The line between Paul Weston's personal life and his professional life has always been, at best, blurry. Back in Season 1 he experienced far more honesty and intimacy in his office than in the rest of his house, whether in the form of a passionate love for Laura he had long lost for his wife, or in his care for Sophie he had a hard time extending to his own children. Now that he's alone, Paul seems less inclined to even try to keep his private emotions cordoned off from patient care. A few weeks ago, Gina told Paul that his decision to become a therapist came from his deep, lifelong sense of empathy. That ability (or need) to reach out is at once his greatest strength and greatest liability as a clinical psychologist.

If any of you thought that Mia's bombshell two weeks ago was just too big and too convenient, you were right. After a lot of deconstruction, Paul gets Mia to admit that her pregnancy was a fabrication, or maybe just a fantasy. She tries to tell him that she miscarried, but Paul doesn't really buy it. With the degree of her desperation now plain to her, Mia is ready to confront her unrealistic memories of her parents. Just like Sophie last season, Mia has constructed an elaborate fantasy of a perfect relationship with her father to cover up the fact that it has been, at best, troubled. Also like Sophie, Mia compensates for the deification of her father through a vilification of her mother. With only one week left in this season, it's not likely she'll progress much in the necessary recalibration, but it's a start.

Paul has been breaking boundaries all season long, perhaps more so with April than with anyone. After a fever lands April in the hospital, Paul takes the opportunity to tell April's mother about her cancer. Naturally, April is pretty pissed about this, at least as much as she's pissed about everything else in her life. Underneath April's anger and aloofness, there has always been a deep and obvious fear. The greater her fear, the more pronounced her anger. We learn that next week she will find out if her chemotherapy has been effective, essentially if she will live or die. In the above terms, April is now incredibly angry.

Luke, Bess and Oliver are a terrible mess. The difference between them and the rest of Paul's patients is that they really don't need to be. Luke and Bess are so wrong-headed and selfish that they end up making things worse for Oliver every single week. Bess has decided to take a job at Bard College, a position that will take her too far away from New York City to allow Oliver to maintain the little stability left in his life. As for Luke, he finally finds the limit to his willingness to give of himself for his son. As we've seen previously, Luke can be super-dad for a couple days a week. Extend the responsibility to a week or more and he starts to fall apart. Faced with a complete lifestyle change, Luke refuses. In desperation, Oliver begs Paul to adopt him. I can't decide which is more sad; Oliver asking, or Paul wanting to say "yes" even though he knows he can't.

From his very first episode, I knew they wouldn't waste John Mahoney on a totally reserved character. Walter's defenses have been breaking down since he first stepped into Paul's office. At the end of his session today, Walter finally let it all go. A lifetime of bearing the responsibility of one tragedy after another, a loss of family intimacy and a suicide attempt has brought Walter to a breaking point. Reduced to a little boy in an old man's body, Walter sobs on Paul's leg, embracing all the agony and mourning he never let himself claim over the course of his entire life. Of all Paul's patients, Walter has the best chance of seeing some recovery by the end of next week's finale.

As for Paul himself, his session with Gina shows just how far he himself has to go before he can even begin to heal. And just like his approach to his own patients is often unprofessional, the amount of history he has with Gina makes his sessions with her stickier than they would be with another therapist. The problem, of course, is that Paul needs someone like Gina who already knows him so well. In all his pain and anger, Paul pushes Gina into her own less-than-practical mode. It's always great to see Paul animated and lashing out after a week's worth of episodes of his calm helpfulness.

Week Rating: 5/5- Just excellent television. If Gabriel Byrne agrees to the admittedly massive task of taking on a third season, I can only hope that the show continues its upward trajectory. Season 2 has been better than Season 1 by leaps and bounds, and that's coming from someone who loved Season 1 more than most of what was on TV last year.