In Treatment, week two: Jake & Amy

For the first time since "In Treatment" began, I'm going to share some of my own thoughts on an episode, and anyone who watched tonight will understand why. (And if you skipped tonight, you really need to catch up with this one, ASAP. Trust me. You don't want to see this week's Paul/Gina session without it.) Spoilers coming up just as soon as I find some club soda and table salt...

See what I mean? Both about the show really being about Paul and how watching every episode is essential? Here's an episode where the therapy session was over less than 10 minutes in, and yet it was the most riveting installment yet, and the one with the biggest development in Paul's life so far.

I can only imagine someone who's decided to only tune in for, say, Laura and Alex and then Gina putting on tomorrow night's episode and being dumbsquizzled by the major piece of news Paul's going to lay on Gina about his marriage.

And, frankly, I would say having seen last night's Sophie episode was just as essential to understanding this one as seeing this one will be to everything that follows. We can tell already that Paul is in trouble, that maybe he's not the best guy or the best therapist right now, but if we had Kate's infidelity dumped on us without those moments last night where we see her being so warm and maternal with Sophie, I can imagine it being much easier to take Paul's side. But when she lays into him about being an absentee husband and father, I'm inclined to believe her, you know? Not that it excuses cheating (you're either in a marriage or you're not), but I appreciate why she felt the need, you know? Hearing Kate describe how distant Paul's become with the kids, I have no problem thinking that he has a tighter bond with Sophie after two sessions than he does with his own teenage daughter at the moment.

Great work by Michelle Forbes and by Gabriel Byrne, who knows how to really turn on the brogue to show just how angry Paul was by this news.

As for the briefly-seen Jake and Amy, it's definitely a contrivance that she would miscarry at the exact moment she had made peace with having the baby and decided to make things work with Jake. But I also don't think all of their problems were solved. Miscarriage or no, they would have been back on Paul's couch within a few weeks.

What did everybody else think?