Bobby Goren’s Therapy Sessions

Okay, we’re going to recap Bobby Goren’s course of treatment so far in this alleged last season of Law & Order: Criminal Intent before we find out later about all the anger under the anger that our big bear of a major case detective is carrying around.

In the first episode of Season 10, “Rispetto,” there was no therapy at all. There was no mention made of it until Episode 2. In  “The Consoler,” we learned that Bobby Goren had a therapy session scheduled, but he cancelled it and the new captain, Joseph Hannah, was mad about it. Hannah stuck his neck out to get Goren his job back and tells the ungrateful detective the sessions are mandatory if he wants to keep that job.

Goren later goes to see Dr. Paula Geisen and crosses swords with her over his trust issues. The doctor wants to know why Goren is afraid to look inside himself. Therapy sessions are supposed to last like an hour but that’s all we got to see of that one.

Since he comes back in Episode 3, “Boots on the Ground,” and says he’s thought the self-examination question over, all we were seeing the last time was the very end of the session. Goren tells Geisin that he’s like an old car that has a build-up of gunk in it. If he cleans it all out, he doesn’t think he’s going to be able to function anymore because that’s what happens when people give old cars a thorough cleaning. Dr. Geisen wonders why he compares himself to an emotionless machine. Goren reveals his mother’s schizophrenia and how he betrayed his mother by using her illness to get a confession out of Nicole Wallace. We should say “tried.” We don’t remember Nicole confessing to anything.

In “Last Street in Manhattan,” Goren brings his current case into the session, complaining about how the father uses his daughter and doesn’t really care about her. He reveals his own father’s similar treachery in using little Bobby to cover up an extramarital affair. Goren more or less says that was when he learned what a bunch of liars adults are, and that assumption has made him an effective detective. But Geisen wants him to see how it has not served him well in his personal life.

In “Trophy Wine,” Dr. Geisin is now Dr. Gyson (the office sign makers must have made a mistake before). The doctor wants to delve into the Goren and Eames dynamic. Goren has a lot of trust in Eames but when Gyson asks if he loves his partner, he says she is like a sister to him, in a “methinks he doth protest too much” kind of way. Goren says that he hasn’t been looking to get involved with anyone because he’s been dealing with a lot of losses, like his brother Frank, and his mom, and we would guess, his job for a while there. Dr. Gyson thinks he’s lonely.

During his 5th session with Gyson, in “Cadaver,” Goren again has given a lot of thought to their last discussion and is wondering if he can have a home and a relationship. Every time he comes back to therapy, they’re working on that last thought. It makes you wonder what they were working on the whole rest of the hour that we don’t get to see. But, anyway, Goren is aggravated that he can’t get a straight answer out of Gyson. He wants her personal opinion, as someone he respects, if she thinks he can have a stable relationship. This is where she should have said what she thinks isn’t important, it’s what he thinks. But she says he can if he works on it. Somehow Goren gets it into his mind that the doctor thinks he wants to put the moves on her, and gets very angry. He indicates he’s bailing on the therapy and if the higher ups don’t like it, they can have his badge.

So there we have it: the results of 5 therapy sessions with uncooperative subject Bobby Goren. He’s like those kids who hate to go to church on Sunday. It’s only an hour a week but they just can’t focus enough to make it a learning experience. Well, he’s actually worse than that. He’s even worse than an addict who has to go to a court-ordered substance abuse program. A lot of addicts stick that out and get their papers signed.  So we think someone with Goren’s superior mind and extraordinary skills could have managed to get through these sessions by just yesing the doctor to death. He knew he was only going because he had to.

Whatever.  Goren better make some headway tonight in “Icarus.”  We don’t care if he makes the headway with Dr. Gyson or Det. Alexandra Eames. Can’t he just kiss somebody for once? And not on the cheek.

UPDATE: The “Icarus” session

In “Icarus,” Goren tells Dr. Gyson about a dream he had. He thought he was in England, there were men in military uniforms on a bridge with him and they were walking the other way. The water under the bridge was turbulent. He thinks the men in uniform are really NYPD and it represents a difficult crossroad. He wants her interpretation but tells her he knows what she is going to say. Gyson finds it interesting that he wants to talk about this dream instead of what happened at the end of the last session. She reminds him of his tantrum last week and is surprised he even came back. He sweetly apologizes for losing his temper, but she wants to analyze what set him off. Goren says he overreacted because their wires got crossed. Gyson thinks there is something important they need to look at and confront behind that blow up. She points out that his rage stemmed from his misperception that she thought he was hitting on her. Goren says he can’t figure out her angle. Very funny, because remember he accused her of always looking for hidden motives. He can’t figure out if she’s trying to get him to fall for her or if she wants him to fail and act crazy, so she can let NYPD know what a mental mess he really is. He didn’t exactly say that, but he is a mental mess with all this paranoia! And there’s still no insight into where he gets these ideas that she’s interested in him as a lover.

Goren says he feels anger and when she asks what is underneath the anger, he says, “More anger.” But underneath that, Gyson say, there is fear.  Gyson says he is afraid she will betray him and humiliate him, and she must be up to something more than to get him to know his own mind and that’s why he runs. She says he is justifiably terrified deep down of what they may discover if they do this work. Once again, they made no real progress and next week will be his last session. Sigh.