Alex Delaware and Eric Doss

Alex Delaware and Eric Doss are connected by a clinical relationship that never gains a stable footing: Alex sees Eric only once before police take Richard Doss away, and Eric views Alex as aligned with the investigators. Alex recognizes the young man’s anger and need for help, but his friendship with Milo Sturgis and his involvement in the Doss family’s crisis complicate any attempt to serve as Eric’s therapist. The relationship ends not in reconciliation, but in a practical division of care: Alex remains responsible for Stacy Doss, while Richard takes Eric’s treatment elsewhere.

A Clinical Role Under Suspicion

Joe Safer, speaking with Alex about the children, describes Eric and Stacy as bright but troubled and welcomes Alex’s involvement if therapy is needed. Alex immediately qualifies that prospect. Eric is furious with him, Alex explains, because Eric believes he is aligned with the police. Alex understands why: he is friends with Milo Sturgis, the investigator working on the case. Safer already knows of that friendship and calls Sturgis an effective investigator, but the exchange makes clear that Alex’s professional role cannot be separated from his personal connection to the investigation.

The difficulty is not simply that Eric dislikes therapy. Alex has already met with him once, but the session was incomplete: police arrived before they could finish and took Richard away. Alex remains Stacy’s primary therapist, while his contact with Eric is limited to that interrupted meeting and the later family encounter. The difference in their therapeutic relationships matters. Alex can speak from an established role with Stacy; with Eric, even the possibility of care is tangled with suspicion about whose side Alex is on.

The Family Meeting

When Alex returns with Safer to meet the children, Safer warns him that neither wants to be alone with him. Alex asks whether they still think he betrayed them. The answer is not a full explanation of Eric’s feelings, but it confirms that the distrust persists despite Richard and Safer having spoken to them. They agree to meet together, making the session a reluctant family encounter rather than a private therapeutic conversation between Alex and Eric.

The siblings sit at opposite ends of the bed, their backs to each other. Both are barefoot and red-eyed. Eric, dressed in black, slides a fingernail beneath another and flicks something away before anticipating the confrontation. His posture and small, restless gesture give physical shape to the distance Alex has already been told about. When Safer addresses him as a son, Eric answers with a curled upper lip and a pointed reference to his father. The exchange places Alex inside a family conflict whose tensions precede his arrival, while his association with the police makes him an especially difficult person for Eric to trust.

Alex does not treat Eric’s anger as proof that he is simply hostile or unreachable. He interprets it in light of what Eric may have endured: Alex thinks Eric would be angry if he had helped his mother die and had no one he could talk to about it. That remains Alex’s understanding of Eric’s situation, not a confidence Eric gives him in the session. The distinction underscores the limits of their connection: Alex can recognize a possible source of pain, but Eric has not accepted him as someone with whom to share it.

Concern, Risk, and Professional Limits

After the encounter, Safer asks what has just happened and says it will not change his strategy for protecting Richard from the immediate threat. His attention turns to Eric, whom he considers seriously disturbed. He asks Alex whether the boy may be dangerous to himself or others and raises the possibility of arranging a seventy-two-hour hold. Alex answers that it is possible, but refuses to make that assessment and asks Safer to find someone else.

The refusal marks a boundary rather than indifference. Alex has expressed concern that Eric needs help, yet recognizes that he should not make a high-stakes risk judgment while entangled in the family’s case and his own connection to the police investigation. Safer understands the reason as a conflict of interest. Their exchange leaves Eric’s immediate clinical risk unresolved, but it prevents Alex from treating his limited contact as sufficient grounds to decide whether Eric should be involuntarily held.

The Relationship’s Ending

Richard later tells Alex that Eric does not feel comfortable with him. He emphasizes that this is not necessarily Alex’s fault and suggests that Alex continue with Stacy while he handles Eric. Alex objects that Eric needs help; Richard replies that Alex’s opinion has been noted. The exchange closes the possibility of Alex becoming Eric’s ongoing therapist, even as it confirms that Alex considers the need for care real.

The relationship therefore ends through separation rather than repair. Eric’s distrust is connected to Alex’s perceived alliance with the police; Alex’s concern is genuine, but his professional position is compromised; and Richard’s decision divides the siblings’ care between different adults. The brief, interrupted contact leaves Alex able to recognize Eric’s distress but unable to establish the trust that treatment would require.