The Breakthrough
Episode 7 of The Shrink Next Door begins in 2010 with Ike continuing to write his novel, with Marty typing out his words. Book Nine of his series is finally completed, thanks to Marty’s hard work, but he has other problems to deal with (which Ike obviously doesn’t care about.) Marty is suffering from stomach issues but Ike waves it off nonchalantly. After his earlier heart attack, Bruce approaches Marty at work and asks for a quiet word regarding their financial spending. Ike appears like a bad smell though and forces him to open up in front of everyone. The company’s profits are way down, midtown rents are up and another six months of this and the company will go under. The solution here is to move out to New Jersey, with another factory already set up and ready to go. Ike scoffs at this idea, with Marty on the fence about what to do. For now, Marty shows up at hospital and learns that he’s to be kept in for a few days with a hernia. It’s a routine surgery but he’s worried about relinquishing control of the company. Unfortunately Ike only makes this worse, claiming Bruce is spreading toxicity before he heads in overnight. Marty has his surgery and is kept in for four days. In that time, Ike doesn’t bother to show even once. To make matters worse, he heads down the ward and finds visitors in every single room. Marty has had enough. He packs up his things and prepares to leave the hospital before he’s even fully recovered. Marty drives down to the summer house where he finds Ike entertaining a whole bunch of guests. Marty is angry and takes Ike aside, questioning why he hasn’t bothered to show up at hospital. Ike is a master manipulator though, claiming he would have shown had he actually asked. This time though, Marty isn’t falling for his tricks. After finding his dead fish in the water, Marty grits his teeth and watches the party with newfound cynicism. This catches us up to the moments at the start of episode 1 Marty smashes up all the gear at the summer house. He’s had enough. Ike awakens to find the garden smashed to bits. So naturally he talks to Bonnie about this and decides he’ll get Marty to fix the place up, claiming it’s “therapeutic” for him, unaware that he’s the blame for this. And now we get our breakthrough. Marty doesn’t show up to therapy the next day. The office is also completely cleared out too, with Marty deciding to take Bruce up on his offer of moving to Jersey. Ike marches down to the new office and questions Marty on his choices. Well, Marty stands up for himself and eventually tells him not to bother showing up from now on; he’s fired from his position. It’s a big step and one that sees all the other staff members applaud Marty’s choice and cheer his bravery in standing up for himself.
The Episode Review
This show could so easily have been condensed down by 2 or 3 episodes and not lose anything. I know I’ve said that a lot across these recaps but it still rings true here. The show has been pretty tepid with its storyline and undeniably simple. It really didn’t need this long to actually tell its story. Either way though, The Shrink Next Door bows out with a triumphant breakthrough For Marty as he actually stands up for himself and confronts Ike about his obsessive behaviour. It’s great to see and the heartwarming ending, with all his staff members standing and applauding Marty’s courage, is a definite highlight of this season. Quite what’s in store for us during next week’s finale is anyone’s guess but based on this showing, it looks like we’re on course for quite the dramatic showdown.
