Domhnall Gleeson discusses the finale of The Patient

[poisonapple73]

Domhnall Gleeson walked me through the twists and turns of The Patient (including the Kenny Chesney of it all; iykyk) for @VanityFair https://t.co/qmCmhlbHnh
- Matt Jacobs (@majacobs) October 25, 2022

[Finale discussion + another interview with the creators]- Domhnall thinks that regardless of Sam's plans, at this point he will fall under suspicion since people connected in his life were victims (and

Comments

[matsaurus]

I guess I just didn't buy that after everything in the show that's how it would end like it just seemed like everyone gave up to me at least the three main characters.

[Spoiler (click to open)]Like why would the therapist completely give up on giving Elias' family justice or literally anyone else that Sam had hurt? The mom just accepts she is a bad mom and moves on minutes later? Sam just decides now after killing the one person who gave up his family for him that NOW he is going to "stop"?

[curdlesnoots]

It wasn’t wholly satisfying for me either and there were a lot of reasons why but I think it showed how in those situations, you do whatever you have to do to survive and how trauma breaks down who you are and the things you believe in and stand for.

Sam’s trauma meant he never grew up, he never formed into a full human being. While Alan’s focus got smaller and smaller, in the final episodes we saw he stopped meditating, stopped eating, stopped sleeping, stopped everything. Until there were only two things remaining, his love for his children and his desire to live and get back to them.

But then right at the end, we see that while he betrayed his beliefs and hurt Candace, he also couldn’t go through with killing her. That’s what separates him - and any other person who’s been in that situation - from Sam. It’s also what separated millions of Jewish people from the Nazis; they were stripped of everything but still carried their love and culture and principles with them even into death.

There was a moment at the end where I seriously

[matsaurus]

[Spoiler (click to open)]Your breakdown of it definitely makes sense, for me I just thought the empathy the mom showed the therapist, and the empathy the therapist showed Elias seemed to simply vanish. Like I just wanted one person to step up and be a fighter for good and in the end they all just simply decided to blame their problems on something else and accept the consequences. They all in a domino effect kind of way enabled the other like I actually left the episode not feeling bad for any of the three of them, and maybe that's what they wanted to be achieved? Idk I don't like a lose-lose-lose ending in this instance because it basically makes the entire show irrelevant other than the therapist sending a nice note to his kids.

[curdlesnoots]

Yeah you’re right, it was very life is entropy, you’re a cog in a machine, change is hard, the next generation might do better. That it’s by the guys behind The Americans makes total sense lol.

I think it could’ve said more about toxic masculinity and entitlement etc. I felt like it was going there with the Ezra storyline and orthodoxy then chickened out.

TBH I watched this purely because of Domnhall and John Fowles’ The Collector to see what they’d do and he did it a lot better sixty odd years ago.

[matsaurus]

I watched it as well for the cast (I don't know The Collector) but that was my main take away was that the cast did a great job. It was well acted, I just didn't like the final 30 minutes of the series, but up to that point the whole thing was very compelling and great!

[uhnothanks]

I also think that, like he mentioned in the previous episode, Sam's never killed someone he liked before. He always thought the other people deserved it. So I think that could play into why he took it as a sign that he needed to lock himself up.