The Patient

Good luck not eating this.

Pork buns

from Qian's.

What, are you giving me the silent treatment?

Doesn't seem very sophisticated for a therapist.

I'm not your therapist anymore. I'm your prisoner.

I understand why you would think that, but...

...you have to...

Don't worry. It's not a head or anything.

Oh, that's a relief.

You ever heard of the John Doe Killer?

I think so.

The whole idea was to make it look like robberies.

So the police didn't get one of those task forces going.

So, you know, I took... I took all this.

And...

next think I know, they're calling me the John Doe Killer

'cause sometimes it took 'em a few days

to figure out who these people were

without their IDs and stuff.

And... now I'm kind of stuck with it.

You believe me now?

You don't think I believed you?

I get why it's easier for you to think

that maybe I'm not telling the truth.

I believed you.

Would you like a watch?

No, thanks.

Keep track of time for yourself.

I mean, they still work.

Most of 'em.

It's hard at first for everyone,

but especially someone like you.

Someone like me?

So in your head.

That's where everything takes place, including meditation.

Like I said, it's hard for someone like you.

I'll be home by 5:00.

: Oh, come on.

Shit.

Oh, fuck.

Ah.

Okay.

Thai food tonight.

I got us Kaeng tai pla.

This place makes their own sauce using fermented fish entrails,

which I know sounds gross, but it gives it a lot of flavor.

And then, Khanom moa gang. They use

taro and duck eggs. That's dessert.

You usually can't find it this way.

I don't think you can open that with a plastic fork.

After I do it,

I'm... just...

I bet most people couldn't...

feel like that.

It's not a normal feeling.

It's more like... dead.

I need to get better.

Isn't that what you... enjoy doing?

Isn't healing people?

I brought you here so we could work together.

I know you hate it, but...

if you're not going to be a part of the process,

where is that gonna leave us?

Successful therapy requires a safe environment.

The patient and the therapist have to be able

to dig into... complicated emotional territory

without anything like fear

hanging over every session.

I don't know what to do about that.

At least I want you...

to make me a promise that while we are in therapy together,

that you will not commit any acts of physical violence

against me or anyone else

unless you talk to me first.

You mean you want me to talk to you before I...?

Yes.

-So you can talk me out of it? -So I can

try to help you...

get out of it.

So together, we can try to understand

where this terrible need is coming from, and to address it.

You have no idea what it's like.

-I understand. -These fucking people...

I work with a lot of people with very serious,

almost impossible-to-resist compulsions.

Making this kind of commitment is key to the process.

-I don't think it's the same. -I'm not saying it's the same.

I'll do my best.

And actually, it was my wife's idea.

Uh, she's known Chava's mother her whole life.

So, if we have anyone to thank, it's the rebbetzin.

Chava can keep up with your son

in-in both the intellectual area and with humor.

Oh.

I'm so sorry.

I should have brought a real knife.

-Oh, no, no. -No.

It's fine.

-I was going to eat that. -This isn't funny.

I'm upset, too, but we need to let him be.