Name: The Patient season 1 episode 5
Director: Kevin Bray
Released: 2022-09-20T09:30:00

Episode 5 of The Patient sees Sam visit a significant person from his past and Alan explores Sam’s need to kill Elias on a much deeper level. The episode is now streaming on Hulu.

Recap

Sam drives to his ex-wife’s house as Alan suggested, playing his favourite music on the way to calm himself. He shows up at her doorstep and tells her that he’s in therapy and his therapist said that he should go meet her.

He asks her about the young girl in Bangladesh that they had adopted together and she tells him how she’s doing. She also adds that she has adopted another girl from the same area and that she’s not allowed to tell them about her divorce or anything sad in their lives.

She asks him if he’s gone to any Kenny Chesney concerts recently and he replies that he’s gone to two in the past year. He says that the Chicago concert was really great.

They’re not really sure what to talk about and his ex-wife brings up that he never took back his La-Z-Boy and asks him if he still wants it. They load it up on his truck and he leaves.

Elias asks Alan to have a session with him present so that the two of them can overpower Sam and go out swinging since he isn’t too confident about getting out of this situation alive.

Alan tells Elias that he’s certain that he might get away and gives him a message for his daughter and son, talking about how much he loves them and apologising to his son for the problems that arose between him and his mother.

He goes into more detail about how his son became an orthodox Jew and how difficult it made their lives because of the strict rules they had to follow.

Sam returns with the easy chair and places it in front of the bed and sits down. He tells Alan that talking to his ex-wife didn’t accomplish what he wanted it to and he rushes into the room to kill Elias but Alan calls Candace who stops Sam and tells him to go to his room.

Sam tries his level best to keep himself distracted, he goes to a chatroom for Kenny Chesney fans, watches some porn, and listens to some music, but none of it helps.

Alan thinks back to when his son and daughter were still children and things were great in the family. Sam comes out of his room and he sits down with Alan for a session.

Alan concludes that Sam simply looks for a reason to punish the people that he targets because his father never gave him a chance to think before punishing him. He says that those people don’t actually do anything wrong but he finds something nonetheless.

He suggests bringing Elias out so that Sam can get to know him better as a person and maybe that will change his mind and Sam agrees. Alan asks Elias to talk about himself and his ideas at the restaurant in the hopes that he and Sam might find some commonality.

Sam gets more and more agitated and eventually can’t take it anymore so he pounces on Elias and chokes the life out of him as Alan screams out in fear. He calls for Candace but this time she doesn’t come down, she just lays in her bed in terror.

Sam kills Alan and then goes back to his room where he pulls out the box with the belongings of all his victims. He just focuses on them with a lost look as Alan processes what just happened in front of him.

Review

The background score of The Patient adds an extra layer of intensity to each and every episode. The thrill that permeates from simply watching Sam and Alan talk is possible because of the accompanying sound.
The concept is considerably unique and requires a specific pace and tone which means that the series may not be for everyone. The majority of the series is just people talking and doesn’t result in engaging content across the board.
Steve Carell and Domhnall Gleeson and scintillating in their performances and this episode continue that trend as Gleeson gets closer and closer to the brink and Carell comes to term with his situation and begins to doubt if he could have influenced it towards a better conclusion.