Last night's Obsessed was the first truly cry-worthy episode since the premiere, and introduced a heartbreakingly sweet new character to the reality TV pantheon. Russ is a 60-year-old man who has been compulsively hoarding objects for much of his life, but whose issues became so bad after his beloved mother's death a few years ago that he had to start sleeping outside his home because it became too cramped with stuff he saved or bought at antique stores. Russ is tragically frank about the reason for his condition: "I get attached to things because I don't have people to care about or get close to anymore," he says, and you just want to reach into the TV and hug his poor sweet neck. Also, there's a nice lady who's afraid of the dark.
This was the first episode of Obsessed to give the show's rock star boundary-free Dr. Shana a break, but after last week's enema/toothbrush nightmare, she deserved it. Instead, the show introduced two new female therapists, who were fine, if not quite as firm and utterly confident as Dr. Shana. The first subject, Karen, is afraid of dying, of the dark, of mirrors, of earthquakes, and of monsters under her bed. She's hoping that therapy will help her stop her rituals (checking under the bed, never being in the dark) and possibly regain custody of her daughter, Autumn. Karen is easily the least sensational (ie, interesting) subject on the show so far, simply because even a small child knows the area between the bed and the floor does actually literally belong to monsters, but also because her anxiety isn't as extreme as what this show has depicted so far. One thing that was interesting about Karen was her focus on other people. Her ritual compulsion is praying for things to not happen to her family members in a methodical, highly specific way, like praying that the ground does not shake in Ventura County, California on this date at this time. It's exhausting. The other interesting thing about Karen is that part of her exposure took place in an earthquake simulator. A what? A why? They never explain, they just say "And now has come the time for you to go in the ol' earthquake simulator" or whatever, as if earthquake simulators were normal things.
At the end of the show, Karen was doing much better. Let's focus on Russ.
As the episode goes on, we learn that Russ has one (estranged) friend, a guy named Rich who he met many years ago in the Los Angeles Gay Men's Chorus. After Russ started therapy and made what seems to the viewer like major headway in cleaning up his home, he invited Rich over to show him his progress. "This looks considerably worse than I remember," Rich observes, and we're like "No. Way. Underminer!" But then they show Rich speaking privately to the camera and we learn that when Russ was almost evicted years before, it was Rich who cleaned out his apartment and tried to help him, but eventually he just had to give up. Meanwhile, Russ seems so happy to see Rich. It's sad.
Russ's exposure and therapy consists of slowly learning to throw away objects, like a tacky, 99-cent-store Frosty The Snowman figurine that he keeps because, as he says, "It was the one thing given to me on Christmas, when nobody else remembered." Russ is a genius at saying really sad things. His next step is getting closure about his mother's death, because he wasn't there when she died and he associates many of his clutter with memories of her. So they go to the cemetery and Russ has a small memorial service for her with his therapist, which was a genius idea.
But now Russ has to face Rich, who we've gradually realized is the true focus of Russ's therapy. It's never directly said that Russ and Rich had a romantic relationship, but it's clear that Russ is overly attached to Rich and hopes to be close again, but equally clear that Rich has moved on, because he keeps saying things like: "My life is elsewhere and I just have my own stuff to deal with." :(
After Russ's twelve weeks of therapy, he has Rich over for what seems like the final time, where Rich responds to Russ's desire to be good friends again with excuses ("I'm just busy") and, finally, polite rejection in the third person: "It's time for Rich to get back to his own world." It's really sad. BUT! Then we find out that giving up on Rich was (at least in the show's narrative/editing) just the push Russ needed to get himself together for himself. He spends the next two days cleaning his living room:
It looks like your average grandma's living room! Also, Russ has joined a book club to meet new people, and I think I speak for the entire Obsessed audience in wishing him the most well of anyone who's been on this show so far. Also, this show is to be commended (once again) for its sensitivity and good intentions, as we've all seen hoarders on other shows like Oprah, and this one chose to go the clutter-but-no-maggots route, and that's the type of basic human decency a reality show can actually be commended for in 2009.
The entire episode is online, with added scenes, on the A&E website.
