In Treatment

Previously on In Treatment ...

If there's someone who does not know the meaning of guilt, it's my father.

Mid-'50s, right? Jim Crow, Oklahoma.

This mob with hoods attacked his house.

So my father takes the family, they run downstairs to the...

The boiler room, to the basement.

My grandfather, his father,

was very sick, dying of lung cancer.

He had this hacking cough.

My father puts his hand over his father's mouth and nose

and he kept it there while they searched the basement.

Kept it clamped tight.

And then when they finally cleared out...

my grandfather was dead.

I'd love to see him on this couch.

Doc, you'd have a field day with him.

I'm Paul Weston. I was a friend of Alex's.

My deepest deepest condolences.

Thank you. I... I don't remember...

You played racquetball with him.

Hello, excuse me.

I'm sorry. I didn't know which one of these doors was the right one.

That's okay. It's a terrible day.

Didn't want to knock on your residence.

No problem. This door is usually for people who come in.

That's usually the exit door.

But it doesn't... It doesn't really matter.

You have an entry door and an exit door?

It's for people's privacy. Some people don't like to...

They don't like to run into each other.

Are they ashamed?

No. It's just... It's protocol really.

- Would you like some coffee? - No, I'm a tea man.

But no, nothing, thank you.

- I'm fine. - Please, sit down.

I got a lot of questions.

I'm sure you have. And I hope that I can answer some of them.

One thing I do have to stress from the outset

is that anything that is said

between myself and a patient in this room...

is private.

- Even if the patient is dead? - Yes, even then.

Well, I'm sure we'll find something to talk about...

Something to help me understand what happened to my son.

Transcript: FRM Team Sync: Benj!

You weren't very forthcoming about who you were

when we met at the services.

A friend, you said?

That's hardly the case.

Well, I didn't want to betray Alex's confidence.

Daniel didn't hesitate in explaining

exactly what your relationship to Alex was.

He's very direct... Daniel.

I like that about him.

Were you surprised to hear that Alex was in therapy?

That he didn't tell me surprised me.

- I mean, what's the big deal? - Why do you think he didn't?

We'll never know the answer to that, will we?

Or I won't.

Maybe that's something you discussed here.

You know, it always puzzled me,

the whole process here, you know?

I mean, that... That a person is in therapy at all

often is never discussed...

Who the doctor is,

what he's there for, how much it cost.

Funny thing is that it's secrecy

or misunderstandings, things never spoken that...

usually land people in therapy in the first place.

- Isn't at ironic? - I don't think it's about secrecy.

I think it's about creating an environment

where people can come and feel safe

to talk about anything.

Safer than with their loved ones?

Sometimes it's easier to talk to somebody

who's totally uninvolved in your life...

Somebody objective. Somebody who has no stake in it.

You mean like a prostitute, hmm?

Someone who's paid for their intimacy and their discretion.

A man should have someone to talk to

who cares about him,

Not someone who charges by the hour.

I really did care for Alex.

And if I hadn't,

I'd actually be a pretty poor therapist.

Do you think Alex spoke about things in this room that he never...

spoke to anyone else about?

That is usually the case with patients.

So you probably know as much about him as anyone did.

Do you feel that you knew your son well?

I knew Alex when he was...

a little boy.

- And what was he like then? - Well, he was...

quiet.

Introspective.

Daydreamer.

Inventor.

Did he ever mention that to you?

He never did, no.

He invented this thing for his mother...

A pan that made flipping an omelet over very easy.

He worked very hard on that thing.

It was really good.

So where did he get that from? Were you an inventor?

Oh, no. No, man. I was a knucklehead.

My father was an inventor.

He invented this knife-sharpening machine.

It didn't make very much money. He was proud of it.

Alex reminded me of him.

In what way?

You trying to shrink me, doctor?

I'm just curious.

Or perhaps you can't help yourself.

That's probably true too.

My father and Alex...

had the same mannerisms, the same sense of humor.

It was unsettling.

When Alex was a little boy

and my father had been dead almost 20 years...

There he was...

Sitting across the dinner table looking at me...

Through me with those eyes of his

on Alex's face.

Is your father still living, Mr. Weston?

Yes.

Yes, his body is in good health,

But his...

His mind is gone.

Were you close?

We had our differences, of course.

But we were close.

We are close, I mean.

How often do you see him?

About once a month.

Does he know you're there?

No. I don't think so.

But the visit is more for my sake.

What do you get out of it?

Connection,

a sense of...

belonging.

Do you ever have conversations with him in your head?

Both sides of the conversation?

Yes.

When I was younger everything he said went in one ear, out the other.

Now I hear his voice in my head

Loud and clear every day.

That's the sense of connection that you mentioned. That's...

That's what I feel slipping away

with each passing day since Alex's death.

That sense of...

I'm trying to find his voice,

you know, but...

He won't talk to me.

If you don't mind me saying so, Mr. Prince, I think

that it's still too soon.

You're probably still in a state of shock.

But his voice...

will come back to you.

I apologize for comparing what you do

to, uh, prostitution.

I don't believe they're the same at all.

Apology accepted.

How would you describe

my son Alex?

I'm not asking you for a diagnosis.

You don't have to tell me what he thought,

just what you thought of him personally.

I thought that Alex was...

an extremely...

capable man.

Strong sense of mission.

A very strong sense of what was expected of him.

Uh, mission or purpose?

- What do you mean? - Well, Alex was a military man.

Military men have missions.

To have a purpose, a sense of purpose,

that's something...

Something you do on your own, something you want for yourself.

Did he have that?

I think that Alex was struggling to find out

what he wanted for himself.

- Did he say that? - No, sir, he didn't.

I'm just giving you some of my impressions

without betraying what he confided in me.

Frankly, it's more than I'm allowed to do.

Were you in the service yourself, Mr. Prince?

Eight months, you know, after they drafted me.

Had an asthma attack and they discharged me.

probably saved my life.

Funny, a breathing problem was...

my salvation,

and my father's death knell.

Alex told you about what happened to my father?

These are facts about my life,

not Alex's treatment.

Do you happen to know

how my father died?

Yes or no? Simple question.

Yes. Yes, I do.