SPOILERS ABOUND, so don’t screw around…
Season Two, Episode Five: “Giants”
Written by Bathsheba Doran; Directed by Jeremy Webb
In this week’s episode, “Giants,” most of the characters face the consequences of past actions. Bill begins work at the Negro hospital; Virginia questions her role in Bill’s life and study; Libby continues to struggle with Coral; and Betty is reminded of a past love.
Quick Breakdown
The episode opens with a close-up of baby John before panning out to reveal that Libby has unexpectedly stopped by Virginia’s. She says she was out driving the baby around to get him to go to sleep and just ended up in front of Virginia’s house. (Oh, really?)
It doesn’t take Libby long to launch into her concerns about Bill, the study, and his new position at the Negro hospital. She is worried about how unstable Bill has become and wants Virginia’s advice and thoughts. It becomes clear as she speaks that Virginia has no idea what she’s talking about. Bill hasn’t told her.
Next, Virginia meets Bill at the hotel, where he presents her with a key to her new office and tells her about the move and how she’s coming with him. He’s excited, but she’s a little unsure. Libby’s words have gotten her thinking about her own role in all this. Is she valued as a professional or as a lover?
Virginia asks what her title will be and requests a contract with specifics spelled out. This confuses Bill, but Virginia says she’s worried and has two kids to take care of. If he leaves or gets fired from this place, will she still have a job? She wants to know.
She also tries to use Dr. DePaul as leverage by saying they are doing important work (even though DePaul just gave her project away). But Bill has the final card when he tells her that Dr. DePaul knows about them having sex.
Meanwhile Betty and Gene are trying to mend things after the big reveal of last week. Gene is still upset with Betty for lying, and Betty just wants them to be happy. She suggests adopting, and Gene says he’ll think about it.
The next morning, Bill arrives to work at the new hospital. It’s clear the hospital is not as nice as the previous places he’s been. It’s also clear there are some tensions. He meets Dr. Franklin (a black doctor) with whom he’ll be sharing a waiting room.
Over at Maternity, Virginia arrives at work and confronts Dr. DePaul. She’s convinced Dr. DePaul gave away her work because she was disappointed in Virginia for having sex with Bill. “Why does it matter what I do after work if I’m good at my job?” she asks. Dr. DePaul calls her out on trying to make the sex with Bill about the study. (Thank you.) As their conversation grows louder and more heated, he also says she is making it harder for other women by sleeping with Bill.
Meanwhile, Betty’s former lover, Helen, shows up expectedly and meets Gene. Betty is clearly uncomfortable about her presence and tries to downplay how well she knows Helen. But Gene is excited, saying Helen should meet his friend Alan and that they should do a double date. Helen agrees.
Later, Virginia shows up at Bill’s new office. She’s pleased to find out he has a contract for her, but then Bill brings up their own sessions, questioning whether they should continue at the new hospital or at the hotel. Virginia suggests maybe they stop participating, which annoys Bill. Virginia wonders aloud if her participation in the study is part of her job. Bill says it is.
That night, they go back to the hotel to continue “their work.” Bill starts to undress, but Virginia just stands there with a clipboard and says she’s not taking off her clothes. Instead, she tells Bill to strip (oh, the power games) and to masturbate in front of her while she records his reactions.
When he closes his eyes, she asks what he is imagining, and he says her. She tells him to stop and then come to her. He then kneels and goes down on her, but Virginia remains in control of the situation.
At home, Coral’s boyfriend, Robert, confronts Libby. He comes by before Coral gets there to tell Libby that she upset Coral over the lice/hair washing incident. As politely as he can, he tells Libby it better never happen again. He also says that they can keep this conversation between the two of them. Coral doesn’t know he stopped by.
Libby doesn’t keep Robert’s visit quiet for very long. When Coral gets there, she tells her that Robert came by and threatened her (probably not the best idea). She then tries to mother Coral by telling her that Robert is a bad guy and that she should leave him.
Coral, however, has figured Libby out and gives a perfect speech about how loving Robert is at night in bed when it’s just the two of them. “I’m sure you can understand how hard it is to leave that,” she says. (Coral knows good and well Bill doesn’t touch Libby like that.) To hit the point home, she then changes the subject by asking if she should make Dr. Masters’ bed after she’s finished with Libby’s. (Good job, Coral.) This leads to Libby telling her she can stop taking care of the bedroom and that she’ll do it herself.
Meanwhile, Betty goes to Helen’s Fortune Teller shop to confront her about what she wants and why she’s back. Helen is still in love with Betty and hurt by Betty leaving her. Betty tells her she had to do what’s right and that there was no future for them. She doesn’t want Helen back in her life, but Helen has no intention of leaving.
Betty’s other option is to convince Gene that Helen is a bad seed. She tells him that she doesn’t bathe and has a gambling problem, but Gene isn’t too concerned and still wants to set her up with his friend Alan.
At Bill’s new hospital, one of his old patients is nervous about leaving her car outside because of the “bad neighborhood,” and Virginia discovers people are ripping down their flyers about the study. Virginia tells Bill it’s going to take some effort to get people to come to this hospital, which means a lot of their subjects for the study might end up being black.
She asks if they should separate the study by race. Bill is offended at first, but it seems Virginia is saying since people have this notion that black people are different, maybe they could prove them wrong by looking at race.
That night, Libby asks Bill if people use sex as a way to make up. Bill says he doesn’t know. Libby then awkwardly gets him to have sex with her (because of what Coral said earlier). Their sex is clearly not comfortable or enjoyable for either party.
The next day, while Bill is seeing a new patient, there’s a dispute in the waiting room. A white husband is accusing a black man of looking at his wife. Bill tries to break it up but ends up getting punched in the face.
At home, Libby cleans Bill’s wound and tells him about Robert threating her, but she also lets it slip that she forced Coral to wash her hair. Bill is angry that Libby did that after he told her she couldn’t have brought lice into the house. “Why don’t you ever take my side?” Libby asks. Bill tells her she was wrong and that he thinks Robert let her off easy.
That night, Helen intentionally hits it off with Gene’s friend Alan at dinner. A frustrated Betty is drinking. Then Helen tells a story about a horse she bet on named “Beautiful Betty” and how she gave the ticket to Betty to remember that someone is always betting on her. But the horse broke a leg in the race and had to be shot. This story breaks Betty, and she starts laughing. Then they both go to the ladies room, where Helen kisses her. (This isn’t going to go well for Betty.)
The next morning, Bill comes in to discover that Dr. Franklin has taken it upon himself to segregate the waiting room by placing signs for each doctor’s patients. Bill doesn’t think this is the best solution to the problem.
Virginia gets a call about Dr. DePaul — she was found passed out in the ladies room. She has no one else to come help her, so Virginia picks her up and drives her home. Dr. DePaul says she’s done with being a doctor — and that she can’t really afford to be upset with Virginia because she has no one else.
That night, Libby goes out to see Robert, who is there to be pickup Coral. She apologizes to Robert and tries to make things better, but it goes poorly. He tells her she should apologize to Coral not to him, but Libby disagrees. In Libby’s mind, Coral still disobeyed her. Coral comes out, and Robert tells her that Libby is just another example of white people not taking responsibility for their actions. They drive off while Libby screams, “My husband works at the Negro hospital!”
In the morning, Bill meets with the head of the hospital and says he’s realized now that he will lose some of his former patients. But the head of the hospital tells him that he hired him to push segregation — that he wants Bill to push harder with his patients and to not accept he will lose them.
Bill says wooing patients isn’t his gift, but it’s Virginia’s. Virginia is pleased to get credit for her work, and Bill admits there are things she’s better at than him.
As the episode concludes, we see the head of the hospital leaving Bill’s office and ripping down a flyer for the sex study as he leaves. Clearly, he doesn’t care about Bill’s study but wants to use Bill for his own agenda.
Rating:
A
This week’s episode was perfectly crafted and moved the story into new and more interesting places. The racial tensions were high both at home with Libby and at the hospital with Bill. This adds new complications to the sex study and to the changing world of the 1950s. While Bill is shown as someone who seems to have no issue with black people, he is also shown as someone who will only do something to help race relations if it helps him (meaning his study). Meanwhile, Libby demonstrates the deeper racist notions that lurk right under the surface.
We also got great speeches from both Dr. DePaul and Coral in this episode. Each was meant to push our two leading ladies (Virginia and Libby) to reconsider their actions. But did they? Will Libby realize she’s misplacing her anger at Coral? Will Virginia fully acknowledge that sex with Bill has nothing to do with the study? How will things progress at the new hospital? How long does Dr. DePaul have? Will Betty start up again with Helen? As we near the halfway mark in the season, there’s plenty left to question and explore.
Now for some random thoughts and my favorite moments of the night…
Virginia and Dr. DePaul’s fight was perfectly written and acted.
Best Moment: Coral’s speech to Libby.
Sarah Silverman as Helen! I’m interested to see where this goes.
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