What I’m Watching: In Treatment

In Treatment: Season 4, Episode 15 “Laila – Week 4” (B+)

We got another brief tease of Paul at the start of this episode with Brooke hearing him about to be interviewed on TV and then finally returning his call, and I do continue to be curious about whether one of Brooke’s final three sessions will involve either a face-to-face or a video call with him. Regarding her own patients, Brooke seems to be getting more confrontational, calling them out on when, as they keep doing, they try to tell her what she’s thinking or prompting them to say. She did point out that Laila stopped to pick apart her words when she asked her something that she didn’t want to talk apart, and Laila also tried to deflect by guessing what kind of car Brooke drives, yet another attempt to make it about what she does in her life. She did have broad answers to her specific questions, like how it wasn’t about physical bodies but about souls, going so far as to try to sell Brooke her handbag because she was ridding herself of her earthly possessions. The most telling response she gave was when she Brooke thanked her for telling her that she was really starting to piss her off, clueing her in to how Laila has been scolded and punished for talking back to adults in the past. Ending with Brooke calmly replying once again “thank you for telling me that” to Laila saying she would rather die was emphatic, and I can’t imagine that the next two sessions will be any less intense.