The Patient Episode 8 is out now! Created by Joel Fields and Joe Weisberg for FX on Hulu, the executive producers for the series are Joel Fields, Joe Weisberg, Steve Carell, Caroline Moore, Victor Hsu and Chris Long. The production companies for the series include Joel Fields Productions, Flim Flam and FXP.
The main cast features Steve Carell as Alan Strauss, a therapist and Domhnall Gleeson as Sam Fortner, a serial killer and the new patient of our therapist in question. Actors Linda Emond plays Candace Fortner along with Laura Niemi as Beth Strauss, Andrew Leeds as Ezra Strauss and David Alan Grier as Charlie Addison. Alex Rich is also part of the cast. The eighth episode of The Patient has a runtime of approximately 30 minutes.
– FX’s The Patient Episode 8 Review Does Not Contain Any Spoilers –
The Patient Episode 8: Ezra
I could be wrong or in sync with the public opinion but, The Patient Episode 8 is by far the most interesting and emotionally engaging one in the entire limited series. It could be the title that hints that we might finally get to understand Alan’s son or the sheer anticipation to know where Sam and Alan’s relationship is heading after the former have appointed himself a new psychologist but, whatever that expectation was, the eighth episode truly lived up to it and more.
In The Patient Episode 8, we see Sam hunt down his next victim. This time, inevitably, it is his boss. I feel like the boss’s execution in Sam’s life should have come way before because authority figures are usually traumatizing, given the entire concept of displacement takes place but, here, we are soon enough.
Meanwhile, Alan is submerged in his imaginary sessions with Charlie as he plans a subconscious escape from Sam’s prison by sharpening his empty foot cream tube. But, there is more to this episode than Alan, Sam and their shared dynamic. For the first time, we get to see how Alan’s family is reacting to him missing, essentially his orthodox son, Ezra. The way Ezra has been described by Alan so far in the show is almost cruel when you really look at the therapist’s son in this episode.
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As Alan is missing, Ezra is frantically putting up posters for his missing father in the gloom. We see his son crying for his grandfather and, Ezra looks so melancholy and helpless, not knowing how exactly to deal with the situation of a lost parent. In Alan’s conversations with Charlie, we learn more about Ezra and the better we get to know the son, the more intricately the viewers as well as Alan analyze if what they have perceived of Ezra is actually true or if have they been too stringent. Maybe, living with a serial killer is what you need to bring change in perspective, at times.
The Patient Episode 8 delivers some truly amazing performances, especially from Steve Carell and Andrew Leeds (the actor who plays Ezra). It is a shame that we have not seen more of Leeds taking over the screen to charm us with his brilliance. From singing the John Denver song that has become a thing in this show to missing his father through his eyes more than any dialogue, Leeds has done an amazing job.
Steve Carell, on the other hand, is offering us a performance of a lifetime. It has been hard not to associate Carell with his legendary Michael Scott or any role that is not funny but, as The Patient rolls one episode after the other, Carell’s performance pulls us to believe how successfully he can adapt to any kind of role.
The Patient Episode 8: Final Thoughts
Overall, The Patient Episode 8 is the one that has truly lifted up the series and given it some dynamic and direction after the last two to three monotonous episodes. What the makers want us to feel about Sam is still so confusing because, we would like to sympathize with his situation but, it is so hard to offer him any empathy putting us on split ends. The ending of this episode is again a banger making us look forward to what will the eventual outcome be in this therapist-client situation.
You can watch The Patient Episode 8 now streaming on Hulu. To read our review for the rest of the episodes, click here.
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