Masters of Sex: In to Me You See – Conversion (Review)

The follow up to last week’s heart-breaking episode, where Helen bled to death on a hospital gurney, was going to be tricky to pull off. Whichever storyline moved forward, the death was going to be a hard act to follow. “In to Me You See” takes Masters of Sex back into the professional side of the Masters and Johnson relationship.

Not that Gini has given up on her pursuit of Bill, but that plan has been circumvented by his stubborn refusal to partner with Virginia on cases. This episode also follows Bob Drag’s attempt to convert himself from being a reluctant homosexual to a practicing heterosexual.

Virginia attempts to convince Bill that Art and Nancy need to partner up for cases. He shoots her down preferring to work with Art and to pair Nancy with Gini.  For the two women it is an awkward situation made worse by the coat swinger’s party and Art’s lying.

Betty is working to get custody of the baby that she and Helen were to raise together. She asks the sperm donor to intervene. The plan is for the two of them to marry and take custody of the baby. They would then divorce and Betty would get full custody of the child.

Helen’s mother approaches Betty and makes her feelings clear. She calls Betty abhorrent and asks her  to think of the baby and not herself.

Louise comes to speak with Bill about her husband James.

Her husband is paralyzed from the waist down after a car accident. Louise was driving and both of them were drunk.  Bill agrees to help them use a neural mapping technique which will enable James to have an erection.

The therapy works and the couple have sex. Louise is ecstatic but James is disappointed. He may have an erection but he can feel nothing. The experiment worked but not successfully for both partners. Louise buys a bottle of red wine and it looks like she may fall off the wagon.

Bob manages to get sexually aroused by the sound of Art’s voice. Guy complains to Dr. Sully that Art is doing conversion therapy. Sully then stops Art and reveals that this is not practiced in the clinic.

Art and Sully then talk to Bill who confirms that conversion therapy is not done at Masters and Johnson. He does, however, realize that just as they measured heterosexual responses the same should be done for homosexuals. He tasks a delighted Art to begin the groundwork for the study.

Nancy and Virginia do their first intake together. The couple turn out to be potential sex therapists who lied to learn more information. Virginia realizes this right away and Nancy disagrees. Gini pulls rank and exposes the couple as charlatans.

The man and woman, posing as husband and wife, are just the beginning of a growing problem. Virginia and Nancy discover a slew of pseudo sex therapists claiming  to have been trained by Bill and Gini.

Clinic’s are being held that advocate swinging and other “treatments” never practiced or condoned by Masters and Johnson.

Virginia and Nancy attend a local seminar and Gini is horrified to see her father there. It is Harry who tells her about the swinging classes.

Bill calls Dody, the old flame that left him.  She was the girl that drove him to choose Libby.

They arrange to meet but her husband shows up instead, it appears that  Bill somehow broke Dody’s heart back in the day, aka 30 years ago, and he angrily tells Bill to leave his wife alone.

This episode of Masters of Sex was all about conversion of one type or another. Bob clearly wants to be converted because of his ingrained disgust at his real sexual preferences. Gini tries to convert the business partnerships back to Bill taking sessions with her.  Betty tries a conversion of sorts to get Helen’s baby where she belongs.

While not as intense as the previous episode “In to Me You  See” was a good follow-on to the storyline. The uncomfortable pairing of two women who now so clearly dislike one another is interesting.  Virginia is not going to give up on Bill, although he obviously has on her, and it will only be a matter of time before she wears him down.

The episode ends with Gini deciding that she and bill should attend the fake seminars “undercover.” This would allow them to shut the phonies down after exposing them. Bill decides they should do some regulatory work and he agrees to split up and check out these therapy sessions.

Out of a short list, Bill choses a seminar in Topeka; where Dody lives.

Masters of Sex airs Sundays on Showtime.

CAST:

• Michael Sheen  –  Dr. William Masters
• Lizzy Caplan  –  Virginia Johnson
• Caitlin FitzGerald  –  Libby Masters
• Annaleigh Ashford  –  Betty DiMello
• Jeremy Strong – Art Dreesen 
• Betty Gilpin –  Nancy
• Kevin Christy  –  Lester Linden
• Nick Clifford  –  Guy
• Danny Jacobs  –  Bob Drag
• Sarah Silverman  –  Helen
• David Walton  –  Abe Perlman 
• Beau Bridges  –  Barton Sully 
• Niecy Nash  –  Louise 

Guest starring  Teddy Sears as Dr. Austin Langham and Michael O’Keefe as Harry Eshelman.