Domhnall Gleeson discusses the finale of The Patient
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 ( Read more... )
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 thought Ezra was going to confess to becoming a serial killer to the therapist in some allegory of inter generational trauma lol, like some heavy-handed political statement but luckily they didn’t.
And I don’t think the Mom didn’t move on, by taking the key she accepted that her responsibility to protect Sam meant she also had to protect other people from him. She took ownership over her part in his monsterhood, she’s stepping up in a way she’s failed to before and become his active jail or rather than passive witness.
For Sam, killing Alan was like killing his father in a way. He couldn’t do it to his own Dad, so he understood in an academic sense now how Alan’s kids might have felt about him. But then by killing Alan, he actually failed that important step to recovery and saw himself become his own father and the thing he hated. By locking himself up, he’s trying to physically become more like the father he wanted - Alan. It’s very Freudian. It’s also not an acknowledgement of guilt or wrong doing, he’s still inhabiting someone else, but most serial killers and narcissists lack that empathy and sense of identity. So for him, it’s the closest thing he’ll get.
Oh god sorry for the essay. I’m trying to pinpoint why this series didn’t work for me when on an intellectual level it kind of does. It lacked…heart, I think, at moments and tried too much to intellectualise. Maybe COVID interfered with some of it too.
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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.
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