In Treatment (2008–2010): Season 1, Episode 6 - Laura: Week Two - full transcript

Laura announces her engagement to Andrew. Dr. Weston awkwardly attempts to discuss her decision increasing the level of tension between them.

Previously on "In Treatment"...

Andrew gave me an ultimatum.

Either we get married or we split.

Do you have any idea why
Andrew chose this particular time?

We were having dinner, and he said,
"I don't know what I want.

I just know I don't want this

on-and-off thing." So I said to him,
"Sure," and then, "Let's just decide."

So you were the one who came up with it?

No, no, no, he had this thing with
this on-and-- The ultim--

I love you.

How long have you felt like this?



A year.

You've become the center of my life.

Laura, I'm your therapist.

I'm not an option.

Kate?

Kate?

Kate?

What?

Can you come here a minute?

This thing is, uh... this is clogged up again.

Can you do me a favor? Can you call the...

the plumber, tell him to
come over here, get it fixed?

I got a session starting in about a minute.

Okay, but you, you realize he won't
be able to come today, right?



Just have your patients
go to the downstairs bathroom.

Oh Chri... you can't be bloody serious.

Why not? What is the problem?

- It doesn't matter, it's okay.
- What is the big deal?

There's no big deal. I'll do it myself.
Never mind.

I'll get Dennis, that handyman guy,
to come over and do it.

Oh, yeah, well, good. Dennis will fix it.

And then it'll just get clogged
up again next week.

It'll be fine, I promise you.

- What is the matter with you?
- There is nothing the matter with me.

I've got a session starting
in a minute. Please!

Oh -- yeah, you're finished with me now.

Okay, I forgot. I should go.

S01E06: Laura, Week Two

Okay, so I said yes.

To Andrew.

We already set a date. It's gonna be
the third weekend in June.

You know, everybody gets married in June.

So...

So, you'll be a... a summer bride.

Evidently so.

Well -- congratulations.

Thank you.

So are you happy for us?

Is that important to you?

Well, if you're gonna be a guest at our
wedding, you'd better be happy for us.

Andrew and I wanted to invite you.

Your wife, too.

But you wouldn't come, right?
Would you? No, of course you wouldn't.

But we did actually talk
about it yesterday. Right after...

I said yes we started making a guest list, and

for a few minutes there, you were on it.

Wait a minute -- you said yes...

just... yesterday?

Yeah. I couldn't make up my mind.

It took me a few days to get over
the other night and our session.

I, uh... I wanted to calm down first.

Andrew was cool with that. He said,

a day here or there wouldn't matter
as long as I was moving towards a decision.

You know, he's very happy
that you're helping me.

For a while there, he thought
he'd made a mistake,

recommending that I come see you.
He said that, but...

he, uh, thinks you're an amazing therapist,

and that his instincts were just right,

and that you're on our side.

What?

I guess I'm, I'm...

I'm just trying to get used to...

to the change in tone.

You're speaking in the, um... plural.

Well, I'm gonna be a "we"...
an "us", aren't I?

You say that like you're not so sure.

No, I'm sure.

You know, Paul, I'm, I'm generally
open to your interpretations, but

right now, it just seems like
you're trying to be a bit of a...

Killjoy?

Killjoy, yes, something like that. So don't.

Especially since joy is a very
rare thing when it comes to me.

What?

I'm, uh...

I'm just wondering if you came
here today, determined to, uh...

demonstrate that joy,
especially after last week's events.

I'm asking myself...

if this isn't a bit too fast,

if you haven't perhaps taken a shortcut.

You think that I'm faking this?

That I'm actually totally depressed?
Well, maybe it's you that's faking it, huh?

I mean, that "congratulations"
was a bit labored, don't you think?

I -- I don't know if you know
anything about, uh...

scuba diving?

They have this thing that's called "the bends".

It's something that happens
when, when the divers...

come up to the surface too quickly.
It's really dangerous, it...

can explode your lungs...
from the sudden changes in pressure.

Anyway it -- it seems like there's...

there's a huge gap between...

the depths that you reached
last week and the...

heights...

at which you are today.
I'm, I'm, I'm just trying to...

I'm just trying to adjust myself
so that I don't, uh...

I guess,...

come to the surface too quickly.

Do you dive, Paul?

Yes.

I -- well, we, we used to.

Who's speaking in the plural now?

I can't imagine you diving.

Where'd you go? Mexico? The Caribbean?

Are you interested in... scuba diving?

I'm a certified diver.

I know what "the bends" are.

Sorry.

No, seriously, I dove a lot
before I met Andrew. He...

He hates it. It's claustrophobic.

It's nice to find we have something
in common, you and me, isn't it?

Where are you now, Laura?

I just had a scary thought. I just, um...

I know it's silly, but...

beforehand when you said, your...

your lungs could explode...

I don't know, it's... just the thought
that something might happen to you.

Yet you're the one who ascended so fast.

You know what, Paul?
I don't want a depressing session.

I want a happy session. I came with
good news, so, show a little support.

Okay.

Okay, yesterday... um, I was at Natalie's,

you know, Andrew's ex,

and Gary, the husband, the ones
who had a baby a few months ago.

And they keep calling, you know, to invite
us over, and I keep avoiding them.

But yesterday when they called
to invite us over for brunch --

Well, anyway, Gary makes dim sum.

I swear, Paul, he has those
bamboo steamers and everything.

So I said to Andrew, "Okay, let's go."

I mean, he's being so sweet to me all week,

I, I thought this is the least I could do.

So his agreeing to postpone
the ultimatum, that...

dis-, disarmed you?

All right. Go ahead.

They have a baby,

these huge eyes. I mean, the baby is...

the baby's all eyes, so beautiful.

And the way he breastfeeds...

All morning he was attached
to Natalie's nipple.

This, this huge dark nipple.
I've never seen anything like it in my life.

And at one point she took her boob
out of the baby's mouth

and squeezed it and some milk... squirted out.

And I look over to Andrew and
he has this admiring smile on his face,

you know, like he was...

looking at some masterpiece in a museum,

like "The Madonna".

What do you think he saw?

Maybe an image of you and he
together in the future, maybe?

Or maybe he just misses her tits.

No, not really. They're not that nice.

She's changed a lot since she had the baby.

In what way?

I don't know.
I didn't really know her before, but

Andrew told me a lot about her.

He said, she was this wild type, you know,

who had a lot of guys chasing her.

She put him through hell.

He said they'd go to bed
and she'd be one person, and then,

they'd wake up and
she'd be someone totally new.

A "free radical",
that's what he used to call her.

He says I remind him of her.

That's scary, like this is what's left of her:

the front of her T-shirt soaking wet,

and nipples, nipples.
That's, that's all that's left.

She's like a... wild animal
that's somehow been...

Shit, what's the word?

- Domesticated?
- Yeah, domesticated.

She looked domesticated, housebroken.

She said, her wildest sexual fantasy
was to sleep four hours straight.

Does that scare you a little?

Oh, my god!

I'd die if I turned into a lousy lay.

You know, someone who gets...
fucked in her sleep and can't even remember.

Do you think that's what happens
to people after they get married?

I don't now. Does it?

Is sex something you forget how to do,
or is it like riding a bike?

I think that depends on the...

on the couple.

Of course, sex...

can be...

- a subterfuge, it can --
- Paul.

Okay.

Okay.

So, anyway, when I go, I go to the kitchen
to help out with something,

and when I come back
Andrew and Gary are engrossed

in this deep conversation about -
you won't believe this - upholsterers.

There's this upholsterer
who redid their entire living room,

and Andrew's taking down the guy's number
and I'm like, "What are you doing?"

And he said, "Well, you know,
you and I discussed, you know, recovering

those armchairs your dad gave you."

I'm telling you, Paul,
we never discussed this.

And all of a sudden Andrew's
reupholstering armchairs?

I mean, we're talking metrosexual.

That doesn't sound very much like the
Andrew that you've been talking about.

Exactly.

I mean, this, this was beyond metrosexual.

Do you ever watch, uh... "The Animal Planet"?

Yeah, well, it was about this type of bird.

I can't remember the name of it, but anyway...

The male bird builds a nest for the female...

you know, these, these... amazingly...

intricate structures. They're incredible.

Anyway, the female goes from nest to nest,

you know, checking out
all her various mating options,

trying to make up her mind,

while the male bird
is desperately flapping about,

you know, and trying to attract
the female... with his architecture.

You know, the nests look like cages.

Anyway...

The whole way home I thought,
I wouldn't be able to fight this anymore.

So, when we got near the house,

we were about to park, and Andrew said to me,

"Do you want to go to
the movies or stay home?"

And I said...

I said "Yes."

And he says, "Yes, the movies?"
And I said, "Yes, I'll...

I'll marry you.

I mean, fuck it.

Fuck, I'll marry you. Yes."

So, where do you think this...

"Fuck it, yes!"...

came from... when...

everything you've been saying to Andrew,
everything that you've been doing

for the past few weeks,
has actually been one big no?

Meaning what? You think Andrew took me
there as some sort of object lesson?

To show me how good it could be for us?
'Cause I don't think so.

Andrew's a pretty mediocre psychologist.

Would you listen to me --

I just said yes and I'm already
bad-mouthing my future husband.

You didn't answer my question, Laura.

Where did this yes come from?

You really don't understand
why I said yes to him?

It was because you said no to me.

Because... because I said no to you?

The whole situation is just one big...

fucking no. I'm not blaming you.
I'm not accusing you. I'm just...

Did you expect a different reaction?

In your...

fantasy...

How would I respond to you, saying...

that you are... let's say,

"in love with me"?

First of all, take the quotation marks
off the "in love with me."

It's insulting.

And stop with the fantasy talk, because
fantasies are for silly, little girls.

We're, we're talking about reality, Paul,
which is that I'm, I'm in love with you.

- But I still --
- That's reality.

I still want to talk about fantasies...

for a minute.

Not the fantasy of a silly, little girl,

but the fantasy of a grown, smart woman.

Oh, please, let's, let's not do that.
That's beneath my dignity.

Well, I don't think there's
anything beneath our dignity

if it takes us someplace
our dignity refuses to go.

You remember that story you told me,

that summer when you were
15 years old in San Diego?

That couple you lived with, the ones
who had no children, David and Celia?

You said that summer was...

was very significant to you.

Oh, my God.

My mother had just died, Paul.

Of course it was significant.
What's the point in rehashing all this?

I mean, my mother died, and I was very lucky
to have somebody taking me in for a few months.

I mean, so?

I just wanna go back to that period
for a little bit, if you don't mind.

Your mother was gone.

Your mother was your last wall of protection

against your father... from your father's...

How did you put it?

- Toxic fumes.
- "Toxic fumes", yes.

His loneliness, his fears,
his dependency on you.

You said that he'd call you
up in California and say, how...

how unhappy he was and how, how much
he missed your mother, and...

begging you to cut your vacation short
and come back home.

What's this got to do with anything?

You took a liking to these people who were...

athletic, and, and healthy, and...

the exact opposite
of your parents in every way.

And you described David very vividly.

And you said, he was very kind to you.

Yeah, you know, he used to take me camping,

we'd -- we'd go surfing...

used to just...

talk about stuff, you know? Teenage bullshit.

You -- you were very attracted to him.

He was a hunk, yeah.

He looked like Nick Nolte.

They smoked a lot of grass.

A lot of grass. I smoked with them.
It was my first time.

And...

When that summer was over...

they said it was a shame
they couldn't adopt you.

They said, "We want a daughter,
just like you."

Yeah, I actually asked them
to see if it was possible.

If there was some legal way to...
Anyway, they just laughed at me.

They didn't take me seriously.
They said, I was so cute.

Actually, I wanted him to adopt me.

She was great - Celia -
but, you know... I was 15.

I wanted him all to myself.

Makes a lot of sense when you think about it.

You were... 15 years old, your father was...

grieving, completely dependent on you.

David must have seemed like a life raft.

Just as perhaps I am now...

from Andrew.

Perhaps I'm an alternative to
everything that Andrew represents:

dependency, anxiety.

But I am not a realistic
option for you, Laura.

This is a safe place where you can come...

like David, at the beach.

Yes, but with one big difference.

What's that?

I don't want you to adopt me,
I want you to fuck me.

I need to pee.

Aah, there's a... there's, there's
a problem with the...

with the thing... it's...

It's blocked up.

I just called... I'm gonna call the handyman.

- Okay. Well, then, may I?
- Well...

We're almost out of time, so...

What are we, camping? I need to pee.

What's the big deal? I'm very clean.
I won't messy your bathroom.

I prefer my patients to use the...

But you said that the toilet overflowed.

Why don't we just finish up for today?

I can owe you the 10 minutes
when you come back next week.

What, you're afraid your wife will see me?

Or that I'll see her?

Is she even home now?

I mean, what is she sitting on the couch
with... rollers in her hair, drinking beer?

- Laura, this has nothing to do with my wife.
- Okay, fine, forget it,

if it freaks you out that much.

Well...

I bet that didn't come
up in med school, did it?

"What to do in the following situation:

A patient in love with the therapist
asks to use the bathroom.

The bathroom is out of order.

The patient then asks
to enter the therapist's home.

- What should the therapist do?"
- I'm sorry if...

The correct answer is: it depends

on what the therapist
feels towards his patient.

Laura, I can see that
you might interpret this --

Don't interpret, Paul! I've had it up
to here with your fucking interpretations.

You know what kills me?

No matter what I say or do,

you see everything as more proof
that nothing is going on here.

You turn me into a 15-year-old
who isn't taken seriously,

a, a silly, little girl who people just pat
on the head and say, "Isn't she cute?"

- You know, the, uh --
- Stop patronizing me, Paul.

Look, I know when I turn somebody on.

Okay.

You know what thought of you
the first time I saw you?

- What?
- I thought you looked like a dead man.

I thought...

beneath that professional exterior
is a man who stopped living.

I wanted to take your heart in my hands and...

just pump life into it.

Maybe that's your sense of, um...

of what happens to married people,
that they just stop... living.

Maybe you're afraid that's
what'll happen if you marry Andrew.

Just my being here
has brought you back to life.

- Laura, let's, um...
- Yeah. I knew you'd deny it.

I mean, how could something
like this happen to you, hm?

But it did happen.

I know it happened, and you know it happened.

- What happened, Laura?
- Me and you, Paul. We happened.

And all the thoughts you have before you
fall asleep next to your wife happened.

I think we're out of time for today, Laura.

Why don't we talk about this
next week when you, uh...

when you come back?

Just tell me...

I -- I think you owe it to me...

Do you want me?

- I --
- Just a simple... yes or no.

No.