In Treatment (2008–2010): Season 2, Episode 19 - Walter: Week Four - full transcript

Hello?

Hi, Patrick.

Can you slow...
slow down for a minute?

What do you mean he f...

He fell?

But I didn't even know
Dad was in the hospital.

Okay okay, fine fine.
I'll...

I'll pay more attention to him.
Wait!

When did they transfer him?

But how long after he had the fever?

It's a fucking nursing home.
They should know that!



Okay, I'm not yelling at you.
I'm sorry.

I'll be there on saturday.

Synchro: EdM

You should be happy about one thing:

they took away my phone
and my blackberry.

I hated those things.

In my day an exec
never typed a note.

Never took one.

Never carried anything.

I guess that makes me a dinosaur.

I'm glad you came.

I hope you don't feel
any pressure today.

I finally have the time to talk to you,
but it's too late for you to help.

How are you handling it?



I'm wonderful, Paul.

Aces.

I know you said
that you're past the point where...

where talking could be of help.

But long as you're here,
why don't we...

why don't we try?

Well, what is there to say?

I've lost my job, my name.

I can't leave the house.

There's a pack of reporters
on the street waiting

for me to come out so they can stick
microphones and cameras in my face.

So coming here today meant

you had to run a... run a gauntlet.

I can handle that.

I tell them the truth.

I did everything I was supposed to,

that I took the pages
straight from the playbook.

- What playbook is that?
- Johnson & Johnson,

the tylenol scandal.

Seven dead from product tampering

and the companywasn't concerned,
but they pulled every bottle nationwide.

It's still the gold standard
for crisis management.

At the first sign of trouble,
you do everything you can

to inform and protect the public
and protect your name long term.

So what do you think went wrong?

Here, Connie let me read
this one article...

in the journal.

They came flat out
and said I did everything right.

"Played by the rules."

The only thing is
the world's changed a lot since 1982.

It's more predatory.

The minute we assumed responsibility

the bloggers, the press,

the class-action lawyers
came after us.

Then the short-sellers hammered
the stock down and that's when

the parasites in my own company
saw this

as some fucking opportunity
for themselves.

And then the Donaldsons capitulated.

"A perfect storm" they called it.

When you read an article like this,
how does it make you feel?

Like an old man

who stayed too long in the ring.

You feel like a... like a boxer

taken a beating.

I dropped my guard, Paul.

I deserve everything I've gotten.

Are you eating?

Yeah, I eat when I have to.

Shredded wheat, chicken soup...

that's what I had today, okay?

- How about sleep, are you getting any?
- Are you a therapist or a pediatrician?

Yeah, I sleep.
The pills help.

Has your doctor written
any other prescriptions for you?

Well, under Natalie's name, yeah.

Any day now there'll be
a headline in The Post:

"Baby-killer C.E.O.
binges out on pills."

Baby killer?

Is that how you feel
that you're being depicted?

Well,

I don't know actually.

My wife isn't even letting me watch TV
except for old movies.

I'm in a bunker
with a remote control

and pills by my bedside.

What pills do you take?

It's called...

Kloni... klopi...
something like that.

Whatever it is, it helps me sleep.

And how many are you taking?

Well, it depends.

- Maybe three or four.
- A day?

Is that the dosage that Dr. Wells
has prescribed?

That's what I need to sleep.

But you have to let him know
how many you're taking.

I mean, you're not somebody
who's had a lot of exposure to pills,

so you may not have the tolerance
that other people do.

What's gonna happen, Paul?
I fall asleep and I don't wake up?

Is that what you want?

Take a pill, fall asleep,
not wake up?

No no, I want to wake up.

I want to find that the last two months
were just a nightmare,

that the pipeline didn't get
contaminated,

that the press didn't vilify me,

that the people underneath me
didn't lie to me.

That's what I'd like.

I can understand
that you might feel that way,

but since you know that
that's not the case,

have you found yourself

thinking that not waking up

might be a solution?

What do...

Come on, Paul!

I don't quit.
You know me better than that.

And I would never leave a mess like that
for my wife to clean up.

As it is, she can't even look at me
without bursting into tears.

That must be something
that neither of you are used to.

Well, the tears,
I've seen plenty of those.

Usually right before I cave in

and give her the second baby
or the third baby

or whatever else she's ever wanted.

But what is new is
this look of pity.

It's just god-awful.

I told her never to look at me
like that again.

You sure it's pity?

I mean, she's your wife.

You've been married for 44 years.
She loves you.

- When she spoke to me on the phone...
- That's another thing!

I told her never to do that again.

She felt that these were
extraordinary circumstances.

What? I got fired.
What's the big deal?

The whole country's getting fried...
fired... fired!

But all of a sudden

I get an orchestrated show
of compassion,

teams of people dropping in.

It's like an episode
of This is your life.

So it hasn't been a comfort for you

to know how much
you've touched these people?

It's been embarrassing.

I told her yesterday, "that's it.

"I don't want to see anyone else.
Tell them I'm sick."

I had to promise her I'd see you
before she'd go along with me.

So basically you used me
as a bargaining chip.

I don't mind.

Long as it got you here.

And now what?
What are you gonna tell me, Paul?

That life is beautiful?

That nothing happened?

That it could all be a blessing?

I don't think nothing happened.

On the contrary, I imagine

it might feel like you're going through
some kind of

crucible.

People give me all these nostrums,
this self-help garbage.

Not what you need to hear
right now, I'm sure.

An old friend of mine,

Dean Larue,

came by the apartment
all the way from Rochester.

I don't know what Connie told him
to get him there.

But he's my age.

We were R.O.T.C. buddies.

Two years ago

they fired him from a company
that he had built

from the ground up.

So he's somebody up here

who's gone through
what you're going through.

He tells me he's found a hobby.
He's started taking pictures...

landscapes,

old factories and fishing boats.

He prints them up and makes them into
books and gives them to his friends.

He gave me one...

a photographic essay of Centralia,
Pennsylvania.

Is that the coal town
with the underground fire?

I'm sure you wondered
why he gave you that.

No... well, what do I care?

I don't care about that.

The point is, does he realize
how stupid he looks?

So you don't buy it?

If there's one thing
I can't stand it's people

who fool themselves,

lead fake lives,
become fake human beings.

Not always a choice, Walter,

so much as the way
the twig was bent.

I want to shake Dean and say,

"Don't you know everybody is laughing
at you, you old fool?"

I threw the book out
as soon as he left.

What the hell am I gonna do

with a picture of some smoldering meadow
where a town used to be?

What if he was really proud
of the book?

Do you think it might have given him
a different sense of accomplishment,

of achievement?

Or brought out a side of him
that maybe he...

You're smart.
You know better than that.

If that company called him back
right now and said,

"We made a mistake, Dean,
we'd like to have you back",

he'd go running in a heartbeat.

No, the truth is that...

he's outlived his usefulness.

I've got a couple of years left
to take photos

and lick stamps, but...

let's face it...

death is just the...
official acknowledgment.

The show's over.

So you don't want your family
to show concern.

You don't want friends or a therapist
to offer you support or...

nostrums.

Your life's over,

like Dean's.

Is that what you really think?

Why don't you tell me?

Better yet,

why don't you tell me
what you think of me?

The first time I walked in here,
what did you think I was?

I'll tell you what you thought.
You thought I was a piece of shit

who didn't care if his products
were killing infants.

You thought I was greedy,

insensitive, a son of a bitch.

You feel that I've judged you
from the beginning?

I told you I can't stand

fake fucking human beings.

Don't patronize me,
and don't lie to me.

I've had enough of that this week.
Just tell me the truth.

The truth is I'm angry.

I'm surprised at that reaction,
but I am. I'm angry

at what they did to you
and I'm angry at the way they did it.

I think you're a man of integrity.

I'm not going through
what you're going through, obviously.

But I can understand
your sense of anger,

your sense of...

betrayal.

I teach... or taught...

classes in business schools...

on corporate responsibility.

I guess those days are over.

They'd bring me in
as a guest lecturer and...

I'd look at all those kids
who'd all gone to biz school

for all the wrong reasons,

and I knew I had... an hour

to maybe reach one or two of them.

To try to get them to understand that
a company's name,

a product's reputation
is all that you have.

That... if you lose your name,

you've lost everything.

Do you feel
that you've lost that now?

I didn't lose it.
It was taken from me.

You mean by the Donaldsons?

You haven't mentioned
their part in all this.

What can you say?

Mr. Donaldson's old world, like me.

He got scared.

- I don't blame him.
- But isn't loyalty...

part of being... old world?

It's not just the old man now.

He still has his wits
about him, but...

the daughters are involved and
the grandkids and the fucking lawyers

and punks like Jace.

- You know, they put him in charge.
- But you said

that the family, I think,
has a majority interest in the company.

That's right.

So, it wasn't just the press
or the parasites

who forced you out.

The Donaldsons
had to go along with it.

They had...

credit market's drying up.

The stock was in the tank, well,
everybody's stock is in the tank now,

but this was...

carnage.

The minute they gave me up,

the stock gained it all back.

Have you spoken to them lately?

The old man, he could barely
look at me at the meeting.

I went over to him after...

afterwards and...

I thanked him for the opportunities
he'd given me and...

He said, "Good luck, Walter".

That was it.

How long have you worked
for this man?

35 years.

You know, when I came in,

his son James was...

He was reckless.

The old man asked me
to keep an eye on him.

James was his only son.

And a few years later,
James went West to...

look for some new markets.

And one night,
he drove his car into a tree.

Right away the sharks
started circling the company.

The old man was barely hanging on.

But I told him not to give in.

I promised him that

we would build something special,

and we did.

We did.

Are you saying you turned him into one
of the wealthiest men in the country?

I did okay too.

And after 35 years

all he has to say is good luck?

He said one other thing...

before he wished me good luck.

He said,
"They tell me Natalie's in Rwanda.

"What the hell
is she doing over there?"

- What do you think he meant by that?
- I think that was his way of saying...

that I'd dug my own grave.

How do you mean?

You said yourself last week:
in the middle of a crisis

I ignored my responsibility
to the Donaldsons and to the company.

I also remember saying
that there were two crises,

one with your daughter and one here.

And we talked about the way you
experienced your daughter's distance,

how that anxiety
might have colored your judgment.

So you're agreeing with me.

I misread

both situations.

My judgment was bad.

Perhaps your going away did contribute
to this situation exploding.

We know on some level that your body
had been trying to tell you

something was very wrong...

your insomnia to the panic attacks.

By going to Natalie when you did,

you were trying
to bring this crisis to a head.

It was already past that point.

Jace was a cancer
I should have cut out long ago.

I trusted the wrong people,

the wrong labs.

Under my watch...

this poison got into the pipeline
and onto the shelves.

But you issued a recall
the minute you found out.

The papers...

the ones
my wife won't let me read...

they're all saying kids died,

and it was my fault.

Is that what you think?

Natalie thinks so too.

When she emailed Connie you could tell
she thought I was some sort of...

corporate criminal.

You said I think you're guilty, the
papers too. Now you're saying Natalie...

It's not paranoia,
if that's where you're going.

Part of you believes
you did everything that you could

properly,

and part of you is punishing yourself
for not doing more.

I'm okay during the day, most days.

But at night I wake up
in a cold sweat, wondering...

how I missed it, what I could have done,
what I should have done,

how much hurt I've caused...

to families, to the company.

God, if you could see
the old man's face.

- He looked stricken.
- That must have made you feel terrible,

to disappoint the old man.

You seem to talk about him
as if he's...

- a father that you've let down.
- It's my fault, Paul,

not his.

I see you struggling

to understand what happened

and why it happened.

But as hard as you're working
to deal with this guilt,

this sense of betrayal,

it seems to me that you're working
just as hard to avoid looking at him

and his role in this.

Why do you keep harping on him?

He did the best he could.

You said
that when his son James died,

old Donaldson was ready to just...

give it all up.
But you wouldn't let him.

You took on the family business
for 35 years.

Their son was dead.

And did you feel guilty about that?

- I'd promised to keep an eye on him.
- And so for what,

some penance you took
on this enormous responsibility?

The same way that you took
responsibility for your parents' lives

- after your brother Tommy died?
- I had no choice.

Walter, you were just a boy.

- I had no choice.
- You were six years old.

You shouldn't have been
taking care of your parents.

They should have been
taking care of you.

It was my fault!

That's why I had no choice,
it was my fault.

What was your fault?

A hot summer night,

before air conditioning,

the air was dead still.

Tommy was just going to sneak out
to the quarry lake to cool off.

He came to my room...

and said...

tonight was the night he was going
to jump off the highest cliff.

He was asking me, really,
more than telling me.

And what did you tell him?

I said, "Tommy, you can do it.

"You can do it, Tommy."

And I told him in the morning I'd...

brag about him to everyone.

Then he kissed me good night.

And he never made it back.

And you felt responsible
for your brother's death.

I was.

I am.

Walter, your brother

jumped.
You didn't push him off the edge.

He chose to jump.

And in a flash

a family was destroyed.

That's it.

It happens.

There are lots of them...

destroyed families.

Are you okay, Walter?

I have to go.

I know this week your sense of guilt
about all this,

it must feel like an avalanche.
I know you must...

feel overwhelmed,

but it's urgent
that we talk about this feeling

in here.

My wife's waiting for me outside.

Can we arrange something
for tomorrow morning?

Sometimes if I'm up all night,
I need the mornings to sleep.

What about Monday afternoon?

I'm fine, fella.

Do you mind
if I call your doctor and...

- talk about those prescriptions?
- I said I'm fine.

I'll see you next week Walter.

My wife's waiting for me outside.