‘The Patient’ Creators Discuss That Surprise Ending Involving Steve Carell’s Character: “It Felt The Most True”

deadline.com:

SPOILER ALERT! This story contains details from the final episode of FX’s The Patient on Hulu. The Patient — a grim limited series about psychotherapist Alan Strauss (Steve Carell) who attempts to treat serial killer Sam Fortner (Domhnall Glesson) — has ended its run on Hulu.

Here, creators Joe Weisberg and Joel Fields (The Americans) talk about what inspired their story and why it was important to end the tale the way they did. DEADLINE There’s a moment in the second to last episode where Sam looks at a video on YouTube of a serial killer.

I’m wondering if something like that happened with you guys, which spawned this idea to begin with. Did it start with something like that? JOE WEISBERG As I recall, we started talking about that video, which I think Joel had seen years ago.

Just the idea about a serial killer who was different from other serial killers and that he had a sort of a visible conscience or a desire to get better … which is pretty unique in the annals of serial killers.