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In Treatment: Sophie – Week Nine

By fred | March 27, 2008

(S01E41) There hasn’t been any new episodes of In Treatment so far this week, but it changed last night with the first new one, and the first of the last week. This Friday will be the season finale, but with this show being so unlike anything else, we actually have a bunch a finale, one for each session, we already had two (Alex and Laura – right?) and last night was the finale for Sophie’s sessions.

Needless to say I was pretty excited about it, because those sessions have been my favorite and are, I think, the best ones. I also believe that Sophie was the best of all of Paul’s patients, just like he himself was at his best with her. Going even further with that let’s mention again the young Mia Wasikowska, who’s been nothing but impressive throughout the entire run and was the breakthrough of this show.

It’s not that other actors weren’t good, far from it, the casting on this show has been really great, but she was really amazing and, unlike others, we – or at least I – hadn’t seen her before.

And given how this was the last session for Sophie, and after all her work so far in therapy, it only made sense that her father would just show up and come back to her life like he did. I guess I should have seen that coming. His father was about the way I imagined he would be, which mainly means he’s a self-centered asshole. Did you see him getting excited and curious to find out what she was saying about him “in there”, and later accusing Paul to brainwash Sophie, nothing less, because she wasn’t in admiration in front of him.

So his father showed up, but Sophie didn’t react as she would have a few weeks ago, before her therapy. And it pissed him off, of course, so he wanted to join in and invade her privacy, her therapy. It was obvious that Sophie did not want that to happen, but that at the same time she was still too “scared” to admit it and face her father. And again, as always with her, Paul did the right thing and refused to let him in, choosed to side with and support Sophie, not let her father took over.

That was really good of him, and her first reaction, defending his father despite obviously not actually wanting him there, was indeed a good reflection of the way she had been treating her mother all this time. But Paul and Sophie have been working together for some time now, and it wasn’t hard for him to make her see that. And things were fine, they were back to the usual, when the dad came back.

This time, Sophie was willing to let him in, and talk to him. And I have to say, I really hated him even more when he started to read his little list. I mean, really, what was he trying to do here ? To “blame” her, to make her feel bad because, listen to this, he actually took care of her. Wow, he drove her to school, give him the award for father of the year ! And those pathetic “I couldn’t eat, I couldn’t sleep” were incredibly annoying, to say the least. They were complete lies and lame attempts to “show” that he cared.. Jesus I wanted to punch him in the face each time.

But Sophie was finally ready to fight back, she wasn’t going to let her father just show up and be the center of the world again, to dictate everything only to disappear without notice a few days later. Thanks to her therapy she has grown, she was able to stand up for herself, and tell her father that he didn’t do the right thing, that he didn’t care, that he did chose another woman over his own daughter, who needed him.

Two and a half years felt like an eternity for Sophie, especially as that age, and a couple of phone calls were nothing like having her father around. But he couldn’t see that, and he was sure to know everything about her. And trying to pull the “grown-up stuff” card was pretty stupid, and a very good illustration of how much he did not know Sophie, because she is a very bright and smart girl, one who has had to deal with “grown-up stuff” for quite some time now. One would say, ever since he forced her to, by asking her to lie for him and keep secrets from her mom.

But Sophie was strong enough now, and she didn’t let him go away with it, not this time. And when she told him that Paul knew more about her than he did, knew her more than he did, and when she revealed that it was no accident but that she actually try to kill herself, maybe then her father finally started to realize how wrong he was, how much he had hurt his daughter, how she suffered from this, and how her therapy had really been helpful.

Although to be honest, I don’t think he will change much after that. He won’t suddenly grow up, and stop blaming Sophie’s mom or her therapist as soon as things doesn’t go as he wants to, but he will hopefully change, even a little, and now Sophie is stronger and can face him. That she was able to throw him out of her therapy, to put herself first, to put what she wanted, what she needed, before her father, was pretty amazing.

She’s much better now, she doesn’t want to hurt herself, and she even decided to stop therapy and go away, to be on her own, alone, for some time. Needless to say I’ll miss her, because if in her first days she wasn’t always the sweetest kid, she’s now really change, and after waving at him, and blowing him a kiss, this time as she left Sophie hugged Paul, and it was a very sweet and emotional moment right there.

I’m really happy that she made it out of her therapy fine, and if Paul has been a shitty therapist with many of his patients I believe, with her he was really good. Maybe he should really consider only treating kids, because he’s obviously more at ease with them than with adults. (That is, when he’s not part of the problem, of course.)

Farewell, young fart!

Posted in Reviews
Shows: In Treatment