What I’m Watching: In Treatment

In Treatment: Season 4, Episode 17 “Eladio – Week 5” (B+)

It turns out that I completely misread and misunderstood what happened at the end of Eladio’s last session, though he did take some pretty gigantic and irreversible steps. It’s hard to believe that he just showed up in person at Brooke’s house because, unless they started or were supposed to start therapy before the pandemic, there’s no way that he should have known where she lived and that kind of surprise might have jolting and unwelcome for someone who operates an office out of her house. He evidently hadn’t been there before since he started walking around right away and commenting on how she was “sitting pretty” and he shouldn’t have been talking about class structures and all that. Brooke didn’t like being blamed for him quitting his job, and her continued clarifications that she wasn’t a life coach didn’t do anything to allay his frustration. Comparing the way a mother loves her son and the way a son loves his mother seemed to be getting somewhere even if they have different experiences, including the ones Eladio doesn’t know about related to Brooke’s complicated relationship with motherhood. I think this is actually the angriest that we’ve seen her get, snapping, screaming, and swearing at Eladio and, unlike, some of the questionable things we’ve seen her done, she seemed to realize right away that she had taken it too far and could no longer treat him. His willingness to come back for one more session paid for with his own money indicates that he needs some closure, something I’m not sure he – or we – will be able to get.