"Web Therapy" "Sister Act"

“Web Therapy” on Showtime continues to delight with its “walking wounded”, bloodied but unbowed”, win-at-all-costs  characters.  Season 2 Episode 4, entitled “Sister Act,” has Fiona sparring with her sister.

Fiona’s sister is named Shevaun. Shevaun is also a therapist. Shevaun is now Fiona’s therapist. Their interaction is devastating for both sisters. 

Shevaun is played by Julia Louis Dreyfus, currently the star of “Veep.” Julia is a great actress and she does a marvelous job of slowly unraveling before our eyes. Like Fiona her modus operandi is ego assassination with a thousand veiled insults and crafty manipulation.  It turns out, as good as she is at these ploys, she is no match for Fiona. Nobody can play this game as well as Fiona.  

Fiona needs to undergo15 hours of therapy in order to get accreditation as a licensed therapist. She had never bothered with this “technicality” before, but now that her husband, Kip, is running for Congress she has to get her house in order, so to speak.

And who will provide this therapy? None other than her sister, Shevaun.  Fiona wants her sister to just sign the paperwork, but Shevaun insists that there must be actual therapy sessions. Further, there will be none of this 3-minute stuff.  It will be 50-minute sessions.

Shevaun is trying to make Fiona face the truth about herself, her unhappy childhood, and her unhappy life. Fiona denies everything, and what she doesn’t deny, she  insists on seeing in a favorable light. The girls go at each other, dredging up things from the past, each insisting that the other one is the one with the unhappy life. 

Neither therapist is succeeding in “breaking” the other until in the penultimate session, Shevaun tells Fiona that red, a color Fiona wears all the time, is just not “her color”.  She says that Fiona only likes red because their mother liked red. This is the thing that takes Fiona down. She becomes so depressed she can’t get out of bed.

But nothing can destroy Fiona. Not for long anyway. Fiona decides that her sister is lying about how red does not suit her, and she rebounds.  She decides Shevaun was only trying to destroy her and vows revenge.

As soon had Shevaun has signed and faxed the paperwork that Fiona needs for accreditation Fiona reveals her nefarious vengeance. Shevaun, like Fiona, has many problems. Presently, she, her unemployed husband ,and their four kids are living with Mother. Shevaun is broke and had nowhere else to go. 

Fiona reveals that she has gotten their mother to give her power of attorney.  She has used this to arrange for Mother, who is no longer mentally competent, to be moved to a care facility. The house has been put up for sale, and Shevaun must vacate the premises immediately. You do not want to get on the bad side of Fiona.

Stay tuned for further developments.