Jesse -- Week Five

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.