The odds of Alan Strauss walking out of Sam Fortner’s basement just dropped dramatically. By the conclusion of this episode, Sam has not only revealed that he dumped Elias’s body — and Alan’s SOS note — in a secret location where it will never be found but also that he’s sourced a new therapist. Plus Alan is fading. His astronomical stress levels, coupled with his own preexisting mental-health issues, are causing him to give up on any glimmer of hope there might be for his future.
In fact, it almost seems as if Alan is consciously preparing to die. He’s still bereft over the loss of his beloved wife, Beth, and his grief is shaded by his barely contained rage at his estranged son, Ezra. Other than his daughter, Shoshanna, Alan doesn’t feel as if he has any reason to live.
Alan is currently clinging to two things to keep himself afloat. He’s continuing to attend imaginary sessions with his dead pal, Charlie, and he keeps returning to his Jewish faith. Even though his connection to Judaism is complex and complicated given his strained relationship with Ezra, Alan finds comfort in reciting the Kaddish. His mind also keeps wandering to images of the barracks at Auschwitz. While this mix of memory, daydream, and nightmare comes off a bit muddled and uneven, it does serve to disorient viewers just enough to provide genuine feelings of dissociation, terror, and confusion — feelings that have become the very backbone of Alan’s minute-to-minute reality.
Disturbed by his deteriorating mental state, Alan attempts to process all of these feelings with Charlie. Given David Alan Grier’s very warm performance as Charlie, it’s incredibly easy to forget his character is not real; he’s actually Alan. Like some twisted version of In Treatment on acid, Alan is a therapist providing himself with therapy, and the results are mixed.
It’s smart of Alan to manifest a foil to challenge his ingrained ways of thinking, but Charlie’s somewhat muted responses illustrate that Alan might not be ready to fully tackle his own issues yet. While Charlie does gently push back on some of what Alan is saying about his relationship with Ezra, he’s mostly stoic and silent, providing a sympathetic ear for all of these emotions that Alan has grappled with by himself for too long. For example, when Alan reveals that Ezra couldn’t even make amends with his mother when she was sick and, in fact, caused a good deal of drama around her death, Charlie offers only a simple reflection. Instead of playing devil’s advocate or trying to dig deeper into the father-son relationship, he just notes that both men were going through a hard time when Beth was dying.
Ever the good therapist, Alan recognizes that all his bottled-up grief, rage, and depression are holding him back from seeing things in his own life clearly. And he’s beginning to realize his personal issues may even be preventing him from providing the best possible treatment for Sam. Charlie and Alan banter about the professional challenges inherent in working with someone like Sam, with Charlie asserting that Sam is the most interesting patient Alan’s ever had. And you know what? He’s probably right.
So, in an effort to become a more self-actualized being, Alan wrestles with it all. He entertains fleeting fantasies of rescue, but even those visions are tainted by images of the potential flip side of Sam finding his hidden note and shoving a knife down his throat. The camera chooses to linger on this image, and it’s pretty gruesome. As I watched, I realized that I don’t think I’ve seen Steve Carell act in any overtly violent or bloody scenes … ever. Watching someone viciously attack him is like watching someone murder a bunny. I’d love to say we should protect him at all costs, but as the days in Sam’s basement progress, I’m beginning to fear the worst.
Speaking of Sam, with Alan going through his own stuff, he doesn’t really have much left to give his patient. And Sam is pissed.
We see Sam a handful of times throughout this episode, which interrupts the now-familiar rhythm of their sessions by separating Alan and Sam for most of the run time only to bring them back together at the end for a poignant shared moment. Since Sam broke his pet therapist, he seeks out a replacement. He visits his old high-school counselor — a burly, no-nonsense dude who definitely doesn’t seem like he’d go down lightly if Sam tried to kidnap him — and asks if he’d be able to attend private therapy with him. The counselor seems open to it and gives him his phone number. (Cue me screaming “Run!†at my TV screen.)
Sam is going through something in the wake of Elias’s murder. It appears as if Alan’s empathy-focused treatment is somewhat working because Sam spends some time here reflecting on his humanity. He asks his high-school counselor if he suspected that Sam’s adult life would be miserable when he was a teen, to which the counselor replies, “You always hope things turn around.â€
Similarly, when Sam talks to his ex-wife, Mary, he fishes for validation, asking if she thought something was wrong with him. Mary delivers the hottest tea of the episode when she responds, “You were my husband, Sam, and then we broke up. I thought there were all sorts of things wrong with you.†It’s a fantastic line, and actress Emily Davis delivers it with a matter-of-fact air that’s just too delicious. But then, because she’s a sweet person, she doubles back and reassures her ex that he’s a good guy. Why not? She has no reason to suspect otherwise.
Sam knows differently. He’s beginning to feel he’s not capable of change, but the fact that he’s even wrestling with these feelings is an indication Alan’s guidance might just be helping to shift his perspective. On his way home, Sam stops at a bridge. It’s implied that he briefly contemplates jumping over the railing, but he doesn’t. Instead, he heads to the nearest Staples and buys himself a printer.
Earlier in the episode, Sam overhears Alan as he attempts to recite the Kaddish for his wife. Alan’s brain is way too overloaded to remember the words, so he isn’t able to finish it. When Sam brings home the printer with the sole purpose of printing out the Kaddish for Alan, he demonstrates what Alan calls “empathy in action.†In a curious moment, Sam replies, “I don’t feel good.†In a straight horror story, this snippet of dialogue might be an indication that Sam is about to fly off the handle and do something horrific, but here, in the land of serial-killer therapy, the statement illustrates that what Alan has been doing is actually working. Therapy isn’t comfortable; it’s often unpleasant and draining work. Change is difficult, if not impossible for some people, and Sam’s discomfort is indicative of this process. Unfortunately, Sam doesn’t seem like the type of guy who will settle for discomfort for very long.
As Sam hooks up the printer, he reveals to Alan that he didn’t actually put Elias’s body where it could be found. He had every intention to do so, but then some guy in a truck looked at him funny, and he decided against it. Honestly, this was probably smart on Sam’s part, but it’s a devastating blow to Alan’s hopes for rescue. The haunting conclusion of the episode sees a broken Alan reciting the Kaddish, a prayer of hope, in the direction of the very doors that once represented his salvation.
That’s all the time we have for today, but I’ll see you at our next session.
Progress Notes
• It’s very possible we’ll be seeing someone recite the Kaddish for Alan sometime in the near future. Even though Sam is (somewhat) progressing, the odds are not great for his survival. This week, I’ll peg them at 50 to 1.
• Even though Alan asks for privacy when he says the Kaddish, Sam eavesdrops at his door. This is not empathetic.
• I know this show is the show that made everyone realize Steve Carell is actually hot, but they’re definitely not making him look bedraggled enough. By my rough estimate, he’s been chained up in the basement for a good week and a half now, so he should be showing a bit more wear and tear.
• When Charlie and Alan chat about Sam being the most interesting patient Alan’s ever had, Alan says he could write a book, and he’d title it Sam’s Treatment. This is a terrible title. I’d offer up The Doctor Is (Chained) In or The Killer Within as alternatives. Drop your suggestions in the comments!