Gypsy - The Commune

 I recall 2017 being such a good year. It was "Twin Peaks - The Return", I was so excited about it. And Naomi Watts was in it. She was also in a forgotten Netflix series, in just one season, of "Gypsy". This was a series about an affluent married couple with a gender-confused child, themselves struggling to communicate their own marital issues which are gradually under attack by personal struggle. That personal struggle is further emphasized in the episode, "The Commune", where Watts' Jean, a psychiatrist, has adopted a false identity to communicate with folks associated with her patients. It is easy to see how that idea would be questionable ethically. Especially when you are attracted to the lover of a patient named Sam (Glusman), so infatuated and increasingly captivated by Sidney (Sophie Cookson) you await her text back to you obsessively and can hardly concentrate on anything else. Jean's husband, Michael (Crudup), in this episode, suspects something's off about Jean as she has locked her phone, spends more nights out, and just acts more and more secretive. It doesn't help that a gathering of his buddies for a football game reveals one of his divorcee pals has a current fling with a 29 year old sex kitten, often sending him sexy pics, wondering when he's coming over...you can tell Michael is getting a bit itchy, while his other 40-something pals show yearning desires to experience something similarly. And Jean is out there kissing Sidney, so it goes both ways. As far as the title of the episode, Jean has adopted Diane as her alter ego, interested in wondering what makes the daughter of a client, Claire (Vaccaro) tick. It seems Claire's daughter (Brooke Bloom) has left behind her "materialistic past" and had joined a commune where abandoning the pratfalls of a consumerist lifestyle and developing a "real family" is the mantra. Jean, as Diane, does successfully get Bloom's Rebecca to open up about her mother, about leaving her behind for something more emotionally and philosophically different and valuable. Claire just thinks her daughter is suicidal or on her way to that...Jean realizes she is just isolating herself from what might make her unhappy. Also, Jean accompanies a patient to a Narcotics Anonymous group to continue her sobriety and find a path towards permanent cleanse. I think, again, you see that when Jean is Diane, she just feels more free. She even talks about that with the commune, appreciating what they have as a fellowship...but her identity as Diane, how she pulls from her own life, making those details seem as if they belong to a friend, is still an alter ego. I guess by this episode, the viewer has to wonder how this can drive towards anything other than self-destructive. When a co-worker of hers spots Jean (after her passionate kiss with Sidney), texting her later after a call-out is unanswered as she flees in her car, that alter ego behavior is shown to be dangerous. This secret life could be undermined at any time. 4/5