IN TREATMENT: PLAYING CATCH UP

So, I've become utterly and hopelessly addicted to this HBO show, and rumours of a potential season 2 pickup haunt me. Last time I posted I was elbow deep in week 3, and now I'm just embarking on week 8. A lot has happened!

(MAJOR SPOILERS for up to Monday, March 17's episode.)

Laura/Paul - Way back in week one, Laura confessed to being in love with Paul, a plot that sort of dragged in the first few weeks. Since we left off in week three, though,, Laura has quit therapy, which actually looks pretty good on her; since she quit, she's seemed a lot more mature and relateable. She quit therapy back in week five, and she came back for a one-shot in week six after her father began having health problems. Paul then confessed he "has very deep feelings" toward her, but refused to initiate a sexual relationship like Laura wanted - she has some deep sexual and relationship issues that she needs to get over before she can have a real relationship with any man. there have been some intense revelations regarding the loss of her virginity at 16 and how it left wounds that never really healed. Week six was a turning point in the character, as she's been much more sympathetic since then. She didn't appear in week seven, but she reappeared in week eight for Alex's funeral. For once, stripped of the office and their weighty patient-doctor relationship, we got a chance to see how Paul and Laura would be as friends and potential lovers, and I have to say for the first time in eight weeks, I really felt some chemistry between them. I must confess to feeling complicated about this.

Alex - Since we left off in week 3, some big things happened with Alex. First in week 5 he dug into Paul's life and threw Kate's affair and other tidbits of his life in his face, and Paul lost it. He returned the next week and begun to open up about his past, and about how an incident in his youth with a tougher boy mugging him led to his obsession with becoming 'perfect'. Just as he begun to make some real progress into his issues with his life and his father, he turned his back on Paul and therapy to go back to flying, and it killed him. Paul and Laura attended his funeral in week eight.

Now, this is the penultimate week, and next week we're losing both Monday and Tuesday episodes (as I'm assuming the Laura and Alex stories will be completely closed by then). So, sadly, season one is drawing to a close. Luckily we still have the rest of this week and most of next!

Sophie: Since my last post, Sophie keeps breaking my heart. She confessed that her accident was indeed a suicide attempt, and she tried it again right in Paul's office. (This ties in with the Kate storyline - he's been sleeping in the office, and some of his pills were in the office bathroom.) Paul (and we) got a chance to witness the vicious relationship between Sophie and her mother first hand, as she joined Sophie in therapy and Sophie refused to hold back. Sophie's mother tried to make peace, but she's vulnerable as well after Sophie's suicide attempt, and the two fought in Paul's presence. Paul tried to make Sophie see that her hatred of her mother and her idealism of her father might not be genuine feelings but reactions to her father's affairs and their divorce. Two weeks left, in which Paul has to sort out the complicated emotions Sophie still has.

Jake/Amy: Probably my least favourite thread initially, these two have really drawn me into their story in recent weeks. A few weeks ago, Paul finally forced them to communicate: Amy said she wanted a divorce, and Jake begged her to not leave him. Since, his gentle turn (yes, gentle and polite Jake is a possibility, despite his constant anger and frustration in earlier weeks) has gotten under Amy's skin, and she came to Paul in week seven with a worry that she was on the usp of adultery. The 'old Jake' was revealed to be potentially the product of Amy purposely angering him in order to get him angry at her. Paul got her to see herself in a new light by digging into her relationships with her mother, sister and father, but it wasn't enough to stop her from cheating on Jake - and hating every moment of it. Last week, she came clean, and Jake's relief was a surprise. He pitied her, and the sadness at the core of last week's session was palpable. It ended on a cliffhanger, with Amy mentioning that her mother 'never forgave' her for her father's death, and realising that she still needed to be forgiven or else she would continue to punish herself - and asked Jake if he would forgive her. He didn't answer before that final fade out.

Paul/Kate/Gina: A lot on this front since week three, where we left off. Kate ended her affair, Rosie (their daughter) revealed she knew about it and demanded Paul 'fix it', while revelations about Rosie's lifestyle and her closeness with her mother from Kate left her father feeling stung. These revelations were made in couple's therapy, in fact, which occurred when Kate began joining Paul on Fridays. After the Paul/Gina sessions just left be perturbed, this was a great turn, as it's really dug into the core of these characters and their relationship. Kate learned about Laura, and there's been a lot of back-and-forth as to whether Paul's long-term emotional affair or Kate's short-term physical one was more damaging, and Gina has finally got them to see that both are just symptoms of a bigger cause in their marriage. They've uncovered the dependence Kate had on Paul for much of their relationship in terms of the attention he provided her, and how both have grown out of that phase and pulled apart instead of adapting to their new needs from one another. Both want to save their marriage, but I'm starting to feel they've both given up. It's sad, because recently we've begun to see how good they can be with one another. After rooting for neither in recent weeks and hoping Laura/Paul/Kate could all go their separate ways after season one, I've begun to think that despite the deep, deep issues in both relationships, each would also have some great positives. It's difficult.

So, loving this show to death and afraid of a potential lack of season 2. Anyone who can, try and catch up via the net. C'est excellente.