In Treatment (2008–2010): Season 3, Episode 20 - Adele: Week Five - full transcript

Adele confronts Paul about his growing obsession with an 'impossible' relationship.

It doesn't look
like a habitrail.

Rosie said that you thought
it looked like a habitrail.

Yeah, I know.

I just...

yeah, it's like the only thing

I could come up with
at the time.

It's more like an erector set.

I don't think well on the spot.

Neither do I sometimes.

But it looks like a really
cool place to live.

Is that Steve's studio
back there?



Yeah, he converted the garage

and, like, totally rebuilt it

and then built another
garage around back.

I see.

You can fit, like, a whole fleet
of monster trucks in there.

But he only drives a prius.

- He thinks about the environment...
- That's good.

But, like,
from a positive angle.

That's great.

That's something

Steve and I have in common...

that and you.

We both think about you

from a positive angle.



In fact, from what
your mom tells me,

we both love you.

Max, I just wanted to say
that it's okay

for Steve to love you

and I'm happy that he does.

And it's okay for you
to love him back.

What are you gonna do when
you're all alone in Brooklyn?

I'm not gonna be
all alone in Brooklyn.

Wait, do you know Jared,
the fat kid in my class?

- With the mustache?
- Yeah, he's already growing a mustache.

His parents are
getting a divorce.

And his dad, like, reads a lot.

And from what Jared tells me,

he will not watch a movie
without subtitles.

- Hmm.
- So you could call him.

You guys could go see
a documentary.

That's a really...

that's a really nice idea.

The most important thing
for you to remember

is that you don't have
to worry about me.

I'm gonna be just fine, really.

How will I know?

I'm gonna...

'cause I'm gonna call you
all the time, non-stop.

I'm gonna be calling you
so much, you're gonna say,

"dad, please stop
calling me."

And we've got that week
together in January

when Steve and your mom
go on their honeymoon.

In the meantime,
I want you to promise

that you're not gonna
worry about me.

You promise me?

I promise.

Okay.

You ready?

- Yeah.
- Let's go.

Hi there.

Oh, hi.

Hey Max.

Steve.

Paul... Paul weston.

Kate should be back any minute.

Will you come in
for a cup of coffee?

Oh, that's kind of you,

but I need to beat
the traffic back.

Yeah.

So I'll call you later, okay?

Knock the rock.

Explode the rock.

I love you.

Oh shit.

- I forgot.
- Thanks.

- Yeah.
- Drive safe.

Nice to meet you.
Nice to meet you.

Come out back.

I've got something
I want to show you.

I'm sorry.

More traffic?

Yeah, it got even worse after
I called from the turnpike.

Just into Chinatown...

completely stalled out.

I started thinking, "this is it.

This is how I'm gonna spend the
rest of my life... on canal street."

The parking was
awful too.

Another headache?

Well, I figured I'd keep this
in your medicine cabinet.

Then I can help myself
when necessary,

if I can open this.

Okay, that's it.

So what do we have left...
half a session?

If that.

You've had a big day.

I got in the car
and drove back.

Traffic started immediately.

I started to sweat.
I thought I was having a heart attack.

The last time you were here,

you hadn't been able
to talk to Max

about your health, Steve and...

I talked to him.

What made you
finally decide to?

You did.

At least in part.

It took me till last night,
but I finally,

thanks to you,

forced myself to talk to him.

And?

It was clear right away
that this was

what he really wanted

and that he'd only come
to stay with me

because he'd been
worried about me

and that really
he ought to be there.

In Maryland?

Yeah, it was the only option,

yeah,

as painful as was
to realize that.

The two of you spoke
just last night?

The whole thing
just happened so fast.

You know, I guess I felt

that he'd been up here a month

and I just wanted to get
him home for his sake

and also to...

What?

Get it over with.

He asked me inside

for coffee.

You mean...

Steve.

Kate wasn't there.

You know, he seemed...

he seemed, you know, okay...

all-American, you know,

a big smile,
a strong handshake.

He looked, you know, like dad.

Unlike you?

Did you go in?

I...

I couldn't.

I just had to
get out of there.

It made it easier
in some ways, you know...

his glaring decency,

his ease with Max.

And yet in other ways

I can imagine that was
very difficult to see.

I think maybe it was
the hardest thing

I've ever had to do,
you know...

walk away from that house

leaving Max behind

with him.

But after our session
last week

I saw that...

I saw that you were right,

that I didn't have
a choice,

that I had to face the truth.

Will you tell me
about your talk,

how you got yourself
to face the truth?

We were making pancakes late.

And I was just beginning
to get into it, you know,

trying to find the right words.

And the doorbell rings.
And it's Jesse.

What time was this?

I don't know.
About 10:30 maybe.

And you let him in?

- I had to.
- Okay.

He'd been to visit
his birth parents

and they fucking rejected him.

The kid was devastated.

Did it feel easier
for you to deal

with Jesse's problems
in your office

than the ones with Max at home?

If you'd seen what Jesse looked like,
you would have let him in too.

So I said to Max, "okay look,
we'll talk about this later.

This is an emergency.
I have to deal with it.

"We'll make the pancakes
for breakfast."

Then I went in.
I spoke to Jesse.

15 minutes later
the smoke alarm goes off.

I'm sorry?

He'd tried to make
the pancakes himself

and the pan went on fire.

So I put the flames out
and I realized

that I had to talk to my son.

I... I... I... I couldn't
wait any longer.

You just told me you were
determined to do it anyway.

The point is that I did it.

Once Max set the stove on fire,

once you left Jesse.

Oh, for fuck's sake.

I'm telling you about
this traumatic event

where I finally faced up
to something

that is extremely painful
with my son,

maybe the lowest moment
of my life,

which you have encouraged me
to tackle,

which took all the strength
that I had,

and all you can do is focus

on a mistake
that you think I made...

that I, God forbid, tried
to help a troubled patient?

I do see how wrenching
this was for you.

- Do you?
- I do.

And at the same time,
since you've walked in,

I've been fully aware
of your clear need

for me to grasp and
acknowledge your pain.

Well, you are my therapist.

Yes.

And I do happen to be in pain.

I know that.
I see that.

You even brought in a prop

to demonstrate
in case I missed it.

Well, I do also have
a fucking headache.

I believe you.

But the more clearly I see
the pain you're in,

the greater the chance
I'll see what you've done

as courageous and heroic

and less of a chance
that I'd question

or criticize any part of it.

Well, go ahead

and criticize,

if that's what you feel
the need to do.

I do find I have some questions

regarding your decision
about Max.

What made it so urgent for
you to finally bring him...?

Can I say something?

All right.

You say that I seem to be looking

for a certain
response from you,

that I'm invested
in your reaction.

But you're avoiding

any acknowledgment

of why that might be.

I'm not sure I'm following.

I think you're dancing
around the obvious reason

you might think that.

I would have thought
you'd see the value

in addressing it directly.

What's the obvious reason?

You really need me to say it?

I'd like to hear
what you think.

We both know as therapists

that that's the meat
of all this anyway...

not my day-to-day struggles,
no matter how torturous,

but what's actually
happening right here,

what's going on in the room.
I just...

I don't know.
I find it strange that...

I find it strange that you haven't
mentioned what happened last week.

From your point of view,

what happened
at the end of last week?

You don't remember?

I remember our session
quite well.

So why the delicate evasion,

the muted suggestion?

You're talking about
your pronouncement

of your feelings for me?

Have you been hurt by the fact

that I haven't brought up
what we discussed last week?

I was just surprised

that you hadn't mentioned it.

The truth is

that this hasn't been
foremost on my mind.

Okay.

Because for most
of the week

I've been concentrated
on my son.

I mean

you weren't even on my radar.

And...

I thought those thoughts
had disappeared.

But they hadn't?

They came back
somewhere in Delaware.

I was sitting in my car,

just thinking about my life,

my kids,

plus everything that awaited
me when I got back here...

Wendy, my work,

the next neurologist.

What?

And I just realized

that the only person
I wanted to see

when I got back to New York

was... was you.

I'm supposed to meet Wendy
at my place for dinner.

And all I could think was,
"I can't do it."

Telling her what
I went through today,

telling her what it was like
to say goodbye to my son...

I just...
I couldn't imagine it.

But I knew that
you would understand.

Last week you spoke
about these feelings

as ridiculous,
a kind of comeuppance.

It's true that I've seen
this kind of thing before.

I'm familiar with
the dynamic of transference.

And... and t

I can't help but think

that maybe this is

something more.

I don't know.
I just can't shake the thought

that somehow,

someplace else

we might...

we might be able
to help each other,

that we might...

that we might
make each other happy.

"We might make
each other happy."

How do you imagine...?

Look, I know

it's impossible, of course

that you and I could
never be together.

Impossible that we could never?

Impossible that
we could ever...

there's no way it could happen.

I should have
kept my mouth shut.

This impossibility...

your certainty that
a relationship between us

could never happen...

I'm wondering if in part

that's what allows you
to contemplate it.

I mean, does it feel safer

within the confines
of a therapist's office...

of yours or mine...

to allow yourself to engage in,

to imagine
a personal relationship?

Safer?

I don't know about you,
but I'm not feeling

particularly safe right now.

When you think about us
making each other happy,

what comes to mind?
What do you imagine?

I...

I don't know.
I... I...

tell me what you're thinking.

I suppose I just sense

that you and I...

well,

I... I imagine us
having dinner

at the end of a day
of work, you know,

having a glass of wine,

talking about our minor
triumphs with patients,

helping each other
to sort through

difficult cases.

Anything else?

Are there other things
you imagine,

other romantic situations
you might...?

It's not so crazy,
is it really,

to imagine sharing ideas,
advice, encouragement

with somebody who's

engaged in the same kind
of work as a profession,

seen the same challenges?

No, it's not crazy.

No.

You know, for instance,

I've been wanting to talk
to you about Sunil.

I'm a little bit,
I don't know, kind of...

I've been thinking about
my last session with him.

And I'm not quite sure
what to make of it, you know?

This is the kind
of conversation

you might imagine we would have

if we were involved in
some sort of relationship?

Look, I've told you
about Sunil's anger,

his... the deep rage
that he has

toward his
daughter-in-law.

Yes, you did tell me,

but because we're
just about out of time...

and this week he told me this
extremely vivid dream that he had

where he imagined that he was
defending his grandchildren

against this woman who was
walking towards them,

and he was trying
to strike her.

And when I pressed him
about this,

he suddenly started
to scream in bengali.

And obviously I didn't know
what he was saying,

but then afterwards he said,

"a man can only be
pushed so far."

It was just...
I mean,

do you think that I should
be worried about...?

I really couldn't answer that.

I sit across from him
and my gut instinct,

you know, as a professional

is that he is...
he is...

he is a gentle man.

But then he uses this kind
of alarming language

like "smother"
and "strike."

What do you think?
Am I wrong to consider

that he could become violent?

I honestly don't know.
I've never met Sunil

and I haven't heard the
dream in any real detail.

Well, I can
fill you in on the...

I'm afraid you can't, actually.

But we could schedule
another appointment,

continue this
next week.

I don't need
another appointment.

Well, there's a lot that came up
today and there's not much time.

It's the end of the day.
It's Friday.

I know that I'm
your last patient.

- If we could just... - How do you
know you're my last patient?

Because I stood outside
last week

and I looked at the building.

Nobody came in or out,
including you, for an hour.

Well...

We can talk about
what you were thinking

while you were standing outside
my building next week.

All I need is
a minute or two

to address this issue
of Sunil which...

- his outburst was pretty ex...
- If we had two more minutes,

this is what
you'd like to discuss...

your patient's outburst,
not the fact that you stood

- outside my building for over...
- Yes, the depth of his anger,

his intensity... I need to
know for my sake if you...

if you're concerned
about that,

you know very well what you're
supposed to do. You have...

I'm asking you to help me figure
out whether I should be...

you have a duty to
notify the authorities

or warn the potential victim.
You know that already.

- Now it's 5:53.
We really need to stop. - 5:53?

5:53.

How would 10:00 A.M.
Monday morning work for you?

I can't do it.
I have a patient.

All right, how about
Wednesday at 1:00?

I'm seeing
a neurologist.

And then I've got a 3:00,
a 4:00, a 5:00.

I actually have a practice

where I routinely go five or
10 minutes over if necessary.

You're seeing
another neurologist?

- Yes, I am.
- About the Parkinson's?

I... why...?
I don't understand

why you can't be just
a little bit more flexible.

I mean, think about it:

I've just lived through one of
the worst moments of my life;

I've got a patient who potentially
could hurt somebody and...

- again if you believe that... - And we've
only had a half-an-hour session...

we've only had
half a session because...

because I left my kid
in Baltimore;

- the traffic was
insane and... - Paul.

Why are you so fucking rigid?

You've got an enormous
amount going on right now

and I would really like to
help you see your way through,

but whenever I dare ask
you to look at yourself

or your patterns of behavior,

you get angry, you raise your
voice, you get impatient

and I think deeply afraid.

You do anything you can
to push our relationship

past its prescribed
time and purpose.

You ask me to be
your colleague,

your supervisor,
your life partner...

anything except for
what you came to me for...

to be your therapist,

to get me to challenge you
to look at yourself.

I don't think you realize

just how paralyzed
you've become.

It took you weeks
to speak to your son,

and only after a real crisis

forced you to do it.

You have an inability

to act decisively
with one of your patients

despite the fact that you say

you're genuinely
concerned for him.

You have doubts about
your current relationship

which you've done
nothing about.

And you've convinced yourself
you have a debilitating disease

despite medical opinions
to the contrary.

Now I would really like to
help you see your way through,

but I cannot do it alone and
I will not do it past 5:50.

Now I really urge you to
come see me twice next week.

I'm... I'm unable
to do that.

All right then.

For now we need to stop.

Are you so paralyzed
you're unable to stand up?

I'm standing.

And I'm leaving.

Your pills.