In Treatment (2008–2010): Season 1, Episode 21 - Laura: Week Five - full transcript

A close call at the hospital triggers unexpected revelations from Laura about an older man in her youth.

Previously on In Treatment...

We're lying there face to face, petting
each other like high school kids.

One thing seems perfectly plain to me:

you slept with my patient.

He doesn't belong to you.
He's a great guy.

A little insecure in bed maybe, but

I think I'm gonna have a tremendous
affair with him.

Are you saying that when I was fucking
Alex, I was actually fucking you?

It seems more like,
"look what you missed out on, Paul, you

coward, you idiot."

Paul, if there's one thing I've
put right out there without hinting



or manipulation
it's that I've wanted you.

There's more intimacy between
us than most couples in the world.

Isn't that right?

I don't deny that there's
a certain intimacy.

Is there intimacy here
or not?

Yes,

there is.

Season 1 - Episode 21
Laura Week Five

- Synchro : ?AkaZab?, Kasius

I'm sorry.

Laura, I think that

we need to discuss
in a little greater detail

your ending therapy.

We're not stopping
yet, but in order to do it gradually,



we have to
create what we call

a timeline.

No timeline.

We're
finishing today.

Yeah, today.
This is our last session.

Good.

Feels good.

Resolved, I guess.

I was a little nervous about telling you
but now that that's over, I feel better,

relieved,

maybe a little tired.

And...

and sad.
How about you?

How do you feel?

I'm sorry,
is that not okay for me to ask?

- No, it's perfectly okay.
- Good, so...

tell me.

Well,

to be honest,
it's come as a bit of a shock.

Shock.
Well, okay, what else?

Well,
I feel sad, too.

Right.

Yes, I do.
You don't believe me?

- It just doesn't look that way.
It looks like you're

holding back this huge sigh of relief,

this

huge gulp of air trapped in your lungs.

See, I'm trained to see that stuff,
remember?

Monitoring respiration,
that's anesthesiology 101.

Go ahead,
let it go.

Exhale.

No?

Well...

maybe I'm a lousy Doctor.

So how's your week been?

Don't ask me about my week.
It was terrible.

How terrible?

I was in surgery on friday and

this 15-year-old girl, she

she had this tumor
on her cheek.

It was nothing, benign,

cosmetic.

And everything's going great,

right?
Nothing wrong with the anesthetic.

And my attending gets called
away to consult on a procedure

and the surgery ended
faster than normal.

It was simple.

And I'm left with her
still anesthetized.

So I called to ask what to do.

I'd never been in that situation before
with a patient who's never woken up.

And they told me to

take her into the recovery room.

She was still intubated,

and the attending was supposed
to remove the tube

when she wakes up.

She was a sweet girl, Pretty.

Michelle was her name.

Before the op, I was talking to her
mom who told me that she'd Been

asking for this operation
since she was 9,

they recommended that
she put it off for a while,

and how she wasn't afraid,

just wanted this thing gone,

this Fatty Lump off her Pretty face.

And then suddenly, she wasn't breathing.
I don't know what happened, Paul.

I took her into recovery and two
minutes later she was blue. I mean,

Atcheson, he's the

senior attending,
he pushed me aside and pounced on her

with chest compressions.
I had no idea what went wrong, Paul.

They extubated her, and she was
breathing. Everything was fine.

It was okay.

How did you feel
during those

few minutes when the...

fantastic,
never better.

I felt

like shit.

I only look competent, Paul, you know.

White coat, stethoscope, pen in pocket.

I'm like those Doctors from
the pharmaceutical ads. You know, like,

hand on hip,

brow a little furrowed with concern,

nice smile.
I have a pretty smile, right?

Do...

Do you expect that nothing
will ever go wrong with a patient?

I dropped the ball.

But is that what the

attending concluded?

I mean, couldn't it have been
something else, like,

I don't know an allergic reaction,

- a drop in blood.
- It's always my responsibility. Paul.

Tell me a little bit more about that,
about that girl.

She had braces.

And through her surgical cap,
you could see.

What do they call it?

The barrettes, little butterflies
pinning back her bangs.

They were old.

Must have her mother's or

from a thrift store or something.

And she had these
beautiful hands,

gorgeous hands.
I mean, she's just a girl,

and she had these hands of a woman,

very long fingers, Pretty little nails.

Shit, when I was her
age I used to eat my nails.

I mean, they were ugly
and stubby and short.

- Nerves, I guess.
- Why were you nervous?

Well, it was,

you know, around the time
that my mother passed away, so...

And whose responsibility were you then?

What do you mean?

Well, who was
taking care of you?

You mean who was watching my sleep?

Yeah.

I wasn't that girl on
the operating table, Paul.

No, it's just that you told me that when
your mother died, that it was like

a kind of a death for you too.

Yeah, but you know what?

Shit happens.

Life isn't fair.
What are you going to do, sue god?

Well, who would you sue?

You.

No, suing you wouldn't
do me any good, either.

That's my problem with psychology, Paul.

You dig and you dig and you uncover
all sorts of truths about yourself,

and you touch on all sorts of painful
places, but what good does it do, Paul?

I'm serious. I'm not being cynical.
What good does it do me today

to know how much I suffered then?

I'm sick of feeling sorry for myself.

I fucking hate feeling sorry for myself.
That's one of the things I hate.

What else do you hate?

There's a long list.

Well, for example.

- Omelets.
- Omelets.

Omelets and all sort of eggs,
but mostly omelets.

That's was the thing my father and I ate

the entire year after
my mother passed away.

I still have flashbacks,
but from behind, you know?

I'm standing at the stove and I'm

I'm breaking eggs into a frying pan.
Everything's very quiet, no talking.

My dad's just sitting there

reading the news paper
or something and I'm just...

beating the eggs with a fork.

Sometimes he wouldn't even be reading
the newspaper. He would just be

sitting there with a vacant look,
in a daze.

I used to.

I'd fantasize that he'd disappear.

Such a terrible thing to say.
It's not that I wanted him to die.

I just didn't want to
continue living like that.

Everything was so bleak, so suffocating.
I just didn't want to be there.

So then...

Then you went to California.

- Yeah.
- So you stayed there for a while.

How was it coming back home after
spending that

time with David and Celia?

Well, you know, you have plans,

full of beans.

I thought, "shit,
I can make him feel better. I can."

But I couldn't.

That house was like a black hole
that just

sucked me in.

Anyway, I

I saw David again six months later.

He came to the DC area
to try some big case.

He was stayed for a while,
a few months.

I thought you said
you never saw him again.

I never saw them again,
but I saw him.

He used to have a room
at the Hay-Adams,

but occasionally,
he'd stay over at our house.

He didn't have a car,
so when it got late he'd stay.

He always offered to take a cab
back into town,

but my dad refused
since he was...

so hospitable to me
during the summer.

I mean, he was lonely.

But he wasn't the same David,
you know,

with the Ray-Bans and the sunblock
and the surfboard.

He was this lawyer guy with...

a three-piece suit,
an expensive haircut

and a middle-aged pot belly,

not that there's anything wrong
with a pot belly.

Anyway, he came to our house

for dinner the first night
he was in town.

My brother Oliver was away at college,

so it was just the three of us,
one big happy family,

my dad, David and I.

What was that like,
sitting there with...

these extremes,
your father on one side and...

Nick Nolte with a pot belly
sitting on the other side?

- What was that like?
- At first,

self-conscious, I guess.

You know how you always feel
more like a kid

when your parents are around?
That happened.

I remember slurping up spaghetti,

trying really hard not to let
the noodles drip down my chin.

Later, I guess,
I wasn't as self-conscious.

Why?

Later, after David and I made love.

I seduced him.

Have you read Lolita?

Sure.

It's amazing, because pretty much
the same thing happened to me.

That night when he came over for dinner,
my dad was still at work.

So we sat on the porch...

and caught up.

I was painting my toenails.

And it became pretty clear
that he and Celia were having problems,

He said just as much, which is
why she hadn't joined him on the trip.

So we were just sitting
on the porch swing.

I was on one side.
He was on the other.

And I was resting my...

legs on his to dry my nails.

And he was just asking about me,

what was going on with me,
I started telling him about

the Red Hot Chili Peppers.

God, I was so into them.

When you're writing down the lyrics

and analyzing them,

and I started singing
at the top of my lungs.

And David joined in,
we were so bad.

I mean, we were screaming it.

And then I felt his hardness...

under my foot.

And we we're just rocking in the swing,

the rhythm of it starts to take over.

And I'm just rubbing him with my foot,

although I've never done that
before in my life. Never.

I had on this little skirt
with these little flowers.

And he pushed up
my skirt with his finger.

And his finger just started...

climbing further and further
up my thigh.

Then we see my father's Volvo
coming down the street,

so we ran over to help him

with the groceries.
And I remember laughing so hard

because David was carrying his bag
of groceries in front of his hard-on.

We were just cracking up like teenagers.

He stayed over that night
in Oliver's room.

Around 1:00 in the morning,
I got up 'cause I couldn't sleep,

I walked down...

the corridor in the house. Oliver's room
was at the back of the house.

And I saw his light on.

The door was open,
and he was waiting for me.

And we made love.
It was lovely.

During the two months
he was in town,

we made love almost every day,
mostly in the mornings

when my dad went to work,
but occasionally,

if he didn't have to be in court
until the afternoon,

I'd play hooky.

Sometimes I'd go to his fancy hotel.

I felt very important and grown-up

walking through that lobby
in my mother's high heels.

Did you ever feel that this man...

That David was taking advantage of you?

He wasn't taking advantage of me.
I'm telling you. I seduced him.

Lolita seduces Humbert
in the novel and she's only 12.

You disapprove, obviously.

Yes, I do.

What's the matter?
You're making a judgment on me.

You're allowing yourself
to stray from the rules.

Gosh, it's too bad
you weren't like this before,

- willing to say what's on your mind.
- You never told me this before.

It's our last session so I thought
it was only right you to tell you.

Remember I told you that the guy
from debate society was my first?

David was my first.

And I'm sorry.

What are you sorry for?

For lying to you.

I wasn't a victim.
Don't look at me like that.

- I wasn't a victim.
- Really?

I got into his bed.

He was a 40-year-old man,
for Christ's sake.

He had a responsibility
to send you away.

He was very gentle.

Gentle or not, it is beside the point.
He was 40 years.

He had a moral responsibility.
He should have known better.

Let me ask you something.

Do you feel...

Do you feel any anger towards this man?

It's not such a big deal.

He didn't hurt me.
It didn't hurt at all.

- It wasn't rape.
- Where was your father

during all this?

He was asleep in the next room.

But during the two months
that David was...

visiting, your father
had no idea what was going on?

He was depressed and grieving.

It hadn't even been a year
since my mother passed away.

He needed someone to protect him,
and guess who?

I understand that,

but children aren't supposed
to take care of their parents.

It's a burden that no child deserves.

Do you feel any anger
towards your father

for not being there to protect you,

for not noticing?

No resentment?

Let's just say you could talk
to your father now.

What would you say to him?

I have nothing to say to him.

But just imagine for a moment
if you were face to face

and you were...

talking about this incident.

What do you think you might say to him?

Have you ever spoken
to your father in that way?

I wish I could.

Because you can't talk to your father,
you're asking me to talk to mine?

That's not what I'm saying.

I think it's important

that you talk to your father about this

while it's still possible,
not for his sake,

but for yours.

Can I have something
to drink other than water?

Do you have any soda?

So this is the famous
coffee machine, huh?

Alex's famous coffee machine, yeah.

How do you use it?

Excuse me.

He's such a coffee freak...

It's the best smell, don't you think?

You know that this thing
with me and Alex is over.

I ended it.

Are you relieved?

Jesus, look at you.

How can you live like this?

Can't you just say
or do something on impulse?

You know that I connected
that girl to the wrong tube.

I inflated her like a balloon.

And I almost killed her,
and you know why?

Because I was thinking about you.

And I realized what an insane effect
you're having on me.

It has to stop.

We can continue
to talk about this if you want.

All of a sudden you're very generous
with your time.

For months
I spent the week thinking

"It'll be this Monday.

"I'll tell him that I love him,
he'll tell me he loves me,

"and the session won't be 50 minutes.
It'll go forever."

But then Monday would come
and I wouldn't dare say anything.

And the session would end,
I would just walk out of here thinking

"Fuck!

"I didn't say anything again.

"Now I have to wait a whole
other week for my life to begin."

I can't continue.

Every minute here is tearing me apart.