Masters of Sex Season 3 Premiere Recap: Welcome to the ’60s

There’s nothing better than when a show you already love decides to be a completely different show that you also love.

That’s what Masters of Sex is doing in season three, and it didn’t waste a second of the premiere showing off its reinvention. Taking a page from Mad Men‘s playbook, the drama has jumped five years into the future, and you know what that means: Everyone has excellent new hair. We’re kidding; it’s about so much more than the hair. But then again, the hair is really great, so let’s quickly welcome it to our arsenal of obsessions.

Here’s Virginia’s:

Here’s Libby’s:

And here’s Betty’s, topping off Betty’s best “I was born for this era” pose:

Outside of the root volume revolution, here’s what else is new and wonderful in Mastersland (spoilers ahead, obviously):

There are some civilized free-love seedlings sprouting within the Bill-Virginia-Libby love triangle A third of the way into the episode, Bill and Virginia roll up to a lake house, where Libby is waiting with both families’ children. Everyone’s very chummy, and from this point on, it’s hard to even concentrate on the action over the WHAT THE…ARE THEY IN A…IS THIS A THREESOME SITUATION? question pounding away in your mind. Finally, we learn that, no, they aren’t—but that Libby knows about the affair, Virginia knows Libby knows about the affair, and they have a tacit agreement that it’s fine to share Bill as long as Virginia doesn’t attempt to take him away from the family. (We remain mystified as to why two women would want this grump—he wears a bow tie to a lake weekend, guys!—but at least they’re still calling the shots.) Of course, this detente is about to be hijacked by the fact that…

The show is making serious parallels to today’s conversations on rape One of the questions Bill and Virginia field from the reporters on their study is: With their study shedding more light and placing more emphasis on female pleasure, can women “feel more free to say no?” The man is asking with genuine curiosity, and the rest of the room—which contains just one woman, a writer from Ladies’ Home Journal—nods along like good point, pal. The incredulity at the idea a woman might speak up to reject sex—especially in the event that it isn’t working for her—is a staggering reminder of how far we’ve come, even if there’s still work left to do.

Virginia is pregnant And in the midst of releasing her life’s work. And still an exam short of her degree. And not particularly in the market for more babies. Which makes me think we have a major right-to-choose plotline ahead. Speaking of her babies…

The kids are all grown up And making trouble. Tessa’s drunk and naked; Henry’s dating single moms and running off to the Army. How was this not sufficient birth control?

If things are this charged now, wait till Josh Charles shows up.