Freud Season 1, Episode 2 recap: Freud tries to help a catatonic Clara recover
By Mads Lennon
Freud helps the authorities find Clara, but to find out the truth about what happened to her, he’ll have to work with someone he doesn’t trust.
We’re diving into the second episode of Freud, and boy did this episode earn its title of “Trauma.” Between Fleur and her strange connection to the Count and Countess, Kiss and his dance with death, Georg grappling with suicide, and Freud struggling to earn a kernel of respect, every character must deal with something intense and haunting in their personal lives. However, it is Clara who suffers the most trauma of all in this hour.
The Search For Clara
Things have not improved whatsoever for Freud and his reputation at work. During morning rounds, he introduces a patient who claims to be blind and paralyzed from the waist down, despite presenting no physical symptoms. She is labeled a hysteric, and Meynert has no patience for Freud’s “delusions” that she needs further treatment. He dismisses both her and Freud.
While tending to matters in the physiological ward, Freud is interrupted by Arthur, who shows him an intriguing newspaper clipping confirming Fleur’s vision from the last episode was real. Clara von Schönfeld has gone missing.
Poschacher and Kiss aren’t getting far with information about Steffi’s murder (wasn’t Kiss kicked off this case?). When people hear they’re offering a reward for information, plenty of people show up with nothing to offer but lies.
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Just when they’re about to toss in the towel, Kiss receives a mysterious unmarked telegram saying Clara is in the Vienna canal and it is a matter of life or death. The two men rush to the canal and find a young vagabond with her dog. When Kiss questions him, he says he saw a man with a scar on his cheek — which could be a few different characters but the most obvious right now is Doctor Leopold von Schönfeld.
Eventually, Kiss and Poscacher find Clara tied to the table, just as she was in Fleur’s vision, and it is even more horrific than we thought. Whoever this cruel man is, he cut Clara’s big toe off and shoved it down her throat, living her catatonic and on the verge of suffocation. Luckily, Freud and Arthur show up after following the Inspectors into the canal.
Together, the men rush Clara to the hospital, and Freud reveals it was him who sent the unmarked telegram. Freud intends to look after Clara, but Leopold has no intention of letting that happen. First, he takes care of Henriette, who becomes despondent at seeing her daughter in her such a frightening state. Then he and Meynert dismiss Freud, preferring to treat Clara themselves.
“The handling of this situation is for doctors from now on,” says Meynert. Ouch.
It doesn’t last long, however, as Fleur shows up and coaxes Henriette into allowing her and Freud to have a look at Clara. Freud manages to hypnotize Clara and what he does to her works in tantrum with Fleur, who finds herself transported back to the night before. She witnesses Clara’s torture. Guess who was behind it? Leopold!
Of course, when Fleur fingers Leopold as the prime suspect, Henriette freaks out and banishes both Fleur and Freud from the room. On a quiet carriage ride home, Fleur asks Freud if he believes her. He can’t bring himself to respond.