleep in separate twin beds. Coral is living within a system that greatly lowers her but she knows how to play the game within the existing parameters. Coral has a man that can sexually please her and Libby does not.

Virginia finds that someone is stealing and throwing away the fliers advertising their study. She also asks Bill if they will be including black patients in their study. Bill says of course they will and that their physiology is the same, with the only different in those patient being melanin. Virginia then receives a call from one of their patients that has cancelled with no intention to reschedule.

Libby tries to create an excuse for her and Bill to have make-up sex, clearly still shaken after her conversation with Coral. He performs a painfully awkward sexual session with her. It's slow, mechanical, and all-around cringeworthy. Libby later tells Coral that she no longer has to worry about making hers and Dr. Master's beds and that she will take care of it herself from now on.

Bill later has to break up a fight between a white husband a black husband sitting in the waiting room and he ends up accidentally getting punched in the crossfire. He is horrified by the white man's behaviour and recounts the details of the incident to Libby at home as she tends to the wound on his face. She takes the opportunity to tell Bill about the "large, coloured man" that came to the house and threatened her regarding her treatment of Coral. Bill is sympathetic at first, saying if he'd been home he would have defended her. But when she lets it slip that she forcibly washed Coral's hair, he is no longer sympathetic. He is appalled at her actions and says that she got off lightly, saying that if someone had done that to her, that person's face would look how his currently did. He tells her she should apologise.

A new character is introduced tonight, Helen (played by Sarah Silverman). She is Betty's ex-lover, deserted when Betty decided to chase the Pretzel King in order to have a stable heterosexual life. Things didn't end well between the two and now Helen wants to try to get back into Betty's life. She visit the Pretzel King, and charms him to the point that he decides to set her up with a friend of his. At the double date, they're having a cryptic conversation entirely different from what the men think is actually being said. They later share a kiss in the ladies' room. It's unclear as to whether this means there will be yet another extra-merrital affair happening on the show, but it certainly appears to be heading in that direction.

When Bill returns to the hospital, he finds that the waiting room has been segregated. Though the labels are simply by doctor, this of course is a way to separate the whites from the blacks. Bill is not in favour of this system.

Lillian and Virginia begin to mend their relationship after Lillian suffers from a fall due to her worsening health. Virginia picks her up and brings her home. Lillian decides that she's no longer capable of being an effective doctor and will resign from her position at Maternity. Lillian admits that she's scared about what lies ahead and therefore can't afford to be upset at Virginia any longer.

Robert arrives to pick up Coral and bring her home and Libby comes out to speak with him. She apologises to him and admits she overreacted regarding Coral, blaming it on the post-baby hormones. Robert says that she should be apologising to Coral, who walks over right then. Robert tells Coral that this is a lesson in white people's inability to take responsibility for their actions. Libby is offended that he has brought her race into the conversation. Not so fun, is it, Libby? She shouts after them that her husband works at the negro hospital. It's the same nonsensical argument as the modern-day one: "I'm not racist; I have a black friend."

Bill meets with the hospital executive, Charles, regarding the conflicts in their time at the hospital. Charles says he has too much he wants to accomplish to ease people into doing what they should. He says that just as Bill forced people to see the importance of his work regarding the study of sex, they need to move the hospital and history forward by integrating the hospital. He cites a speech Martin Luther King, Jr. made about the potential St. Louis had and asks Bill if he will help make integration a priority at Buell Green. Bill puts the responsibility on Virginia, as she is the one he deems the expert on relating to patients. After Charles leaves, Bill tells Virginia that civil rights are not his fight but he sees nothing wrong with their work being helpful towards that cause.

Masters of Sex airs on Sundays on Showtime at 10PM.