S01.E18: The Time Is At Hand

[kwnyc]

We rewatched last night (my wife hadn't seen it) and the jokes that Matt wrote for Bess WERE pretty good...and she delivered them well.

 

But even though Mike is an ass, it is true in DC: you are there to make your boss/party/legislative body look good, not yourself. AND he didn't clear the interview with anyone (I assume any State Dept. employee has to get permission to be interviewed). If he has thoughts about becoming a pundit, he would need to leave the government. (Hey! Exit arc!)

[myril]

Now Elizabeth has PTSD and is being treated for anxiety attacks. Is Henry going to also suffer from PTSD or, being the superhuman that he is, just shake it off?

 

 

True, but Elizabeth was in the CIA and probably had witnessed some PTSD-worthy things (like a co-worker with a bad haircut).  

 

In aspects similiar situations and still it was different. Doubt that Henry will suffer PTSD like Bess, even though he obviously struggled with feelings of having failed or that he could have done better. Most people experiencing violent, traumatizing events don't develop PTSD. Having been in the CIA, as an analyst, doesn't imply, that Bess must have experienced violent, life threatening situations before, a lot of CIA people spend their working days in office reading tons of papers, and are more likely getting injured by paper cuts than  ever will face a life threatening situation.

 

Sorry, as much as some sure would like to claim their ugly hair day as traumatizing fashion near death experience or being forced to drink bad office coffee as torture, it hardly would bring anyone close to trauma experience in clinical definition.

 

But even though Mike is an ass, it is true in DC: you are there to make your boss/party/legislative body look good, not yourself. AND he didn't clear the interview with anyone (I assume any State Dept. employee has to get permission to be interviewed). If he has thoughts about becoming a pundit, he would need to leave the government. (Hey! Exit arc!)

 

Yep, seems like Matt is heading for trouble. I was rolling my eyes already when he was approached by his former university "buddy" at the dinner. Geee, Matt is working on some inferiority complex, is he, jumping into every dumb dick measuring contest imaginable, especially when Daisy is around (remember how he reacted to Win). Even Stevie is behaving more reasonable and adult than Matt (and being in her early twenties, barely out of of teenager drama stupidity, she is entitled to be unreasonable and over idealistic wannabe rebellious). Matt needs to grow up. Aside that "Z-Man" is so obviously flattering Matt only to get to useful information, working on his own journalistic stardom. Matt is easy prey in the shark tank, a gullible idiot.

[secnarf]

In aspects similiar situations and still it was different. Doubt that Henry will suffer PTSD like Bess, even though he obviously struggled with feelings of having failed or that he could have done better. Most people experiencing violent, traumatizing events don't develop PTSD. Having been in the CIA, as an analyst, doesn't imply, that Bess must have experienced violent, life threatening situations before, a lot of CIA people spend their working days in office reading tons of papers, and are more likely getting injured by paper cuts than  ever will face a life threatening situation.

Well, we know that Bess definitely doesn't fall in the category of being more likely to get injured by a paper cut than a life-threatening situation. Remember the whole thing that made Stevie move out in the first place? We know Bess was on the ground in the Middle East and involved in torturing others; we don't know the details of every second there but I'd assume it wasn't a cake walk.

There's not always logic as to why a particular event for a particular person prompts the development of PTSD. Perhaps another person in the same situation wouldn't develop PTSD, and perhaps the same person could have been in other life-threatening situations in the past and not developed PTSD.

[myril]

Well, we know that Bess definitely doesn't fall in the category of being more likely to get injured by a paper cut than a life-threatening situation. Remember the whole thing that made Stevie move out in the first place? We know Bess was on the ground in the Middle East and involved in torturing others; we don't know the details of every second there but I'd assume it wasn't a cake walk.

There's not always logic as to why a particular event for a particular person prompts the development of PTSD. Perhaps another person in the same situation wouldn't develop PTSD, and perhaps the same person could have been in other life-threatening situations in the past and not developed PTSD.

 

You're right, Bess was not a just paper shuffling analyst, but neither did she struck me as full fledged regular field operative just because she was send for a specific interrogation into a war zone.

 

Either way agree, that PTSD isn't following any logic we fully understand or are able to predict. Research might suspect certain markers in personality, but a person having those markers doesn't necessarily have to develop PTSD after a traumatic violent event, nor does showing PTSD mean a person has to have those markers. The important thing is to accept, that eventually anyone experiencing violent trauma eventually could develop PTSD, and when someone shows signs it's not a failure and a question of toughing it out but needs professional help. 

[shapeshifter]

...Sorry, as much as some sure would like to claim their ugly hair day as traumatizing fashion near death experience or being forced to drink bad office coffee as torture, it hardly would bring anyone close to trauma experience in clinical definition....

Having been both chased by a knife-wielding rapist, and having felt traumatized by a bad haircut, I felt free to joke about it--but, yeah, probably shouldn't do that here. Anyway, I mention both to point out that traumatic events can have a cumulative effect, causing PTSD to flair up at a later date when not expected. So maybe Bess was in denial about the PTSD because she had been through so much horror previously as a CIA agent and thought she was immune. And maybe the recent experience effected her so much because of the cumulative experiences combined with her awareness that she is no longer in the field with her life on the line--so she is now in a safe environment and can allow herself to feel the emotions.

Henry, meanwhile, might have already had therapy at some point, and developed techniques for dealing with PTSD triggers--although, if that's the case, we should have heard about it in earlier episodes. Or, being immune to PTSD is just another one of his superpowers.

[Netfoot]

Either way agree, that PTSD isn't following any logic we fully understand or are able to predict.

 

Or maybe, PTSD doesn't exist.

[shapeshifter]

Or maybe, PTSD doesn't exist.

The psychiatrist quoted in that article does believe PTSD exists (see, for example, the abstract to this study which Bhugra co-authored in 2013: http://benthamopen.com/ABSTRACT/CPEMH-9-189) but perhaps the Daily Mail article author does not believe it exists. To each his or her own.

Speaking of authors, Barbara Hall was a writer for both this episode and the previous--which surprised me. Maybe she felt the PTSD focus had reached its saturation point in the "Face the Nation" episode for a network TV show about politics, and didn't want to risk alienating the viewers by saddling another main character with it. If so, I'd say that was probably a good call.

[needschocolate]

I don't think that Henry will develop PTSD for the simple reason that the show wouldn't go to that well again so soon.  

 

 I just thought that it was odd to have such similar story lines so close together.  

 

And, no, I don't believe that people develop PTSD from bad haircuts or having your cable go out before the super bowl.   Although I have known a few people who have acted like it is was that much of a trauma.