In Treatment 3x20

Paul drops off Max in Maryland, begging him not to worry about him. He briefly meets Steve, but declines to come in for coffee, as he has to get back to Brooklyn for his own session with Adele. He arrives late, with a great show of how bad he feels, taking aspirins in her office. He tells her he owes it to her that he finally spoke with Max, which made him realize that his son only came to live with him out of concern. Paul again makes a great show of this achievement, but it was only after the pancake incident (and the confrontation with Jesse) that he came to discuss his situation with Max. When Adele points out his demonstrative behavior, Paul angrily turns the conversation to his revelation in the last session. He may have dismissed it then, but he still needs to hear her response to his admission of his feelings for her. He genuinely feels they could make each other happy. It requires titanic tact and patience for Adele not to burst out – either in anger or laughter. Allowing his reverie to continue, Paul imagines they could discuss patients over wine, just as he now would like to hear her thoughts about Sunil. Adele indicates, that since he arrived late, their time is almost up, but Paul persists – explaining that he knows he is her last patient of the week – because he stayed in front of her building for an hour last time – and forcing her to extend their session (as if his situation is as critical as Jesse’s). When she hears about his stalk-like behavior, she has had it. He has asked her to be many things for him – his supervisor, his colleague, his life partner – anything, but his therapist. She bluntly confronts him with his paralysis to act in his life, with his son (waiting until a crisis occurs to talk to him), his patients (refraining from contacting authorities, even though he worries Sunil might harm someone), his girlfriend (not making up his mind whether to break up with Wendy or not), his health (persisting to believe he has Parkinson’s despite medical evidence to the contrary). Still, she offers to schedule two sessions a week to help him make progress – which he flatly refuses. What a wonderful show!