After the plot-propelling energy of last week, this week’s Masters Of Sex episode was undoubtedly going to be a bit of a letdown, but I wasn’t expecting “Mirror, Mirror” to be quite so…dark. We can find lots of parallels thanks to the obviousness of the episode title: Masters’ two “wives” are mirror images of each other, Libby light, Gini dark; Masters’ brother is a distorted mirror image of himself (same medical school, same semen count); Barbara and Lester share reflective stories in a cross-cut scene that points to what I believe is the real theme of the episode: When we’re in bed with someone, our emotional connection is not just to them, but also to everything in our past that came before them, and it’s the same for our partner. The intimacy of sex opens up regions of our minds that would probably stay closed otherwise.
Spurred by Gini, Masters and Johnson decide to tackle sexual dysfunction, using terms that I fortunately was not familiar with before now, like “vaginismus” and “dyspareunia.” I suppose that Gini commenting on the “symmetry” of the sex act as the researchers observe yet another coital couple is supposed to highlight how clinical full-on observation was for the researchers. But having the couple as a background for Lester’s father’s eulogy is a failed attempt at juxtapositional humor, and just seems cruel to Lester, who appears to have enough troubles. His, like Bill’s, is impotence, which, as Betty points out, is usually all in the mind. Masters keeps grimacing and looking uncomfortable throughout the entire episode, but he doesn’t appear to be any closer to curing his problem, even with Gini.
When Masters is on call at the hotel and has to deal with a 300-pound man who basically overate himself to death (and who was, ironically, the Cal-O-Metric spokesperson), he comments that at least the man’s demons are behind him and can’t taunt him anymore. Unfortunately, everyone else’s demons are engaged in full force: Lester is tortured by the thought of Jane with some Hollywood bigshot, so much so that he can’t have sex any more. Masters’ impotence, which was brought on by the discovery of Gini’s “beau” at her home, still seems to be snarled up with all his many other issues, personified by his long-ignored younger brother, Frank. We don’t yet understand why Masters wants to dismiss Frank so readily: Is it because he’s a reminder to such a painful chapter of his life? As the younger brother, did he receive preferential treatment that Bill did not? Frank mentions that he’s an alcoholic, so he clearly has his own demons to deal with. For someone who wants to delve so deeply into human sexuality, Masters certainly seems ready to shut off this door that might help him deal with his past, and in such a dismissive way to his only sibling, who hints that he’s been dismissed before. Bill is so good at avoiding what he doesn’t want to deal with: not opening up to his brother that he suffered from the same low sperm count; not telling Gini, an experienced sex researcher, about his impotence problem; not even noticing if his own toddler son is eating or not. (Speaking of only siblings, don’t the Masters have another kid now? Where was she at dinner? A simple ”Thank goodness the baby is sleeping” line would have fixed this problem.)
Masters’ lack of affect makes his eventual attempt to put Lester on camera, and mention that the study will now be attempting to heal, as well as observe, is noteworthy, and valuable to help us remember what we are even supposed to like about this person. However, except for another rah-rah speech by Gini, we have no clue as to why Masters changed his mind. He tells Gini that they should stick to what they know—physiology—but in his next scene he’s opening up the study to help dysfunction, not just research it. He’s such a closed-off character, we could have used more of the thought process behind this decision.