Please note: English is not my first language.
I don't know where to start, what to writer, what to think about this episode. It was not a game-changing episode, but it was powerful, and probably Masters of Sex best episode.
We are on October 12, 1958. It is a usual day in Bill Masters' life. His day is not going to change his life, or maybe it will. On this specific day, Bill Masters delivered a baby, and this baby is born with an "ambiguous genitalia". The blood tests revealed that the baby was genetically a boy.
The fight begins, because in this episode, everything is a fight. Indeed, the newborn's father is not happy with this situation, he was looking for normal, and this situation is definitely not normal, according to him. He doesn't consider this baby as his son. This baby is not a man and won't be one. It's a "it", a circus freak.
Once again the series is very engaged in its thematic and this time, we have a study on masculinity. The series also approaches gender theory. The opening scene is between Virginia and her daughter. Her daughter asks her what is the address of her father because she needs it for the Tooth Fairy princess. Virginia explains to her that the Footh Fairy is not a princess, she's only a fairy. Virginia asks her if this princess is married to a prince and her daughter replied that men cannot be fairies because there is only one type of prince, the handsome prince. What does it take to be a real man?
And then, the bottle episode started. The episode is very human and realistic while being deeply unrealistic, disconnected from the world and reality. Indeed, during the eleven rounds of this famous boxing match between Archie Moore and Yvon Durelle, Bill and Virginia have had time to make love, eat, create a fictional life, talk about their past and get back to their lives.
But this digression in their life was brilliant. A hotel room, two great actors (give them an Emmy) and brilliantly written dialogues. The episode is interspersed with horrific scenes showing us this baby, who's being castrated, because his father won't let him be a man. These scenes happen at the right moment when the conversation between Bill and Virginia progresses. As I said last week, they are both broken. Virginia was abandoned by her first love, who left to marry another. Bill was a battered child (do you think he's suffering from the battered-child syndrome?). It is by creating two identities that they both say their truths and confront, because as I said, the episode is built structured around a fight. On one hand, we have Bill/Francis, who seeks normalcy and his behavior with the hotel staff shows that. He wants to be forgettable, he is a radiologist, unnamed. On the other hand, facing him, we have Virginia/Lydia. She does not seek normalcy, she wants something complicated.
We already knew about this hotel and their new last name, but they had not chosen first names. As they form an identity to their fiction, they pick a name. This is, in my opinion, one of the many metaphors of this episode. It is a way to say that without the atrocities they have experienced, they will not be there. They are broken, but it is what make them who they are today. And that's identity. We are not born me as a man or a woman, but we become one. As Shirley Chisholm said, "The emotional, sexual, and psychological stereotyping of females begins when the doctor says: 'It's a girl'." I may over-interpret, but this episode was so strong, it amazed me in a way I do not know where to head in this review. I do not know if I've lost some readers in my rambling treatment of this episode, but that's how I felt. This episode is a masterpiece, both simple and complex. I want to give you another quote, so here it is, this time, it is from Victor Hugo "The real results from the wholly natural combination of two types, the sublime and the grotesque, which meet in the drama, as they meet in life and in creation." This is how I see Masters of Sex.
Let's get to the question of this review: What does it take to be a man?
Is a man supposed to hide his feelings? Is a man supposed to provide his family? A man must be himself. There are no preconceived notions or code. Be who you are and embrace it.
In this episode, Bill faces his past. He confronts a bully, just like his father. His father used to beat him up, but he never begged him to stop. It was his strength. He even tells her "Sometimes the best fighter isn’t the one who lands the hardest punch, it can be the one who absorbs it." And that's who he is what led him to take an interest and learn how to box, a passion that amuses Virginia. Now, he doubts. This is also why he wants to show his masculinity and we can see this when he pushes Virginia against the wall to make love to her, roughly. This boxing match is a metaphor for the ongoing storyline. Bill even tries to teach to Virginia how to box. This scene is probably my favorite. It allows to lighten the drama, but also to continue analysis of sexuality made by the series. They fight with their sexuality.
"Two acts of intercourse, mutually satisfying. One masturbatory act. Role-playing throughout. Am I forgetting anything?" and now, the show is over. Both get dressed and get back to their lives. None of them won. Bill arrives too late to the hospital and cannot do anything, while Virginia is watching the end of the boxing match.
Note: 8/10 - Two brilliant performances, outstanding writing, an unforgettable episode, "I want to see how it ends".
Now, it's your turn! What did you think of the episode? Hit the comments!
