Episode 7 of the FX psychological drama, “The Patient,” is like a tense slow grapple between positive and negative, as both sides seem to make their way into the narrative. While on one hand, Sam seems to be possibly making some development, Alan’s situation looks bleak after certain revelations. A path towards the end is certainly starting to slowly settle in now, but whether this end will be celebratory or one of sadness is still kept in suspense.
Spoilers Ahead
‘The Patient’ Episode 7 Recap And Ending
Alan has nightmares of himself inside a concentration camp, probably in Auschwitz, as he himself says, along with men reciting the Kaddish. He continues to have his dissociative sessions with his dead therapist, Charlie and tells him of this dream, and then gets humorous about the fact that Charlie expects him to fight this nightmare as well. Alan expresses his thoughts on the fresh escape plan that he had recently plotted, telling Charlie about how he had put a note asking for help inside Elias’ dead body and had then convinced Sam to dump the body at a place where it would easily be found. Alan does seem excited and hopeful about this plan, as he imagines Sam dropping the body in a frequently used alley, then his note being found by the coroner the next day, and finally, a SWAT team shattering through the glass doors of Sam’s house to rescue him. In this imagination, too, Alan hurts Sam with a porcelain pitcher, stabs him with a piece, and then the police shoot Sam’s head off. Despite all his apparent good nature and understanding personality, there is an obvious underlying desire to lash out and attack his captor. The psychotherapist is also aware of the negative implications that his plan could have, and he tells Charlie what might happen if Sam somehow finds the hidden note. In the imaginary vision, an infuriated Sam enters the house and shows Alan the note before shoving a knife down his throat and killing him. It is true that Alan thinks of both sides and possibilities, but it also seems like the man is actually hopeful of his rescue, as he imagines the police hastily arriving at the house to save him multiple times throughout “The Patient” Episode 7. When Sam returns home that night, he finds Alan standing and trying to recite the Kaddish, but Alan admits to having forgotten the words. Sam says that he wants to have a session right away, but with defiance not seen before, Alan tells him straight away that he is too tired to talk and lays down on his bed.
“The Patient” Episode 7 also gives a substantial look at Sam as he has a change of thoughts after the incidents of the last episode, and Alan’s words probably have an effect on him. When he asks Alan to sit down for a session, certain thoughts clearly bother Sam, and when the psychotherapist turns him down, the young man turns to other sides for help. The next morning, Sam goes to his old high school and meets with the counselor there, implying that he was in need of help. He asks the counselor whether he can visit him for advice on his mental health, and the man agrees to it and gives Sam his number, asking him to contact him in a few days. Although this indicates a death knell for Alan, Sam looks to be genuine in seeking out help, and he contemplates his own self as well. He calls up Mary and asks whether she had found anything wrong or unnatural in him, just like he asks the counselor whether he ever felt that Sam would turn out like this after high school. Mary tells him that there clearly were a number of upsetting things about him, which was why she had divorced him, but she also admits that there was nothing she felt that made him a terrible person in her eyes. The young man then walks up to the side of a bridge over a river, and it seems that he even thinks of jumping in and punishing himself. This scene does indicate that Sam may possibly start to understand the terrible gravity of his actions and the effect of the killings on his victims’ families, but it also ends with him walking away.
Sam returns home with a printer and tells Alan that he would like to print out the entire Kaddish and stick it on the wall to help Alan recite his religious prayer. As the young man follows up on his words, Alan appreciates this decision, and he tells Sam that this is most definitely the empathy in action that Alan had earlier asked Sam to develop. With this conversation about empathy, Sam now reveals a horrible truth—that he has not dumped Elias’ body somewhere easy to find. He says that while driving to the location he had thought of with the body in his car, a truck driver had suspiciously looked at him and the body. This spooked Sam, as he felt that if Elias’ body was indeed found the next day, then the truck driver would remember him, and Sam would get into trouble. He had therefore hidden the body somewhere it would never be found, and with this, Alan’s hopes of escape also burn out quickly. Disheartened and stumbled by this revelation, Alan recites the Kaddish by reading from the printed paper, and Sam hears him from behind the closed door of his room.
How Did Alan’s Conversations With Charlie Bring Out More About His Own Relationships?
Although Alan did have his dissociative chat with Charlie in the previous episode as well, this time around, in Episode 7, the conversation also largely includes Alan’s family. In what is technically his own therapy of himself, Alan reveals more about the time when Ezra had converted to Orthodox Judaism and told his parents that he did not feel their relationship with religion was sincere enough. While Alan seemed to not mind this as much, Beth, who had been an active member of synagogues, took it harder and, from this point on, developed a barrier between herself and her son. What seems sadder is the fact that this difference of religious opinion did spill out into other facets of life as well, as Ezra would let his two sons visit their grandparents’ house but would not himself visit. Even when Alan and Beth would go over to his house, Ezra always behaved better with his in-laws, who were of similar faith, while sort of avoiding or somewhat looking down upon his own parents. There had been unwanted drama during Beth’s death as well, as the woman suffering from terminal cancer had wanted to put an end to her pains amidst close and dear ones. In an effort to do so, Alan had arranged for pills that Beth would take as a form of euthanasia, but Ezra did not approve of this. He had an argument with his father right there, saying that it was not only unreligious but also illegal, and during Beth’s final moments, he was not with her either. While saying all of this, Alan realizes that both he and his son were hurting to accept the fate of Beth, and the disagreement was perhaps spurred by that, but Ezra’s words did seem threatening to him. Although it might not be what the show exactly wants, I also could not help but feel a slight charge of Alan himself being extremely biased and complaining about his son’s choices. After all, Ezra just wanted to live his life by his choices, and it might be possible that he would not have reacted so harshly had his parents supported him more. Alan admits to Charlie that there was very little that he had in life to keep living since the death of his wife and his son’s conversion to Orthodox Judaism, but Charlie still eggs him on to fight for survival. Alan’s own relationship with religion seems complex, as he gradually grows closer to the matter as days go by in his captive state, and whether the man was equally religious before the kidnapping is somewhat arguable. In the end, when he realizes that his plan of escape has failed to work, Alan once again turns to religion for comfort. Either that or he prepares himself for impending death.
What To Expect Next From ‘The Patient’ Episode 8?
Alan’s situation now really looks unfavorable since Elias’ body has not been dumped in the open and also since Sam has started to look for a new therapist. Although Sam is showing signs of improvement and empathy, a constant factor in “The Patient” has been the fact that Sam’s character can change at any moment with any slight change of thought, and he is capable of causing fatal harm to anyone. Whether he would ultimately do so to Alan needs to be seen. Whether Alan would put up a fight against it also needs to be thought of since his imaginary sessions with Charlie might account for something. As the show now makes its way toward the end, whether Alan survives this horrific kidnapping or not will become the main contention, of course.
