Masters of Sex: Parallax

July 20, 2014 8:51 AM - Season 2, Episode 1

The ramifications of Masters' disastrous presentation continue to ripple beyond Maternity Hospital as Libby, worried about supporting their new baby, pushes him to get another job. Meanwhile, Virginia, still working for Dr. DePaul, must fight off the advances and innuendos stemming from the continued belief that she was the woman in the film. Barton Scully undergoes electro-shock-therapy. Season premiere.
posted by oh yeah! (8 comments total)

I was disappointed with this episode when I watched it last week; after the long wait from the S1 finale, Bill & Virginia's hotel lobby conversation felt like hitting the giant reset button on their relationship. But the AV Club & NY Mag recappers both seem enraptured, and it wasn't as frustrating on the re-watch.

I guess Jane & Lester moving to Hollywood means we won't be seeing any more of them this season, which is a bummer. I would have loved to see a Lester sex scene, in or out of the study. But at least Betty is back, and she's a series regular this year.

Bill turning up the radio on his baby's crying was so awful it made me laugh - in an OH JOHN RINGO NO way. He is such a trainwreck.

Poor, poor, Barton. Fuck homophobia.
posted by oh yeah! at 10:04 AM on July 20, 2014

Ugh. Love this show, hated this episode. Plenty of worthwhile content, but zero throughline. It was just 55 minutes of stuff happening.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 1:47 PM on July 20, 2014

Last time Virginia rejected Ethan he called her a whore and punched her in the face.* Is he going to fly back from Hollywood to mess her up?

* An event the writers seemed, rather disturbingly, to pretend never happened for the ensuing eleven episodes.
posted by EXISTENZ IS PAUSED at 7:32 PM on July 20, 2014 [1 favorite]

Ethan was written off, at least in part, because the actor who plays him was to be a male lead on How I Met Your Dad. Now that said program has been scuttled at the pilot stage, he may yet be back. Obviously, he's available.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 8:51 PM on July 20, 2014

I know Ashford talked about the hitting in one of the behind-the-scenes things, I think she said it was to highlight the difference of the era, of what someone as sexually independent as Virginia would face. And she said it was important to her that they showed Virginia hitting back.

Alison Janney & Beau Bridges are on other shows this season too, so, even if 'How I Met Your Dad' had been picked up I think if they'd really wanted another Ethan scene they could have found a way to schedule it in. But his storyline seems to have served its purpose, I'd be surprised if we ever see him again.
posted by oh yeah! at 4:46 AM on July 21, 2014 [1 favorite]

Yeah, my problem wasn't with the punch itself, it was with the way we were supposed to forget it happened and then go on to care about Ethan's romantic relationships with other women without wondering when he was going to punch them in the face too. It was weird.

I'll miss Alison Janney. She was great in this.
posted by EXISTENZ IS PAUSED at 5:20 AM on July 21, 2014

So I'm very late to the game, but I just watched this episode today. In addition to conveniently forgetting that Haas hit Virginia last season, they also seemed to forget that the Pretzel King thought that Dr. Masters removed Betty's gall bladder (or something). Suddenly he knows he's a fertility doc and you would think he would question why Masters did (what he thinks is) Betty's completely-unrelated-to-fertility surgery.
posted by amro at 4:58 PM on October 28, 2015

Pretzel King thought that Dr. Masters removed Betty's gall bladder (or something). Suddenly he knows he's a fertility doc and you would think he would question why Masters did (what he thinks is) Betty's completely-unrelated-to-fertility surgery.

appendix ... the right ovary and appendix are close enough together that if she were reporting issues in the area they'd check both out as long as they're in there. She obviously told him about some pain and issues in that area, and they were going to go in and see that her appendix was okay or what. Mercilessly recently researched because either my right ovary or appendix decided to give me a few interesting days).

So yeah, if I were in the shop for an appendix and there was an issue with an ovary that was visible, they might call in an ovary guy to take a look, and vice versa. Dr Masters would be one of a team, if he didn't just 'do both' if it had come up (a visible appendix issue while other things are being worked on).

I found the opener opaque and confusing, though the duality of "what was going on" from the two perspectives was interesting.
posted by tilde at 11:28 AM on August 9, 2017