In Treatment (2008–2010): Season 1, Episode 22 - Alex: Week Five - full transcript

Alex's intimate knowledge of Paul's private life pushes the therapist to the brink.

Previously on In Treatment...

I slept with her, okay?

But I'm sure you got a full
play-by-play from her already.

After we had sex, she straddles my leg.

She starts rubbing up against me.

It's so obvious she's completely
and totally hung up on someone else.

Ever heard of vertigo?

When you go into vertigo, you look
only at your aircraft's instruments.

But keeping my eyes on my instruments
is what got me here.

Because I kept my eyes on my instruments
I dropped that bomb so accurately,

I killed innocent people.



What's the first step
on the way to my new life?

What would you like to do?

I think I'll go fuck her again.

Yeah.

Flight 810 estimated time of arrival:

9:55 a.m.

Flight 323 estimated time of arrival:

11:05 a. m.

Flight 111, estimated time of arrival:

12:21 p. m.

Am I early again?

No no, you're fine.
Come on in.

Finish what you're doing.
I'll make coffee.

No, it's okay.



You're fine.

The rain in Spain
falls mainly on the plain.

That's bullshit, you know.

I've been to Spain,
and the rain in the Pyrenees is a bitch.

Sync: Benj!

So I'll open with the punchline, doc:

I broke up with Laura.

I was actually a pretty great fuck
the second time.

I drank about a half bottle of Stoli,

just to relax.

I also took a pill
that Daniel gave me, you know,

one of those.

I had a hard-on
for a day and a half, Paul.

You should try it sometime.

It's a little strange, though.

It's like a woody
that actually feels like wood

'cause it's just sitting up there
and minding his own business

like it's got nothing to do with you.

Works like a charm, though.

Anyway, I made up for the last time.

We were fucking.

All night long, in the morning too.

In the end I realized that
she was just using me.

She really wasn't with me.
She was just

using me for an excuse,
you know?

Yeah, at any rate, it's over.

It's really not gonna go
anywhere from here.

Excuse me, when you say
"from here," forgive me,

- but do you mean from this office?
- What?

Are you trying to say
that your relationship with Laura

has something to do
with what goes on in this office?

Have you completely lost your mind?
What are you grasping at now, a word?

No, it's just that you're always trying
to make this bizarre connection

between you, me and Laura.

Is it me? 'Cause you're the one
always making a big deal out of it.

Tell me something didn't happen
between you and her.

What?

You're asking me to tell you
what didn't happen?

Yeah, I'm asking. Did something
happen between you two or not?

You mean apart from therapy?

Jesus, look at you dance.
It's a simple question.

Your million-dollar technique,

answering a question with a question.
Well, it ain't gonna fly this time.

I'll tell you why I'm asking.

Every time we were together,
half the time she talked about you.

She kept asking what I knew about you
and your family.

She was pretty obsessive about it.

And I then I remembered
how jumpy you get

every time I mention her name.
So I thought maybe

something went on between you.
Maybe you,

a married man...

How should I put it?

- You fooled around with her.
- What are you suggesting, Alex?

Can you just say that nothing
happened between you?

- Why is that so difficult?
- We've talked about this.

I will only discuss your relationship
with Laura,

Nothing else.

Sweet. So you discuss mine,
but not yours.

The point I'm trying to make
is that my

other patients have nothing to do
with your therapy.

Excuse me. You having sex

with somebody I'm dating
sounds very relevant to my therapy.

- She said she was having sex with me?
- Didn't have to.

- You're convinced that she did.
- I'm just asking.

The only relevant thing
is how you feel about the possibility

of laura having sex
with somebody other than yourself.

Don't start with your asinine shit.
You're copping out.

Would you stop trying to force me
into this relationship you've concocted?

- Why in the hell would I do that?
- Maybe you want to compete with me.

Maybe it's like the coffee,
the check, your intelligence.

If I'm not mistaken, I'm paying to talk.
This is what I want to talk about...

You and laura, and I'd like
a straight answer for a change.

Have you noticed when an emotional issue
comes up for you, you focus on money?

I have a different theory, though,
'cause every time we touch

on something that has to do with you,
you get scared shitless.

Why would I be scared
about talking about myself?

Because you want your patients
to think you're superhuman,

you're a buddha.

You don't eat,
you don't shit, you don't piss.

You don't argue with your wife.
You don't fantasize about your patients.

No, you're above
all of these earthly things,

because you live only for your patients.

Your private life doesn't matter,
only this inner sanctum.

Why are you giving me that look?

What look?
It's the way I look.

No, that look like you know everything,

like you can see right through me.

Maybe like the old man in Baghdad?

Oh, fuck.

Now you'll say you want
to talk about my father, right?

Okay, would you like
to talk about your father?

You people love this shit.

This is right in your wheelhouse.
You wanna talk about my father?

Go ahead, fire away.

Ask me whatever you want.

But he is an amazing man, my dad.

He really is.

But that's not what you told me
last week.

He's a good man, okay?

There's nothing you or 200 shrinks
can change.

Let's put aside for the moment whether
he's a good man or a bad man, okay?

What interests me
is how you feel about him

and what your relationship
with him is like.

When I say he's an amazing man,
i'm talking about facts, not feelings.

Would you say that to...

a girl who was raped by her father
in third grade?

"You're not interested in good or bad,

"You're only interested in
how she feels about the relationship?"

When did good or bad go out of style?

That reference to the girl
being raped by her father,

where does that come from?

Can we go back to last week?

If I rember correctly, you described
your father as being

an unfaithful man.

You said that he was ungrateful.

He treated your mother really terribly,

but that at the same time you...

had a great admiration for him.
That's correct, yes?

It seems to me that
your feelings about your father,

alex, are pretty conflicted.

- You don't get what I said at all.
- Well, maybe you could...

- explain it to me a little bit more.
- Fuck that, it's no use.

You're gonna hear what you wanna hear.

Do you and your dad talk a lot?

Yeah, we talk, as much as is necessary.

What does that mean,
"as much as is necessary?"

- I don't understand that question.
- Well, who calls who?

We talk as much as possible.
He's not a chatterbox.

He's precise, you know?
He's to the point, boom.

He cuts straight to the heart of things.

He's like iron, my dad, cast iron.

Iron in everything he does,
his movement, everything...

The way he works,
the way he thinks, his wisdom.

I don't think
there's a book he hasn't read.

I'm talking real literature, doc...

History, political science...

Everything.
The man is 70 years old

and he works
like he did 30 years ago.

He's as healthy as a horse.
He can still beat me in arm wrestling.

He's iron.

You know, when I think of iron,
I tend to think of something that's...

really indestructible, that's...

incredibly powerful, strong.

And yet at the same time
something that's kind of cold.

How do you feel about what I did,

killing people,
dropping the bomb on themadrassa?

- Why are you going back to that?
- Simple question, doc.

It's about your main thing... Feelings.
How do you feel...

about what I did
when I dropped a bomb on 16 kids?

- I'm not here to judge you.
- I'm not asking for a judgment.

I wanna know, how do you feel?

How do I feel?

Well, I think it must be
very difficult for you

to live with what happened.

What?

You have made an art

and a science and a career
out of taking the easy position.

Do you really think
not judging you is easy, Alex?

Let me tell you something: It's not.

Why can't you just say
you think I'm a murderer?

Because I know that's what you think.

I know that's what you talk about

when you're out with your friends
at some fancy restaurant.

You sit around the table, and you say,
"It's terrible. It's awful.

"It's a massacre.

"What it does to them,
it's just atrocious.

"What it does to us..."
Let me tell you something:

I come here

and I put my trust in you.

Why can't you be honest enough

to just tell me how you feel?

You know what my father said
when I told him about the mission?

What?

That's what he said.

You know what? That was the smartest
reaction I got from anybody,

including you
and all the other bleeding hearts.

'Cause there's nothing to say.
What are you gonna say?

Some things can't be explained away.

Sometimes you can't peel away
something and find...

It's just as plain as can be.
16 kids buried,

dead under a building.
That's it.

My father had it right, the old man.
You gotta be like that.

You gotta be like iron, baby.

It must be difficult for you
to have lived in the shadow

of somebody who thinks like that,
that you've got to be...

- To be like iron all the time.
- You see how you twist things around?

Am I ever gonna get out of this alive?
If I said he was a pussy,

you'd have a comment about that.
If I said he was a hero,

you'd have a comment about that.

You love to sit here.

You listen to people's problems
so you can probably sit on your porch

at the end of the day
and just tell yourself...

"My life is so great."

Can we stay focused on what the issue
is we're trying to deal with here?

The difficulty that you must have had

living in the shadow of your father,

in a world where you're not allowed
to express...

who you are.

your tender side,
maybe your feminine side, for example.

So what do you do?

The only thing you can do is defy him.

You have to fight
with everything you have.

But you know something, alex?

You haven't done that.

You haven't dared to do that.

Your father is such
a powerful, imposing character

that you're terrified he'll crush you.

So you come through this door
with all your rage,

your resentment, your jealousy,

your buried anger toward him.

You bring it in here
and you let it loose on me.

That's what you do, but that's okay.

That's fine.
That's why I'm here.

I think that's the most patronizing
thing I've ever heard.

Your wife?

It's okay, go ahead.

It's fine, really.

I apologize.

Jesus, look, look at you.

Look at how stressed you get thinking
I might learn the slightest detail

about your life. So what?
You got a wife at home.

Big deal.

See, that's the real problem
with all your theories, paul.

They completely ignore
your side of the whole equation,

that you are also human.

Yeah, you have this nice theory
that I see you as my father

and that's why I want to...

What did you say?
Defy you.

But what about you?
Why do you keep making it seem as if

you have no personal stake in this,
as if you're only here for me?

It's a deception, paul.

Let's take Laura, for example.

You play such a big role in her life,
it's unbelievable.

She knows nothing about you.

She's sure you're one of the most
perfect people she's ever met

and she hasn't the faintest idea
of who you are,

what your beliefs are,
how long you've been married... Nothing!

Doesn't it just seem
a little insane to you?

Who are you?

Really?

I know the whole truth about you.

You're not made of iron,
that's for damn sure.

Not even close.

Did you have something
going on with her or not?

You...

Really are perverted.

You know that she's young
enough to be your daughter, man.

During all our sessions here
Ibet you sit here

and you imagine how I screwed her.

Right?

You trying to make me angry?

Hey, don't try to turn this into
my psychosis. I'm onto your shit.

- But you're the one in therapy.
- You're the one not telling the truth.

You're the one who's bullshitting me.
You're the hypocrite.

I come in here every week
and I tell you everything.

Now you can't look me in the eye
and admit that you are falling in love

with a patient 20 years
younger than you.

I mean, come on.
You can't hang with her.

Come on, look at you.

You'll look like a fool.

Trust me.
You can't keep up with her pace.

- I can tell you that.
- Let me ask you something:

Why did you have to sleep with her?

I don't know.
I got tired of jerking off.

A thousand women could
have fulfilled that function.

Why laura?

She's sexy as hell.
Have you noticed?

I think that you are
trying to get back at me...

Because she was my patient.

The whole world revolves
around your ass?

I understand your theory.

You've been hinting at
it for the last 3 sessions.

That ain't flying either.

You really think that everything
that happened between me and her

- was meant to hurt you?
- You did it to provoke me.

Maybe you were looking for a reaction,
some kind of reaction,

anything more than a pat on the thigh.

Something emotional,
even if it's anger.

That's interesting.

That's another brilliant
theory there, doc.

But how about you, paul?

The fact that your wife is

screwing her lover
in some pathetic hotel

overlooking
the piazza di trevi in Rome,

is that getting a reaction out of you?

Yeah, you'd be real surprised

the kind of information
you find out from a few phone calls.

Yeah, I found out
a bunch of things, paul,

about whole bunch of subjects.

In fact, I've been taking
a little interest in psychology lately.

I've been meaning to check out
what you got here.

I even read a book laura gave me,

about the whole concept
of reciprocity in therapy,

about how everything that goes on
in here should be reciprocal.

So it made me think.

You sit here, you listen to me

and you pretend
to solve all my problems.

But you don't have
a fucking clue about yourself.

So I figure...

I got a choice.

Either I accept your superiority
as if you're some kind of god,

or I use my intelligence
and do a little investigating,

just to make sure
that this god is not some kind of...

Dr. Ruth who tells everybody
how to fuck while she's still a virgin.

You know what I mean?
70 years old and hey...

But so I made a few calls, paul.

Nothing too complicated.
More or less the same people

I consulted before coming here.

What's amazing is how many people

are dying to help you find
what you're looking for.

I found a hell of a god

in my investigations.

A god whose life is falling apart,

whose wife is sleeping around
behind his back,

whose daughter is fucking junkies,

whose father...

Yeah, whose father...

is rotting away in some geriatric
hospital somewhere in virginia, and why?

Is the son too stingy to pay
for a slightly more liveable place?

What a god.

And then laura comes along,
your sexiest patient yet,

and her only wish in life
is to get you into bed because

she thinks that's gonna solve
all of her sexual hangups.

And you, you fall in
love with that crazy slut...

Don't you fucking talk
about my patients, you fuck!

How fucking dare you!

You prick.

Richard, it's paul.

Look, I'm really sorry.
I have to cancel our session.

Today, I...

I'm sorry it's such short notice.

Something has come up and...

I'll get back to you.

Call me if there's a problem, bye.

What's happened?

Nothing.
It was...

Why are you canceling
your appointments, paul?

When did you get in?

It was about 10 minutes ago.

Was that you knocking at the door?

Paul, I'm so sorry.

- Honestly, I thought you were alone.
- It's okay. It's okay.

What did you do to your hand?

Accident.

I dropped a...

Let me see.

You'll survive, you know?

How are the kids?

Max kept asking
when you were coming home.

I didn't quite know
what to say to him.

Paul, we moved into
separate rooms on the first day.

It's completely over,
if that matters at all.

Thanks.

I've got to...

Hello, Julian.
Come in.