The Patient season 1 episode 3 recap & review: Issues

In episode 3 of The Patient, Alan meets someone incredibly close to Sam as he continues to work with him and help him control his impulses. The episode is now streaming on Hulu.

Recap

After Alan calls out to whoever he can hear above him, the person walks down and it turns out to be Candace, Sam’s mother. She tells Alan that he has been living with her ever since he split from his wife, Mary.

She also admits that she is a big fan of his and that his book helped her when she was dealing with her husband leaving. She asks Alan to help her son and insists that she cannot turn him in or help Alan escape.

When Sam returns from work, Alan brings up his interaction with Candace. He asks Sam why he initially said that she was dead. Sam said that he didn’t want to reveal that fact because most of the time in therapy they only bring up mothers and his mother must not be blamed for his condition. 

Alan and Sam talk about how Sam felt when his father left and all the times his father beat him and why he beat him. They discuss how his mother helped him get through those times simply by showing some care. 

Alan suggests doing a family session so that he and Sam’s mother can help him get over his urge together. The next morning, Alan sits down with Sam and Candace and talks to them about Sam’s father.

Alan tells Sam that he can use his love for his mother as a reason to control his compulsion. He tells Sam that the next time he thinks of hurting someone, he should stop himself by remembering that he’s trying to protect his mother.

When he’s on his own, Alan remembers his wife’s decision to play a song at their son’s wedding and how many men walked out because women don’t traditionally sing at Jewish weddings.

Sam tells Alan that he visited the manager of the restaurant again. He wanted to see if he could control himself now that he’s working with Alan to get better. He tells Alan that he just watched the man from afar and imagined how he would kill him, from start to finish.

He says that he just wants to teach the man a lesson in manners because of the way he treated him. Alan asks if this was the case with all his other victims. Whether they too behaved in a way that made Sam want to “teach them a lesson” to which Sam replied yes.

When Sam is out at work, Alan calls out to Candace once again but this time she doesn’t come down. Alan thinks back to the time when his wife was suffering from her illness and how sad it was.

That night he is awoken by Sam who comes in with a man all tied up and gagged. Sam puts the man into a side room and locks it right in front of Alan as Alan just watches on in fear.

Review

  • The pacing of the episodes is brisk. They move by quite smoothly and make for an easy viewing experience.
  • The way each episode ends with a cliffhanger is a great form of storytelling that leaves the audience eager for the following episode to come as soon as possible.
  • The score of the series is quite grim and adds some weight to the various scenes of the episode. From their therapy sessions to whenever Sam talks about doing something heinous, the shift in the sound is a major factor.
The Patient season 1 episode 3
The Patient season 1 episode 3 recap & review: Issues 1

Director: Kevin Bray

Date Created: 2022-09-06 10:30

Editor's Rating:
3

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