Though the most interesting part of the show is its potential, there was a story to be told in "Breakdown."
I'm not sure what I was doing while watching this, but I realized after it was all over I hadn't detected a plot. Now the show can be criticized for a lot but it always has a plot, however anemic at times. I blame my fugue on a neuro. I did come away with the feeling that this was the second best after "Catch Me If You Can."
Maureen and Jane are interviewing people about weird experiences they've been having. A lot of flashing back and forth of images, of climbing on furniture, of feeling trapped and things floating in the vision: flowers, hats. Two of the interviewees are in a hospital, another is long-time whacko Henry Perkins - identified as Patient Zero - who killed his family and neighbors with a butcher knife. They visit him in Greenmore Psychiatric, a mental hospital. Maureen and Jane are buttoned up and looking business professional beautiful in black. After all, why wouldn't they dress up for the psych ward?
The people they're talking to have the same nightmare, or at least parts of what appear to be the same nightmare. Mass hallucination is ruled out (good move).
Jane and Maureen walk in Greenmore as Dr. Lewis visits a few patients, including the butterfly-drawing Elyse Danzig, who looks like an even skinnier Ashley Judd. Theresa is a looker, with a mad killer foundation seeping through the surface.
"Got into medicine to try and cure people ... ah ... I've became a warden," Dr. Lewis says, hesitantly, as if he’s forgotten his line.
The two talk to him about nightmares and that a variety of different people are having them. He's skeptical, saying dreams are a combination of fact and fantasy and can rarely be taken literally. “A cigar is just a cigar in some cases,” Jane says, with a Freudian nod.
Jane wants to talk with Perkins and hospital staff approach him with Hannibal Lecter-like caution; all weapons removed, security on alert. Perkins has a long face, strong hands, and a robotic voice, Hal more than R2D2. And he's taller than Jane. She tries to get into his head and it's clear he enjoys causing people fear, but in this case he's a nightmare victim too, having three times stacked furniture to try and escape from something he can't remember.
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