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I think I hit a nerve when I forked myself. -Vivian
There’s a lesson to be learned at McNamara/Troy this week, that the damage we do to ourselves leaves scars so deep that they can’t just be covered up or wished away. It’s a lesson that some learn better than others and that and unfortunate few don’t learn at all.
Enigma is the preferred identity of Sean and Christian’s patient this week, a death-obsessed young man who has carved satanic symbols into his skin and tattooed the entire back of his head with a grinning skull. Of course, his parents are less than thrilled and have brought him to McNamara/Troy under threat of military school if he doesn’t have these defacements removed. It doesn’t take a professional psychiatrist to know that this isn’t going to solve the problem.
Christian gets the lightest story of the week, getting back in touch with former girlfriend and pornstar Kimber. He’s hoping that he can leverage his natural endowment into some quick money in the adult entertainment industry including sexting sites as https://paradiseteenz.com, and serving as the model for her new line of sex toys. When Kimber decides to go with the apparently even more gifted Dr. Mike (whose difficulty using urinals is good for a quick laugh), his ego takes the hit. What he doesn’t get, but Liz and Kimber both point out, is the simple, sad irony in this serial user being so deftly used.
Sean takes more physical damage, as his insomnia pushes him towards more pills. After Christian cuts him off from using the practice as his own drugstore, he heads out to a late night diner where he falls in with Vivian, a raccoon-eyed redhead who gets off on suffering and stabs herself with a kitchen utensil in order to score some Oxycontin from the hospital E.R. It’s been pretty well-established through the show that since he split from Julia, Sean’s been an idiot when it comes to women. It’s not until Vivian stabs him in a bid for more Oxy that he finally clues into what a bad road he’s on. I’m grateful that the show isn’t dragging out a pill-addiction arc for him, but the man’s got to stop hooking up with psychotic women. Speaking of, shortly after breaking up with him, Teddy found evidence of his large life-insurance policy, immediately after which she professed her deep love for him to Liz. Given her history (it’s been strongly implied that she married and murdered a man for exactly this benefit), Sean’s in deep, deep trouble.
Once again, it’s Liz who provides the only sane voice on this show. In the final moments of the show, as Christian watches a news report on how the boy formerly known as Enigma killed his parents and himself, she comes by to let him know she’s dropping the divorce lawsuit. Anger, she reasons, is just too damaging to hold on to that hard for that long, and the only changes that are going to put it to rest are internal.
