Masters of Sex

Previously on "Masters of Sex"...

It's safe to say

that we are not in the best shape financially.

Money will sort itself out.

I've been telling your husband for the last year

he should rent this space.

It'd be better for our end-of-year report.

Oh, you're a Virginia referral.

You've been a very naughty orthopedist, Dr. Langham.

In spite of what you may have heard,

my relationship with my patients is strictly professional.

Let's give a big Cal-o-Metric welcome

to the new face of women's nutrition...

Dr. Austin Langham!

Hi. I'm Frank, and I'm an alcoholic.

Hi, Frank.

Disappearing acts have always been my specialty.

My dad taught both of his boys how to vanish.

Didn't he, Bill?

I already knew the whole story.

I knew it because it's my story, Francis.

You're one of the bravest people that I know.

You just see what you want and you...

you go and get it.

May I help you, Mrs. Masters?

I was wondering if you could use my help.

We need someone to make a sandwich run.

What can I get for you?

Does drinking help to relieve your conscience

about what it is we are doing to Libby?

We have a greater purpose, Virginia.

It hasn't been about the study in years.

We're not gonna find the cure for dysfunction

in an exam room. We're not.

Tell me, Bill,

which sexual dysfunction are you proposing we treat?

Mine.

You're comfortable?

I'm not good at staying in one place for so long.

There was a five-hour wait at city hall

the day Francis and I decided to get married.

I wanted to come again another day

because usually I'm a whirling dervish,

but Francis sat right next to me,

held my hand, sang me

all the Gilbert & Sullivan songs he could think of,

just to make the time pass easier.

Husbands generally don't come

for their wives' cappings,

although Frank would have been perfectly welcome.

Not so sure he believed that.

I know you and he had... words, recently.

If you'd like him here, Pauline,

I could have my receptionist call him.

I'd do it if there were a chance of you two mending fences.

Well, there's really no mending to be done.

Meaning it's not necessary?

Or it's impossible?

He didn't come here

to take you to task for anything, Bill.

He's made peace with his past.

The program has been so helpful for him in that regard.

I think he just wanted to share with you

all that he's come to understand...

And here I thought you two came to me

for fertility treatments.

We are desperate to have a family.

But I know for Frank that means...

more than a child.

Well, babies are my stock-in-trade,

so let's focus on that, shall we?

Now, what can I have Betty bring you?

Frank, or perhaps a magaz...

Uh...

Um, yeah, it won't happen again.

Thank you very much.

What on God's earth?

I just got off the phone with the electric company.

I told them to check today's mail,

where they would find our late payment,

which they did, so the lights should go back on shortly.

And why was our payment so late?

'Cause I had to wait for checks to clear

from eight patients.

We owed the specimen lab,

which was threatening to hold up our results.

Then I had to put off the electric company

until Cal-o-Metric's rent came in on the 15th.

Should I go on?

I understand things are a little tight.

Our only prayer here is to sublet the rest of this floor.

I'm not gonna have my patients sharing lobby space

with second-rate businesses.

Either it's tenants who aren't so fancy-schmancy

but pay the rent, or you're gonna be doing pelvic exams

with a miner's lamp stuck to your forehead.

I doubt those are my only options.

All right. Here's another option...

if we can't pay the heat this winter,

then we're gonna be hosing down these marble floors,

turning this place into a skating rink

and charging admission.

What's your suggestion for viable tenants?

I'm already looking.

You don't seem all that surprised.

Was it helpful, pretending to be somebody else?

I mean, did the advice I gave you...

did it help your friend?

To be honest, no.

No. It was a disaster.

I clearly did not understand how therapy works.

Otherwise, I would have realized how ridiculous it was

to think that I could stand in for her.

Maybe she provided you

with a reason to seek treatment for yourself.

No, I came for her.

And I'm only here now

because I thought I owed you an explanation

as to why I wouldn't be returning,

as a patient, at least.

I would love to be able to call you in the future...

I find this work fascinating...

if I have any questions regarding my own patients?

Still, I'm wondering if anything we discussed

seems to resonate with you on a personal level?

My relationship with a married man...

all the questions you asked surrounding that, why it ended.

So, that was your affair, not your friend's?

Yes, it was. It is. It continues.

But it's not an affair.

What does the word "affair" connote for you

that "relationship" doesn't?

Something that's primarily sexual.

And yours is not.

No. No.

It's... it's far more complicated than that.

It has been sexual in the past, but it's not now.

You and he...

don't engage in sex?

No.

And why is that, may I ask?

Uh... because he... is impotent.

As you recall, there were two years

when... we were apart.

But... since then...

just in the past month, we've been together.

And I've taken care of you each of those times.

You... yourself remarked on the... trend.

But...

when Libby had Jenny, she was capped, using...

I have secondary impotence.

I can function... when I'm by myself.

It's when I'm with a... a partner.

So you and Libby have discussed this,

and this is how you've explained this to her?

Well, there are things that Libby and I...

don't discuss, and I...

I'm not interested in the explanation,

I'm interested in the cure.

Well...

with any patient,

we would... what?

We would explore a cause, a triggering incident.

Lester, for example.

He said that his... his problem

started when Jane rejected him.

Well, that's Lester.

There's Shelley.

That's when we stopped coming here,

stopped having sex...

when you learned that I was seeing Shelley.

Bill, you know that Shelley

wasn't any kind of rejection of you.

Are you with him now?

No, you know that I'm not.

I know. You're not with anyone at the moment.

You're here... with me, so if jealousy

or... or... insecurity were the issue,

uh, there's no reason for me to feel either.

And yet my... difficulties persist,

so... so how can that be the cause?

The psychology behind these physical problems

is very complicated,

and to understand the "why" of it...

Oh, we can spend forever on the "why"

and not get any closer to finding any kind of cure.

You know, the point, Virginia, is, we...

we have an opportunity here, you know, to find a cure

not... not just for me, but for millions of men.

We've drifted away from the work.

I... I admit that.

But... but this is the way back.

I'm broken, and you're the one...

you... you're the only one who can fix me.

So, you consider the relationship

to have a higher purpose now?

I do. Yes.

He and I, we are uniquely qualified

to develop a treatment,

to prevent countless marriages from dissolving.