In Treatment (2008–2010): Season 2, Episode 10 - Gina: Week Two - full transcript

Hello, Kate.

Rosie said you'd be here.

Is there a problem?

These are the financial aid forms
I asked you to sign

for Rosie's college application.

I didn't know your income
this year, so...

I'll take care of it.

Appreciate it.

Rosie's at her friend Becca's house.
They're working on a science project

so you'll have to wait
until after dinner to pick her up{\, okay?}.

Why can't she do it some other night?
I only see her two nights a week.



Who's choice was that, Paul?

I'm just supposed to wait around
until she's finished?

What am I supposed to do until then?

I don't know.
Maybe {\you could }see your other child?

I'm sorry.
Please, let's not do this now.

And please don't come
to my therapist's, okay?

Please don't come here. I have
one fucking hour to myself. Please.

I think you have
your whole life to yourself now.

Why don't you enjoy it?

- Hello, Tammy.
- Timing.

- I hope you didn't hear all that.
- Oh no, it's no problem.

Actually, I'm glad I ran into you.

I wanted to tell you how sorry I was

about interrupting your session
last week.



That's fine.

It's good to see you again.

It's your turn. Have fun.

Tammy looked like
she had a good session today.

We can't talk about another patient.
You said that last week.

I said a lot of things last week

and the truth is I don't know
what I was thinking.

Look.
I can't be in therapy with you.

{\I mean, i}It's nothing personal.

If I were to go to therapy, obviously
I would come to you, of course.

But it's just not a good time
for me to...

to make myself more miserable.

Is that what we were going to do,
make you more miserable?

I didn't want to just phone,
you know.

- Are you sure about this?
- Absolutely.

I'm sorry to hear this.

But I respect your decision, so.

- You respect my decision?
- Yes, of course I do.

Do you want me to leave?

You stay here and wait for the kids.

It's fine.

But since I've got some free time,
I need to do some shopping.

- You're going shopping?
- Do you need anything from the market?

What would I need
from the market, Gina?

Oh, right. I don't know.

Did you want me to argue with you?

Do you want me to persuade you
to come to therapy?

Did you want me to just, like,
leave you a message?

This is very polite. I'm gonna...

- We can't have an hour of conversation?
- That's what we did last week.

I'll pay you for
an hour of conversation.

I don't sell my conversations.

Maybe we should charge them.{\for conversations.}

If anyone learns anything
it'd be all the better.

So, are you gonna stay here
while I'm gone?

- I get what you're doing.
- What am I doing?

Women, they're all the same,
every last one of them.

Excuse me?

Maybe it's not a good idea
for you to stay here.

I just want you to stay and talk.

- You said that.
- 10 minutes,

please.

You don't know what kind of a week
I've had, Gina.

I've got this CEO guy,
he pays me by the insight.

When I give him the insight
he doesn't want...

I really loathe people who think
they can just buy whatever they want.

Then I've got this former patient
who I haven't seen for 20 years

who thinks that everything that's
happened in the meantime is my fault.

I just want to rest for a few minutes,
that's all.

Just a few minutes though.

You can't get any rest on the train?

On the train I talk to you,
but you don't talk back.

Not just you, I talk to all the people
I don't see all week.

- Like Kate and the boys.
- And Rosie.

And this week
I talked to Tammy Kent.

Why am I thinking
about Tammy Kent all the time?

I don't know.

I was so happy at her house
when I was 17.

Was that the last time I was happy,
I wonder.

I don't think so, Paul.

What was it about being at her home
that made me so happy?

I don't know.

Maybe that's something
you could work on in therapy.

I could also work on why I say
such stupid things about women.

That women are all the same,
what a stupid thing to say.

Please, forgive me.

People say stupid things
when they're angry.

Anger is also a good thing
you could work on in therapy.

I called my lawyer from the train.

It turns out
that Mr. Prince's lawyers are...

They're deposing Laura today.

She had a relationship with Alex.

I know she had a relationship with Alex,
while she was in love with you.

That's a dangerous triangle.

Are you worried that she'll use this
as a way to get back at you?

I don't know what she'll say.

Maybe she really thinks
that it is my fault that Alex is dead.

That's another good thing
to work out here.

Fine.

I'm like my patients, you know.
I don't want to be in therapy,

because I don't want to talk
about my parents. My past is fine.

It's the present
that causes the problems.

I'm sure it's occurred to you, Paul,
that...

That why you're thinking about Tammy
so much...

Nothing has occurred to me.
Why do you think I'm here?

I'm sorry.

Please...

Tell me what's occurred to you.

It occurred to me that you're interested
in Tammy Kent

because there's something incomplete

in your understanding
of your father's abandonment

and your mother's breakdown.

- And how does Tammy fit into this?
- I don't know.

Can't you guess?

There's an idea. Guess therapy.

You tell me a problem you have,

and I'll try to guess
what caused it and if I guess right,

I win!

The only problem is I'd have to know
what caused my problem

in order to say
whether you were right.

All right, true.

Yes...

It had occurred to me too
that my response to Tammy Kent

was tied up with my mother's death
somehow.

That seeing Tammy opened
a kind of a window onto that time.

Suddenly with Tammy there,

I felt I had to look in,

you know, I think,

to see myself...

Before the fall maybe.

And Tammy and I were lovers...

And I'd want to talk about that too.

But I can't talk about Tammy
because she's your patient.

So...

I don't know, maybe I'll just take
Tammy out for a coffee sometime,

but I won't go looking in the...

In the mother window.
I'll just...

Let it all stay

dead.

- The problem is it's not dead.
- It's the...

Undead.

Like in a horror movie.

You kill it, you bury it,
but then it comes right back,

right out of the grave.

Mother!

Those are the monsters...

The things that won't stay dead.

And one night when you're too tired
to kill the thing again,

you let it kill you, just...

Just so that it will at least be

over.

Is that what you think happened
to your Alex up there in his plane?

That instead of fighting his guilt
one more time,

he just gave into it,

so it would be over?

Yeah.

It's hard to know
how much fight a person has in him.

- True.
- You, for instance.

- You don't have to worry about me.
- I'm glad.

But I wonder why you think
you {\don't have the strength left}aren't strong enough

to fight your mother one more time.
I mean, maybe this time you'd win.

What are you suggesting?

I'm suggesting that maybe
you could finally lay them to rest.

One of them... my dad...
is still alive.

Of course I know that.

But still,

if you had clarity
about what happened back then,

maybe that could all rest in peace.

And so could you.

How does that sound?

- As a goal for therapy?
- As a goal,

therapy or not.

I don't think I can do it
without therapy.

I know it. I won't do the work.
I won't think about it.

I'll just go on blaming myself,
taking it out on everybody else.

I'll start smoking again,
drinking too much.

I didn't know that drinking
was a problem for you.

It's...

As long as I don't drink alone,
it isn't.

Why am I so resistant to you?

Why do I come all the way down here,

only to tell you that I don't want
to be in therapy?

Clearly I have to be in therapy.

I have to figure out
how this next part of my life goes.

I have to know
if I'm doing the right job.

I have to know if I'm helping people.
And if I'm not,

I have to know
what I'm going to do next.

Did you really worry
that I couldn't hear about Tammy

because she was my patient?

Of course I did.
I do!

I appreciate that.

And?

So I thought
about whether I could treat you both,

especially if anything were to happen
between the two of you.

Do you think something{\is likely to}
could happen between the two of us?

Not necessarily. But I have
to aknowledge that something

could happen.

No, I don't want anything like that.

- Are you sure?
- Absolutely.

As sure as you were that you didn't want
to see me for therapy?

Who doesn't want to be back in bed
with his high-school sweetheart,

the girl who looks at him
in the way he used to be?

I mean, don't you think
about stuff like that?

Let's try and stay
on the topic, Paul.

Sure, sorry. I thought
I was beginning to enjoy myself.

If I'm going to treat {\both}you and Tammy,
there's going to have to be some rules.

Like?

Well...

If you were the therapist

and you had two patients
who had a history,

- what rules would you want?
- Okay, well,

I would make it clear
that I couldn't tell either of them

anything that I had learned
in session about the other.

- Okay.
- Okay?

And...

They couldn't expect me to analyze

the other one
and they couldn't use me to...

send messages back...
back and forth.

Okay.

My seeing them would have to be
a kind of open secret.

We'd all know about it,
of course, but we'd...

all put it away and just

- not use it.
- All?

Even you?

You think you could do that?

I think so, yeah.

When Alex and Laura slept together,

you kept your response to that
out of their therapy?

As I remember it, I threw the affair
in her face and a cup of coffee in his,

but that, that...
that was different.

- How was that different?
- Their affair was about me.

Laura slept with Alex
because I wouldn't sleep with her.

And he slept with her
because I wouldn't give...

And he slept with her because
she was gorgeous and he felt like...

What were you gonna say,

before you corrected yourself?

He slept with her
because you wouldn't...?

Because I wouldn't tell him
not to fly again.

Because I wouldn't try
to control his recklessness.

And he wanted to show me
what kind of damage he could do.

- But you didn't see that?
- No, I didn't.

I guess I was too involved
so I didn't get the message.

He counted on me to control
his self-destructive influences.

Instead I lashed out at him,
he lashed out at himself and...

And down he went.

So...

You can see
why I need to remain neutral

if something were to happen?

Of course.

I need you to promise me
that nothing's going to happen.

Sure.

Nothing will happen with Tammy Kent

until or unless

we are no longer your patients.

I want you to know,

that...

What you've said about Alex today
stays with me.

I'm not going to mention
any of that in the deposition.

Okay then.

Okay.

Do you want to proceed?

Yes, I do.

Good,

I'm glad.

So,

let's begin.

Last week you mentioned
your high-school sweetheart.

Yeah,

- Tammy Kent.
- Last week you called her

- Tammy Kent, also by her full name.
- That's what everybody called her.

There was another Tammy
in the neighborhood

so we called this one Tammy Kent.

- And she lived down the hall?
- They moved in when I was about 14.

And that was about the time
your father moved out?

No, he moved out
a little bit after that.

You know, it should've been
the worst time of my life

with my father gone
and my mother beginning her...

You know, to suffer her bouts of...

Depression, but...

I wasn't sad, you know? I was...

I was excited.

What was it that excited you?

Tammy.

She'd show up out of thin air
when I was having the worst day

and, you know,
we'd just start talking.

And everything bad about my house,

it felt like a movie.

It felt like a movie that I was watching
but that I wasn't in.

And even if my mother
was crying all day,

I'd tell Tammy Kent and she'd say,
"Yeah, it's going to be okay."

What would be okay?

I don't know, she just made me feel
that I could get through it and that...

if I let my mother cry that
that was okay too.

And I...

had the hope that when I went back
down the hall, things'd be all right.

Or if they weren't, at least,

you know, I could...

deal with them.

So she helped you
take care of your parents.

She was so young
to be a grief counselor.

Well, she felt more like my...
My girlfriend.

And the way I felt about it was
if I had a girlfriend,

then I was, you know, I was okay.

I wasn't the poor kid with the absent
father and the pitiful mother...

I mean, I was that kid, yes, I was,

but I wasn't a complete failure.
At least, I had a...

{\I had }a girlfriend.

Did you have
a physical relationship with her?

Back then no.

We were... 14.

Different times, not like kids now.

No, it was another three years
before we had sex.

After all that stuff
had happened and,

you know, I was over...
Over everything.

What was it that happened?

Well, after my father left.

After your father...

Left...

You and your mother
for one of his patients?

Right.

And then my mother went into this,
like really...

Deep...

depression.

I remember one Christmas Eve,

Tammy's mother invited us
to come over to the house and,

you know, her husband had died
that year, but you'd never know it.

She was the strongest woman
I think I've ever met in my life.

Their house was always

full of light and music.

She was determined to stay alive
for her kids, that's for sure.

- Not like your mother?
- No, not like my mother,

who jumped into the abyss
and pulled me down with her.

So... about Christmas?

Yeah, anyway, Christmas.
Christmas Eve.

Tammy... Tammy appears at the door.

She says, "Come on, come on."

So, I said, "Hang on for a minute."
So I went into my...

into my mother's room to see,
you know, did she want to come?

But she was asleep,

I decided...

I'd leave without her

and we went over to Tammy's place.

It was...

It was just... amazing.

Tammy's mother had baked this...

glazed ham
with the pineapples and cherries

and there were christmas cookies
and people were drinking punch

and everybody was singing

and it was just great.

So then afterwards,
Tammy and I went to her room.

And we were just...

You know, talking and... talking...

I think that was...

when I first fell in love with her.
You know?

I thought she was...

I thought she was the most beautiful
creature I had ever seen.

Anyway, suddenly,
I remembered my mother

because I was afraid
that she'd wake up

and that she wouldn't know
where I was.

So I ran out of Tammy's room, and...

What happened when you got home?

I don't really remember.

Finding my mother
unconscious on the floor,

calling the ambulance,

the trip to the hospital...
I don't even remember any of it.

You know, from the time
I left Tammy's bedroom

until I got to the hospital corridor,
it's all just, like...

It's all a blur. It's all missing.

It's like... it's erased.

It's very important that you try
and remember that night.

I can't. I have tried.

My mother's first suicide attempt
the most important night of...

The most important night of my life,

but I don't remember anything.

Why was it the most important

night of your life?

Because if I'd stayed with her,

she wouldn't have tried to,
you know, kill herself.

I know it took years
before she finally did it,

but that Christmas Eve

when I wasn't there,

that was the first time she did it.

That's when it all started.

Paul, you were a 14-year-old kid.

You had just had
the most wonderful night of your life.

Yeah, but...

- it doesn't matter.
- It does matter.

She took your wonderful night
away from you.

She punished you for neglecting her.

She showed you
what damage she could do

if you ignored her,
if you didn't take care of her.

And it wasn't
just the threat on her life.

But a threat on my life as well,
{\is that what }you mean?

Yes.

I was totally fine. I mean,

I was just standing there
in the hall

with a stomachful of cookies.

She was the one in the hospital
with the tubes sticking out of her arms,

the nurses running in and out.

I was out enjoying myself.

She was about to die.

What could you have done?

I don't know.

All I know is I left her for one night
and that was the night she did it.

So...

whatever I was doing before that,
obviously I was...

I was helping her.

It's very important
that you remember exactly

what happened to you that night.

Because...

maybe you'll discover
something missing.

You know, some detail

that'll help you feel...
less guilty.

But I am guilty.

I know for a fact
that you couldn't save her.

Just like I know for a fact

that you couldn't save Alex.

But my knowing those things
is meaningless.

You have to know them.

You do.

Okay.

So you have to do
whatever it is you have to do

to remember that night.

Like what?

Like... hypnosis?

You'll figure it out.

Okay.

I'll see you next week.

Yeah, and...

- thanks.
- You're welcome.

Hi, could I have...
A phone number for Tammy Kent?

I mean... Meswick.

Tammy Meswick.

Connect me.

Hi, Tammy, it's Paul Weston.

Could you give me a call at this number
when you have a chance?

It's nothing urgent.

I just wanted
to ask you something about...

About my mother.