In Treatment Week 2 Sophie Wednesday 4PM S01E08 (HBO)

This is a surprising show on HBO. I was really dumbfounded when I discovered that there will be 43 episodes of In Treatment. Wow, 43. These are only half hour shows, or almost half hour shows, but still. That is just incredible.

In Treatment is based on the Israeli series Betipul. Gabriel Byrne plays Paul Weston, a psychologist trying to deal with his patients while going through some personal problems. Each show focuses on a different patient. Mondays feature Laura, an anestheologist infatuated with Paul. Tuesdays feature Alex, an ex-fighter pilot traumatized by events that happened a few years ago. Wednesdays feature Sophie, a suicidal teenage gymnast with Olympic aspirations. Thursdays feature Jake and Amy, a couple in couple’s counseling. Fridays feature Gina, Paul’s own therapist and mentor that he stopped seeing 8 years ago for some reason.

I’ve always loved psychology. This show really feeds that need. The sessions are almost verbatim of what would happen in a real session. This show is about characters, not actions. It’s a very smart show and I am also very surprised that Marky Mark is the executive producer. Marky Mark has had success with Entourage so it makes sense that he decided to try out other projects.

In this session, Paul gets more information about Sophie’s situation. He gets a strange call right before session from Sophie. It looks like she’s arguing with Sy. There are no male adults in Sophie’s life except Sy. Paul suspects that Sophie has slept with Sy. She’s sixteen, he’s forty. Sy’s wife recently came back after having been absent for six months. Sophie doesn’t know what to do.

* * * * *

Paul gets a strange call from Sophie. He hears her arguing with a man. It’s pouring and she wants to walk to her therapy session. She shows up completely drenched. Paul goes to get her some dry clothes. He says that he will put her clothes in the dryer. She says that she needs help getting undressed. He gets his wife Kate to help.

Sophie says that she likes Kate. Sophie says that he could learn a lot about how to talk to people. She is surprised and swears when Paul didn’t write her evaluation. She says that she tried. She tried with her dad, but he was busy with her exhibition. Her dad says that it was totally unprofessional to write her own evaluation. Then she tried to write it with her mom. Sophie calls her mom a total tool and a retard. Sophie says that she got in a fight. She stayed at the foreign gymnasts’ apartment. She tried to get Sy to help her, but he was too busy preparing the gymnasts for the next training camps. Her mom tried to write the report for her.

Paul asks that the fight must have been different, since she left home and crashed somewhere else. He asks her about the phone call. He asks her who it was. She says that she had a fight with her dad. Sophie says that it’s none of his business whom she came with.

She wants to leave. She knows that she isn’t going to get her evaluation today. Paul asks her why does she need Kate to go with her to the gym. Paul asks her how she gets along with the other girls. Obviously she doesn’t. She says that the girls are anorexic or bulimic. If they aren’t thin, they can’t compete. Sy and Regina tell the girls that. All of the girls are after Sy. At the end of the day, Sy and Regina decide everything. Who competes and who can’t compete.

The competition is fierce to participate in the trials for the Olympics. The girls are leaving tomorrow for the training camp in California. The money people have changed their minds. She can’t go with them anymore. She says that she had a fight with Sy. That’s what he heard on the phone. Sy couldn’t make the sponsors pay for Sy’s wife Darlene and his daughter Dana. She stopped working for Sy.

Sy’s wife Darlene came back. Sophie was living with Sy. She couldn’t stay there anymore. She says that Dana is a child. For Dana it felt like she lived there.

Sophie says that his daughter is a freak. She had a thing for a guy. Afterwards, she became a psycho because her dad was a shrink. He asks her about how other people talk about her behind her back.

She wants to see her evaluation. She doesn’t believe that Paul has started it. Paul tells her that he hasn’t finished it yet. She doesn’t believe him. He reads it to her. He wrote some very positive things about Sophie. She is surprised.

Sophie says that she is homeless. Paul asks her how she gets along with Darlene. She doesn’t want to talk about it.

Paul says the he felt like she was testing him when she asked him to help her change her clothes.

Sophie tells the story of her way to the ambulance.

Sophie hugs Kate while she helps her dress. A man picks Sophie up. It looks like Sy.

* * * * *

Relevant Posts

• In Treatment S01E01
• In Treatment S01E02
• In Treatment S01E03
• In Treatment S01E04
• In Treatment S01E05
• In Treatment S01E06
• In Treatment S01E07