Thursday, June 10, 2021

What I’m Watching: In Treatment

In Treatment: Season 4, Episode 11 “Laila – Week 3” (B+)

I thought that seeing Rhonda at the start of this episode meant that she would be present for the entire session, but instead Brooke dismissed her right away by affirming that Laila challenges her and that they still had work to do. Things got considerably more tense, somehow, after Rhonda left, and Brooke was again defensive against a patient she felt was testing her patience and assuming things about her that just weren’t true. Laila wasn’t happy to have her Mexico City plan judged as a fantasy, and didn’t like being accused of planning their getaway all alone. She reacted sharply to Brooke using the “When I was your age” line, and it all transformed into a rather passionate and powerful diatribe about what it means to be Black in America, which somehow involved telling Brooke that she must have had it easier. Brooke going to get some Vitamin Water only to realize that it was one of the plastic bottles that Laila had mentioned as becoming all too prominent and wasteful during the pandemic was a forceful way to end the session early, and Brooke adding alcohol to the drink as soon as she left showed how much the conversation got to her. Finding out that there was no match for her son was devastating, and though she didn’t seem ready to listen to anyone, it was at least good that she called Rita, who will surely show up to help her work through it in the next episode.

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