In this week’s session of The Patient, we’re going to dive into Alan Stauss’ conflicted relationship with his son “Ezra.” We’ve learned a lot about him through flashbacks in the FX series so far. He took after his mother as a child and loved music, but grew apart from his parents in college when he became Orthodox. Here are the session notes (aka recap) from this eighth installment of the ten-part series.
Sam Fortner (Domhnall Gleeson) is at his cubicle in the department of health office. His colleague Jeanette (Cassandra Relynn) stops by to complain about how their boss is sending her back to a restaurant that failed their inspection just a little over a week ago. “That’s not right,” Sam tells her. This has been a sticking point of his for a while, he already murdered Elias, a restaurant operator who treated him smugly when he failed the inspection and is still angry at his boss over it. He goes to confront Kyle Donohue (Tim Ransom) about how the waiting period for reinspection is supposed to be 8 months. “Sam, when you have my job you can do my job,” his boss tells him. “But for now, why don’t you worry about doing your own job, which you’re good at, except for how you talk to your boss.” Sam watches his boss as he walks away to refill his coffee mug.
(Suzanne Tenner/FX)
Dr. Alan Strauss (Steve Carell) sits on his bed in Sam’s basement examining his now-empty tube of foot ointment. It came in an aluminum container and he notices how the flat end is already somewhat sharp. He begins to scrape it along the metal bedframe as he enters an imaginary therapy session Charlie (David Alan Grier). “My note is buried somewhere or sunk in a river,” he declares about the message he was hoping would be found with Elias’ body. “I’m not getting out of here. I’m never going home.” Charlie brings up Alan’s son Ezra and an argument they once had over a steak. Alan told his daughter-in-law that she made the “best Kosher steak” he ever had. “Is there some difference in Kosher steaks?”, Charlie asks. “I get it, it could be read as a backhanded compliment,” Alan agrees.
Resolving another past issue, Charlie asks Alan about the financial contribution he made to Ezra’s Yeshiva that upset his son. He talks about how his daughter Shoshana went to medical school to become a psychiatrist like him and he paid her tuition of $40,000 per year. When Ezra graduated college, he chose to go to Orthodox Yeshiva in Israel, never asking for money and paying his way through working and a scholarship. His wife Beth had a conference in Israel while he was there and they made arrangements to meet up with their son. He sent his mother an email about how to dress, which insulted Alan because as a Cantor, his wife was well aware of how to dress as a woman in front of Orthodox men. Alan describes Ezra’s Rebbe as being young and buff like a football player, nothing like he expected. “He tells us that Ezra is a real Bentorah and Ezra’s just beaming like this is the best compliment he ever got.” Alan was asked to make a contribution on the spot and he wrote a check for $1,000, which Ezra called an insulting amount, given how much Alan was giving his daughter for her tuition. Alan asks Charlie to imagine if his own child became a Scientologist and invited him to their center and asked for a donation. Charlie asks Alan to pretend he’s with Ezra and say what he wants to tell him. “Ezra, you broke up our family. You thought you had all the answers. You were so righteous. You humiliated your mother. You devastated her. I want to say you killed her, but I know that’s not true. All your mother wanted, all she asked, was to be able to hold the hands of both her children in her dying moment, and even this you could not do. Your way of looking at the world had to be the only way. Everyone else is wrong.” Alan is on the verge of tears.
We see what Ezra (Andrew Leeds) has been doing on this day. He started by going to his weekday morning prayer group where he read from the Torah aloud in unison wearing tefillin. He then began distributing posters around town announcing his father as missing and asking for any information on his whereabouts. The posters go up on trees, poles, and inside the windows of businesses all over town. As the sun sets, his stapler breaks
(Suzanne Tenner/FX)
Alan revisits a memory we’ve seen before. A family gathering where Beth (Laura Niemi) dishes out ice cream to Shoshana’s kids while Ezra and his children watch since it’s not Kosher. In another session with Charlie, Alan tells his therapist that Shoshana took after him and even became a therapist herself while Ezra took after Beth with his obstinate attitude. Charlie asks him to look at himself a little closer. “Fine, I had all the answers,” Alan admits. “I wrote the books. Rigid, know-it-all Ezra is as much my kid as Beth’s. More. I did look down on him. On his religious choices. I have been blaming him.” Alan has a breakthrouh that Ezra must’ve felt the contempt he had for his son. “What do you want to say to him?”,” Charlie asks again. “I’m sorry, Ezra, I’m sorry,” Alan breaks down. He realizes that he’s shown more compassion to a serial killer than his own sone. “Too bad you’re going to die here,” Charlie admits.
Ezra visits his sister Shoshana (Renata Friedman) to borrow her stapler. She notices how exhausted he looks and he tells her he has one more stack of fliers to hang before he calls it a night. She offers to do it for him and asks him to go home. On his way home, he stops at his Kosher butcher and stares at a few boxes of candy. He returns home to find his wife Chava (Amy Handelman) has already served dinner to their kids, and she dishes him a plate. Ezra sets a shopping bag down and says “Have a treat” to his kids as he pulls out the containers of candy he brought home.
he pulls out containers of candy he bought. His eldest son, Dov (Paxton Booth), gets upset and leaves the table. Ezra goes to quietly comfort his son.
(Suzanne Tenner/FX)
Meanwhile, Sam has followed Kyle after work, watching him through the windows of a club as he plays table tennis with friends. After that, he follows Kyle to a restaurant called Jojo’s. As Kyle exits with his takeout, Sam approaches and acts like it’s purely a coincidence that they bumped into each other. Sam has black gloves on and asks his boss to come take a look at the dumpster behind the Orchard Garden. “You’re not working, are you?”, Kyle asks, pointing out that this isn’t a restaurant he’s assigned to. “No, I just had dinner there,” Sam defends. “C’mon, man. You’ve gotta see this.” Kyle agrees to follow Sam into the alley where they arrive at a clean-looking dumpster. Sam says they must have cleaned it up within the past few minutes. Kyle starts to leave and Sam stops him. “You shouldn’t let restaurants cut the reinspection line,” Sam scowls, asking his boss if he’s been taking bribes. Kyle tells Sam he’s out of line and calls him an idiot for thinking that. Sam acts fast, grabbing Kyle and shoving him against the dumpster, then knocking him to the ground. He climbs on top of Kyle, pinning him down, covering his mouth with one hand as he begins to strangle him. “I didn’t like it when you read that letter out loud,” Sam grunts as he chokes the life out of his boss. Kyle’s body goes still. Sam stands up, breathing heavily as he collects his trophies, Kyle’s watch and wallet. He crouches down next to him and makes an attempt to recite the Kaddish.
Ezra drives to his parent's home listening to Paul Simon’s “You Can Call Me Al.” Entering the home he grew up in, he visits Alan’s office and looks at the chair where he conducted his therapy sessions. In the main entrance hall, he sees his mother’s guitar case and opens it. He sits on the stairs and begins to play and sing John Denver’s “Take Me Home, Country Roads.”
(Suzanne Tenner/FX)
Sam goes to a gas station and eats a hot dog with ketchup and mustard. Getting back in his truck, he calls Mr. Boccella (Michael Dempsey) and tells him he’s bad when asked how he’s doing. “I was thinking about your question and I’d be glad to do it, to be your therapist,” Sam’s former guidance counselor tells him. They agree to begin sessions next Tuesday at 4:30 pm. Mr. Bocella charges $125 per 45-minute session. “That’s a good deal,” Sam tells him.
Chava waits for Ezra on their couch, he sets his keys next to a framed picture of Alan and Beth. He is filled with regret, bringing up how harsh his father was when his mom died. “I was just mad at him. That’s all. And now…” Chava takes his hand in hers as her husband starts to cry.
Sam gets home late and Alan is asleep. He goes to his room, opens his closet, pulls out the white banker boxes, and adds Kyle’s wallet and watch to his collection of objects taken from his victims. In the early morning, Sam wakes Alan up. “Do you play ping pong?” Alan agrees to play with Sam as he pulls out a table from the other side of the basement stairs. Alan routinely stretches the chain that binds his ankle to the floor while they play, but he wins the game 20 to 17.
(Suzanne Tenner/FX)
“There’s something I should tell you,” Sam says as the game ends. “I did it again.” Sam tells Alan that he murdered his boss. “Sam, that’s very soon after the last time. Is that usual?” Sam shakes his head. “It’s getting worse. I want to change. You know I do, Dr. Strauss. Is it possible?” Alan tells him that it’s possible for Sam to change and also possible for his victims to no longer be jerks within five to ten years. “It takes that long to change?”, Sam asks. Alan tells him it can be sooner with therapy. “This isn’t working,” Sam says as he puts the table and paddles away. “These have been the worst 3 days of my life. 2 people in 3 days. I’ve never felt this… I like you, Dr. Strauss, but this is not working.” Sam tells Alan that it was a mistake bringing him here and presents his new dilemma. “I’ve never hurt anyone that I like before. I guess you can’t help me with that. I don’t want to, I really, I do not want to. It’s not the kind of person I am in terms of what I want to do. But if I have to… If there’s just no other way and I have to do it… to you… how would you want me to…” Alan sits on the bed and tells Sam a joke about a French man, an English man, and a Jewish man who were sentenced to death and given the option of choosing how they die. The French man chose the guillotine and the English man chose the firing squad. Sam interrupts before Alan can give the punchline, telling Alan that he is going to start therapy with his high school guidance counselor. Alan continues with his joke, not responding to this news. “And the Jew says old age.” Alan’s eyes are wet as he waits for Sam to laugh. The screen goes dark and we hear Alan’s aluminum ointment tube scraping against the metal bedframe.
That’s all the time we have for this week. Next week, we will dive deeper into Dr. Alan Strauss’ delusions in “Auschwitz,” streaming on October 18th exclusively on Hulu. Here’s the episode description.
Dr. Strauss leaves nothing unsaid. Sam gives it another shot with Mary. An idea sparks for Sam, and everything seems to click together. Written by Joel Fields & Joe Weisberg; Directed by Chris Long.