Word Street Journal

One of the most convoluted shows recently made its way to Amazon Prime Video. Called Sebastian Fitzek’s Therapy, the series boasts of a healthy source material from a widely regarded writer.

I recently reviewed the series. Ever since, I have been trying to write a blog explaining its ending which is now finally complete.

So, here you will find a detailed recap of the last one and a half episodes of Sebastian Fitzek’s Therapy. 

Simultaneously, the blog is nourished with explanations about some crucial scenes of the show.

This is because I feel context is necessary for exploring a creative plot.

All of it is followed by questions that one might have after watching this amazing German series.

Just so that we are on the same page, I will start from the point when Viktor Larenz seeks his lawyer’s help to go back to Parkum for the second time (Episode 5, halfway stage).

Sebastian Fitzek’s Therapy Detailed Ending Explained

Viktor convinces Wolfgang (his lawyer) to get him the medicines so that he can overdose and go back to Parkum in his imagination.

Flashbacks of his childhood keep playing and we see Viktor’s mother being left behind by Gustav, her partner.

After giving him the medicines, Wolfgang tries to talk him out of the extreme step. 

However, Viktor gently refuses to budge. He instead asks him to leave. 

Wolfgang tells him that there is something he must know but the man denies him a chance to speak.

He swallows the pills and travels to Parkum inside his head. 

The same events take place as if he is back in a loop. Sindbad is sitting on the boat while the captain of the ship repeats the exact same words from the last time.

On his way to his house, he stops at Bentje’s store and inquires about Anna Spiegel. Surprised seeing him utter her name, she tells Larenz that Spiegel checked out earlier in the day. 

Viktor goes to his house and looks out for the curtains in his basement, which had led him to the past the last time. 

However, there is nothing more than a wall behind them.

He comes back to the living area and patiently waits for Anna Spiegel to knock on the door.

Dr. Roth pays a visit to Gr. Grohlke at his clinic to discuss Josy’s health issues. He is standing before the painting of Parkum Island when Grohlke joins him.

He hands him over Josy’s files and informs him that the standard allergy tests didn’t return anything peculiar.

Even the expanded tests were normal.

Roth questions whether her symptoms were chronic and Grohlke confirms the same.

The former then conveys his daughter’s observations regarding no signs of Josy’s symptoms during a week-long school trip.

He asks if the absence of fainting spells, nosebleeds, and stomachaches on the trip can be a coincidence. Also, is it possible that it could be a case of poisoning?

Roth further goes on to put a hypothetical question to Grohlke: if this was indeed poisoning, what would he prescribe to trigger such symptoms?

Answering him, Grohlke says there can be many things but the easiest one to prompt nose bleeds would be a blood thinning agent.

Roth cuts him in the middle of his speech by mentioning ‘Aspirin’ since it is a blood-thinning agent. 

Grohlke is stunned as he recollects carrier substances being encapsulated in most pills, for example, corn starch is used as an active ingredient in Aspirin.

Therefore, if someone is allergic to corn, and they are fed aspirin, it would lead to the exact symptoms Josy was facing.

However, it isn’t easy to discover unless specifically looked out for. Grohlke says that poisoning of this kind happens over several years.

It can only be done by someone in constant contact with the patient like a babysitter, close friend, or parent.

One must understand here that Josy was allergic to corn. Possibly, it was genetic since in the second episode, we see Viktor experience a nosebleed as well.

Roth develops theories in his mind and once again confronts Wolfgang in the parking lot. He asks if he has ever heard of Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy.

Now, first, let’s understand what is the Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy?

It is a psychological or mental condition where the caretaker of a child either makes up fake symptoms or causes real symptoms to make the child look sick.

You can click on the highlighted text to learn more about the syndrome.

After Wolfgang answers the doctor, Roth reveals that Josy has been poisoned over the years. The lawyer thinks that he is accusing him.

However, Roth leaves the thread open and exits the place by saying that he will find out whatever Wolfgang is hiding from him.

The scene moves to Parkum, where Anna knocks on Viktor’s door and once again repeats the same lines she said the last time.

In the very next moment, she flushes the act and breaks into laughter. Upon going inside, Viktor, who had been eagerly waiting for her, cuts to the chase by directly proceeding towards the basement.

When he removes the curtains, there are no signs of any wall. Instead, he is welcomed by a well-maintained space.

Anna welcomes him inside as she notices a sense of surprise in his mien. She offers to swap roles, wanting herself to be his therapist, contrary to the last time.

He asks for the truth about his daughter. According to Viktor, Anna has a huge role in her disappearance.

She replies saying the truth might end up killing him.

Here, she is referring to Viktor’s real-life existence, which is under threat as he has overdosed on his medications.

His nurse at the hospital finds the bottles of pills on his bed and immediately calls the doctor.

On the other hand, Anna Spiegel recaps talking about the girl in her story who didn’t want to go home because of the evil.

Viktor replies saying that Josy loved being at home. However, Spiegel doesn’t approve of the same.

When Viktor calls her just a teenager, Anna refers to her as a ‘child’ who didn’t want to remain sick forever.

She goes on to say that Josy was healthier when she wasn’t staying at home. This is the first time she refers to the girl in her story as ‘Josy.’

Anna tells him that he is afraid of something. It triggers the flashback of his mother’s death. Viktor had found her dead body in their bathroom at a very early age.

It was probably due to her separation from her partner. After the demise, Viktor was shifted to a convent. 

He goes into a different world and remembers his father leaving him at the school. Viktor accuses Anna of destroying his family but Anna says it is impossible.

But Why Did Viktor Think Like That?

Because in the flashback, he saw Anna sitting in his father’s car. So, he formed an opinion that his dad left his mom for Anna.

In simpler words, she was the ‘other woman’ in their love story, according to Viktor.

It was a false theory which is why Anna outrightly denied it.

Viktor saw Anna in the car because of hallucinations. His memories swapped another woman’s face with Spiegel’s.

You can relate this with Bentje and Halberstaedt, who actually worked at the hospital.

Even Anna tells Viktor that she only exists inside his head.

In the last scene of Episode five, Spiegel converts into Viktor, forcing him to face his own self.

Now, it is clear that Anna was not real but a part of his imagination.

In reality, it was his subconscious memory gradually unveiling the truth to him. 

Roth pays a visit to Viktor to return Josy’s bag. He tells him about their secret Amsterdam trip, which only came to light when he saw his credit card transactions.

Viktor declines to believe him. According to him, Josy would never do anything that drastic without the consent of her parents. 

When Roth presents their train tickets to him, he furiously attributes Josy’s actions to Mila’s influence.

Immediately, Viktor confronts Josy in her bedroom and asks if there’s anything she wants to tell him. 

However, a pale Josy denies hiding anything.

He then goes to talk to her wife, Isabell. However, Viktor stops at the doorstep as he sees her put a gun inside her purse. Before he can do anything, she notices him and gets startled.

Isabell asks him if he can take Josy to school the next day as she has a doctor’s appointment. Viktor nods and leaves the room. 

He is agitated and fearful with memories of her mother’s death coming back to haunt him. 

The next moment, he gathers himself and briskly walks back to the room and finds the gun inside her purse, confirming his earlier vision.

The next day, which we are told is the day of Josy’s disappearance, we see the girl sitting at the dining table while being served food by Isabell.

Viktor sets foot in the kitchen and finds the lady pouring some liquid from a bottle into Josy’s glass of juice.

She further forces her to at least finish the juice if she isn’t hungry.

This augments Viktor’s suspicions about her wife’s wrongdoings.

Therefore, he rushes to the dining table and, seconds before Josy is about to drink the juice, pulls it almost out of her mouth.

His daughter is infuriated but to cover his tracks, Viktor brings up the topic of her Amsterdam trip.

This helps him avoid Isabell’s wrath, which instead shifts to Josy.

She walks out of the house yelling at her daughter.

Josy expresses her dismay at Viktor’s behavior and storms out of the dining hall.

Viktor quickly goes into the kitchen and checks the bottle that Isabell used and finds it to be a pesticide.

He calls Wolfgang and informs him that Isabell tried to poison Josy and that she wanted to get rid of them for money.

The lawyer submits his reservations but by then Viktor has already disconnected the call.

He quickly packs his bag before grabbing hold of Josy, telling her that they need to get away from Isabell as soon as possible.

However, Viktor catches Isabell’s sight from the window, stepping out of the car with a gun in her hand.

The duo runs out of the house with Josy being forcefully taken along by her dad.

They stop by the bridge, trying to hide from Isabell, who is calling out their names with the gun in her hand.

There is a small water body flowing under the bridge. Viktor asks Josy how much time she can hold her breath.

Surprised, the girl ascertains what he is trying to say.

But Viktor is stubborn and serious. He gets inside the water, pulling Josy along.

Seeing Isabell coming near, he forcefully pushes Josy further inside, expecting her to hold her breath to survive her mother’s intentions.

However, the stunt doesn’t reap good results as Josy is unconscious when Viktor pulls her out of the water.

By the time they come back to the ground, Isabell has left the place to probably search at another area.

Viktor tries to bring Josy back from a stale state. But he fails to do so. 

Chest press, mouth-to-mouth breathing, and jolts. Nothing works. Just when he gives up, Josy coughs and becomes responsive again.

In alternate screen transitions, we see doctors trying to revive Viktor’s falling heart rate at the hospital, which also stabilizes with Josy’s revival.

Anna Spiegel claps, laying beside Viktor on the floor.

She tells him that though it is a great story, the truth is still absent.

Viktor is surprised. He emphasizes the fact that Josy is alive. 

She holds his chin and points his face in other directions to make him see the truth that his mind was deliberately avoiding.

What was the Truth?

Viktor is then exposed to what actually transpired that day:

– In the night from the doorstep of their room, what he saw as a Gun was in reality just a mobile phone.

– Again, when Isabell got out of her car, she wasn’t carrying a gun but her mobile.

– The pesticide bottle was actually Linseed Oil.

– Josy never woke up after being drowned by her father. It was Viktor’s imagination that she recovered, probably a result of his illness (a rare form of Schizophrenia). He imagined that she was walking beside him. Josy was never in the car and hence, he never took her to Doctor Grohlke’s clinic. Viktor alone did all these things, imagining Josy was with him. Waiting at the clinic, he saw a painting and later, created a world of his own inside the place (as seen in the painting) which he referred to as Parkum.

Upon witnessing the truth, he opens his eyes and accepts that he murdered Josy, prompting Anna Spiegel to conclude her therapy session.

She informs him that since the truth has now come to the fore, he would have to complete the rest of the journey without her.

The screen returns to the present, where we see Dr. Frieder briefing Dr. Gessl about Viktor’s hostility to any kind of therapy.

He doesn’t want to be treated by anyone other than Dr. Roth, he tells him.

Gessl directs Frieder to bring him back so that Viktor’s health can be taken care of.

Ines submits her resignation to Gessl, declining a new role that she had been desiring for a long while. 

This is a result of continuous disrespect and also the positive impact Roth had on her professionally. He was the only one to ever pay attention to her as a human and not a mere subordinate.

Roth visits Wolfgang in his office. The latter tells him about Viktor revisiting Parkum.

Further, he informs Roth that Viktor wants to confess to the murder of Josy.

He requests the doctor to stop him from going ahead with it. Viktor is not ready to talk to him as they had an argument last night over the same issue.

It prompts an inquiry from Roth as to whether Wolfgang believes that Viktor is guilty.

But all Wolfgang wants is Viktor’s well-being and nothing else.

When Roth asks the reason behind their argument, he replies saying that Viktor has just got his life back and he cannot see him throw it away like this.

Now, Roth has understood that Wolfgang is still hiding a lot from him. So, he tries to blackmail the lawyer by threatening to expose his role in giving him the drugs for deliberate overdose. 

He asks for the truth for one last time. Wolfgang says all he wanted was to help his best friend.

The scene cuts and returns to the hospital with Roth making an entry to Viktor’s room.

He offers him pills to kill himself if he wishes the same but puts a rider that such an action won’t bring Josy back or offer him redemption.

Viktor says he doesn’t believe in forgiveness.

This is the point where Roth reveals how he became his doctor. Here is the reason:

How and Why Roth Became the Head of the Psychiatric Department and Received a High Recommendation from his Predecessor, Dr. Ludwig Merkt?

He blackmailed Merkt after he hid a mistake he made while treating a patient. Fearing losing respect and his medical license, Ludwig gave in to Roth’s demand of making him the head of the department.

Roth did it because he wanted to discover the truth behind Josy’s disappearance, look after Viktor, and also for his daughter, Mila.

Viktor tells him that he will confess to the crime. But Roth puts logical points to confront him.

What would he say? How would he explain that he got to know the truth while being comatose?

He asks if he is sure everything happened exactly the way he thought it did?

Dr. Roth tells Viktor that he has wronged Isabell as well.

And when Viktor expresses regret at not knowing where she is, the doctor says he is aware of her location.

How did Roth Know About Isabell’s Location?

Wolfgang told him about it when he was at his office.

Both of them rent a car and visit the desired destination.

Roth rings the doorbell and a reluctant Isabell lets them inside.

She asks why he is there. Viktor replies saying he wants to apologize before turning himself in.

Roth asks about Josy’s body since it was never found.

That’s when we hear the barking of a dog. His name is Sindbad just as Viktor had imagined in Parkum.

The duo is surprised and Roth asks if Josy is inside the house.

And when the girl finally makes an appearance, Viktor fails to hold his emotions.

He is spellbound, in tears, and out of words.

Josy asks her father if all that she had heard from Isabell about him was true.

That’s when the real truth comes out from Viktor himself.

Why Did Viktor Poison Josy in Sebastian Fitzek’s Therapy?

Viktor Larenz wanted her daughter to depend on her. He knew about her allergy to Corn. Hence, he would mix Aspirin tablets, which contain corn starch, in her juice.

Viktor poisoned her like this for years just to make Josy feel she could not survive without him.

The mental connection to this went way back to his mother’s death.

It infused insecurities in Viktor that just like his Mom and Dad left him, Josy would leave too, unless she was dependent on him.

Viktor suffered from Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy.

When the reality comes to light, Dr. Roth is stunned as he had never imagined Viktor to be the culprit.

Josy doesn’t accept his father’s apologies and leaves the hall.

Isabell says that she did all of it to protect Josy from Viktor and begins completing the rest of the puzzle.

What Exactly Happened at the End of Sebastian Fitzek’s Therapy?

After Viktor called Wolfgang on the day of Josy’s disappearance, he phoned Isabell and informed her about the same.

On her way to the doctor, the lady quickly returned to the house.

She saw Viktor walking alone but pretending to be with Josy.

It didn’t take much time for her to realize that something was really off.

Her pounding heart made her nervous when she found Josy lying on the ground near the bridge.

She managed to bring her back to her senses and made her sit on a nearby bench.

Wolfgang reached the scene and Isabell told him she wanted to distance Josy from Viktor.

But the lawyer was apprehensive.

That was when Viktor called Isabell and revealed that Josy had gone missing from the doctor’s clinic (Episode 1).

Isabell and Wolfgang hatched a plan to continue with Viktor’s theory of Josy’s disappearance.

The mother and daughter found a place far away from the city and began a new life together.

Following her narration, Viktor tells Isabell that whatever she did was the right thing to do. And that he will never interfere in their lives.

Dr. Roth visits Ines’ flower shop to buy something for Dr. Ludwig, to whom he later goes on to apologize.

Since Ludwig has a rose collection at home, he buys a flower pot of roses for him.

But eventually, he is not forgiven by Dr. Ludwig.

In the final scenes of the series, we see Josy and Mila leave for a trip to Amsterdam.

Josy makes a stopover at Viktor’s house to see him for one last time.

When both of them come face to face, Viktor once again visits Parkum inside his head.

This time, he finds Josy at the door instead of Anna Spiegel.

It means that finally, he was able to achieve his initial goal of going to Parkum, which was to bring her daughter back.

His conscience helped him do the same eventually.

They smile and Sebastian Fitzek’s Therapy ends.

Were Wolfgang and Isabell in a relationship?

No, they were good friends.

Did Josy Die in Sebastian Fitzek’s Therapy?

No, Josy never even disappeared in reality. It was all Viktor’s imagination.

Isabell and Wolfgang used his theory to make it look as if she had gone missing.

It allowed Josy and Isabell to start a new life, away from Viktor’s insecurities and mindless conspiracy theories.

Is Parkum a Real Place?

No, Parkum is a fictitious place that only existed in Viktor’s mind. He saw a painting at Dr. Grohlke’s clinic and later imagined himself visiting there to take some time off.

Did Anna Spiegel Suffer from Schizophrenia?

No. It was actually Viktor suffering from a rare form of Schizophrenia and since he was in his own memory, his subconscious mind allotted the disease to Anna Spiegel.

Why Was Doctor Roth Doing Experiments on Rats?

Mila, Roth’s daughter, was Josy’s best friend. The day she went missing, Mila was heartbroken and wanted her father to do something.

When Viktor overdosed and was lodged in the hospital, she wished Roth to at least save him from dying.

However, Roth had to find a miracle cure to bring him back to reality.

Therefore, he had to first test the potential medicines on rats. After two years of testing, he was finally able to find a cure.

All this while, Mila continued to think that Roth never cared about her feelings.

In reality, Roth went way beyond to save Viktor just for the love of her daughter.

He even blackmailed his predecessor to become the leader of the psychiatric department of the hospital.