Marietta Season 2 Episode 9 - Marietta’s Drag Race

 Marietta Season 2, Episode 9
Marietta's Drag Race

Marietta is sitting in her living room at 2 AM when she decides to call Tammy. She doesn’t receive an answer.
Marietta: Hey there Tammy. I know it’s late but I just needed to talk with someone. I can’t sleep and I think something might me wrong with me. I’m feeling chest pains and I’m really worried about it. I’m afraid I’m dying but it also might just be from when I pulled a muscle picking up my luggage when we were in DC. Anyway, call me back when you get this message and if I don’t respond just assume that I’m dead. Bye.
Marietta hangs up, then calls Patty Lynn.
Patty Lynn: Marietta! What’s going on? It’s two in the morning!
Marietta: Mom, I’m scared.
Patty Lynn: Have you been watching horror movies again?
Marietta: No, I’m scared that there’s something wrong with me.
Patty Lynn: What’s going on?
Marietta: I’m having pain in my chest and I’m scared that I’m dying.
Patty Lynn: It’s probably nothing, didn’t you say you picked up a suitcase a few days ago and it hurt?
Marietta: Yes, but I also have a tingling feeling in my neck and I feel like there’s pressure in my head. What if I’m having a heart attack or going into cardiac arrest or having a brain aneurysm? I could even have brain cancer. Or maybe the reason I’m having pains everywhere is because there’s something wrong with my blood and I have leukemia or lymphoma?
Patty Lynn: Marietta, you’re just worrying yourself over nothing. You’re always up late watching TV. What have you been watching? That Grey show?
Marietta: Grey’s Anatomy? No, haven’t been watching that. It hasn’t even been on
Patty Lynn: Have you watched any medical show of any kind?
Marietta: No. I went to the movies today to watch some of the movies nominated for Oscars. No medial stuff in any of them. After I got home, I started watching some witch show on Netflix and that’s what I’ve been watching all night. But now I wanted to go to bed but I’m too afraid I won’t wake up if I do.
Patty Lynn: You’re going to wake up.
Marietta: But what if I don’t? What if this is the end for me?
Patty Lynn: It won’t be. You have to trust me. I’m your mother and I demand it.
Marietta: Are you just saying that because you want to go back to sleep?
Patty Lynn: It’s late, so I really would like to go back to sleep. But that’s not why I’m saying it. I’m saying it because you’re not in grave danger and I know that. Mothers know these things.
Marietta: I think I’m just going to try and stay up until I can call the doctor at seven and then I’m going to go in and get hacked out just to be sure. At least if I’m awake and something drastic would happen, I could call for help.
Patty Lynn: That’s not really needed. Get some rest, wake up early enough to call and get an appointment, and get checked out. Keeping yourself awake long enough that it could damage your immune system and actually get you sick isn’t the way to go.
Marietta: Alright, I’ll try. Thanks for listening. Now you get back to bed. Good night.
Patty Lynn: Good night, Marietta.
Marietta hangs up, sets her cell phone alarm for eight, and lays down, continuing to watch TV until she falls asleep three hours later. She is awoken by the alarm after three hours of sleep, calls the doctor, and heads to her appointment at noon.
Dr. Bouchard: Ms. Landfield, what are you in for today?
Marietta: I was having chest pain last night, and I’m feeling pressure in my head and a tingle in my neck. It’s very worrying to me. I think I might have cancer or a weakened heart.
Dr. Bouchard: There’s not much that I can do about your cancer concern without a blood test, but I can listen to your heart and take your blood pressure and make sure everything’s working just fine.
Marietta: That would be great, thank you.
Dr. Bouchard checks Marietta’s vitals.
Dr. Bouchard: Your heart sounds healthy as can be, and your heart rate and blood pressure are just fine. Your vision seems to be fine and your hearing is fine as well. From what I see, you are perfectly fine. It’s important for you to go get your blood testing done soon so I can officially give you a clean bill of health.
Marietta: That’s great! I’ll go right now. How long until I hear something.
Dr. Bouchard: Usually two to three days.
Marietta: Alright, I will be waiting patiently.
Three days later…
Dr. Bouchard: Hello Ms. Landfield, I’m calling with your test results.
Marietta: Oh, hello Dr. Bouchard.
Dr. Bouchard: Your blood tests all came back as expected, completely fine. I was, however, talking to one of my colleagues about your case and she said it sounded to her like a case of anxiety, in particular health anxiety.
Marietta: Oh, I worry about more than just my health, I can assure you.
Dr. Bouchard: I figured as much. That’s why I’m thinking you should go to a psychiatrist. There’s a few I could recommend, but one in particular that I’d recommend for you is Dr. Clara Mongeaux. She’s helped a lot of patients of mine with similar symptoms to yours.
Marietta: When could I get in to see her?
Dr. Bouchard: I already called her office just so I could tell you. She has an opening for a consultation on January 29.
Marietta: Six days from now? That’s soon enough, I guess. I was worried it would be longer. It’s always longer.
Dr. Bouchard: I recommend that you call soon to get that appointment, I just spoke to them an hour ago so it should still be available.
Marietta: Thank you so much, I’ll go do that right now.
Six days later…
Clara: Marietta Landfield, come on in.
Marietta walks back to Dr. Mongeaux’s office with her.
Clara: Welcome to my office, Mayor Landfield. Let me just start by saying that I spoke with Dr. Bouchard about your case so I know a bit of what’s going on, but obviously not as much as you do so if you could help walk me through everything, that’d me great. Oh, and just so you know, you can call me whatever you’re comfortable with. Clara, Dr. Mongeaux, either one is fine by me.
Marietta: I’ll go with Clara.
Clara: Great choice.
Marietta: Alright, this is my first time seeing a psychiatrist ever so this is new for me. So, I started having an overwhelming sense of panic about two weeks ago. I’m sure you probably know already, but my brother recently became a US Senator. I was in DC with him. All was going well until the third night we were there. I just felt scared. Scared that things were just going to be the same any more. Milton’s not going to be around on a daily basis anymore, just after we all got back together. I was feeling strange about it in the days before, but never this intense. I was never scared about it. Then, the day we’re starting the come back, I strain myself picking up my suitcase, which was extremely heavy since I go above and beyond when it comes to souvenir buying. That strain led to me eventually thinking I was dying but we’ll get to that later. So, after I strain myself, while I’m in the bathroom at the airport, I had a massive panic attack in the bathroom. No warning before, it just came on suddenly. That was a few minutes after Milton had dropped us off. I think that’s what triggered it, but I don’t know.
Clara: It sounds to me as if your fear of this big change is causing you a great deal of anxiety.
Marietta: Oh, you don’t know the half of it.
Clara: Sorry for interrupting, continue onwards.
Marietta: Okay, so now it’s three days after that airport panic attack. I’m relaxing at home after a day at the movies. All the sudden, a sudden feeling comes over me. It tells me I’m dying, because I felt a tingling feeling in my neck. Dr. Bouchard tells me that’s just the strain and I believe her. I think. I also had pains in my chest and pressure in my head. I don’t know what caused that head pressure but the chest stuff was probably also a strain. Still, at that time it was enough to convince me I was dying of every awful thing under the sun. Cancer of the everything, a brain aneurysm, a heart attack, whatever. Getting my blood tests back a few days ago was the only thing that ever truly convinced me I was okay. That I didn’t have cancer. I had no reason to believe I did have cancer, and I still don’t, but there’s still a tiny part of me that still believes I do because it has been nine days since my blood work was done and what if something’s changed since then? It’s hard to live like this. It’s hard to try to pretend you’re okay when you’re not. To put on a brave face. It’s especially hard when you have the profession that I do and you’re too afraid to go outside because guess what, I’m also afraid of non-health-related things. Like getting shot. I’m too afraid to go just about anywhere because I’m seeing a new shooting on the news every day and worry that the next one will involve me. It feels like we’re moving off topic here but I just needed to let that out.
Clara: No, you can say whatever it is you want to. Don’t be afraid to change the subject if something important like that pops into your head.
Marietta: It feels nice to talk about this stuff with someone who I know isn’t going to judge me. I love my family and I love my friends, but I’m afraid to talk about it with them. I don’t know if they’d understand and I don't want them -
Marietta starts to cry and struggles to catch her breath.
Clara: Take your time, it’s all right.
Marietta: I don’t want them to think I’m crazy. Because I certainly think I’m crazy. I do weird things now that I never did before this started. I have to make sure every door in my house is locked. If I forget any, even if I’m laying in bed about to drift off to sleep, I’ll have to jump out of bed and check. Because you never know when something might happen, when someone might come in my house. That’d be my luck. I have to pray every night or else I’m scared of what might happen. This whole thing has made me more religious. I’m not mentioning this as like a “I need help getting over that, it’s crazy” kind of thing. I’ve always believed in God. But since I started freaking out over my health, I’ve been praying every day, which is unusual for me. Haven’t missed a single day. That first night, when I called my mom to tell her I thought I was dying because I pulled a few muscles, was the first time I prayed in years. I prayed to god asking that he’d watch over me and protect me and let me survive the night, and that if I didn’t survive, that he’d watch over my family after I was gone. You should have seen my fave while I was doing it. The entire Mississippi River was flowing out of my eyes. So this anxiety is changing me for sure. I have a picture of my parents on my nightstand. It’s been there for years, even as I moved from house to house. Now, that has to be the very last thing I see before I close my eyes so if I die, I die with something meaningful being the last thing I ever saw. This next thing is going to sound weird but it all ties in, I promise. Do you know the song Songbird by Fleetwood Mac?
Clara: Yes, I do. Beautiful song.
Marietta: It sure is. That Christine McVie sure can play the piano. That is my favorite song in the entire world. It played at my wedding, I used to sing it to my son as a baby, I love it. I have to listen to that song every single night before I go to bed. Because just like with the picture, I’m afraid that something might happen to me while I’m asleep and if it does, then I die with that song being the last thing I ever heard.
Clara: I have heard something like this before with another of my patients.
Marietta: Oh good, so I’m not the only crazy one.
Clara: Don’t think of yourself as crazy. That’s a word with very negative connotations and calling yourself crazy doesn’t help you at all. Now, Dr. Bouchard told me that she thought you were exhibiting a severe fear of death. She said you seemed fixated on it. Would you like to share anything about that?
Marietta: I don’t even think my fear of death is my biggest problem. It’s that I’m afraid of death happening to other people. My mother is in her seventies, my father is in his seventies, my aunt is in her seventies, my best friend is in her seventies. They’re all healthy for their age and active, but the simple fact is that I don’t have that much time left with any of them, and that scares me. Then you have these people that are young and perfectly healthy and perfectly happy that still die. Look at Betty Benoit, she died in her forties. She was at her daughter’s dance recital one moment and getting flattened by a Ford Fiesta the next. Death is fickle. You never know who it’ll take next. It keeps me up at night. This is going to sound cr- I mean, strange, but I also am afraid of change because sometimes change feels a lot like death. Case in point, I have anxiety about TV shows I like ending. They’re just shows to most people, but to me, these characters on TV are like my friends and they’re all leaving me. The Good Place is ending, Criminal Minds is ending, Schitt’s Creek is ending. I watch a lot of TV so this could get long, I’ll stop this list now. The concept that things have to change and that things I love will have to leave me forever is terrifying and it makes me cry a lot. I don’t like crying a lot.
Clara: Nobody does, but it is a natural part of life. I’m going to try to help you cope with all of that It’ll be difficult, but I’m going to try to help get you better. We’re running out of time for today but I think we should probably begin seeing each other regularly. Does once a week work for you?
Marietta: Yes, that’ll be fine. Can I just ask you one quick question?
Clara: We have about two minutes left so sure, ask away.
Marietta: How do you suppose I go about telling people that I suffer from this? I’ve told my parents and my friend Tammy that I’ve felt this way, but nobody else. It’s hard to tell someone you suffer from anxiety and depression.
Clara: Whoever you do trust enough to tell about this, just be open and honest with them about it. You don’t have to tell them everything you told me, but if they ask questions and you are comfortable sharing that with them, go ahead and do it. If you don’t want to tell them something, you don’t have to.
Marietta: Thank you, again. I’ll see you next week.
Clara: Just go out to see one of the girls at the front desk and they’ll let you know what times I have available for appointments. See you next week some time.
Later that day, at the Mayor’s Mansion…
Marietta: Tammy, can you call up Amy?
Tammy: Amy? Why? I almost forgot she was working for you.
Marietta: I know, she’s been extremely quiet lately. I appreciate that. I want to ask her for her help constructing a speech to make.
Tammy: What about?
Marietta: I want to let the people of New Orleans know about my mental health struggles. I think they have a right to know what I’m going through. Amy skinned me alive at our debate so I think she can help me find the right words. You can, too. We’ll do it together.
Tammy: Alright, I’ll call her. Have you told your family about everything yet?
Marietta: Just my parents. I’m scared to tell Milton. I keep trying to text it to him because I’m too afraid to call him but I’m also too afraid to text. After I texted you about it, I was too nervous to even look at my phone for like eight hours. That’s the way I’ve felt about texting for weeks now. Even something that isn’t huge like telling someone your deepest, scariest secret leaves me anxious about how someone’s gonna react to it.
Tammy: Marietta…
Marietta: Yes?
Tammy: I’m sorry you’re going through this. You don’t deserve to be.
Marietta: I’ve almost grown to accept it. Almost. It’s hard getting used to being a nervous wreck all the time when I wasn’t before, but it’s okay. I’ll get through it.
Tammy: You are strong and brave and I’m proud to know you.
Marietta: Bring it in. You clearly want to give me a hug.
Tammy: You know me too well.
Three hours later…
Marietta: Thank you both for helping me write this. This is important to me.
Amy: No problem. We might have fought like cats and dogs in the past but I’m happy to help now. That’s all behind us.
Marietta: It better be, you are my Press Secretary.
Amy: You know what I mean. I feel like we’re becoming friends finally.
Marietta: I do, too.
Tammy: Hey! Tammy’s still here!
Marietta: You know I love you, Tammy. We’ve always been friends though. Amy and I are just having a breakthrough here.
Tammy: I know. I just felt like giving you a hard time.
Amy: Marietta, I’m really glad you called me for help. Besides being the best speechwriter on this side of the Mississippi, I also know what it’s like to struggle with my mental health. So if you ever need to talk, give me a call.
Marietta: Thank you. That’s brave of you to share that. I’ll give you a call. 
Tammy Just don’t do it at two in the morning like you did with me!
Amy: You can if you want. I'm a heavy sleeper though, you won’t get an answer.
Tammy: Same here.
Marietta: Oh, so now you’re bonding with Amy? I see how it is.
Tammy: I’m just joking. Again.
Amy: So, when are you going to make sure speech?
Marietta: Tomorrow. It’s almost six now, people are probably watching Jeopardy. I don’t want to interrupt that.
Tammy: Just let me know what time. I want to be there.
Marietta: I’ll let you know, trust me.
The next day, Marietta stands outside the Mayor’s Mansion to deliver her speech.
Marietta: New Orleans, I am standing here today because I think it’s important to share something with you. For the past several weeks, I have been struggling tremendously with my mental health. Though that struggle has not impacted my job performance as your mayor, I feel it’s the right of every citizen of this city to know the struggles I am facing during my time serving you. Many of you will have questions, I know that. Many of you will also know what I’m going through. I’m speaking out not only because I feel it is my duty, but also to ensure that every New Orleanian out there who struggles with mental illness knows that they have a voice, a supporter and a fighter for their causes. I will make it a priority to ensure that every person in this city can feel safe to open up about their mental illnesses and can receive access to treatment. I am receiving treatment from great doctors, and everyone should be able to do the same. This is a public health emergency and I’ll do everything to help everyone who, like me, suffers from this horrible condition. Thank you all.
Marietta finishes her speech and goes into the mansion after the press begins to leave.
Marietta: Tammy…
Tammy: Yes?
Marietta: Thank you for being there for that. I needed the support.
Tammy: You have it from me. Always. By the way, did you ever tell Milton what you’ve been going through? He’d probably like to know before the whole world does.
Marietta: I knew I forgot something!

What did you think of the episode? Comment your thoughts, listen to the official season two playlist below and make sure to read the new episode next week!

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