In Treatment

Mia - Week One

<div class='episode-body-left-aligned' style='text-align: left'><p>Paul answers the door at his new Brooklyn apartment to find Alex Sr., the father of the patient who died during a flight exercise last year, serving him with a law suit - he blames Paul for his son's death. When Paul shows up to discuss the case with his lawyer, he's surprised to discover Mia, a patient of his from 20 years ago. Now a high-powered malpractice attorney, she assures him she's just covering for the lawyer at her firm who will be handling his case. Mia is concerned that Paul doesn't have notes from his sessions and asks if they can depose Gina, since she acted as his supervisor; Paul reluctantly agrees. As Mia questions him about his practice and his life (having noticed he's divorced from his file), Paul grows increasingly uncomfortable and suggests that there is a lot of subtext in their meeting - namely, her unresolved issues about how her therapy ended twenty years ago. They are interrupted twice by calls from her father, and once from her firm's managing partner, Bennet, who lets Paul know that Mia grabbed his file. When Bennet leaves, Paul says he doesn't think they should work together and Mia recalls how he told her the same thing twenty years ago. After arguing about how things ended back then, Mia acknowledges that intercepting Paul's case was a mistake and agrees to turn everything over to the other attorney.</p></div>

April - Week One

<div class='episode-body-left-aligned' style='text-align: left'><P>A 23-year-old architecture student, April spends much of her first session with Paul avoiding what it is she came to talk about. She discusses her recent break-up with a fellow student named Kyle, and his new socialite girlfriend. Explaining that she found Paul on a listserve at school, she asks questions about why his practice is new, and then apologizes for probing. She explains that the woman therapist she went to before was a &quot;f**king idiot,&quot; who told her the same annoying story twice and then called her multiple times when she didn't return. Paul presses April on whether she'd told the therapist she was quitting and she admits she didn't. Finally, unable to say it out loud, April writes down the reason she's there and hands Paul a note that says she has cancer. She's known five weeks and hasn't sought treatment or told anyone other than him — and a construction worker she shouted at — not wanting to put extra stress on her parents or her autistic brother. When Paul insists she speak to a doctor and tell her parents, April bristles and leaves without scheduling another session.</P></div>

Oliver - Week One

<div class='episode-body-left-aligned' style='text-align: left'><P>Sixth-grader Oliver sits with Paul in his office while they wait for Oliver's mother Bess to return from the deli and for his father Luke to arrive. Oliver suggests they play Black Jack to bide the time and chides Paul for not knowing the rules. When Oliver demands to know why he's there, Paul discovers that Oliver's parents haven't explained they're getting a divorce. All the boy knows is that his dad moved out and Oliver doesn't like staying at his dad's new place on the Upper East side — it's too far, there's no food and he can't sleep when his dad's friends come over. Bess returns with a snack for her son and makes several digs about her estranged husband's tardiness and &quot;freshman dorm&quot;-like living situation. When Luke shows up, apologetic, Paul sends Oliver outside while he talks to his parents alone. The couple are stunned to learn Oliver doesn't understand they're divorcing and bicker over who's to blame. Paul also lays out Oliver's concerns about staying with Luke and the two continue to argue until Paul gets them to agree the focus needs to be on Oliver. When the boy is invited back in, Paul coaches him to express his concerns to his father, but even when Luke agrees to buy groceries and not have his friends over, Oliver refuses to go home with him. Luke leaves, angry, and Bess takes Oliver home.</P></div>

Walter - Week One

<div class='episode-body-left-aligned' style='text-align: left'><P>CEO Walter Barnett comes to see Paul at his wife Connie's insistence, complaining of insomnia. He is surprised that Paul doesn't know who he is, given that his company has been in the business pages a lot lately. Walter explains that he has tried Xanax and Ambien (getting the prescriptions from his family doctor and putting them in his wife's name so they couldn't be traced to him) but he needs to be alert. Impatient, the CEO demands Paul's gut diagnosis of Walter's sleep problem. Paul explains therapy takes time and tries to engage him in conversation about his work and family to pinpoint when the problem started. Walter talks about his daughter Natalie who's much younger than his two sons who are already out on their own; she's spending her junior year working at a rape crisis center in Rwanda. Reading Paul an email he got from Natalie the night before, Walter insists it's a cry for help and he should go bring her home. When Paul disagrees, Walter gets enraged and as he rises to go, collapses, scaring Paul. Walter recovers and staggers out, over Paul's objections, insisting he has these attacks all the time and they go away.</P></div>

Gina and Paul - Week One

<div class='episode-body-left-aligned' style='text-align: left'><P>Paul commutes down from New York to Maryland via Amtrak to see his kids for the weekend and pays a visit to Gina to suss out what she might say in a deposition for the malpractice suit against Paul. She assures him she doesn't see him as responsible for Alex's death but admits he didn't talk about him that much in their supervision until after he'd died. They're interrupted by one of Gina's patients, Tammy Meswick, who Paul recognizes as his &quot;first love&quot; Tammy Kent. Paul is interested to learn that Gina is seeing patients again; Gina, for her part, is surprised to learn he's moved to Brooklyn and the kids and Kate are still in Maryland. As they discuss Alex, Paul admits he's sick of listening to people's problems. Gina offers him a drink and as the two sip their vodkas, Paul asks for help sorting out his feelings about Alex. When he gets upset about his new patient April, expressing his desire to take her to chemotherapy, Gina grows alarmed that his unresolved anger is making him cross boundaries. Acknowledging that his need to save people may be about his mother, Paul asks Gina if she'd take him on — not for supervision, but therapy — and she agrees.</P></div>

Mia - Week Two

<div class='episode-body-left-aligned' style='text-align: left'><P class=&quot;&quot;>Mia has a session with Paul to apologize for her unprofessional behavior from the week before, acknowledging she intercepted his file when his attorney couldn't be there, in order to surprise and needle him. She reveals she's been having a year-long affair with her boss Bennet, who's married. Mia thought he'd leave his wife, but he didn't and she evades Paul's question about what happened, telling him instead he needs to pick out a mate for her because he &quot;owes&quot; her. Mia turns the tables on Paul, asking him if he had an affair with his patient and this time it's his turn to not answer. As she continues to reveal bits of her story through a bitter commentary on her life, Mia tells Paul she was trying to get pregnant with Bennet but last week her doctor told her that her window for conceiving was closing. When she learned this, she drove to Bennet's house to demand they see an infertility specialist and he broke things off with her. Mia accuses Paul of having talked her into her abortion twenty years ago; Paul suggests Mia may have come to him now as a way to better understand that decision. The only other person Mia told about the pregnancy then was her father, who took her to the abortion appointment. When Paul wonders why she felt so supported by her father (who scheduled the abortion) but blames Paul, she defends her father, explaining they've always been close. She tells Paul another story of a childhood secret with her father, but then shuts down, insisting she didn't come for therapy. Paul tries to convince her that she did, and that they should continue — she herself said he owed her. On her way out the door, Mia clarifies that she meant Paul owes her a child. Shaken by her accusation, Paul pulls out her old file and listens to an old cassette tape of Mia playing Chopin.</P></div>

April - Week Two

<div class='episode-body-left-aligned' style='text-align: left'><P>April arrives at her session, furious. Her iPhone has died in the middle of a call and she asks Paul if she can use his phone. He resists, suggesting it's not the best use of her time and presses April for why she's so angry. She tells him she told Kyle (her ex) she has cancer and he told his socialite girlfriend Sienna Newhouse (even though she asked he not tell anyone), who offered to pay for her treatment. April is convinced Kyle betrayed her trust, knowing she'd cut them both off and he wouldn't have to &quot;deal with&quot; her. Paul gives in and lets April use his phone. After making her call to Sienna, she tells Paul how after sharing an intimate evening with Kyle last week, he told her he was engaged and she told him she has cancer. Paul's phone rings and April sees that it's Kyle. Paul ignores the call and continues to press April on how she pushes people away, not letting anyone help her. She admits that when things were going well with Kyle, she slept with his best friend, and told Kyle, knowing he'd be unable to forgive her. Now that she's told him about the cancer, he's been calling every day, asking to let him take her to the doctor. Paul pushes her on her lack of self-care, saying he talked to an oncologist friend who stressed the need for immediate treatment. Furious that he talked to someone about her, even anonymously, she gets Paul to promise he will never talk to anyone about her again; Paul agrees, but only if April promises to come and talk to him at least once more if she decides to discontinue therapy. They part on their agreement.</P></div>

Oliver - Week Two

<div class='episode-body-left-aligned' style='text-align: left'><P>Oliver and Paul talk while Bess and Luke wait to be invited in. Oliver says he doesn't want to talk about school because all of his teachers hate him because he falls asleep all of the time. He insists his classes are boring, including Humanities where they are reading 'Lord of the Flies.' Oliver insists you don't need to crash on an island for kids to be mean. He pulls a turtle in a Tupperware container, out of his backpack, explaining it's a dumb assignment in which each student has to take care of a turtle. Paul notes that Oliver is carrying all of his books around, even though he's been staying at his mom's, and that he's still tired at school, even though he'd said it was his father's place where he couldn't sleep. He presses the boy about whether he's having trouble sleeping at his mother's as well, because of stress or anxiety. Oliver admits he can't talk to his parents about how he's feeling because they just get upset and argue with each other. For instance, they fought that day because Oliver's not healthy. The discussion turns to the fact that the kids at school call him &quot;Piggy,&quot; and one bully in particular, named Eric, actually peed on Oliver when he was hiding behind a bush at a classmate's Bat Mitzvah. Paul invites Oliver's parents in and guides them in explaining to Oliver that they're getting a divorce, but it's not because of him. When they get upset trying to explain things, Oliver asks to leave. Paul excuses him so he can get on the same page with Bess and Luke. As the couple continues to argue, Paul stresses that their discord is taking a toll on the boy. Bess takes this to mean that they shouldn't divorce — for Oliver's sake — and Luke is forced to tell her that he's seeing someone else. Furious, Bess packs Oliver up to take him home — over Luke's objections that it's his night with the boy. But Oliver opts to go with his father, and the three of them head out, discordant, but together. After they're gone, Paul discovers the turtle has been left behind.</P></div>

Walter - Week Two

<div class='episode-body-left-aligned' style='text-align: left'><P>Paul's daughter Rosie visits him in Brooklyn, concerned about his law suit and that he's lonely living in New York. When Walter arrives for his session, he's convinced that Paul must have read about him by now — his company has made it from the business section to the front of the paper, thanks to a woman reporter at the NY Times who Walter's wife Connie thinks has it out for Walter. But Walter and the Donaldsons (the family that owns his company) are convinced there's a Judas at the company, leaking misinformation to the journalist. Walter appears more concerned about the effects of the news on Connie, the Donaldsons and his daughter Natalie, than on his own reputation. When Paul asks about his collapse the week before, Walter insists they're not panic attacks but admits he had another one this week in the elevator at work. As Paul probes what may have triggered it, Walter mentions that the security guard he always says hello to before getting on the elevator died that week — &quot;disappeared.&quot; When Paul learns Walter has had the episodes since he was a kid, Paul presses for more, and Walter traces his first attack to after his older brother drowned at 16, before going off to Yale. Paul sees a connection between Walter's fear that his daughter Natalie will disappear with and what happened to his brother (who seemed to just vanish) and the security guard — that Walter doesn't trust that people who leave will ever come back. But Walter isn't interested in digging into the psychology of the attacks; as he leaves, he says he'd prefer to have Paul discuss his theory with Walter's doctor to see if there's any medication he can take.</P></div>

Gina and Paul - Week Two

<div class='episode-body-left-aligned' style='text-align: left'><P>Kate is waiting for Paul at Gina's to get him to fill out a financial aid form for Rosie's college applications. Their exchange devolves into an argument that Tammy Kent overhears as she is leaving. Frustrated, Paul enters his session with Gina announcing he's decided he can't be in therapy with her after all. Gina says okay, and gets up to leave to do some errands, much to Paul's dismay. He begs Gina to stay and talk to him for ten minutes, promising to leave after that. Gina listens neutrally while Paul vents about all of the things he could work on in therapy — his anger, his feelings about Laura and Alex and the lawsuit, and his past with Tammy and how it connects to his mother. Gina urges him to try and get clear about what happened between Paul and both his parents around his mother's death, so he can let it go. They discuss what ground rules would have to exist if Gina were to treat both Tammy and Paul, and she insists Paul promise nothing will happen between him and Tammy until or unless they are no longer her patients. Paul agrees to continue therapy, and they begin again — by discussing his first love, Tammy Kent. In particular, they talk about how his time with her coincided with Paul's father moving out and his mother's depression. He recollects enjoying one Christmas Eve at the Kent's when he suddenly felt guilty and returned home to find his mother unconscious, having attempted suicide for the first time. The rest of the night, he insists, is a blank. Gina urges him to do whatever he can to remember that night, to see if he can dig up anything that might assuage his guilt. After he leaves, Paul dials information for Tammy's phone number.</P></div>

Mia - Week Three

<div class='episode-body-left-aligned' style='text-align: left'><P>Mia meets Paul outside his office as he arrives (late) from a few days in Maryland. Irritated, she wants to know what happened and then explains that she spent the weekend working, which was good because she was supposed to go away with Bennett. Mia starts to ask questions about Paul's life before moving to New York, grilling him on whether he left behind patients who needed him. When she springs a question about Laura on him, Paul counters that he can't discuss it, but Mia explains that she came across a copy of Laura's Deposition at her firm — and it's clear to Mia, Laura was in love with Paul. Throwing the document on the floor, she exhorts him to pick it up. As Mia's questioning grows more intense, Paul turns things around, informing her that she broke a tenet of her profession and accusing her of goading him as a way of ignoring her own pain. Mia switches tracks and explains how a pretty young receptionist in her office is having a bridal shower, the type of thing Mia will never experience herself because she's not enough of the &quot;whole package&quot; to land a man. When Paul responds by asking whether Mia thinks he chose Laura over her, Mia imagines what a victory it must have been for Laura to own Paul so completely once she'd reeled him in. When he points out that Mia might want him to &quot;comfort and contain&quot; her, she admits to being difficult and pushing men away. In the next moment, she charges him with kicking her out of his practice 20 years ago and never thinking of her again, but Paul answers her by playing the tape of her childhood piano recital that she'd given him back then that he'd been listening to. Transported by the music, Mia tells Paul that shortly after that recital, her parents shipped her off to live with an Aunt, and when she returned, her mother had given birth to twin girls. Paul, suspecting that all her anger is a test to see if she can push him away, tells her that she wants to feel connected but is afraid to be left alone. In a &quot;doorknob moment&quot; at the end of her session, Mia asks whether he slept with Laura, to which he answers &quot;no.&quot;</P></div>

April - Week Three

<div class='episode-body-left-aligned' style='text-align: left'><P>April calls Paul, asking to come to his office immediately. She was on her way to school to turn in a project — the architectural model for a World Trade Center memorial — and has been having trouble sleeping. &quot;Between my anxiety and my lymphoma,&quot; she says, &quot;it's just never a good time.&quot; She describes her exhaustion as the feeling of poison in her veins, like she wants to slit her wrists to get it out. Paul says the poison sounds like cancer, but April imagines it more as chemo. Fatigued, she asks to go to sleep for one minute — from 7:59 to 8:00 — and when she wakes, she smashes her project, saying that it's officially late. April explains that she yearns to go home, but she realizes her home is &quot;so long ago, and so far away.&quot; As she ruminates on it, she tells Paul that she associates the idea of home with a vacation to Miami that she took with her parents when she was 10 — the only time her family went away without Daniel. On that trip, she fell out a window while her parents were dancing in her hotel room, and though miraculously unharmed, she ran back up to the room to find that they never noticed she was gone. April says she didn't even cry because her mother looked so happy that she didn't want to ruin the moment. Paul warns her that empathy can be draining and says that she might associate that feeling of &quot;home&quot; as being free from Daniel. It's alright to be angry, as well as empathetic, he adds. But when he goes so far as to suggest that she feels abandoned by her mother, April becomes defensive.</P></div>

Oliver - Week Three

<div class='episode-body-left-aligned' style='text-align: left'><P>Bess swings by Paul's office to pick up the turtle that Oliver left behind. She explains that her son has been staying with Luke for the week, giving her some time to herself. Before leaving, she hands Paul some homemade cookies, thanking him for going &quot;above and beyond&quot; with the turtle. When the family arrives later for their session, Luke and Oliver talk about how much fun they had together, going to a Knicks game and hanging out at home. When Bess begins to grill them on whether Oliver completed his homework, her son lets slip that Nina — his former teacher and his dad's new girlfriend — came over to help him. Bess is furious: Not only is Luke seeing someone but he asked Oliver to lie to her about it. When Paul asks the boy if there's anything he'd like to say, Oliver responds, &quot;Whatever I say makes everything worse.&quot; The therapist pulls Oliver into another room, where he finds out that not only is the boy still having trouble sleeping but that his parents were planning to adopt an African baby. Paul returns to his office without Oliver to talk to Luke and Bess alone. Bess is angry that Luke single-handedly overruled their decision not to involve Oliver with people they're dating, but Luke says there's no hope of discussing anything with her because she's so unwilling to compromise. Paul explains that he's trying to help them communicate, but right now he wants to talk about the adoption. Bess tells how hard she worked to adopt the baby and how Luke backed out at the last minute. He says he knew it was a mistake — that Bess acted like the baby would fix their marriage, but he knew it was too late. Paul points out that the two of them have never done a good job of working through their problems together, but now more than ever Oliver needs them to be a team. He tells them that the boy still isn't sure whether or not he's getting a brother. Aghast at their own lapse, the parents want to bring Oliver in to talk to him together... but the boy has fallen asleep in the waiting room.</P></div>

Walter - Week Three

<div class='episode-body-left-aligned' style='text-align: left'><P>Walter arrives late for his session, having already postponed it by two hours. Shouting into his cell phone as he enters, he drops his suitcase and hands Paul his garment bag. Noting that Walter seems to be in the midst of a crisis, Paul suggests they reschedule, but Walter insists there won't be a better time later. He finally turns off his cell phone and Blackberry and gives Paul his attention. Walter has just returned from a trip to Rwanda to see Natalie, and in his absence, all hell has broken loose at his company over his recall of a contaminated product. A young executive is gunning for his job, but Walter is convinced he won't succeed. He's distraught, claiming Natalie was furious to see him and doesn't need him anymore. Paul teases out the details of the trip and challenges Walter's perception about what happened, wondering if Walter may have triggered her anger by showing up with no warning and announcing he was there to take her home. Paul suggests that Walter is an excellent manager at work, but in situations where he's not in control (like being a therapy patient or trying to rein in Natalie), he becomes uncomfortable. Walter jumps up to take a Xanax as Paul lays out his theory. When Paul questions him about the pills, he admits he took them at his hotel after the fight with Natalie — he'd woken up in a cold sweat, thinking he was back in his brother Tommy's childhood room. Paul draws a connection between Natalie separating from Walter and Walter never being able to separate from his own parents, suggesting Walter experiences any separation as a death. They are interrupted by Paul's phone ringing — it's Walter's assistant, desperate to track him down — and Walter leaves to face the crisis at work.</P></div>

Gina and Paul - Week Three

<div class='episode-body-left-aligned' style='text-align: left'><P>Paul lays out breakfast for his overnight guest, and Tammy emerges, showered and marveling at how she doesn't feel guilty cheating on her husband because Paul feels &quot;comfortable.&quot; But when Paul suggests they take the train down to Maryland together, Tammy balks, not wanting anyone to see them together. Rosie calls, upset about her ailing Grandpa (Paul's father) and Tammy leaves while Paul's on the phone. When their paths cross at Gina's later that night, Tammy is uncomfortable and dodges out. Paul enters his session, unsure of what Tammy's told Gina. Tense, he tries to pick a fight but Gina won't bite. He speaks angrily about his father and tells Gina he had coffee with Tammy to hear her recollections of the night his mother first attempted suicide but refers to Tammy only by mentioning that her memories don't match his. According to Tammy, Paul's father always called her mother to check on his sons and estranged wife, and he was actually there that night and was the one who called the ambulance. Gina challenges Paul on whether his brother was around more than he recalls as well, reminding him memories aren't always reliable — we alter them constantly so the past won't conflict with our views of the present. Angry, Paul insists his feelings are real, but Gina suggests they may represent the whole period in his childhood, not just that night. As she continues to carefully push him, Paul fights to acknowledge any positive interpretations of his father's past actions. He insists his father was a cheat who abandoned his family. She finally leads him to recall that his mother was diagnosed as bipolar when his father finally had her admitted to a mental hospital, and Paul has a revelation: His mother's illness could have explained his father's infidelity. Gina assures him that there was nothing he could have done to help his mother as a little boy. Paul brings up Oliver and April — both patients he feels compelled to save. He worries that he is like his father, leaving his children alone with their mother and devoting more attention to his patients than his family. He vows to be a better father — and son. On his way out, Gina reminds him: Next week, they'll discuss Tammy.</P></div>

Mia - Week Four

<div class='episode-body-left-aligned' style='text-align: left'><P>Mia arrives late and barges into Paul's personal living space, explaining that she grabbed breakfast on the way and wants to eat it. Paul doesn't appreciate the intrusion. Mia sloughs off his displeasure, telling him that she went out to a club in Brooklyn and then slept with a 20-year-old guitarist. Unlike Bennett, who has a small penis and shares lawyers' irritating need to always be on top during sex, the guitarist really knew what he was doing in bed. The next night, she says, she went to a motel in Queens with a 50-year-old cop who told her what to do and spanked her if she didn't listen. Paul asks if Mia is trying to shock him, and when he presses her about what drove these out-of-character sexcapades, she admits that it's about Bennett. He's leaving his wife... for Stephanie, the perky young receptionist at their firm. She wants Paul to tell her the behavior was immature, and he complies, warning her that it was dangerous and begging her not to do it again. When Mia tells him the cop was married, Paul suggests that she likes having secrets with married men, that it makes her feel special — much like her father used to make her feel like his favorite. Mia latches onto that and says she spent the weekend with her father, who hasn't been acting like himself and actually needs to be cared for like a child. She's worried that she'll never find a man like him and will end up spending the rest of her life alone.</P></div>

April - Week Four

<div class='episode-body-left-aligned' style='text-align: left'><P>April arrives early and somewhat agitated, explaining that she may have to leave abruptly if her brother Daniel calls. He tried to jump off the roof and now has gone to meet with Mr. Heath, a man who's helped him through though times in the past. April still hasn't started treatment or told her parents that she has cancer; in fact, she was standing in the lobby of the hospital considering chemo when her mother called with the news of Daniel's near-suicide. April says she thinks she's depressed and has episodes where she literally can't get off the bathroom floor. Paul insists that she call him when she feels that way. He's concerned that her mother passes on anxiety to April, but the girl has no one to lean on. He wonders if her unwillingness to treat her cancer stems from her fear of taking care of Daniel for the rest of her life. She admits she doesn't want to do that — and Paul reminds her that she can't control the future, only choose to be in it — but as soon as he tries to leverage her revelation to steer the conversation toward chemo, Daniel calls. He's in Central Park, having skipped his appointment with Mr. Heath. Immediately, April jumps into action, making arrangements to meet Daniel and calling Mr. Heath to reschedule. But Paul loses his patience and raises his voice, demanding that April stop trying to take care of everyone all the time and look after herself. Her mother calls, and April says she can't pick up Daniel at the park. Her mother hangs up on her, but April agrees to go with Paul — right now — to receive treatment.</P></div>

Oliver - Week Four

<div class='episode-body-left-aligned' style='text-align: left'><P>Bess and Oliver show up at Paul's door with suitcases, announcing that they've been thrown out of their apartment and have no place to go — then collapse in laughter over the joke they've played on him. Rattled, Paul asks where Luke is, and Bess explains she's going on vacation and Luke, late as usual, will pick Oliver up at the end of the session. She asks to speak to Paul alone while Oliver waits outside. Bess explains Oliver is transformed — he's sleeping, doing his homework and not overeating — and she's thrilled to be getting away by herself for the first time in six years with her girlfriend. Paul suggests Oliver may not be as okay as she believes, and Bess bristles, assuming he's suggesting she shouldn't take a vacation. They discuss whether her timing has anything to do with her discovery that Luke has a girlfriend, and Bess ends up recounting how she got pregnant her senior year of college and married Luke at age 21. She and Luke barely saw each other during Oliver's early years, with Luke working and her raising the boy; then she attempted graduate school when Oliver was in kindergarten, but hasn't been able to finish. She insists she doesn't blame her son, but she's now 33 and divorced and feeling scared and alone — it's time to get her life back. Obviously feeling guilty about leaving, Bess still insists she deserves the trip. With her friend waiting in a car outside, Bess says goodbye, leaving Oliver alone with Paul. Paul tries to draw Oliver out, asking how things are going, and the boy reveals that he's still being bullied at school about his weight — so he's decided to stop eating. Paul suggests there are healthier ways to lose weight, but Oliver doesn't want to talk about it. They discuss the baby boy his parents were planning to adopt and Oliver's understanding that his parents decided to give the baby to someone else because they were fighting so much. Oliver admits he'd actually like to be given to parents who wanted him and didn't fight all the time. When Luke is late to pick up Oliver, Paul offers to make the boy a sandwich. He watches as Oliver gobbles it down and asks for another.</P></div>

Walter - Week Four

<div class='episode-body-left-aligned' style='text-align: left'><P class=&quot;&quot;>Paul fields a call from his brother, who is upset about their father's recent turn for the worse; he promises to visit the nursing home on Saturday. During Walter's session, the former CEO sits on the couch for the first time. He's been forced out of his company; they even took his Blackberry. Looking exhausted, Walter tells Paul he's only there because Connie insisted. Walter says he did everything by the book — took responsibility for the tainted product at the first sign of trouble. The problem is, today's a different world of bloggers and class action lawyers, and as soon as word was out, their stock plummeted — and the people gunning for his job seized the opportunity. Walter blames himself for dropping his guard. Paul inquires about his sleep and Walter says the 3-4 Klonopin a day are helping. Alarmed, Paul urges him to discuss that dosage with his doctor. Walter brushes him off, saying he can't stand is the pity people are showing him. He tells of an old friend (who, like Walter, was fired from the company he built) who visited and gave him a photographic essay book he'd made since retiring. Walter threw it out: He hates people who fool themselves into leading &quot;fake lives&quot; and doesn't believe his friend really enjoys his new hobby. Walter demands to know what Paul thought of him when they first met, convinced Paul thought he was a insensitive baby killer. But Paul tells him that he's angry for how the Donaldsons have treated him. Walter vacillates between being certain he did everything he could and blaming himself for not doing more. Paul draws a parallel between Walter taking responsibility for his parents' lives after Tommy died, and for the Donaldson's company after their son James was killed in an accident. Walter insists he had no choice, that Tommy's death was his fault — Tommy had come to him the night before going swimming in the quarry and told him he was going to jump from the high cliff. Young Walter had told him, &quot;You can do it.&quot; Paul points out that Tommy jumped; Walter didn't push him. But Walter doesn't buy it. He leaves without making another appointment, and refuses to let Paul call his doctor about the sleeping pills.</P></div>

Gina and Paul - Week Four

<div class='episode-body-left-aligned' style='text-align: left'><P class=&quot;&quot;>Paul gives his deposition in the malpractice suit, getting worked up as he realizes the opposition is suggesting that Alex and Laura's affair affected his treatment of Alex. Later, meeting Tammy at a coffee shop, he becomes irritable when she tries to tell him about her day, accusing her of wanting him to interpret her boss's and husband's behavior. Tammy notes that they sped through infatuated to obligated in record time, and Paul excuses himself to meet Rosie. At Gina's, Paul arrives late, blaming Rosie for making him wait. At Gina's prodding, he recalls the last time he felt close to his daughter was being with her at the hospital when she broke her arm — which triggers him to tell Gina he took April to chemo that week. Paul acknowledges that he's trying to get from his patients what he can't get from his family right now. Gina pushes him to enumerate his needs, and he says he misses his family, he's lonely. He tells of going to a bar in Brooklyn and seeing women who don't see him. The women in the bar remind him of his patient Mia — who he admits is the type of woman he could be with, but he assures Gina he won't be falling in love with another patient any time soon after Laura. Gina asks about Tammy, and Paul reacts with anger. He confesses they slept together, accusing her of knowing it would happen, that it was a test to see if he could control himself. Gina doesn't take the bait, instead asking about his father, and Paul admits he hasn't been to see him. He accuses Gina of nagging him but she presses ahead — insisting she just wants him to be able to resolve his issues with his father before it's too late. She urges him to be a &quot;grown son&quot; to his father so he can heal the wounds of his childhood. Paul finally visits his father, now in a coma, in the nursing home. He reads to him from the sports page, attempts an apology for not visiting sooner and an acknowledgment that what happened to his mother wasn't his father's fault, and ends up talking to him about his own life and problems as his father slips away.</P></div>

Mia - Week Five

<div class='episode-body-left-aligned' style='text-align: left'><P class=&quot;&quot;>Paul sifts through a pile of unopened sympathy cards and then opens a cigar box filled with his dead father's possessions. Examining its contents, he withdraws his father's watch and straps it to his wrist. When Mia arrives, she offers condolences, explaining that a colleague at her firm filled her in. Overly concerned, she says she can tell by Paul's face that he's tired and lonely. He replies that perhaps she's concerned he can't give her his full attention. She confesses she was upset when he canceled her appointment — then she felt like a jerk after she learned his father had died. That's all in the past, though, because she's pregnant now — hopefully with the child of the 20-year-old guitarist, who wouldn't put up a fight over custody. She feels different about everything already. She's even stopped avoiding the parts of her neighborhood that have noisy preschools. Noting that Paul doesn't appear as happy as she'd expected, Mia's enthusiasm falters, worrying that having a baby would totally eliminate any chance she has of landing a husband. She taunts him with the fantasy that they could have met in a bar, told each other their sad stories gotten drunk and flown off to Vegas to get married — only she would have screwed it up eventually. Paul tells her she needs to address her feelings not only of becoming a mother but also about finding a partner. As she talks out her fears of being a single mother, Paul points out that Mia sounds a lot like she did before having an abortion 20 years ago. Convinced this is her last chance at motherhood, Mia's feelings seem to solidify, and she tells Paul that she wants the baby. As she leaves, she advises him to take the day off to rest.</P></div>

April - Week Five

<div class='episode-body-left-aligned' style='text-align: left'><P class=&quot;&quot;>April arrives, looking a bit tired but in good spirits. She reveals that she's been having conversations with Paul in her head; that the two of them discuss whether life is worth living. He notes that it sounds like she's using his voice to give herself good advice, but April says it's more like he's testing her and that she passes by surviving. But when Paul asks if she'll earn extra credit by telling her parents about the cancer, she changes the subject. She had a bad night recently and called her friend Leah, who is like a sister, to help her through the fever. Paul reminds her that Kyle also came running at a moment's notice, and points out that April demands fierce loyalty from her friends, though she's very hesitant to rely on them. Now that she's losing her hair, April knows she needs to figure out how to tell her parents that she's sick — could he just do it for her? He insists she needs to do it herself, and when he adds that he can't continue taking her to chemo, April falls apart. She thinks Paul's dropping her and brings up his cancellation last week. When he explains that his father died, she apologizes, but part of her is just trying to withdraw from him. As she prepares to leave, he asks her to call him when she knows who will take her to chemo. &quot;I want to know you've found somebody,&quot; he tells her.</P></div>

Oliver - Week Five

<div class='episode-body-left-aligned' style='text-align: left'><P class=&quot;&quot;>Oliver shows up unexpectedly at Paul's office, interrupting one of his sessions: He's run away from school. Paul lets him stay but immediately calls Luke to let him know the boy is safe. He fixes a sandwich for Oliver, who says that Eric, the kid who's been bullying him at school, covered the inside of his locker with dog shit. Paul sympathizes, especially after Oliver explains that he's been fighting with his father. Luke and Nina have been arguing about him, he says, and his dad got drunk and passed out on the couch the previous week. Soon Luke arrives, in a panic and angry with Oliver for leaving school, but when Paul explains what happened, Luke calms down and sends Oliver outside so he and Paul can talk alone. He corroborates Oliver's story about their troubles at home, adding that the boy has been purposely difficult, refusing to do his homework or even bathe. Paul guesses that breaking the rules is Oliver's way of gaining some control. Regardless, Luke is too angry and frustrated to deal with his son, and he's not surprised that a fat kid with no friends gets bullied. Luke also worries, however, that he's becoming just like his own father - a detached school administrator who cheated on Luke's mother - and that Oliver won't love him. Paul assures Luke that it's easy to upset your children in much the same way your parents hurt you and then assume that you're doomed to become your father -- but you're not. Luke calls Oliver back into the room and suggests they grab pizza and a movie. &quot;You deserve a break,&quot; he tells his son.</P></div>

Walter - Week Five

<div class='episode-body-left-aligned' style='text-align: left'><P class=&quot;&quot;>Paul is greeted by Walter's daughter Natalie when he arrives at the hospital to visit. When Walter missed his session, Paul phoned and Connie told him Walter had food poisoning. At the hospital, Paul discovers it's more serious. They have an impromptu session in Walter's hospital room, as Paul pushes him to admit what really happened. He tells Walter that if Natalie hadn't learned on the way to the airport that her flight was canceled, causing her and Connie to turn around and come home, Walter wouldn't have survived. But Walter deftly avoids his probing, insisting there's nothing wrong, he just wants to go home. When Paul confronts him with the undeniable fact that they pumped his stomach and found pills, Walter shrugs it off, saying he must have reached for the wrong bottle after he dozed off. Paul informs Walter he's going to express his concern to the doctors, and Walter fires back that he knows about Alex's case and Paul needn't overreact. Walter had a background check run on Paul but hadn't read it until he canceled their session the week before. Paul asks if Walter felt let down, but Walter insists he was relieved. Finally, Walter admits the truth: that he pretended to feel better so Connie and Natalie would leave him alone long enough so he could take enough pills for a &quot;millionaire's death.&quot; Paul makes Walter see that that solution would have destroyed both Connie and Natalie. He challenges Walter's sense of guilt over both Tommy's and James's deaths, as well as the crisis at his company. Walter accuses Paul of trying to get him to deal with his guilt the same way Paul must deal with his own guilt about Alex: By convincing himself he did the best he could. Walter can't accept that; he's too old to start over. When Paul informs Walter that he won't allow the hospital to discharge him, Walter throws him out. Outside, Paul and Natalie debrief, and Natalie is stunned to learn that her father never told her the truth about her mother: Connie has been in and out of rehab for alcohol and pills.</P></div>

Gina and Paul - Week Five

<div class='episode-body-left-aligned' style='text-align: left'><P class=&quot;&quot;>Kate meets Paul at the train station to pick up Rosie's things and gives her condolences, again, for his father. Paul says it meant a lot to him to have her at the funeral; they felt like a family again. When she agrees, Paul blurts out that he'd like them to try again but Kate stops him: She's seeing someone. At his session with Gina, Paul thanks her for the orchid she sent. He talks about the funeral, observing that women are good at loss, but &quot;men don't have a f**king clue.&quot; Gina notes he's trying to figure out how to grieve for his father. Paul tries to talk about his limitations in helping his patients, but Gina presses him to continue about the funeral. Paul is disgusted that he learned more about his father at the service than he did from actually knowing him — that the man did free surgery in Bolivia and made Paul the executor of his estate, leaving him half of a small brewery he co-owned in Minnesota. Paul berates himself for not knowing his father when he was a child — or an adult. He tells Gina about their last moments together, embarrassed that he ended up talking &quot;at&quot; his father about his own problems, as he slipped. Gina wonders if it felt like his father had been waiting for Paul to visit before he died. Paul dismisses the idea, spiraling into generalities about parenthood and families but Gina demands he speak specifically about his father. She asks about the watch, suggesting that his father wore it hoping Paul would take it as a memento. Paul says he thinks he waited until his father couldn't talk anymore so he wouldn't have to hear him say he loved him — because if he loved him and yet didn't give him the attention he needed as a child, then love is meaningless. Gina insists that love may be painful, but without it we're untethered. She tells Paul he may not have had the father he needed, but maybe he can be that father to himself now, and to his children. Paul leaves to meet Alex Sr. at his request. The man offers to drop the case against Paul but only if Paul writes a letter (that he promises not to show anyone) admitting his culpability in Alex's death.</P></div>

Mia - Week Six

<div class='episode-body-left-aligned' style='text-align: left'><P class=&quot;&quot;>Paul finds Mia in his waiting room, depressed. &quot;It's over,&quot; she says. &quot;I'm not pregnant.&quot; She says she started bleeding on Friday, and ever since, her new sense of purpose—and feeling &quot;normal for once&quot;—has disappeared. Now she feels emotionally numb. Mia's mother called to check up on her after she missed a niece's piano recital, and assuming Mia was sick, she brought a plate of pierogies by the house. When she found her daughter crying, she figured out what was wrong. She tried to console Mia and tell her how proud she is about the life her daughter has built, going so far as to admit that she had no right to blame Mia for ruining her modeling career. In fact, that had always been a &quot;cover story.&quot; The truth was that her mother fell into a deep depression after Mia was born, and when she became pregnant again with the twins, it was Mia's father who wanted to send Mia away. Mia doesn't believe her mother and is irritated that she came seeking absolution. Paul, however, says she needs to stop excusing her father from any blame. It was he, in fact, who arranged her abortion twenty years ago. And according to Mia's mother, it was her father who sold their piano. Paul shares his experience with his own parents as a lesson for Mia to deal with her filial issues. Before she leaves, Mia tells Paul that her mother drove her over to their old family doctor in Greenpoint—the same man who delivered her decades ago. It turns out she'd never been pregnant to begin with—and with her FSH level, it's unlikely she ever will be.</P></div>

April - Week Six

<div class='episode-body-left-aligned' style='text-align: left'><P class=&quot;&quot;>April, furious that Paul called her mother and told her about the cancer, says their relationship is over. Paul says he had no choice—April was delirious with a 105-degree fever and he was her emergency contact—and he'd do the same thing again. It's the one thing she asked him not to do, April says, though she still wants to know how her mother reacted. He tells her it was a short conversation; her mother was worried. He also points out that April is not very adept at seeing things from other people' perspectives—and she's quick to cast someone off if they break ranks with her just once. Except for Leah, she tells Paul. Her friend is a &quot;flake,&quot; but April never holds it against her. Paul suggests that Leah got in before April &quot;closed the gates.&quot; April admits that she was an emotional wreck as a child, and her mother always told her to toughen up. She also rewarded April by writing a check mark on her hand every time she did something good. April used to love it but in time, started to feel like her mother was checking her off like an item on a list—a child she didn't have to worry about as much as Daniel. Paul says that April has gotten used to being praised as her mother's hero, the perfect kid, and he suggests she's incorporated him into that pattern: When he inevitably told her mother about the illness, April would be praised for her toughness. April caves a bit, admitting that she'd thought her cancer would &quot;clean her out&quot; and relieve her from obsessing over being the best at everything. She says she doesn't believe in anything anymore: love, family, her own body. Paul tells her that could be a good place to start; it may be time for rebirth. He asks her to call him when she gets the results of her blood test that week, and after he helps her up from the couch, April leaves.</P></div>

Oliver - Week Six

<div class='episode-body-left-aligned' style='text-align: left'><P>Bess and Luke ask to speak to Paul alone before their session with Oliver and immediately begin arguing over Bess's &quot;big news&quot;: she's accepted an assistant professorship at Bard College and has to move upstate in two weeks. Luke accuses her of using it as an excuse to take Oliver away, and Paul is concerned about the impact of uprooting Oliver from his school and home. Bess finally blurts out that she agrees; what she wants is for Oliver to live with Luke until June at which time they can reassess. But Luke has to come clean: he and Oliver have been at each other's throats the two weeks she was away; he doesn't think they can live together full time. Paul loses his temper, pointing out that neither one of them wants to deal with their son and orders them to come to a compromise for Oliver's sake. But he's not pleased with the plan they agree to: Oliver and Bess will move in two weeks, and Luke will fetch him on the weekends. They insist it's the only solution and bring the boy in to break the news. Oliver is devastated. He doesn't want to move and leave his things, his school or his home. Bess immediately caves and says she knew it was a bad idea; Luke should move back into their old place with Oliver instead. But Oliver doesn't want to live with his father, who's been drinking again. Luke and Bess erupt into another fight, and Oliver bolts, running outside as Paul, Luke and Bess chase after him. They catch up to Oliver at a nearby playground, and Paul talks to him alone while Bess and Luke wait nearby. Oliver asks if he can come live with Paul, and Paul has to delicately but firmly refuse, assuring the boy they can remain friends and continue to talk. Rejected, Oliver shuts down and, certain he's never going to see Paul again since he's moving away, walks off to find his parents.</P></div>

Walter - Week Six

<div class='episode-body-left-aligned' style='text-align: left'><P class=&quot;&quot;>Walter is humiliated to have his daughter Natalie accompany him to his session with Paul—they won't let him out of the &quot;looney bin&quot; without an escort. Looking more rested, Walter complains about the staff at the hospital, insisting they aren't as skilled and attentive as Paul. After several minutes of this, Paul demands to know why Walter is sucking up to him. In response, Walter shows him a pot holder he made in occupational therapy and rails against group therapy; he wants out and knows Paul is the one who can recommend his early release. Paul suggests Walter is angry that Paul didn't save him from the depression or suicide attempt. He urges Walter to drop the façade and tell him what it's really been like for him at the hospital. &quot;Hell,&quot; says Walter. Time goes too slowly, and he's left with his thoughts about what happened to the children who drank the formula and their surviving families. He also realizes everyone is going to worry from now on whether he'll try to take his life again. Walter asks Paul what he would have done in his situation, and Paul says he's thought about it. The therapist understands that Walter must have thought he'd found a way out of the pain, but also says he thinks Walter has now survived the worst night of his life: There is hope for renewal. Walter feels there are two Walters now: The one who could stand up to pressure and handle pain, and the one who couldn't, and crumbled. Paul probes him about the Walter who crumbled, suggesting he might now be able to take time to enjoy a hobby or leisure time, to discover what life is like without facing a constant crisis. He mentions Connie's rehab crises, and Walter reacts—he never told Paul that Connie was in rehab, and his wife doesn't have a problem. She just suffered moods or maybe hypoglycemia triggered by stress; it was his fault for traveling so much and letting her down. Paul notes Walter needs to be Superman and maybe it's time to he remember how to play—like the little boy he never got to be. Angered, Walter demands to know why Paul would want him to connect more to the Walter who fell apart, but Paul gently suggests that the Walter who fell apart was the Superman, and it's the other Walter who wants to live. Stunned, Walter collapses, wracked with sobs.</P></div>

Gina and Paul - Week Six

<div class='episode-body-left-aligned' style='text-align: left'><P class=&quot;&quot;>Enraged by being put on repeated hold while trying to deal with his father's estate, Paul heaves his cell phone in the trash just as Gina opens the door to her waiting room to invite him in. Still agitated, Paul surprises himself by asking Gina to &quot;proof&quot; the letter he's drafted to give to Alex, Sr. Gina expresses her concern about the letter, but Paul dodges, insisting that he's no good as a therapist because he can't really give his patients what they want (love and sex). He insists he's going to send the letter and become a &quot;life coach&quot; instead so he can give people advice. Gina has him play out the advice he'd give Mia, and Paul accuses her of being afraid to take responsibility for her patients' lives. Gina asks Paul if she's let him down and Paul keeps pushing, accusing her of not telling him what she really thinks. Pushed to the brink, Gina explodes and the two have an all-out fight as he accuses her of always judging him and thinking he has no boundaries, and she insists she's always stuck by him because she believes he's ultimately a good therapist—he just needs to learn humility. &quot;We don't save people…we can't,&quot; she tells him. That's when Paul announces Walter tried to kill himself. Gina is stunned Paul didn't tell her this earlier, and she's concerned that this, on top of Alex Sr.'s case and his father's death, is a lot to bear. Paul says he was too humiliated to admit he's had two patients attempt suicide in two years and didn't suspect either one, but says he can understand Walter's desire to escape his problems. Gina treads carefully to probe whether Paul is having suicidal thoughts, but he promised he'd never do to his children what his mother did to him. Exhausted, Paul cuts the session short and is about to take his letter with him but Gina urges him to leave it with her for a week and to take time to think about it—and to see his patients and act as if he believes he's helping.</P></div>

Mia - Week Seven

<div class='episode-body-left-aligned' style='text-align: left'><P class=&quot;&quot;>Paul, worried that he hasn't heard from Mia, tells her as much when she arrives for their session. She thought she'd hit bottom with the mistaken pregnancy, she says, but things got even worse last week, after she broached the details of her childhood with her father. He turned on her for &quot;bringing up ancient history&quot; and said it's no wonder she can't find a man. He's refused to speak with her since, and she spent the entire week in bed. She wants to quit therapy because she can't handle grappling with problems that never get solved. Paul explains that her relationship with her father is not over—just different. More honest, in fact. Mia wants to shelve the parental talk and says asks Paul to be her friend, but it's against the rules. He counters that breaking the rules is exactly what she's had in mind for their sessions—that she's setting him up to fail and feed the pattern of men letting her down. But Mia wants to talk about Paul's patterns—particularly the one in which his attractive female patients fall in love with him. &quot;Don't tell me you haven't had fantasies about us,&quot; she says, stretching her legs toward him. &quot;Crazy chicks are great in bed, right?&quot; Paul fires back: Would that make Mia feel special enough? Would that put her in control? He asks whether many of her cases involve defending powerful men who've wronged innocent people—is every trip to court a defense of her father? Mia acknowledges the breakthrough, but still doesn't get how it helps. Paul explains that taking off her blinders and gaining self-knowledge is valuable, even if it doesn't give a quick fix. The pregnancy, needing a man—Mia is looking for an authentic connection, he says, and she finds it in these sessions. Time is up. After Paul says goodbye, Mia thanks him for everything and tells him she'll see him next week.</P></div>

April - Week Seven

<div class='episode-body-left-aligned' style='text-align: left'><P class=&quot;&quot;>Paul, in his kitchen, can't get to the ringing phone, and when the answering machine picks up, it's April. She got the results of her blood test, and she's coming over. When she arrives, wearing a knit hat that Daniel gave her, April tells Paul that the chemo is working—and that she wants to stop therapy. April doesn't know how to feel, but it's obvious she can't go back to her old life. Kyle broke up with his girlfriend, she says, but she doesn't want him at all anymore—she feels &quot;dead and gone.&quot; Paul explains that recovery is taking all her energy right now, but that won't always be the case. He suggests that she continue therapy, but when he adds that she could bring her family in, April loses it, screaming at him and leaving the room. Soon, she comes back, apologizing and complaining about her itchy hat, and says that she quit school—an endeavor she only undertook to please her mother—and can't imagine being a 23-year-old who's survived cancer. She's afraid she'll spend the rest of her life alone and unhappy. The whole trajectory of her life has been changed, and living without a clear path is too hard, she says. Paul assures her that, though she was rerouted, she'll be happy. She tells Paul that she was reading his web site, and that a girl named Sophie posted a comment, crediting Paul for saving her life. April says she can't be his patient anymore because he's &quot;the guy who saved my life,&quot; too. She just wants to rest and focus on getting well. Paul understands, and as April prepares to leave, he gives her a hat—made of soft leather—that used to belong to his father. She thanks him for everything he's done, kisses him on the cheek and leaves.</P></div>

Oliver - Week Seven

<div class='episode-body-left-aligned' style='text-align: left'><P>Bess has insisted Oliver come to their last visit with Paul before they move up to Bard, but Oliver refuses to talk to him, opting to remain in the waiting room while Bess and Paul talk in his office. Bess is surprised Paul wasn't more sympathetic to her situation, since he's been through a divorce himself; she also knows from Oliver that he asked to come live with Paul. They are interrupted by Luke, who's been at the apartment packing and suddenly felt the need to talk. He joins them, and Bess and Luke share a memory of their early days when they first moved into that apartment when Oliver was a baby. It's a bittersweet moment as the couple, finally at ease, acknowledge they just weren't right for each other. Paul urges them to build on this acceptance and work together to help Oliver through this tough time. Bess leaves, and Luke continues to talk to Paul about feeling like a failure as a father. Paul reminds him that no matter what mistakes he's made with his son so far, Oliver still needs and loves his father—Luke just needs to show up for him going forward. As he leaves, Luke convinces Oliver to take a few minutes to say goodbye to Paul, while he waits outside. The boy finally agrees, and Paul apologizes to Oliver for letting him down but assures him he'll always be available for Oliver to talk. Paul has them roll play a phone call, coaxing Oliver to tell him about his new home and school. After they &quot;hang up,&quot; Oliver apologizes for getting angry at Paul but refuses his offer to stay and talk longer... his father is waiting, so Oliver says his goodbye and leaves.</P></div>

Walter - Week Seven

<div class='episode-body-left-aligned' style='text-align: left'><P class=&quot;&quot;>Walter arrives early for his session with Paul, barging in on other patients. Later, he apologizes but begins his session with small talk about what he's done since he was released from the hospital last week. He's uncomfortable with the feeling that Natalie and Connie are constantly keeping tabs on him. Paul gently brings up the end of their last session, but Walter denies any recollection of his sobbing breakdown. Instead, Walter recalls a dream he had in which Mr. Donaldson told him the contamination wasn't his fault and begged him to take his job back—but Walter couldn't speak to reply. Paul suggests the dream indicates he doesn't want to go back any more. Walter notes that when he barged in earlier, the look on Paul's face reminded him of his father, who didn't have much time for him after his brother Tommy was killed because he threw himself into work. Walter describes life with his parents after Tommy died, and Paul points out that Walter had to go from being a boy to a man almost overnight. When Paul brings up &quot;the other Walter&quot; again, Walter wonders why the split was a bad thing, since it allowed him to function so well. The therapist explains that it's hard to be genuinely fulfilled when part of your true self is locked away. The part of Walter that shouldered so many burdens was the part that got rewarded—and now he doesn't think he's valuable to anyone unless he's in the hero role. Walter interprets what Paul is saying as that he's missed his life, but Paul insists he just wants Walter to stop taking care of everyone else, and take care of himself. It's not too late to find a new way of being, but it will take a lot of work. On his way out, Walter says: When do we start?</P></div>

Gina and Paul - Week Seven

<div class='episode-body-left-aligned' style='text-align: left'><P>Paul is late to his session and Gina waits impatiently, annoyed he hasn't checked in. He finally arrives and comments on her attire—she looks like she's got a date. But he predicts she wouldn't tell him if she did because she has strict rules about boundaries. Gina lets his comment hang. Paul sets his phone on the coffee table: He's waiting for a call from his lawyer. Paul decided not to send the letter and told his lawyers to proceed with the case. The hearing was this morning, but he overslept. Gina picks up on this, but Paul refuses to consider why he missed the hearing. Paul remarks on her dress again, recalling seeing her in a similar color one summer when he was her grad student and he saw her out with David. She asks what it is he's avoiding talking about tonight, but the phone rings. It's his lawyer, Ellis, reporting that the judge threw the case out. Gina congratulates him and asks how it went with his patients this week. He admits that her suggestion that he &quot;act as if&quot; actually worked. He got through to Walter and Luke... though April and Oliver left. They discuss why, and Paul admits that though he's concerned, he's proud of April for recognizing that she needs all her energy to fight the cancer, and he actually understood that. Finally Paul comes clean: He's decided to leave therapy. Gina, disappointed that they're here again, pushes to make sure he understands why he's leaving. Could he be abandoning her because two of his patients abandoned him this week? He sees that as reductive; it's simply that the way they interact is unhealthy. Gina posits that she has come to represent everything Paul struggles with in his work as a therapist; she's the boundary police. Paul insists it's time he stopped beating her up for it, making her play his mother: He's not running away, he's moving out to make his way in the world. Gina asks if he's met someone, and Paul tells of an intriguing woman he met in a bookstore. As they say goodbye for the last time, Gina notes that she's supposed to say her door is always open, but she's not going to this time. With nothing more to say, the two part ways.</P></div>

Sunil - Week One

<div class='episode-body-left-aligned' style='text-align: left'><p>Paul searches the Internet for information about Parkinson's disease. Arun and Julia, a professional-looking couple, arrive in his waiting room. Waiting outside is Arun's middle-aged father, Sunil, who is going to be Paul's patient. During the awkward first session, Sunil is mostly silent, save for a few comments to Arun in Bengali. Five months earlier, Sunil had moved in with Arun's family, after the passing of his wife, Kamala. She had made Arun promise that he would take care of his father after her death. Now Sunil seems to be depressed in his son's home, under the watchful eye of his daughter-in-law. When Arun and Julia leave the session, Sunil opens up slightly. He thinks therapy is for people with severe psychological issues. Making an exception to his rules, Paul allows Sunil to smoke during the session. Sunil states his concern that Julia is contaminating Arun. Even though she gives Sunil his allowance and pays for his treatment, he doesn't trust her. His son has been prescribing him medication, but Sunil hasn't been taking it. He admits to missing his wife and his life in India -- as a math professor in India, he finds it difficult to quantify the grieving process.</p></div>

Frances - Week One

<div class='episode-body-left-aligned' style='text-align: left'><p>Preparing to place flowers in a vase, Paul notices his hand shaking. He goes to the door and is surprised by his new patient Frances, early for her appointment. A beautiful, middle-aged woman, Frances is a well-known actress just past her prime. She has a daughter, Izzy, who has moved in full-time with Frances's ex-husband, Russell.  Years ago, Paul had treated her sister, Patricia, and now Frances is seeking his help. Frances has been having trouble remembering her lines in rehearsals for a Broadway play. She bristles at Paul's suggestion that her issues might stem from growing older and reveals that Tricia has late-stage breast cancer, the same disease that killed their mother years earlier. Tricia wants her sister to get tested for the BRCA 1 gene, an indicator of breast cancer. Paul suggests that Frances may have taken on the play as an escape from all the pressure she's facing-her sister's illness, her daughter's distance, the test-but Frances counters that the play is the problem. She also rebuffs his theory that there's something revealing about Frances's decision to see her sister's old therapist. After she leaves, Paul calls a doctor friend, asking for a referral to a neurologist; he has a few questions about Parkinson's disease.</p></div>

Jesse - Week One

<div class='episode-body-left-aligned' style='text-align: left'><p>Reading the <i>New York Review of Books</i>, Paul spots an advertisement for a novel by his former therapist and mentor, Gina. He answers a knock at the door and is met with a camera flash in his face. It's Jesse, Paul's patient, a troubled gay teenager, and he has pictures he'd like to show Paul. As they scroll through them, Paul realizes that the pictures were taken the night before at Jesse's friends' bar and that he skipped school that day. Throughout the session, Jesse is anxious and distracted. He lashes out about his adoptive mother, whom he refers to by her first name, Marisa. Jesse's father has hired a new employee and Paul asks Jesse if this implicit rejection has spurred his recent bad behavior. Jesse jokes about his birth parents, picturing his real mother as a crack whore. When Paul asks Jesse to put away his iPhone, Jesse plays a voicemail for him. It's a call from a woman who claims to be his birth mother, Karen, requesting that he call her back. Jesse is clearly still shaken by the news. Her number has a Westchester area code, which Jesse assumes means she is rich. Paul suggests they talk more about the call before the boy responds. Jesse leaves Paul's office with no particular destination in mind.</p></div>

Adele - Week One

<div class='episode-body-left-aligned' style='text-align: left'><P>In the waiting room of another therapist's office, Paul makes plans with his younger girlfriend Wendy. Turning around, he's surprised to see the therapist, Adele, waiting. Paul sizes her up; she's attractive, considerably younger than he is and keeps her office very bright. He makes it clear that he's only there to receive a prescription for Ambien. When Adele wants to dig a little deeper, Paul grows impatient, commenting on her age and reiterating that he is not interested in resuming treatment. Adele takes note when Paul mentions his former therapist Gina and the several roles she played in his life. Paul alludes to a recurring dream, but prefers not to share it, opting to discuss his patients instead. Frances's test for the breast cancer gene has gotten him thinking about Parkinson's. When Adele wants to press further, Paul refuses, insisting he's been over this territory with Gina, one of the best analysts on the East Coast, and he doesn't want to go over it again. Adele counters that Gina was his teacher, supervisor, analyst and couples counselor, implying she played more roles than is customary for a top therapist. Paul snaps, challenging Adele's level of experience and suggesting she's in no position to question his treatment. After he calms down, Adele asks how it feels to read Gina's novel, which she spotted next to him on the couch. When Paul reveals he sometimes feels oppressed by the artifice of the therapeutic process, Adele presses him to elaborate, and Paul talks about his patients and how frustrating their lack of progress can be. She writes him the requested prescription but not before positing that his dream somehow involves being trapped; Paul insists it doesn't. He returns home and finds his son Max waiting for him on the stoop, prepared to move in with him.</P></div>

Sunil - Week Two

<div class='episode-body-left-aligned' style='text-align: left'><p>On the phone, Paul argues with his ex-wife about the choice of school for Max. From the waiting room, Sunil overhears Paul refer to him as a patient, a word that makes him uncomfortable. At his grandchildren's insistence, Sunil has showered and looks slightly more presentable. He shows Paul a picture of Kamala, his dead wife and Paul agrees there is no timetable for grief. Sunil recalls his first time seeing Kamala, who was already arranged to be his wife, and notes she would disapprove of the way their grandchildren are being raised. Switching tracks, Sunil tells Paul about an incident that morning, in which Sunil and Julia ran into each other wearing only their towels. Sunil believes Arun's life is being dictated by Julia, but Paul suggests Sunil has a tendency to project his own complaints onto others. He wants Sunil to express his anger in a more direct manner. Sunil tells a story of being more confrontational with Arun, when he voiced doubts about his son marrying Julia during their first visit to Calcutta. Upset, Arun accused his father of bring jealous for choosing duty and a loveless marriage over passion. Their father-son relationship cooled after that, and the next and final time Arun visited Calcutta to see his dying mother, Kamala made him promise to bring Sunil to New York. Sunil would like to go back, but he can't. He has no money of his own, having spent it to care for Kamala. When Sunil leaves, he forgets his picture of Kamala on the couch.</p></div>

Frances - Week Two

<div class='episode-body-left-aligned' style='text-align: left'><p>Paul gets checked out by a neurologist to see if he is exhibiting symptoms for Parkinson's. During Frances's session, she notices that he looks haggard. She shows Paul the &quot;prompter&quot; the producers want her to wear in her ear in case she forgets her lines during the performance. Though she can't figure out the reason for her lapses, Frances recalls that during one of them she felt the need to call her teenage daughter, Izzy, who has been spending all her free time at Patricia's bedside. In spite of fond memories of early motherhood and marriage, Frances now she sees her ex-husband Russell and Izzy as united against her. She's been reading Izzy's emails and discovered that she and her boyfriend are considering having sex (something Frances hasn't done since Rusell left her for a grad student). Frances feels excluded from Izzy and Patricia's close relationship. Paul reveals that when he reached out to see how Patricia was doing, he realized that Frances had lied about receiving her sister's permission to see him. After agreeing to tell Patricia about seeing Paul, Frances turns the conversation to the anxiety she feels about the test for the breast cancer gene and her deep fear of getting a mastectomy. Sunk into the couch, she reaches out for Paul to help her up, and he obliges.</p></div>

Jesse - Week Two

<div class='episode-body-left-aligned' style='text-align: left'><P>While Paul searches for information about Parkinson's online, Jesse and Max pass each other in the landing, exchanging a look. During the session, Jesse reveals his plan to attend a summer arts program at RISD on his birth mother's dime, though he still hasn't called her back. Paul wants to talk through the process of how the call might play out, but Jesse gets upset and threatens to leave. Switching tracks, Jesse brings up the prank calls he's been receiving from a classmate named Nate, with whom he'd had a brief but secret fling. The conversation steers towards Max, and Paul is visibly uncomfortable. When Paul refuses to discuss his son in therapy, Jesse picks up a pair of brass booties Max wore as a child and mimes throwing them out the window. After Jesse settles down, Paul reveals that Jesse's parents have been paying for his therapy. Despite this, Jesse is convinced that Marisa looks at him like a stranger and that she doesn't love him. Leaving the session, Jesse tells Paul ominously that Max is in for a world of pain ahead of him.</P></div>

Adele - Week Two

<div class='episode-body-left-aligned' style='text-align: left'><P>Paul leaves the latest in a string of messages for Gina, expressing his surprise at some of the &quot;interesting character choices in her novel.&quot; He returns to Adele for another session to discuss the recent development of Max moving in and how he will eventually tell his son about having Parkinson's. Paul concedes that in their previous session Adele was right about a few things, including Gina's unprofessional conduct. He's convinced that he is the inspiration for the deeply flawed protagonist -- the demon spawn of Bartleby and Shylock -- of Gina's novel. Adele returns to the topic of Parkinson's and Paul reveals that his doctor said he was not exhibiting enough symptoms for a positive diagnosis, though he is seeking a second opinion. Adele was also right, Paul says, about the content of his dream involving a feeling of paralysis. In the dream, Paul is running along a fence in an open field feeling a sense of possibility when his progress is slowed. Then, he turns back and sees his father coming towards him. Paul is sure that the dream is about Parkinson's and the fate his father's DNA has cast for him. When Adele suggests that having Parkinson's might be a fantasy for Paul, he grows increasingly agitated, questioning her life experience. &quot;Why on earth would I find that comforting?&quot; he asks. Adele counters that despite the opinion of experts, Paul still carries on with the notion that he has the disease. After Paul's anger subsides, he quizzes Adele to see if she understood the reference he had made earlier to Melville's &quot;Bartleby.&quot; She passes.</P></div>

Sunil - Week Three

<div class='episode-body-left-aligned' style='text-align: left'><P>Paul cares for Max, who has come down with a fever. During Sunil's session, Paul and Sunil prepare and drink tea from a local Bengali shop. Sunil compares the undignified determination of the contestants on the TV show 'Survivor' with his daughter-in-law Julia's treadmill workouts. Yet, as Paul points out, in both cases Sunil feels compelled to watch. Probing further about Sunil's recollections of Arun and Julia's visit to Calcutta, Paul learns that Kamala had identified a woman from the neighborhood for Arun to marry who had, according to Sunil, &quot;the face of a bullfrog.&quot; Instead, he brought back the beautiful Julia, whose physical displays of affection for Arun made his parents deeply uncomfortable. Sunil's views were reinforced just the past week during a family dinner in honor of Sunil and Kamala's anniversary when Julia left to meet one of her young authors, Ethan Barr. Vividly describing Julia's appearance and fragrance as she said goodbye to him, he is convinced she is having an affair. Sunil recalls a moment in his life when he was deeply in love with a university classmate named Malini. However, she was not from a Brahmin family, and so they broke it off. Sunil has not told anyone else about Malini, and Paul reassures him that he would never reveal information about a patient unless someone was in danger. Paul asks Sunil if he feels jealous of Arun and Julia's marriage or betrayed by Julia's possible affair. Sunil laughs for an uncomfortably long time as Paul looks on, befuddled.</P></div>

Frances - Week Three

A discussion about Frances' fractured relationship with Patricia turns into an indictment of their late mother.

Jesse - Week Three

<div class='episode-body-left-aligned' style='text-align: left'><P>Jesse brings his adoptive mother Marisa into his session on what he says was Paul's request. His face is bruised and Marisa explains that he's been suspended from school after his involvement in a fight on a class trip. Jesse recounts in graphic detail a tryst with Nate in the men's bathroom of the Whitney museum, which ended when Jesse lied to and insulted Nate, who in turn punched him in the face. Throughout the story, Paul observes the obscenely rude way Jesse interacts with his mother. Finally, Paul snaps at him and Jesse settles down. It becomes clear that Jesse wants Paul to tell Marisa about the call from Karen, his birth mother, but Paul refuses to take the bait. Eventually, Jesse blurts it out and a devastated Marisa excuses herself from the session, leaving Jesse to stew in his anger. After he calms down, Jesse remembers a day at the beach when he befriended two older boys. He had included pictures of them in a family tree project at school, until Marisa asked him to remove them. After that incident, Jesse felt his father Roberto grow more distant. Paul suggests the issue with Jesse's parents isn't that they don't love him, as he claims, but that they just don't know how to relate to him. Jesse imagines that Marisa has left the session to go to church, but when he opens the door to leave, he finds her sitting outside, waiting for him.</P></div>

Adele - Week Three

<div class='episode-body-left-aligned' style='text-align: left'><P>Getting ready for to go to a rock concert with his father, Max comes across the Parkinson's sites in the search history on Paul's computer. During Paul's session with Adele, he has a blinding headache and she refuses to provide him with any aspirin. When Adele asks Paul about his family life, he instead answers about his patients. She calls him out on this, and Paul notes bitterly that's the same judgment Gina used to make. When he seeks Adele's opinion about whether he should continue to treat Jesse when he finds himself siding with his mother, she refuses to answer the question, stating it would put her in the role of Paul's supervisor. She steers the conversation back towards Max, since Paul mentioned his son had repeatedly checked on him during the concert. Finally Paul reveals that Max discovered the Parkinson's links. After the show, Paul had a few drinks and slept straight through the night until Max woke him up the next morning. Picking up that this is the first time Paul has slept well in months, Adele wonders if it's because Max is starting to take care of him. Paul is distressed at her observation, even more so when she suggests Paul may have a pattern of proving himself incapable so that others will care for him, particularly Gina.</P></div>

Sunil - Week Four

<div class='episode-body-left-aligned' style='text-align: left'><P>Paul helps Max with his homework, though his son remains somewhat cool to him. Sunil, clearly agitated, arrives for his session. He hands Paul Julia's birth control pills, which he took from her study and considers to be proof of an affair with Ethan Barr. When Paul suggests that Sunil is speculating, Sunil gets upset with him. He shares a vivid dream he's had, in which he feels intense anxiety over something that he's buried, though he doesn't know what it is and admits to wandering the house at night, watching its inhabitants sleep, particularly Julia. Sunil fondly recalls his relationship in university with Malini and his distress when she announced one day she could no longer see him because they were from different social castes. Soon after, she jumped from a bridge and drowned; after a brief discussion with the police, Sunil never spoke of her again. Paul suggests a connection between Sunil's time with Malini and the extreme feelings that Arun and Julia's relationship evokes for him. He thinks the dream is, in some way, about Malini. Before Sunil leaves, Paul tells him to call if he has any disturbing thoughts.</P></div>

Frances - Week Four

<div class='episode-body-left-aligned' style='text-align: left'><P>Paul's daughter Rosie comes to visit and reveals that Max and Steve have actually been getting along quite well, contrary to the impression Max has given Paul. Frances arrives for her session with a new look - to help her get into character. Surviving the past week's preview performance without issue, hasn't eased her anxiety. She offers Paul tickets to opening night, but he refuses them out of policy. When Paul probes about why she didn't ask Patricia, Frances reports that, acting on Paul's advice, she apologized to her sister for telling her not to be an actress. Patricia, who barely remembers the slight, says she is glad to have lived a &quot;real life,&quot; a judgment Frances finds hurtful. She discusses feeling inadequate around Russell and his intellectual friends, and reports that she's still reading Izzie's emails - including one where she described Frances as &quot;amazing,&quot; a compliment Frances dismisses. Frances finally admits she wishes she could invite her mother to her opening, who used to attend many of her shows, even when she was terminally ill. She recounts the last time she saw her mother was at a glamorous premiere in New York that Frances arranged for her to attend. This contradicts the story Frances had told Paul, and had been telling herself, about her frequent visits to the hospital in her mother's last days. In truth, after the premiere, her mother's health declined sharply and Frances felt Patricia blamed her for it and never made it back to Baltimore until after she'd passed away. Paul speaks firmly with Frances, telling her that it was her own fear that kept her from visiting her mother. After she leaves, Frances knocks on the door to tell Paul she's received the results of the breast cancer gene test, but hasn't opened them yet.</P></div>

Jesse - Week Four

<div class='episode-body-left-aligned' style='text-align: left'><P>Jesse arrives at his session with a letter he received from his birth father Kevin, who married his mother Karen. The letter reveals that Karen gets depressed around Jesse's birthday and would like for Jesse to get in touch with them. Paul notices that Jesse's attitude towards his birth parents has shifted. After telling Marisa that he was going to live with Karen a week earlier, now Jesse calls them &quot;pathetic&quot; and says their actions are &quot;inappropriate.&quot; Marisa reacted to the news about Jesse's birth mother contacting him by slipping into a quiet depression, while Roberto exploded with anger and threatened to call the police, a reaction that made Jesse feel &quot;f--king awesome.&quot; He reads Paul a formal letter he has written to Kevin, asking him to refrain from future contact. Upon examination, Jesse is struck and a little freaked out by how similar Kevin's handwriting is to his own. Paul suggests there might be a part of Jesse that's interested in starting a relationship with his birth parents, but the teenager is afraid of upsetting Marisa and Roberto. Paul advises Jesse to wait a week before sending the letter, and Jesse agrees, leaving it with Paul for safekeeping.</P></div>

Adele - Week Four

<div class='episode-body-left-aligned' style='text-align: left'><p>Paul cleans up his couch after a quick daytime visit from Wendy. In his session with Adele, he shares his discomfort with the close relationship Max and Steve share. He's afraid that Max has been keeping it from him to protect him and so, not wanting to put his son in that position, Paul has not revealed the news that he thinks he may have Parkinson's. Paul complains that, unlike his patients, he has no real passion in his life. He assumes that Adele's work is her passion, having looked her up online and found an impressive listing of publications and conferences she's attended, many of which are recent, unlike his. He admits there are times when he feels like he's accomplishing something in his sessions, such as when Sunil revealed his decades-old relationship with Malini. Adele notices that Paul is engaged when describing this moment in a way he hasn't been since describing his dream, weeks earlier. Suddenly, Paul realizes that the dream is set at his primary school in England, where he had plans to join many clubs, but was moved away by his father to Baltimore, where his mother's illness effectively ended his childhood. Adele points out that Paul had enough time to pursue his interests, but caring for his mother was a convenient escape from trying out something new. It's a pattern he still engages in, cutting himself off with fake diagnoses and pre-assigned explanations rather than exploring his potential interests. Paul is struck by Adele's confidence and ability to see through him. He reveals that during his daytime tryst with Wendy, he was thinking about Adele. He notices she doesn't wear a wedding ring and imagines that she understands his loneliness, though he quickly dismisses his feelings as &quot;textbook transference.&quot;</p></div>

Sunil - Week Five

<div class='episode-body-left-aligned' style='text-align: left'><p>In the waiting room, Sunil listens to BBC reports of flooding in his home region in India. He feels like a stranger in his own home, but rebuffs Paul's suggestion that Sunil move out of his son's house and get a job. He'd like to go back to India, and while Julia would be happy to let him go, Arun won't hear of it. While Arun is away on business, Julia has been seeing the author Ethan Barr. Sunil makes ambiguously threatening comments about Julia, saying he'd like to have &quot;smothered her laughter&quot; when he thought he overheard her mocking him. The increasingly hostile language is troubling to Paul, but Sunil does not respond to direct questions about whether he'd harm Julia. Sunil describes a vivid dream in which he defends his family from a menacing woman using Arun's severed arm. The mention of a flower in the woman's hair makes Paul think she could represent Malini, whom Sunil had described in a similar fashion. Sunil grows increasingly agitated and begins shouting in Bengali. He says, unprompted, that he never harmed Malini. Sunil reports that when he woke from his dream, he went down to Julia's room, which he found to be locked. Concerned, Paul recommends they schedule more sessions together, but Sunil refuses.</p></div>

Frances - Week Five

<div class='episode-body-left-aligned' style='text-align: left'><p>At the start of the session, Paul and Frances sit in awkward silence. Frances isn't ready to talk about the results of the breast cancer gene test, so instead she focuses on Izzy, whom she'd &quot;ambushed&quot; outside of school. After the embarrassing (to Izzy) encounter, Izzy texted her mother to suggest she see Tricia who &quot;looks like a skeleton.&quot; Jealous of the attention her daughter pays to Tricia, Frances abandons her promise to call Tricia after the show and instead, goes out and has sex with a younger member of the cast. At home afterward, Frances was unable to open the test results. No matter the outcome, Frances insists she will not have a mastectomy. She pulls out an envelope and asks Paul to read it for her. It's negative. Though tremendously relieved, Frances refuses to see Tricia, saying it would be inconsiderate to shove her health in her dying sister's face. When Paul suggests that Tricia is likely to be happy for her, Frances still doesn't budge. Firmly, Paul tells Frances, &quot;You need to see your sister before she dies.&quot; Frances counters by telling Paul that years ago, Tricia was in love with Paul and thought Paul felt the same way about her. Paul refuses to take the bait, and as Frances leaves the room, he tells her, &quot;If you don't do it now, you will always regret it.&quot;</p></div>

Jesse - Week Five

<div class='episode-body-left-aligned' style='text-align: left'><P>Max and Paul make pancakes together at night. As Paul tries to engage his son in conversation, they're interrupted by a loud knock. Jesse has just returned from seeing his birth parents and needs to have an emergency session. Reluctantly, Paul agrees to meet with a very emotional Jesse, leaving Max alone in the kitchen. After last week's session Jesse called up his birth parents and arranged a meeting at their home. He arrived early and saw children playing in the front yard, but when he returned, the children were gone, along with any evidence they'd been there. At first glance, Kevin and Karen looked to be good people. Jesse noticed a bar in the bathroom for disabled people to use and had noticed earlier that one of the children was in a wheelchair. He's convinced that the reason his birth parents made contact was for him to donate an organ or something along those lines. Jesse reveals that he was stoned during the meeting and doesn't remember much of it. He does remember that they asked him to leave when he made a half-joking offer to trade them his bone marrow for tuition at RISD. When Paul suggests Jesse sabotaged the meeting, like he's done with many other relationships in his life, Jesse lashes out at Paul and storms out after making a harsh comment about Max. After a moment of consideration, Paul follows Jesse out to the stoop and comforts him. As Paul assures Jesse there is nothing wrong with him and his parents most likely gave him up because they were too young, they hear the fire alarm go off. Paul races up to his apartment to discover Max has tried to make the pancakes himself and burned them, filling the kitchen with smoke. As father and son hug each other and apologize, Jesse leaves the stoop.</P></div>

Adele - Week Five

<div class='episode-body-left-aligned' style='text-align: left'><P>As Paul prepares to drop his son off at Steve's house, Max worries about leaving his father alone in Brooklyn. When they arrive, Paul meets Steve for the first time, but declines to stay for coffee. Paul shows up at his session with Adele late from the drive home; he's frazzled and takes an aspirin he brought with him. After the incident making pancakes, Paul finally had an open discussion with Max. When he realized his son was only staying out of concern for him, Paul decided the right thing to do was to send Max back home to his mother. While Steve seemed nice enough, leaving his son at the house may have been the hardest thing Paul has ever had to do. During Paul's retelling of the story, Adele picks up on his decision to take the session with Jesse and thinks that Paul is looking to evoke a certain response from her. Paul is irked that Adele seems to be dancing around the fact that a week earlier, he revealed his feelings for her. Though he first dismissed the feelings as an outgrowth of therapy, he now believes the two of them could really make each other happy. He imagines a life with Adele, in which they sit and discuss their patients over wine. Paul wants to discuss his session with Sunil and whether he might be a threat worth acting on. The session is over, but Paul persists. He knows that she has no more patients because he waited outside her building last week for over an hour. Paul presses on and Adele finally snaps. She says Paul has asked her to be everything to him -- colleague, supervisor, life partner -- except his therapist. Furthermore, she continues, Paul has been paralyzed to act in all aspects of his life, whether it is with his son, his patient, his girlfriend, his health. She recommends he see her twice next week, but Paul refuses.</P></div>

Sunil - Week Six

<div class='episode-body-left-aligned' style='text-align: left'><p>Julia arrives for Sunil's session and asks to speak with Paul. She has a bandage on her arm and recounts how Sunil pushed her and she fell onto a nail, right in front of the children. In Julia's view, there has been a sharp decline in Sunil's behavior since he started treatment and she is terminating Sunil's therapy with Paul; this will be his last session. Though she does have some compassion for Sunil, his behavior makes her feel uncomfortable, even threatened. After Julia leaves, Sunil offers his version of the incident. He had been teaching the children a Bengali folk song when Julia demanded he stop. In the ensuing argument, Sunil &quot;pushed past her,&quot; accidentally causing her injury. Paul stresses the need to continue therapy, even offering to take Sunil on pro bono. Not wanting to be a charity case, Sunil considers returning for a final session, which Julia had already paid for. He takes out a broken cricket bat that he found the night after the fight and asks Paul to hold on to it for safekeeping. With Arun going on another trip the upcoming weekend, Sunil worries about Julia getting together with Ethan Barr. He insists that Paul take the bat and describes in disturbing detail the steps he could take to enter Julia's study undetected. When Sunil once again evades Paul's questioning about his plans, Paul snaps at him. He needs to know if Sunil is a dangerous person, if he harmed Malini, if he's capable of harming Julia. Paul demands that if Sunil has any thought of harming Julia, he call Paul instead. Sunil agrees to let Paul help him one final time.</p></div>

Frances - Week Six

<div class='episode-body-left-aligned' style='text-align: left'><p>Adele wakes up alone. While having her morning coffee she leaves a message for Paul offering him an additional appointment during the week. Frances arrives at her session looking haggard. She asks Paul for something to eat, but he refuses her. She told Izzy about the results of the BRCA1 test and instead of being happy for her, Frances says Izzy called her a narcissist—something she accuses Paul of calling her as well. After opening night, Tricia called Frances thinking she was dying; Frances rushed over to find Tricia lying on the floor, covered in her own urine. As Frances cared for her sister, feeding her and bathing her, Tricia kept apologizing. The sisters laid together in bed, gossiping and before falling asleep, Tricia reached for Frances and said, &quot;I love you.&quot; Tricia woke up a short while later with a stabbing pain in her stomach, hallucinating that Frances was her mother. After racing her to the hospital, Frances felt pushed aside as the nurses questioned why she had waited to bring Tricia in. Later the doctor told Frances that it was time to start hospice care. Frances is thinking about quitting the play to spend time with Tricia but Paul is a little skeptical about Frances's rash decision, just as Izzy was. Suddenly, Izzy knocks at the door with news that Tricia is in bad shape. As Frances leaves the session, Paul and Izzy size each other up.</p></div>

Jesse - Week Six

<div class='episode-body-left-aligned' style='text-align: left'><p>A birthday crown on his head, Jesse makes small talk with a girl in Paul's waiting room. He's turning 17, which, as he tells Paul, is the legal age of consent in New York State. After expressing concern about the fire last week, Jesse shares his regret about coming to Paul's home late at night. He's starting to feel doubts about the value of therapy, comparing it to the fake Rolexes sold on Canal Street. His birth father Kevin emailed to say he regrets contacting Jesse prematurely and won't reach out to him again. Paul consoles Jesse that it's not too late to reconnect with his birth parents, who left the door open for him to communicate, if that's what he wants. Jesse crawls up onto the couch, clearly pained over his birth parents' abandonment and says he wants to &quot;disappear.&quot; Gently, Paul tells Jesse to go home to the people who love him, Roberto and Marisa. Instead, Jesse reveals his plan to go to RISD for an interview. He still can't afford the tuition for the program, but hopes that after seeing the pictures he took in Westchester, they'll take him in anyway. Paul points out that this is just another fantasy in which he tells himself he'll finally feel at home somewhere else. Jesse invites Paul out for ice cream to celebrate his birthday, but Paul refuses to join him. The session is over, but Paul doesn't want to Jesse to leave alone.</p></div>

Adele - Week Six

<div class='episode-body-left-aligned' style='text-align: left'><p>Paul meets with another neurologist and once against the diagnosis is inconclusive, as Paul is not exhibiting the symptoms of Parkinson's. During their session, Adele stresses how unlikely it would be for Paul to be debilitated by the disease in any reasonably near time frame. She asks him what he would do if he had a clear diagnosis, one way or the other, and it's clear that Paul hasn't really considered it. In Adele's view, Paul is paralyzed by his &quot;wait-and-see&quot; attitude. He brings up the message that Adele left and asks why she called him. She points out that in their previous session Paul was concerned about the possible threat that Sunil posed. Paul describes his session with Sunil, the incident with Julia at her home, and the fact that he offered to see Sunil pro bono. When Adele expresses her skepticism, Paul points out that she is indulging his fantasy of the two of them sitting together over a meal, discussing their patients: She called him from her home, possibly over breakfast. Adele is caught off guard and when her phone rings, she gets up to shut off the ringer, revealing her pregnant belly. When she returns to her seat, Paul refuses to discuss his – now shattered – fantasy of the two of them together. Instead they talk about Sunil and the fact that Paul has not acted on the troubling things he has said in therapy. Paul stands by his instincts that Sunil is not a violent person and calls Adele a &quot;Freudian ice queen&quot; for not seeing that. When Paul caustically suggests they change the topic again, Adele offers to discuss her pregnancy. Paul accuses her of getting off on his imagined relationship with her, while she sits and hides the fact that she's in a happy relationship with a growing family—a charge she doesn't directly address. He calls therapy a &quot;crock of shit&quot; that &quot;gives power to the sphinx-like doctor at the expense of the humiliated patient.&quot; Before Paul leaves, Adele tells him that he doesn't recognize the danger of the situation with Sunil. She wonders if letting the situation with Sunil get out of hand is Paul's subconscious way of sabotaging his career as a therapist so he doesn't have to leave it on his own. Later that evening, Paul calls Julia.</p></div>

Sunil - Week Seven

<div class='episode-body-left-aligned' style='text-align: left'><p>Trying desperately to reach Arun, Paul finds out that Sunil has been put in jail. He pays him a visit and through the glass, his patient reveals that Paul's call to Julia resulted in his deportation. Immediately after speaking to Paul, Julia called Arun and then the police, telling both she feared for her safety. When the police arrived, Sunil refused to present his papers, ensuring he'd be arrested and eventually sent home. Paul pieces together that Sunil had set all this in motion during their therapy sessions. &quot;My son would never let me leave,&quot; he explains. Realizing that he's been deceived, Paul angrily demands to know what parts of their sessions were true. Most of what they discussed had indeed happened, but certain elements, like the dream with the dark-haired woman, were fictitious. Sunil thanks Paul for being a good friend to him, which causes Paul to snap, &quot;I meant to be your therapist, not your good friend.&quot; Calmly, Sunil recounts many instances when Paul acted more as a companion than a doctor, such as letting him smoke, drinking tea, discussing their wives. When Paul revealed what it would take to breach a patient's confidentiality, Sunil hatched his plan. Now, he will no longer be a nuisance in his son's home. He has no plans for how he'll live in Calcutta, but is sure he'll get by. The one thread that was entirely true in their sessions, Sunil says, was the story with Malini. He only left out one detail -- Malini had been pregnant; she killed herself to avoid shaming Sunil and his family. Sunil thanks Paul for being a good therapist and a good man. He hopes Paul can one day forgive him.</p></div>

Frances - Week Seven

<div class='episode-body-left-aligned' style='text-align: left'><p>Paul leaves messages for both Sunil and Julia but gets no response. In Frances's session, she wants to know if Paul approves of her actions. She relays how she was taking care of Tricia, sharing childhood memories, when here sisterwoke up in intense pain, and in a panic, Frances called the paramedics despite Tricia's stated wish to die at home. With Tricia now in the hospital in a near-vegetative state, unlikely to ever return home, Izzy is furious with her mother. Frances presents Paul with Tricia's living will, which names Frances as the one responsible for end-of-life decisions. Now Frances is faced with the decision to take her sister off the respirator and feeding tube, creating additional tension with Izzy. Even though the will clearly states that Tricia does not wish to be kept alive artificially, and only asks for maximum pain relief, Frances doesn't want to starve her sister to death or lose the only person who grounds her. Frances is at a crossroads; she's been getting good reviews in the play, but it won't be extended past its original limited run. She needs a constant in her life and asks Paul if he'll be there for her. He promises he will, but presses again about why Frances chose to see him of all therapists. Frances admits Paul represents a connection to her sister, possibly her final one. As she gets up to leave, Frances wants to know one last thing. Was Paul ever in love with Tricia? &quot;I cared about her a great deal,&quot; Paul responds. &quot;She was a striking woman.&quot; Frances agrees.</p></div>

Jesse - Week Seven

<div class='episode-body-left-aligned' style='text-align: left'><p>Jesse and his father Roberto are sitting in the session with Paul. After last week's session, Jesse had tried to dodge the train fare on the way up to RISD. He got caught and was held at the local police precinct until Roberto came in from Buffalo to pick him up. They talked all the way back, mostly about Marisa, and now Jesse feels it's time to quit therapy. Roberto says that Jesse had been feeling suicidal after last week's session and Paul had failed to notice it. Paul requests that Roberto leave him and Jesse to speak in private, one final time. At the police precinct and in the car ride home, Jesse reports he felt a strong connection to Roberto, &quot;like I really was his son.&quot; Jesse traces his problems o back to Marisa's inadequacy as a mother, but Paul is skeptical. He asks if Jesse really was feeling suicidal the week before; he wasn't. Paul wonders if Jesse is punishing him for not going out with him to celebrate his birthday. When Jesse prepares to leave, Paul warns that Roberto might be turning him against his mother. This sets Jesse off. He's finally on good terms with his father and doesn't understand why Paul wants to ruin that. Paul worries that the issues Jesse had been working through will be pushed deep below the surface if he stops treatment and insists the boy's progress is important to him. Jesse finds this strange and overbearing, shouting at Paul, &quot;You're not my f--king father.&quot; At this, Roberto enters to press Jesse to apologize for his language. Jesse gets up to leave, but before he does, Paul retrieves the two letters he had been holding for him. Jesse considers the letters, considers Paul, then storms out of the office. Paul watches through the window as they drive off in Roberto's van.</p></div>

Adele - Week Seven

<div class='episode-body-left-aligned' style='text-align: left'><p>Paul tells Adele about Sunil's deportation, blaming her for it. He never would've called Julia and she in turn wouldn't have called the police if Adele hadn't suggested he intervene. Following Sunil's betrayal, Paul finds himself doubting all of his patients and wondering if the whole enterprise is worth it. He's considering not taking on new patients and doesn't answer Adele when she asks if he is going to leave his practice. Adele thinks the reason Paul is so devastated by his patients' actions is because he regularly overinvests in his relationships with them, treating them as friends or children. He might be ready to give up on therapy, but doesn't know what else he wants to do with his life. He broke up with Wendy and wonders if he was ever really in love with his first wife, Kate, or anyone else, for that matter. In Adele's view, Paul had been substituting his relationships in the therapy for the real ones in his life. Paul agrees with her assessment and is ending therapy with her for that very reason. He wants to stop seeing her as a therapist, because it's too confusing for him to know if his attraction to her is real or just a byproduct of therapy. He doesn't know what her relationship status is, but believes she might be alone. Adele refuses to answer one way or the other. Therapy has removed Paul's compass of reality and he thinks it's time to reclaim it, though Adele doesn't want him to go. She takes his hand and tells him, &quot;My door will always be open to you.&quot; Paul responds, &quot;It's OK. You can close it behind me.&quot;</p></div>

Eladio - Week 1

Season 4 Premiere. After a troubling dream finds home health aide Eladio reaching out in the middle of the night, Brooke reestablishes boundaries as his therapist. Later, when Eladio requests medication, Brooke switches her focus to his history of insomnia.

Colin - Week 1

Colin, a self-proclaimed therapy enthusiast and proud child of hippies, arrives for the first of four court-mandated sessions, but his evasiveness makes a recommendation regarding his recent release from prison difficult for Brooke.

Laila - Week 1

Brooke struggles to draw genuine answers out of her newest patient Laila, who's been dragged to therapy by her concerned grandmother over recent "life choices," before switching gears and empowering the 18-year-old to seize her agency.

Brooke - Week 1

After failing to honor a commitment, Brooke receives an unexpected visit from her friend Rita. Worried that Brooke is teetering on the edge of a bad decision, Rita illuminates an unexpected connection between Brooke's personal and professional lives.

Eladio - Week 2

Brooke agrees to refer Eladio to a psychiatrist before his medication runs out--but only if he truly commits to therapy first. When pressed about his employers, Eladio opens up about his complicated relationship with their family.

Colin - Week 2

Colin chronicles the events that took him from "gold stars all around" to receiving serious demerits in prison. After connecting his troubling behavior to a feeling of profound powerlessness, Brooke challenges Colin to accept responsibility for his actions.

Laila - Week 2

In an effort to connect with Laila over feeling controlled by her family, Brooke shares a traumatic experience from her own childhood. As Brooke digs into her proclivity for unbridled imagination and storytelling as a coping mechanism, Laila reveals a surprising plan for her future.

Brooke - Week 2

Though Brooke insists reuniting with Adam will not awaken destructive habits, Rita recognizes her actions as part of a recurring pattern and encourages her to spend more time embracing the present.

Eladio - Week 3

With the house to himself, an energized Eladio shares the true depth of his unlikely connection to Jeremy. But when her patient shuts down on the heels of a compliment, Brooke helps Eladio sort through deep-rooted issues from his childhood.

Colin - Week 3

Brooke helps Colin realize how his hyper-focus on the opinions of others has long curtailed the development of his authentic self. After testing Brooke's boundaries, Colin makes an unusual request for their final session.

Laila - Week 3

As Laila details an elaborate getaway plan, a skeptical Brooke learns that her patient's desire to escape dates back to her earliest memories--and has only been accelerated by societal injustice and the impossible expectations thrust upon her.

Brooke - Week 3

After receiving a distressing phone call from Brooke, Rita helps her friend process a recent complication while struggling to accept a potential shift in their relationship.

Eladio – Week 4

Brooke tempers mixed reactions from Eladio after sharing an unexpected analysis. While her patient processes the news, Brooke and Adam discuss their future.

Colin – Week 4

In their fourth and final court-ordered session together, Brooke mines the extent of Colin's evasiveness--and struggles to form a comprehensive picture of her patient.

Laila – Week 4

Concerned over her patient's disclosure at the end of their last session, Brooke presses Laila to open up about her complicated understanding of love, sex, and the future.

Brooke – Week 4

Despite throwing a serious wrench in their plans, Brooke gains unexpected clarity on her relationship with Rita.

Eladio – Week 5

As Brooke contemplates a pressing life decision of her own, Eladio shares a major development. But when he asks for help sifting through the repercussions, Eladio is surprised by Brooke's answers.

Colin – Week 5

On the heels of receiving Brooke's recommendation, Colin makes a surprise visit--prompting a collision of his therapist's personal and professional lives.

Laila – Week 5

Torn up over the outside influences clouding her self-understanding, Laila is challenged by Brooke's unique therapy technique. But when Brooke asks Laila to take the exercise a step further, she receives a startling response.

Brooke – Week 5

Brooke nervously prepares for a visit she's avoided for months. Later, there's nowhere to hide as Brooke stares down the barrel of past trauma to confront the root of her pain.

Eladio – Week 6

Despite finally shaking a label that has plagued him, Eladio struggles when an empathetic Brooke pushes him to envision the future and shake his self-imposed limitations.

Colin – Week 6

Brooke and Colin discuss the terms of their new working relationship after overcoming hurdles to progress. But Colin soon leaves Brooke staggered by his misguided beliefs.

Laila – Week 6

When Rhonda arrives at Brooke's home distraught over her granddaughter's disappearance, Brooke seizes the opportunity to illuminate how Rhonda's unattainable expectations have marked Laila's entire life.

Brooke – Week 6

In the wake of her much-needed self-analysis, Brooke contemplates how startling revelations might impact her future with her son and inform her relationship with Adam.