User Reviews

The second episode, Race to Space (named after the comic book Virginia's son is obsessed over), focuses on how the hospital human sexual study (when the boss of the hospital learns of sexual couplings taking place he nixes the experiments) has to be moved elsewhere, with Dr. Masters forced to use his lead prostitute, Betty's (Annaleigh Ashford) brothel to continue! Word got to the boss, and Masters believes it was his assistant, Ethan's tattletailing that was the reason, blaming Virginia for her sexual relations with him as the culprit. Ethan, however, says he isn't responsible so the whistleblower remains unknown. The brunt of the episode has Virginia struggling to understand if she will remain employed under Masters or not. Masters removes Ethan as his wife's gynecologist, but she insists he reverses those orders. Virginia's kid is suspended for spitting on a teacher who took away his comics so not only is she dealing with potential unemployment (Masters has her interviewing her replacements!), but she has to find a babysitter at a moment's notice (her current babysitter quits because she considers Virginia a bad mother with little time for her daughter and son). To use the brothel, Masters has to surrender to certain demands, such as employing Betty at his hospital and perhaps reversing her tied tubes. Without Virginia, though, he might not be able to secure very many subjects willing to participate in his sex studies. So her worth to him becomes quite noticeable in this episode, as the sacrifices made regarding parental neglect due to long hours truthfully shows just how dedicated Virginia is to the sex study. Masters comes off as a prick, a stick-in-mud scientist blaming Virginia for perhaps something she didn't even do. Ethan is hung up on Virginia, trying to find other girls (at the hospital) who can replace her as a sexual partner with a willingness to be inventive during foreplay and intercourse. Libby continues to be a sympathetic character stuck with a husband who appears to be a knot on a log, selfishly maintaining his secret that she is the one responsible for the non-pregnancies. Masters sure isn't easy to like, and Virginia continues to be who we look to as someone to believe in as the study takes its lumps. She brings a humanity to the science, as Masters remains detached from human beings (his response to the reaction of a hooker cured of diminished eyesight is a hopeful sign that his making a difference to people will pull out of him his humanity; he is responsible for a black woman's pregnancy when it seemed hopeless) emotionally. Probably the best scene involves Virginia talking to Betty about giving up the idea of raising children (she has found a wealthy man who is head over heels for her; he offers her a normal life and she wants to take that opportunity) at the behest of Masters…Betty gets her point across, convincing Virginia that maybe he needs to do the surgery.