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This topic has been archived - replies are not allowed.
A successful litigation attorney whose firm is handling Paul's malpractice suit, Mia (played by Hope Davis) also happens to be a former patient of Paul's. Childless, single and 42, she still harbors unresolved feelings about an abortion she had 20 years ago ? and resentments towards Paul for abandoning her back then when he moved away from New York. Excusing herself from working on his case, she returns to therapy with Paul.
What do you predict will happen between Paul and Mia?
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Re: Meet the New Patients: Mia
Jun 8, 2009 12:05 PM
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I think the last scene between Paul and Mia was very well done. Powerful. And she agreed to come back. He didn't give in to any of her personal advances, I thought he handled those quite well.
I don't like the sense of it all being rushed, either. But then I love watching it all so much I could watch it go on forever!
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Re: Meet the New Patients: Mia
May 20, 2009 12:37 PM
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I guess they had to use the "pregnancy" or the loss of a "baby" as a way to bring Mia's mother into the story. However, to do it in the next to last episode seems rushed. Couldn't they have had some sort of health issue with the Dad forcing Mia and her mother to engage in some way.
When I think abt it the April, Mia and Oliver story seem rushed. Only the Walter story seems to be playing out well. With Walter his story arch has been achieved.
But then again, they may have Mia just quit therapy, end of story. People do that. If therapy is going in a direction that they cannot or will not face, they bail out.
I have a feeling Mia wants to bail out but she wants to take Paul with her.
Honest to God, if Paul shows any inclination of being attracted to Mia and pursuing a "relationship" with her, he needs to find another vocation or check into the same facility Walter is in because he needs help!
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Re: Meet the New Patients: Mia
May 19, 2009 4:02 PM
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You hit on one of my biggest gripes about this season. It was terribly evident in the April episode this week. That entire scene where Paul describes for April what it was like meeting her mother. "And then what happened? What did you say? What did she say?" That should have been an episode, not a Q&A between Paul and April. I've gotten wonder if that's what got cut in the April story line to make it fit.
I gotta wonder the same thing with Mia. How do you resolve her issues in the one remaining half hour left? Was Mia's meeting with her mother originally an episode, or at least a separate session with Paul?
Maybe that's why Oliver's story line seems to disjointed and disheveled to me as well. From what I've read It would appear they stuck to the Israeli series story lines, but with fewer episodes to do it with. I feel so cheated.
> Then, this week, to have the pregnancy officially
> over and to have Mia's mother weigh in with a
> extremely different explanation of some important
> events in Mia's life and her feelings for Mia -- that
> was all very interesting, but too fast. The story
> reminds me of the Sophie storyline in season one.
> But, with Sophie, by the fifth of nine episodes we
> e met Olivia and could see that she was not the
> person Sophie was portraying to Paul. We had time to
> learn the truth of the situation and time to watch
> Sophie comes to terms with the truth. With Mia we
> only have one week left to deal with all this.
>
> The story of Mia coming to terms with how she might
> become a mother now (adoption, surrogacy, etc) and
> how she might resolve the difficulties she has
> getting into a loving relationship with a man was
> very interesting. The "pregnancy" stole some
> valuable air time which I wish had been focused on
> resolving Mia's primary issues which we are now back
> to after this interruption.
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Re: Meet the New Patients: Mia
May 19, 2009 12:16 PM
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I do see how Mia could have created this pregnancy in her head just as she's created everything else. It's clear that she isn't always rational and her perspective is skewed. She blamed Paul for making her have an abortion 20 years ago when that was clearly not the case. She gives the impression her father is the Father of The Year and he is clearly suspect in a farce that's been playing out for years with her mother. I totally believe she thought she was pregnant and it was just as irrational as the majority of her thoughts.
I will say that this last episode was the first time I really felt empathy for her. I do think, if she clearly looks at her father and sees him as he really is, she will fall completely apart. Maybe that has to happen before she can really start to change.
I don't see it happening anytime soon.
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Re: Meet the New Patients: Mia
May 19, 2009 9:49 AM
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Exactly, jolie! And I don't know if a pregnancy kit would show any results THAT early in the gestation.
All I can think is Arnold S's Austrian accent in "Kindergarden Cop" (which Gabe mimicks quite well): "It's NOT a tuh-mor." 
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Re: Meet the New Patients: Mia
May 18, 2009 11:42 PM
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> I think there are some women who are desparate to
> have children and there are cases where women believe
> they ARE pregnant.
jtom: This always reminds me of some women at the other end of the spectrum: women so ignorant (or deceitful or crazy) that one day they go to the bathroom and a baby pops out..."Oh! So that's what was wrong!! I thought it was a tumor!
Anyone who thinks they're pregnant after just 2 weeks of being "late" simply needs to get a pregnancy kit...so Mia could have saved herself a lot of time and grief. The early signs of menopause are periods that begin to go astray. Emotional weirdness accompanied by hot flashes pretty much sums up the next 5 to 10 years for Mia, if that's what's happening to her. I think approximately 25% of the female population start menopause in their 40's (been there, done that!) I still don't get why the doctor told her she could never have a baby. I'll read some other posts.
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"I know you think I'm a dirty chinchilla" - Lois - "Big Love"
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Re: Meet the New Patients: Mia
May 18, 2009 8:10 PM
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Mia showing up pregnant was so unexpected and I immediately began questioning how she could know she was pregnant with such certainty considering her FSH test results, considering she went off the pill with Bennet for a long period of time and didn't get pregnant and when it had just been two weeks since her weekend sex spree. What I don't understand is why Paul didn't seem to doubt her story. It was out-of-character for Paul to not question her more. But, given Paul's emotional state after his father's death, I guess he was distracted.
Then, this week, to have the pregnancy officially over and to have Mia's mother weigh in with a extremely different explanation of some important events in Mia's life and her feelings for Mia -- that was all very interesting, but too fast. The story reminds me of the Sophie storyline in season one. But, with Sophie, by the fifth of nine episodes we met Olivia and could see that she was not the person Sophie was portraying to Paul. We had time to learn the truth of the situation and time to watch Sophie comes to terms with the truth. With Mia we only have one week left to deal with all this.
The story of Mia coming to terms with how she might become a mother now (adoption, surrogacy, etc) and how she might resolve the difficulties she has getting into a loving relationship with a man was very interesting. The "pregnancy" stole some valuable air time which I wish had been focused on resolving Mia's primary issues which we are now back to after this interruption.
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Re: Meet the New Patients: Mia
May 18, 2009 5:07 PM
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She may have believed she was pregnant because her period was late. That is how menopause starts, with changes in the cycle. For a woman who's been regular all her life, it's easy to misinterpret those changes as a pregnancy. Since she'd just had unprotected sex with two men it wasn't that big a leap for her to make.
I'd also like to kick the stupid doctor in the ass who felt it was necessary to tell her that he sees it every week. What a shitty bedside manner. The implied slight in his speech sucks and a doctor like that oughta be slapped upside the head for his total lack of understanding and sympathy.
Congratulations to the writers for not choosing the easy ending to Mia's story. Thank you. A heartfelt thank you for telling Mia's story, and that of so many women just like her.
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Re: Meet the New Patients: Mia
May 18, 2009 3:13 PM
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I think there are some women who are desparate to have children and there are cases where women believe they ARE pregnant.
Historically, in the early 1900s, Empress Alexandra of Russia was so insistent that she was pregnant again - with a male heir (she had had four girls in a row) - that she actually believed that she was pregnant (for a period of NINE months!) - weight gain, everything, including going into "labor." It was called a "phantom" pregnancy.
Of course, medical science wasn't like it is now (we're talking early 20th Century and in RUSSIA, of all places!), but I have heard of women who want to get pregnant so badly that they actually BELIEVE they are.
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Re: Meet the New Patients: Mia
May 18, 2009 12:25 PM
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Why do you think she did that? What was her motivation to change her history? Interesting to think about!
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Re: Meet the New Patients: Mia
May 18, 2009 10:49 AM
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So, I guess the big question (of which we now have the answer) is, "Did Mia ever TAKE a pregnancy test?" Evidently, she didn't. She just "felt" like she was pregnant. I think she's a little more messed up than we originally believed.
And some major revelations this week about Mia and her relationship with her mom AND dad. Perhaps, as Paul said (and as Gina said in an earlier session), there was some "rewriting" of her history.
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Re: Meet the New Patients: Mia
May 18, 2009 9:35 AM
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In week 5's episode, I noticed when Paul asked Mia about taking the "test" she didn't answer him and I had a feeling that the pregnancy was not real. But I thought I was reading into the script, so let it go. Funny how it turned out.
It's hard to hear at the end of the show, "On the last episode of Mia ..." Wish we had a sense of whether this was returning. Gabriel Bryne is phenomenal in these episodes. Hard to believe he wouldn't want to come back.
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Re: Meet the New Patients: Mia
May 15, 2009 3:28 PM
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On Mia and Power:
One of the interesting issues that Mia?s character brings up is that of power relationships between therapists and clients. Mia has been playing the power card aggressively. In the first episode of the new (second) season she flaunted her expensive high-rise office, her numerous certificates and awards. In a later session she alluded to the fact that she now makes more money than Paul. Obviously, she has the power of information because she has access to the confidential data about the accusation against Paul. She also intercepted, opened and read documents containing details about another of Paul's clients, and then threw the documents at his feet in an accusatory, confronting manner. She is also powerfully aware of Paul's sexual transgression with a former client. Finally, she exerts her own sexual power by being provocative with him as she graphically details erotic, sexual experiences.
Mia?s role invites us to re-think the common attitudes regarding the power differential between clients and therapists, which claim that therapists are always more powerful than their clients. While therapists have Role and Legitimate types of power, many clients carry power over their therapists in other ways. Obviously, therapists may lose power when they find themselves sexually attracted to a client. Regardless of the power relationships, the ultimate responsibility to maintain professional and appropriate boundaries lies with the treating clinicians and not with the patients. In short, power relationships are very complex and dynamic. (More on power in therapy at http://www.zurinstitute.com/power_in_therapy.pdf )
Ofer Zur, Ph.D.
Director, Zur Institute
http://www.zurinstitute.com
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Re: Meet the New Patients: Mia
May 15, 2009 12:38 PM
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> > I want to see this series back next season. It
> won't
> > be on next week and I'm already having
> withdrawal
> > symptoms. How do we let HBO know we want it to
> > continue?
>
> Wish I had a pretty answer for this question. But
> many of us wrote to them, petitioned, griped
> complained, cried in anguish, lamented, begged,
> ...well you get the picture....anyway, many of us
> worked soooo hard just to get them to commit to
> Season 2, I am unsure what more can be done to get
> them to move forward with Season 3
>
> Other than writing to them and expressing your love
> of the show, we need two key things to fall into
> place
>
> A: the season 2 ratings need to be great
> B: Gabriel Byrne needs to agree to a Season 3.
>
> I doubt it we will see another season if both of
> those conditions are not met, regardless of our
> outcry.
I couldn't agree more! Also, showing your support here in the message boards, keeping the community thriving and alive with discussions about the show sends a clear message as well. They are listening!
I'm a new fan of In Treatment, this show has just grabbed me by the collar and I'm hooked! Paul is a fascinating man, complex yet accessible. This is easily the best work of Gabriel Byrne in his career. Looking forward to more In Treatment and getting to know everyone here. 
Ginna
--
*********
Host_Ginna
HBO Forums Host
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Re: Meet the New Patients: Mia
May 7, 2009 9:46 AM
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> I want to see this series back next season. It won't
> be on next week and I'm already having withdrawal
> symptoms. How do we let HBO know we want it to
> continue?
Wish I had a pretty answer for this question. But many of us wrote to them, petitioned, griped complained, cried in anguish, lamented, begged, ...well you get the picture....anyway, many of us worked soooo hard just to get them to commit to Season 2, I am unsure what more can be done to get them to move forward with Season 3
Other than writing to them and expressing your love of the show, we need two key things to fall into place
A: the season 2 ratings need to be great
B: Gabriel Byrne needs to agree to a Season 3.
I doubt it we will see another season if both of those conditions are not met, regardless of our outcry.
--
TouchedByThPoet
http://sites.google.com/site/touchedbythpoet/Home
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