In Treatment 3x11

When Paul opens his door to the hallway, Jesse is already waiting, wearing sunglasses. When he takes them off, he has a big black eye. “She came,” he says, “just like you wanted,” referring to his adoptive mother Marisa – of course Paul never asked for Marisa to join them. Paul asks Jesse about the black eye and Marisa explains he got attacked in the bathroom at the Whitney Museum. Jesse admits it was Nate, his ex-fling who he called a stalker last week. He got suspended from school according to Jesse because he got into a fight, but Marisa worries it’s rather because he’s gay. Jesse is the one who got beaten up, not the other way around. Jesse is angry, mean-spirited, verbally abusive to the point that Paul has to shut him up that he cannot talk to his mother in therapy like that. Marisa wonders why she is there and Jesse springs on her that his birth mother wants him back. She is so upset at the thought of losing Jesse that she breaks down and apologizes herself. Jesse just feels abandoned and is convinced his adoptive parents hate him. Paul asks him if this is the normal dynamic between Jesse and his mother. He doesn’t seem to understand the question.

Paul then changes the conversation to the photos Jesse mentioned last week which upset Marisa so much. And that is where we finally come to a real breakthrough for the first time. Jesse calms down and truly opens up. He explains that in sixth grade they had to do a family tree project, which he did by means of the camera his father Roberto gave him for his birthday. After he shot photos of his cousins and nephews, he started taking pictures of the life guard and his friend. He deliberately stepped on a rusty nail to draw their attention. He told them he was an orphan and Roberto had to look for him all day to find out where he was. The life guard’s friend turned out to be a pre-med student and took him to the hospital. When they had their show-and-tell at school, Marisa became upset that Jesse included photos of the life guard and his friend, but his teacher urged him to stick with photography because she saw the artistry in them. So, on that day on the beach, Jesse discovered his creative talent, plus he discovered that he was gay, he invented his first fake identity, and found a momentary but meaningful relationship with the life guard’s friend. Afterwards, Jesse felt that his father started to distance himself from Jesse – and his mother stopped going to church.

Paul tries to encourage Jesse to see things from his parents’ perspective. It may not be that they cannot accept his homosexuality or that they don’t love him, as Jesse claims. His mother may have stopped going to church precisely because she doesn’t want to support an institution that excludes her son, and his father may have found it difficult to relate to Jesse’s creativity. Paul opens up about his relationship with his son, who likes to draw, but Paul cannot fully understand what drives Max to produce such dark sketches. Although Jesse cannot yet wrap his head around Paul’s suggestions, and remains convinced his parents hate him, he stays calm and listens. A seed has been planted. Then Paul confronts Jesse about the lies getting Marisa to join him in session. Paul believes Jesse rather took her with him so that Paul could tell her about Karen, Jesse’s birth mother, and that Jesse is afraid that she, too, may eventually abandon him. Jesse gets defensive again. Paul inquires if Jesse has been thinking about calling Karen. He ups and leaves with an angry, “That’s all I think about!” Marisa is still waiting for him in the hallway – despite Jesse’s conviction she rushed to church begging the priest to take her back after all those years. What a revelation this show!