By Curt Schleier
Dr. Paul Weston (Gabriel Byrne) is fed up with some of the self-absorbed people he’s treating – so he’s decided to become one of them. IN TREATMENT comes full circle. At the end of the last episode Paul left a message for Gina (Dianne Wiest), who, it turns out, was his mentor and therapist when he first started out in the field. But about 10 years ago, they disagreed. It’s not yet clear what was involved. But whatever it was their differences were so great Paul did not even attend Gina’s husband’s funeral. He didn’t believe it appropriate.
But now he needs her again, because he’s starting to have doubts about his own competency. Instead of healing himself, he turns to his former mentor and says “I’m losing patience with my patients.”
Well that makes two of us. Although they don’t focus on this in the show, it’s kind of a Catch -22. A substantial percentage of his patients who come to him are not nice and need help. It’s no wonder he loses patience at times. If they were well adjusted, they wouldn’t need him, and if he liked these obnoxious people, he’d be crazy. Or so it seems to me, a person of extremely sound mind and flabby body.
It’s an interesting session. Gina seems a little resentful at the way they parted (though we don’t learn what prompted the divide) and he seems annoyed at her prying – though of course that’s really why he came back.
Paul starts off by criticizing his patients – particularly Jake (half of Thursday couple Jake and Amy, the couple feuding over whether or not to have an abortion) and Laura (the patient who believes she’s in love with Paul). When Paul mentions Laura, Gina’s ears perk up. She begins to question him about his home life. And it turns out things are not going well at home.
“Katie and I argue nonstop,” Paul says. “I think it’s beginning to affect my work.” It’s not just the fighting, either. He suspects she may be having an affair. “I don’t know where she is most of the time.”
His wife tells him that she’s going to the gym, but when he checks her closet, her gym clothes are still there. And sex, “sex is out of the question. She hardly ever initiates it. I can’t remember the last time she wanted it.”
Then he tells Gina that coming back to her was probably a bad idea, and it looks as though the relationship has hit another snag. But there are eight more Fridays in the series, so they’ll probably make up. Interestingly, Paul is a terrible patient. If his patients were as impatient as he is, he’d be even loonier than he is now.
Which raises another issue for those of you in therapy: there’s a good chance that your therapist is more screwed up than you are. Look. Take two Xanax and call me in the morning.