The psychological thriller series of 2022, which concluded in only ten episodes, The Patient, has a very intriguing storyline. The first episode of the show was released in August, and the series finally reached its end in October 2022. The fascinating plot and unusual ending of The Patient gained worldwide popularity in just two months.
The Patient will take you to the world of an unusual patient who has some serious disorder, and he gets desperate to cure himself in any way possible. He visits the well-known therapist and explains his homicide behavioral compulsion that leads him to kill people.
This serial killer, even if he does not want to kill anyone, his impulsive mind does not help him. Eventually, in a search for a cure, he ends up incarcerating the therapist, whom he thinks might help him to cure his psychological disorder.
The Patient: All You Need to Know
Nowadays, serial killing movies and series are gaining so much popularity around the world. The most liked series of today, Dahmer, revealed the mind of a serial killer, and the same has created curiosity among the viewers about how could a normal person like all of us kill people so heinously. Is it their fault, or is there any kind of behavioral problem that leads them to do it even if they don’t want to?
Although Dahmer has gained worldwide popularity, it opened the minds of people about what serial killers can think of and what really impacts their horrifying nature to make it more and more terrifying day by day.
The Patient’s story is what reveals the serial killer’s other side of the mind. When serial killer experiences both the impulse to kill and the urge not to kill, they go insane and begin carrying out their compulsive thoughts, including killing people. Obviously, the negative side of the mind always takes over, causing the serial murderer to act impulsively and kill victims cruelly.
Even if they wish for everything to stop, they are powerless to stop it, which drives them insane. The Patient will take you to the world of one such serial killer, Sam, who visits Dr. Alan Strauss, the psychologist, for therapy. Thinking of Sam as just another patient, when Alan starts asking questions in order to know more about Sam’s condition, Alan gets shocked as he confesses about his serial killer personality.
Sam is the one who realizes he has a significant psychiatric illness that a therapist can only treat. Sam, however, confines Alan and shackles him up out of desperation to find a cure. To help him overcome his problem, not to kill him. Sam refuses to listen to Alan’s pleas to leave him and his attempts to explain that treatment can only be conducted in a secure setting.
Alan, who is scared that he will end up dead in Sam’s basement, realizes that continuing the therapy is beneficial for both him and Sam. Even though Alan is terrified, he does what is required of him and begins counseling because that is the only way to prevent Sam from killing him and other people.
Their talk reveals details about Sam’s prior life and what may have caused him to turn become a serial killer. Sam still doesn’t try his hardest to increase the effectiveness of this therapy, though. He seems to steer clear of some very delicate subjects, including his mother.
Alan begins to explore his life while imprisoned in Sam’s basement. His relationship with his child, the memory of his late wife, and his past mistakes. Alan eventually realizes that he must reconnect with his fractured family.
The Patient: Ending Explained
Until the ninth episode, Sam does his best to express himself in front of Dr. Alan Strauss. He talks about how his father abused him and his mother and how it became the reason why Sam’s personality changed and made him a serial killer. As Sam and Alan both find out the root cause of all that Sam is thinking, he decides to kill his father.
He later calls his mother to tell her what he is up to. However, she does not stop him from killing his father. The mother, in despair, later confesses her anguish at not being able to report her son despite knowing he kills others. She understands the trauma her son has experienced, and she never wants him to go through it again.
Later, Sam visits his father to kill him. When he sees him again, sitting alone in the house, Sam’s mind reinvites the trauma that he has gone through, leading Sam to confront his father. He asks why he used to beat him and his mom, but seemingly, his father doesn’t have an answer to his question. He later starts choking his father to death but then lets him leave because he doesn’t feel right this time.
Sam then becomes happy with his progress because it is the first time that Sam did not kill the person he intended to kill. He visits Dr. Alan and informs about the same. Alan also becomes happy about Sam’s recovery and uses the opportunity to persuade Sam to leave him because his therapy is showing effects now.
However, as Sam’s aware that he is not fully recovered yet, he wants Alan not to leave him and also confirms that he will let him live comfortably. However, Alan does not want to live there anymore as a hostage to Sam. In the meantime, when Sam is gone from the basement, Alan writes a big letter for his children, Soshana and Ezro.
Again in the next session of Sam’s therapy, Alan gives him a choice to kill Alan or let him leave. He also asks Sam to turn himself in because this can be the only way Sam can somewhat make it up for the crimes that he committed, and only the atonement will stop him from doing crimes further. As even Alan knows that he cannot intentionally stop committing crimes.
Even though he could not kill his father, that doesn’t mean he would not kill anyone again. Sam, though, says he is not prepared and declines to make a decision. Later, when Sam’s mother comes to feed Alan in the basement, Alan confronts her about her behavior and how it is harming the lives of others. He also asks her why she didn’t stop Alan from committing crimes and her husband from beating her.
He then threatens Sam, makes an attempt to kill his mother, and tells Sam to make a decision. He pierces Sam’s mother’s throat to give Sam the impression that he is indeed capable of killing her. While in the flashback of Alan’s wife’s death and in the daydream of living a beautiful life with his family, Sam finds an opportunity to kill Alan and later bury him near his house.
After a few days, Soshana, Alan’s daughter, receives a letter from Sam informing her of Alan’s burial location. Soshana also discovers her father’s message to his lovely children alongside this letter. He expressed regret for not caring for them adequately and for Erza’s treatment. He opened up about everything he had been feeling while residing in Sam’s basement and expressed his desire to lead a happy, fulfilling life with his two children.
Finally, Sam makes a choice to bind himself inside the basement where Alan is imprisoned. This is his one and only means of abstaining from further murderous attempts. The series ended as Ezra, the son of Alan, whom Alan did not treat well, was seated before a therapist and was about to begin sharing his early recollections. There are indications, it seems, that the show will return for a second season.
It has not yet been confirmed, though. If the show gets a new season or not will only become clear with time. As everyone wants the show to return again with an exciting storyline on Erza, and as Sam is also not dead, we can expect the series to come again next year.
Until then, we should wait for the announcement of season 2. The heartbreaking fate of Sam and Alan was not expected by the fans. As everyone was expecting something good to happen in the end, the shocking end of The Patient left viewers in big tears.
