Again this week, Bill and Virginia are dealing with separate but related issues concerning a new area- the psychology of sexual dysfunction. Bill is still battling with his own impotence and trying to deal with it through Lester as a proxy, while Ginny continues to dive into Barbara's problems concerning brother, and neither of them find much success.
Ginny starts off with Dr. Madden, the psychiatrist she met last week, continuing to pass herself off as Barbara so she can counsel her through Madden's advice (really, obviously a bad idea). So Dr. Madden immediately catches on that something's fishy about Ginny's telling of her own story, but gives her the idea to go back in her head and say to her brother what she should have said when they were kids. Barbara then comes in to the office to be treated for her physical dysfunction by Bill and Virginia, but cannot go through with the procedure and breaks down in tears. Ginny wants to help her, but Bill insists they stick to treating the physical symptoms only, so Ginny gives her the advice she obtained from Madden. This backfires when Barbara comes in for her next appointment to tell Ginny she met with her brother (whom she's still close to) only to be reminded that the games they used to play were her idea in the first place. Ginny is rendered speechless at this. When she goes back to Madden for more advice she ends up drifting into explaining her own affair with Bill and how Lillian once disapproved. When Madden questions her about why her friend would object, she starts to wonder if she should be feeling more guilty about seeing Bill behind Libby's back, which is made worse when Libby comes up to her in the diner at the Masters and Johnson complex and expresses admiration for what a courageous person she is.
Bill this week is still dealing with his own problems, and tries to get poor Lester set up with a prostitute friend of Betty's who specializes in fixing male impotence. Lester really doesn't want to do it, but ends up meeting her in a hotel anyway, hilariously nervous and stammering the whole time, as the girl gets to work on him. But it doesn't take at all, and Lester won't give Bill the details on what happened, preferring instead to try to be with someone who's familiar with similar problems, as he seems to relate when he sees Barbara struggling in the exam room. Bill's also spending more time with his brother Francis, who has dinner with his wife at their house and wants to take Bill to meet some "friends" of his. The friends turn out to be an AA meeting, where Francis gets up on his one year anniversary of being sober, and relates his stories of abuse at the hands of his father. Bill walks out on this speech and later confronts Francis about stealing his own story, but Francis insists that their dad did the same things to him when Bill left, as Bill had abandoned him to his fate when he left home. He says that he forgives him though, which makes Bill feel guilty when he goes to meet Ginny at the hotel. They had met once earlier this episode but nothing happened, as Bill still doesn't want to admit that he's become impotent, and instead tells Ginny he'd just been with Libby instead. This of course makes Ginny feel uncomfortable, and when they meet later on, she's now feeling wracked with guilt over her meetings with Dr. Madden, and suggests they talk about what's really going between them.
Bill doesn't want to deal with this, but Ginny insists, saying it's clear by now that their meetings haven't been about the work or the study in years. Bill doesn't deny it, but ends up sidestepping the issue, saying that they can treat dysfunction there, because that's exactly what he's suffering from. The episode ends on that note, as Ginny looks surprised, but she always manages to get him to admit what's going on with him eventually, so none of the audience really should be. Meanwhile, Libby in this episode wants to testify about what she saw on the street the other day, but at the CORE office, it's made clear to her that her testimony would only be useful if she could relay the license plate, which she didn't see. They do have the number though, and want her to go to the police with it, but Robert doesn't think she'll be able to go through with a lie. He ends up telling her they need a different kind of witness, someone who would have actually gotten out of the car to help the people she saw attacked on the street. Libby is offended by this, and later on when Francis's wife confides in her that she drew the line on her husband's drinking and demanded that he stop or she would leave him, Libby decides she wants to become the kind of strong person who's able to do courageous things. She says as much to Ginny (who's preoccupied), but then goes directly to the CORE office and says she wants to volunteer her services. Robert and his colleagues are skeptical and he tries to test her by saying they need someone to do a sandwich run, but Libby doesn't flinch and asks what kind they want.
That's pretty much it this week, as a lot of talking and discussion is mostly had, but with just three more episodes left this season, I am wondering if this is eventually leading to a Libby-Robert affair. If it does, then I'll be able to forgive all the "Libby is racist" nonsense that came earlier this year, because at least it was headed somewhere, even if written a bit awkwardly. See you guys next week!
