A Beautiful Mind Scenes 41-45 Summary

Scene 41

  • John and Alicia are in bed, and Alicia tries to start up some sexy times with John. However, he's not really into it. It seems that the medication has dulled his sexy feelings.
  • Alicia goes to get a glass of water and then flips out in the bathroom, breaking the glass against the mirror and crying.

Scene 42

  • The next day, John takes the broken mirror out to the trash, and Alicia says she's going to work late that night.

Scene 43

  • It's another evening now, and Alicia brings John his pills. She's going to bed.
  • John hides the pills in a box in his drawer, and then suddenly notices some pattern in the newspaper on his desk.
  • Uh oh, it looks like he's been doing this for a while—there are a few pills in there.
  • Then, he hears a rock being thrown at his window. When he looks out, he sees a figure fleeing from his house. He chases the person.
  • Suddenly, he's in the middle of the woods, and Parcher is there with a bunch of other men pointing flashlights at John.
  • John tells them that they aren't real, but Parcher claims he is.
  • He tells John it's time to get back to work and takes him into a new secret headquarters…in a shed on John and Alicia's property. Um, yeah, because that seems likely.
  • John is desperately trying to sort out the real from the fake, and Parcher manages to convince him that this whole conspiracy thing is legit.

Scene 44

  • Flash forward to another day. Alicia is doing laundry, and John is drawing the baby's bath.
  • While Alicia's outside hanging the wash, she hears the door to the shed flapping in the breeze and goes to investigate.
  • Inside the shed, she finds that John's taken over the shed with articles. It looks just like his office did when they first discovered he was sick.
  • She realizes he's ill again, and rushes to go make sure the baby is safe.
  • She gets there just in time—the baby is almost completely covered in water in the tub. John tells her that Charles was watching him, and that he's not visible because of a "cloaking serum." Oh dear.
  • Things escalate from there, and John tries to talk down his terrified wife while also dealing with the various hallucinations that surround him—Charles, Charles' niece, William, etc.
  • Alicia tries to call Dr. Rosen, but John gets in the way, so she flees.
  • However, John eventually manages to reel himself back in, and chases Alicia outside to stop her from leaving.
  • He's realized that Charles' niece never gets older, so she can't be real. Finally: a breakthrough?

Scene 45

  • Dr. Rosen is now at their house, and they're discussing John's decision to stop his meds.
  • John explains that he abandoned the pills because he couldn't work, help with the baby, or have sex with his wife.
  • Dr. Rosen then tries to convince John to go on a higher dose, and John says he wants to try to find a solution using his own mind. Dr. Rosen is less than convinced that this is a good plan.