In Treatment: Sophie – Week Six
By fred | March 6, 2008
(S01E28) So yesterday was a little disappointing, but today should be much different, because today was Wednesday’s session, and Wednesday is the day Sophie comes over. As I’ve said in the past, I do believe that those sessions are the best ones of the whole week. It’s not one single thing that sets them apart, but a combination of many things that are all really enjoyable.
First off, before anything else, you got Sophie. She’s a pretty great character, there’s no doubt about it, and she is also brilliantly portrayed by Mia Wasikowska. Another pretty good thing is that if I haven’t hidden the fact that I think Paul is a real jerk, somewhat of an asshole at times, and looks like a bad therapist quite often, at least on Wednesday he’s a completely different therapist.
Maybe it’s because he’s dealing with a kid, and he’s more comfortable that way, but those times he does looks and sounds much more like a therapist, and a good one at that. Those sessions are usually of the best, and I have to admit that this one was no exception. Sophie is really a great, funny, interesting, smart girl. I don’t think Paul has any patient that even comes close to her, I mean yesterday we had Alex and his dreams and his gay interpretation of things, and quite frankly it didn’t do nothing for me.
Sophie on the other hand is quite fascinating. And also has her own way of doing things. She orders a pizza and have it delivered to Paul’s office, which means having Paul to pay for it, without asking him, or mentioning it later on or anything. Just like by the end of the episode, after she deliberately broke one of his boat by smashing it to the ground, she won’t even apologize.
And she still has this way to work during a session, when it will start with a pretty happy, joyful and smiling Sophie, making jokes and asking Paul about his life and his feelings, she’s coaching him, she’s in charge and having a good time, once again she’s switching side (though not literally this time) and running things. Everything is fine until something goes wrong, a word is mentioned, a memory is triggered, and then she completely changes.
In less than a second she completely closes up, she turns into a completely different person, no more smile, no more jokes, she’s angry now. This isn’t the first time we’ve seen this, it’s pretty much a constant with her, but it’s probably also the way her therapy works. At first of course nothing is going on and they chit-chat a little. Then, it’s time for more serious topics and things do get darker, it’s harder to go there and she reacts to her pain.
And of course, it revolves around her father. It was more than obvious especially after last week, that Sophie idealizes her father, but actually has problem with him and their relationship, or lack of one. It’s definitely a subject she doesn’t like to talk about, but there are other dark places Sophie doesn’t want to venture in, although they might be linked to her father as well.
I gotta say I just loved it when Paul asked her to finish her thought at some point, and she just cut him off with a “no” that really didn’t let any way for Paul to do or say anything. But as he later told her, Sophie did choose the topic of conversation, and more specifically her father. Always, one way or another, she kept bringing him up, directly or not. She’s got real issues there, and I think that despite her whole “act” of getting pissed at Paul and threatening to leave, but nor before destroying one of his boats, despite her saying that she wouldn’t forgive him, that really wanted him to go there.
Maybe she doesn’t realize it right now, but she does, she needs to. And as I said before, on Wednesday Paul is actually a good therapist, so he knew that her father was to be talked about, he even had prepared for it, with the book. The book Sophie mentioned way back during her first time here, the book from her father. As I said Sophie got really pissed about the whole thing, but the truth is that she wanted the discussion to go there. Maybe she isn’t fully aware of that, but deep down she knows.
That’s why she didn’t actually leave, she didn’t really wanted to. It’s not that it was an act, it’s that it is painful to go there, and she is scared, because talking about him, her father, about who he really is, means that the perfect picture of him she likes to keep in her mind will have to go away, and the ugly truth will have to take over.
But the perfect illustration that Sophie really knows that this had to be done is that she didn’t leave, not while it was her anger talking, and when she really left, she waved goodbye. That was pretty funny, and illustrates pretty well how she works.
Those sessions truly are the most interesting ones, they’re deep, funny, tough, but always perfectly done in every way, writing or acting, and I think that should this show have been the usual one episode a week thing, if you want to only invest half an hour per week on it, go with Wednesdays. Those are the very best, there’s absolutely no question there. I can’t wait for the next one!
Posted in Reviews
Shows: In Treatment
