After Hendricks bans Masters from using black participants in his study, Masters contacts a journalist to promote his efforts, using the debunking of black sexual stereotypes as the lure. Johnson is forced to accept DePaul's choice to end her chemotherapy treatments. Gene uncovers the truth about Betty and Helen's relationship. Libby fires Coral after discovering she lied about Robert being her lover.
How well do you truly know someone? Truly know what they want and what they need. Masters and Johnson are researching sex - but that doesn't necessarily mean they are studying intimacy. Intimacy is the closeness between two people but also knowing who they are and what you have to do to make them the best or fullest version of themselves.Virginia is a fighter. She won't back down until she gets exactly what she wants. Lillian, on the hand, is very tired of the rigorous treatments she has underwent for her cancer. She knows she only has precious little time left. She knows it's going to be painful on her. She wants to go out on her terms - meaning she no longer wants treatment and she wants Virginia by her side. We've known it would be incredibly tough once that character finally succumbs to her illness. Besides Bill, Lillian is the only other true friend Virginia has right now. She let her walls down and Lillian found her way in - which was a very compelling metaphor because Lillian is largely the rigid one while Virginia is open to the world. Their friendship has never been sexual - although some may see it that way because of that kiss - but it has been very intimate. Virginia has been there for Lillian throughout her treatment even when they weren't on the best of terms. Lillian spends what would turn out to be her last day with Virginia just at her house talking. Virginia recognizes that this is what Lillian wants - and she shouldn't let her own needs interfere with that. So she'll deliver that package to Lillian's family and she'll make sure her body is donated to science. Yes, it's incredibly tragic that Lillian ultimately decides to take her own life by taking sleeping pills. But she was finally intimate with someone. That was the one thing in life that she missed out on. She never had a relationship like the one she had with Virginia ever before. So, she feels incredibly grateful that she was given the possibility in the end. She's happy Virginia was in her life but she doesn't want her to deal with all the personal care she would need the further her cancer progressed. And Virginia accepts that. She sees what Lillian has done and decides all she needs to do for her friend is be close with her one final time.
Much like Virginia, Bill is a fighter. The sex study is his baby - despite having an actual little kid at home with Libby. He will do absolutely anything for it. If that means jumping from hospital to hospital to get people to embrace it, then so be it. But no matter what he does, he is always met with resistance. Courtney B. Vance's Dr. Hendricks is a much more formidable sparring partner than Danny Huston's Dr. Greathouse ever was. It seemed at first that Buell Green would welcome him and Virginia with open arms - racial politics be damned. Hendricks loved having the esteemed Dr. William Masters on his staff but he wasn't about to throw all his hard work in advancing racial issues away just to accommodate the sex study. That irks Bill just enough to approach a reporter to write a sensationalized story of his work only for it to backfire later. He was willing to lie just to keep the study as respectable as possible. And he recognizes that that was wrong. He had turned into the bully his father always was. He now understands that in order to do this study his way he needs to commit to it 100 percent. If he wants to change history, he needs to give up being a doctor. He needs to leave the hospital in order to truly make a difference out there in the real world. That's terrifying but he hopes that Virginia will remain by his side.
Bill and Virginia have always carried some semblance of professionalism whenever they met at the hotel to do their session for the study. They don't sleep or do work there. They have sex and talk with one another. They are slowly becoming more intimate though. They are one of the few friends each other actually has. They are fighting the same fight but they each have they own issues and lives to deal with. Virginia has all this stuff going on with Lillian. All Bill can do to help her come to peace with Lillian's decision is wrap his arm around her and just being there for her. It's in that moment that they kiss for the first time. That intimacy and closeness only makes the closing reveal that Virginia has secretly also been seeing the man from the hotel bar way back in "Fight" much more devastating. Virginia has been living this life that Bill - and the audience - was completely in the dark about. That reveal played wonderfully - even though I'm concerned about the prospect of yet another love triangle between Bill, Virginia and another man.
Some more thoughts:
- "Blackbird" was written by Eileen Myers and directed by Keith Gordon.
- Libby, too, learns just how wrong she was about Coral's relationship with Robert. She's willing to keep her as the nanny just as long as Robert doesn't come around anymore. But to learn that she lied to her and that he was her brother and not her lover is the last straw and she has to rid her from her life.
- Gene also learns the truth about Betty and Helen's relationship. He's genuinely in love with Betty despite everything that she has lied about. This huge lie is finally the thing that just destroys that relationship. He knows she'll never love in the intimate way that he wants.
- Congrats once again go out to Allison Janney for winning an Emmy last night for her portrayal of Margaret Scully. Looking ahead to next year, Julianne Nicholson is just as deserving - "Blackbird" would be an amazing episode to submit, too.
- I am a little concerned about the show's choice to reinvent itself and its environment every handful of episodes this season. I'm hoping that the big moment Bill has here will lead to the latest change being the one that will carry through for the remainder of the year.
