So much about Masters of Sex is discussing what can’t be said in the public sphere; including the research that Bill and Virginia are conducting and many other personal matters. “Love and Marriage” explores the idea of perception as we delve further into the why of these characters and the relationships they have. Perceptions can be formed from a whole host of things including social status, race, gender and sexuality and these are all covered in this episode.
One of the reasons I find costuming such a fascinating topic to write about comes from the amount of information that can be derived from what a character wears and how this can influence both those around them and the audience. When it comes to the study there is no costuming (aside from the blue bathrobes) and all they are looking at is the data, but with everything else opinions can and are formed.
Virginia sticks to the dark colors that we have seen her in throughout the series so far and aside from two different bathrobes (at home and at work) and her lab coat in class, it’s all greys and darker tones this week. Virginia is trying to be taken seriously by Dr. Lillian DePaul and Dr. DePaul is pretty hard on Virginia with her passive aggressive comments about her capability. Experience dictates reaction and Dr. DePaul has faced opposition to get where she is. This doesn’t mean that Virginia has had it easy, far from it but they’ve taken very different paths to get to this place. You could chime in with female solidarity, but for Dr. DePaul she has had to leave her gender at the door to get this far and she doesn’t want Virginia to have it easy either. It doesn’t help that Virginia asks for her work with Dr. Masters to count as partial credit as Dr. DePaul reads this as Virginia asking for an easy grade.
There is a severity to Dr. DePaul that is evident in the way she dresses and her costuming lacks any color, nor is it tailored to show off any kind of femininity. This reveals how little she wants to or can rely on her gender even though she specializes in female related medicine. Dr. DePaul is keeping her own secret and her research is a personal issues because she has Stage VI cancer; ultimately she has become her research in the same way that Bill and Virginia have become theirs – with very different outcomes of course. It makes the boredom that everyone is exhibiting at her presentation all the more painful and it shows why she has such a tight deadline for completing the work.
While I don’t see Lillian and Virginia becoming BFFs anytime soon, there is a new found respect garnered in this episode as Virginia aces the test and scores 100%. Virginia also shows that she has a backbone by calling Dr. DePaul out on her shit. The moment above where DePaul silently moves Virginia’s heels under her chair could have turned into a spectacle of pointing out Virginia’s flaws (as she did with her punctuality), instead she lets it slide.
Whenever Virginia wears grey it makes me think of Dr. DePaul and while this neckline and style is not something Dr. DePaul would wear it’s also signifies serious work attire.
In an entirely different look Virginia gets her kids to help her study for the big test and they ask her why she wants a degree? Virginia answers in a fanciful way that makes perfect sense because they’re kids and she invokes the idea of magic; “You still do your job, but when you have a degree people believe you know what you’re talking about.” Tessa’s response is pretty darling and totally spot on for how Virginia hopes it will improve perceptions of her “So people see you right from the start.” This is why going from secretary to researcher is so important because even though labels shouldn’t matter, they definitely do. It’s also really great to see Virginia’s career having a positive influence on her kids for once rather than being something that has her questioning her skills as a mother, especially when Henry beams when she gets an answer right. Education is empowering and it’s a shame that Bill is trying to sabotage Virginia’s efforts.
Wife is another label of course and for Margaret her role as wife has been about companionship, this is no longer enough for her. Margaret has experienced a sexual awakening and even though it’s over with Austin, she can’t go back to her routine with Barton. The outfit that she is wearing in the bar after her Austin breakup is decadent and is not what she would wear to go visit her aunt, Barton knows that she was going to be sleeping with someone else and their confrontation in the bathroom makes him openly weep. Both Allison Janney and Beau Bridges are terrific in these scenes as they try and come to terms with how external factors are altering what seemed to be a strong relationship – though a relationship built on a foundation of lies is always going to have its weak points.
This disconnect between Margaret and Barton is made even more awkward with the presence of Dale and Margaret can tell straight away that Dale is not a grad student – is it his clothes? How he talks? One thing Margaret hasn’t perceived yet as far as I can tell is that Barton is gay; all the clues are there including his insistence last week that he hasn’t slept with another woman, his disinterest in Margaret’s body when she is standing in front of him naked and this meeting with Dale. Instead she buys his story that Dale is his pimp for lady prostitutes. Barton doesn’t want his marriage to be over and he wants a solution to what he calls “this terrible habit” and he seeks out Masters’ help. It’s pretty painful to watch someone contemplating aversion therapy like this – and sadly Masters and Johnson did at one stage claim that homosexuality was curable – and it shows the desperation to avoid admitting to being a gay man in the late 1950s.
One Scully is having a better time in her relationship and rather than putting Ethan off with her morning routine of “Love and Marriage” (which is now stuck in my head, thanks show), Ethan has taken the next step with Vivian and purchased an engagement ring. Vivian looks like a girl playing make believe housewife as she prepares breakfast singing and so it’s surprising that Ethan takes this as his cue to ask the big question. As Ethan views the whole routine through a mirror it’s as if he’s watching a movie and not real life. Austin can’t understand why Ethan would do this to himself if he hasn’t got Vivian pregnant and Ethan thinks that a wife is the way to get ahead, he mentions that out of all of the presidents only one was a bachelor and no one remembers him – Austin does and it was James Buchanan. Austin has a pretty terrible attitude towards his wife now and thinks a vacuum cleaner that hovers can makes up for his dalliances, but he sure knows how to spin a story to get another woman into bed.
There are so many traditions when it comes to a proposal and Ethan is clueless about every single one, this includes how much you should spend on the ring (two months’ salary) and from Vivian’s perspective what kind of dress she should wear (tea length or floor length) and whether she should get a manicure as Ethan is taking her to a restaurant nicknamed ‘the hitching post.’ The proposal happens early, or rather it’s a non-proposal as Ethan doesn’t even answer the question and Vivian still says yes. There’s no getting down on one knee or grand gesture that he will be able to recount in years to come, instead a whole host of questions and a face of instant regret.
There’s an episode of Mad Men where Betty is nervous about inviting a salesman in while Don is out that makes me assume that inviting someone in while your husband is not at home wasn’t really the done thing – it’s only one example and of course Bill Masters is no Don Draper – but it still occurred to me during this Libby storyline and I’m not entirely sure what they are trying to say with this plot. Libby takes some dance advice off Walter (Libby has called him to fix her gutters but from her initial reaction she was surprised that he is black) and it feels like there is chemistry between the pair; is this because they have both lost someone or is it something more? Walter is also the one who takes Libby to the hospital after she faints and the doctor wrongly assumes that he is “her boy.” I’m interested to see if this develops any further and if they will be making any other nods to issues of race or whether it is just a way to introduce another Libby pregnancy story outside of the regular hospital she visits. Another assumption is that Walter took her to the nearest place but it could also have been a purposeful decision to avoid Bill’s workplace.
Like Libby, Jane is in yellow (and by now you know that this is the Jane standard). Jane was the first person to sign up for the study and once again thanks to a little coaxing from Virginia she agrees to be the first to try out the internal vagina camera. It feels like Virginia is subtly manipulation Jane which makes me a tad uneasy, but Jane does seem fine with it when she stops associating the film aspect with dirty movies and thinks of it like a hand model for science. Plus Jane comes up with the hilarious stage name Beav St. Marie. Valerie also gets in on the jokes as she tells Lester (the very nervous camera operator) that “vaginas don’t bite,” unless you’ve seen the movie Teeth of course.
Another day, another yellow outfit for Jane and she’s pretty comfortable in the environment of Bill’s office. This could be thanks to Virginia’s helpful tips including no stray paperclips ever and no mayo on Bill’s sandwiches (like Bill I’d also prefer it if there was a law against mayonnaise). Jane is responding to Austin in this moment and Austin wants back on the study and he no longer only wants Jane as a partner.
There’s something a little X-Files like about this scene as Masters goes on a secret mission to get a camera that will record their research.
The episode ends with Bill and Virginia in their blue robes watching the footage. There’s intimacy and not just because they are having sex, but because they are discovering these things together. This is the happiest we have ever seen Bill and his arousal isn’t because of what is on screen but because they are the first people that have seen this in the world. Something that was previously undocumented has been recorded and this result is everything that this study is about. Now if only some of the characters had the ability to show themselves to the world for the first time.
Tags: "Love and Marriage", Ane Crabtree, costume design, Lizzy Caplan, Masters of Sex, Michael Sheen
TV Ate My Wardrobe 
