‘Anger Management’ Review: “Charlie Outs A Patient”

Another week, another tepid entry for Charlie Sheen! ‘Anger Management’ season 1 gets battered by its eighth episode, as Charlie finds himself accidentally disclosing that his patient Nolan is in anger management, only to realize that the girl he discloses to has severe issues of his own.

Last week’s sixth episode  “Charlie's Patient Gets Out of Jail” saw Charlie Goodson finding himself with a house-guest in the form of one of his paroled inmate patients, whom his ex-wife Jennifer takes a liking to, so what will the most recent outing bring?  Are there more laughs to be had in the eighth half-hour, or is it merely battering us into submission?

Read on for your in-depth recap of everything you need to know about ‘Anger Management’ episode 8, “Charlie Outs a Patient!”

With Charlie in the shower, Jennifer comes in the bathroom to ask that he take care of Sam’s sleepover this weekend, as she’s going away to be with a new boyfriend.  Charlie tries to say no, but she scalds him with the flushes until he reluctantly agrees.

The next day at therapy, Charlie tries to suss out who might have given him a bad review on Yelp, when Nolan pipes up that he’s nervous about a date he has that evening.  Kate happens to walk in during the session, observing that Charlie seems somewhat overly involved with his patients’ lives, as Charlie tries to instill self-confidence in Nolan for his date with Athena.  Rather than bring her by to show the others however, Nolan admits he hasn’t told her about his anger therapy yet.

Afterward, Kate confronts Charlie about his involvement with his patients, revealing that he intends to happen by the bar Nolan takes his date to later that night, in order to make him look good in front of Athena.  In retaliation, she points out that he has an overwhelming need to be loved by his patients.

At the bar that night, Nolan and Athena seem to happily make future plans when Charlie shows up unannounced to talk his patient up, but Nolan nervously passes Charlie off as his urologist.  Bad timing though, as Brett rushes over asking for Charlie’s help s an anger management therapist, and when Athena realizes she’s been lied to, she takes off.  Hey, dinner’s on Charlie!

After Kate once more points out that Charlie should find an office to work out of, lest he get too involved, Nolan and Athena undergo a session with Charlie to settle their differences.  Athena readily supports Nolan, but when the man leaves the room, she goes bug-eyed crazy on Charlie!

Flash forward the next session past the weekend, and Nolan answers Charlie that he didn’t receive any of his concerned emails, being that Athena’s “cat” smashed the laptop.  Then in session, Nolan announces that he’s leaving the group at Athena’s request, even moving in with her, though the entire group tries to tell him of Athena’s craziness and his bad idea.  Strikingly, Lacey insists that they have to help him, but Charlie isn’t sure.

The next night at Sam’s sleepover, everyone seems to text about how boring it is, before Charlie receives a call from a black-eyed Nolan, having retreated to a battered women’s shelter!  Confirming Athena’s anger issues, Charlie reluctantly agrees to pick him up given that Lacey wouldn’t, but since his neighbor Michael is too baked to chaperone the sleepover, Charlie is forced to take the girls with him.  In the car ride home, the girls aren’t fooled by Charlie’s attempts to brush off Nolan’s black eye.

Later, the girls add make-up Nto olan’s eye, before Lacey strolls in having reluctantly agreed to give Charlie’s “being there for fellow patients” approach a try.  Just then, Sam enters to inform that there’s a drunk woman outside the house looking for Nolan!  Denying her own affections, Lacey resolves to take matters into her own hands by confronting Athena with Charlie’s giant spoon decoration.  Inspired, Charlie intervenes, claiming that he’s going to resolve this for Nolan, and find him a new therapist given that he’s clearly failed the man if he’d allow Lacey to fight his battles.  Further inspired, Nolan resolves to take care of the matter himself, and seemingly talks Athena down, until she gets in her car and attempts to run him over!

Later on, Charlie explains to Kate that he managed to inspire Lacey with his own methods of therapy, but she suggests that she inspired Nolan using hers, making them both right.

You know, we more or less enjoyed this episode of 'Anger Management.'  Sure, the characters are mostly stock, but it's nice to see Charlie not so much acting the rogue anymore, and displaying genuine moments of care for his patients' well-being.  And like it or not, a 90-episode renewal for the series is likely due any day now, so we'd all better get comfortable with 'Anger Management.'

Did you like the latest episode of ‘Anger Management,’ or did it make you seethe with rage?  What did you think about the episode?  Join us  next week for another all-new ‘Anger Management’ episode recap of “Charlie's Dad Visits!” on FX!