Masters of Sex returned last night with an excellent season two premiere that tried to cover a lot of ground to catch us up with what happened between Bill Masters and Virginia Johnson on that night when he showed up at her door in the rain and proclaimed that he couldn't live without her. We'll start with Bill. In the premiere, he's unemployed and having a hard time adjusting to his new role as a father. Quite an understatement actually, as he seems to be flat out hating it, ignoring the sound of Baby Johnny's crying and not wanting to be left alone with him while Libby goes out, even though as she points out to him, no one knows more about babies than he does. He actually turns up the music to drown out the baby's crying, which horrifies his mother Essie, whom he quickly sends running back to Ohio by confessing his continuing affair with GInny. He also keeps flashing back to that night at Ginny's where it turns out that she immediately invited him in and the two spent a torrid night together, free of all the wires and lab tables that had hindered every other time they'd had sex. No, this time it was different, and afterwards, when Ethan called, Ginny answered the phone to refuse his proposal and the move to California, telling him things had changed. Bill watched as she had the conversation in front of him, but as always, his emotions regarding Virginia are tough to read. Later on, he and Libby attend a fundraiser at another hospital, where Libby hopes he can get hired, but he runs into Betty DiMello (Annaleigh Ashford) again, along with her husband Greg Grunberg, who offers to make a donation to this hospital if they hire Bill and make room to accommodate his study. So Bill eventually gets what he wants, but Libby isn't thrilled about it, and neither is Betty, who's now a regular so we'll be seeing a lot more of her in the future.
Now onto Ginny, who's being accosted by hospital employees every day, thanks to her name being placed on the study, but she seems to be making friends with the philandering Dr. Langham, who suggests she supplement her income by selling diet pills to housewives. Ginny doesn't want to do it but gives it a shot because she needs the money for her kids. Libby comes by with the baby to visit, asking for advice about Bill, and the two are still friendly, but of course there's another level of awkwardness now that Ginny is having her ongoing affair with Libby's husband while continuing to stay pals with his wife (that would be weird). We also get flashbacks of Ginny's perspective on that night together, where she seemingly decides quickly to stay with Bill, but tells Ethan it's because of the "work," and seems to suggest the same to Bill when the two of them meet at a hotel the next night a half hour outside the city. The conversation is carefully measured, but Bill seems ready to make some admission of affection towards her until Ginny declares that an affair is too pedestrian for them and that this is still all about the work. Bill agrees and says he's happily married anyway (uh-huh) and wouldn't want to lead her on (gee, declaring you can't live without her in the rain on her doorstep couldn't possibly have done that, right?), and gets them a room under the registration of Dr. and Mrs. Holden. Well, they can call it whatever they want but I'm still going to refer to this as an affair, because it IS.
In supporting character news, Barton and Margaret Scully return tonight to a couple of continuing heartbreaking performances by Beau Bridges and Allison Janney as the doomed older couple. Barton's undergoing electroshock therapy to try to cure his homosexuality, which of course does nothing except torture the poor guy (at least Bill tries to talk him out of it), and he attempts to have sex with Margaret to pretty cringeworthy effect, as she realizes the only way he can do it is to turn her over and pretend she's a boy. Later, tragedy strikes when Margaret and Vivian return home from shopping, and Vivian goes down to the basement to find Barton's hung himself from the ceiling. Margaret and Vivian manage to cut him down and revive him before it's too late, but from that point on, Bill's attempts to get in touch with Barton about his new job are foiled with no explanation. And Lillian DePaul is back this season as Virginia's sometimes friend and current boss (but not for much longer I imagine), who's sporting a black eye but won't tell Ginny what happened, lamenting as they bond over drinks after work how no one believes it could possibly have been a man who hit her, because she never dates. Jane also shows up for one scene in this episode, to tell Ginny she's moving to California and that she should reconsider Ethan's proposal, since there's no hope of reviving the sex study. But Ginny as we all know is staying put, since history has to play itself out and we're still only in 1957.
So that was pretty much it, as this episode was filled with scenes exploring the confusing boundaries and undefined relationship Masters and Johnson continue to have, but Michael Sheen and Lizzy Caplan are both SO good that's it just a joy to watch them act as they try to find their way through this strange, unbreakable connection they have. And the same goes for Janney and Bridges, who could almost be on their own separate show, and I'm kind of upset that their screentime may be limited from this point on, since they're both on other series. But with Ashford back and Nicholas D'Agosto's boring Ethan seemingly gone (yea for that), it looks like Masters of Sex is off to a terrific start and I can't wait until next Sunday brings another installment. See you then!
