As the guards escort the battered and bruised prisoners back into their wing, they are greeted by Deadpool. They stare at him, dressed in a white prison clothes whilst wearing him trademark mask. He asks if anyone wants to play checkers before reminding them that it’s Wednesday. He excitedly points out that there are fruit cocktails.
Dr. Ella Whitby is once again in the warden’s office being shouted at. He tells her it was in total violation of their policies but she tells him it was necessary and she is certain of it. He asks if she will allow all of the prisoners in the wing to wear their costumes. She tells him no and starts to tell him about Deadpool but he finishes her sentence by saying that he is a “unique case.” She dryly replies that he is and starts to talk again, calling Deadpool her patient. The warden corrects her by saying Deadpool is an inmate. She ignores him and continues by saying no other patient of hers required such measures. Now that he has a sense of security, he is cooperating fully and his treatment is progressing admirably. The warden is shocked at this and asks if Deadpool has fought the other inmates again. She tells him he hasn’t, especially now that Deadpool has found a place in the pecking order.
In the prison wing, Deadpool is sat at a table whilst all the other prisoners bring them their fruit cocktail deserts. As each one puts their desert in front of him, he gleefully thanks them, with a slightly mocking tone. Across the wing in his cell, the bandaged up Foolkiller stares at the scene and asks Ella when he is getting out of there. Standing in his cell, she tells him he will be allowed out when she is sure there won’t be any retaliation for last week’s incident. The others have moved on and the sooner he does too the sooner he can come out of solitary. She then reminds him to call her Dr. Whitby, not Ella. He shouldn’t take such liberties when he is not entitled to. Pointing to Deadpool, the Kurt Gerhardt, aka Foolkiller, asks what he calls her.
A little later, Deadpool greets her as “sugar-shorts” and asks what’s up. Sitting across a table from him she asks if he was asking how she managed to stop him from hallucinating. She continues and asks if they were strictly visual hallucinations of whether they were accompanied by voices. He tells her to answer his question first, and adds that they were boxes and not hallucinations. She goes along with his request and he wonders how she managed to get rid of the boxes. She replies that she didn’t do anything. Pointing a finger at her, he tells her she did do something, as she is a doctor and knows how to do things like that. She inquires as to what he means and he tells her she changes people, like puts things in their brains or takes them out if they aren’t useful to the mission. She grabs his hand which is waving in her face and tells him she isn’t that kind of doctor.
Across the room, Mr. Cereus chips in and tells Dr. Whitby to tell Deadpool what kind of doctor she really is. He starts to explain what degrees he has but Dr. Whitby interrupts and points out that she is in a session. He tells her he can see that and would like to offer her his professional opinion. She bluntly tells him she doesn’t want his help because, as she has reminded him on numerous occasions, he is no longer a professional. He sadly agrees but continues to say that having his credentials revoked does not void them. Getting annoyed, she tells him that if he continues to interfere she will have him placed in solitary. He asks if that means he doesn’t have to do puzzles anymore. Dr. Whitby yells for the guards and tells them to take him to pod 2. As the guards enter Mr. Cereus yells in frustration.
As Deadpool watches the guards bundle Mr. Cereus away, he asks what is so bad about the puzzles. He tells her he likes puzzles, which she is glad to hear as she has one for him. As she empties the pieces on to the table, Deadpool excitedly asks what kind of puzzle it is. She replies that it is a special puzzle she made just for him and there is no time limit, so he can take as long as he wants. He points out there is no image on the box and she tells him to start from the edges and work inwards, the image will reveal itself. She warns him that the image may cause him to experience emotions or urges that are intense. If that starts to happen, she would like him to tell her.
Deadpool interrupts her by saying “Karachi, eleven years ago.” She seems a little confused and he continues by saying the gig was bonkers and he lost a foot. As he stares at the pile of puzzle pieces he says she can’t tell but it all went down in a tool factory. He tells he the photo sucks and asks where it came from. She quietly tells him it was requested from Interpol and asks how he knew. He ignores her and says that they missed all the good stuff. He asks about the motorcycle ramp or the wire-assisted ropes he set up. Half of the guys he dropped with a falafel cart he modded with a thirty-cal minigun. They didn’t even have falafel carts in Pakistan, he had to get one flown in. The puzzle doesn’t show any of it, just the bodies.
Dr. Whitby tells him that it’s the bodies she wants him to look at. He replies that they are the boring part and she asks him if murder is boring to him. He tells her he is a mercenary, not a murderer and there is a difference. She asks if money motivated him to do what he did and he replies it was. She retorts that she doesn’t think it did and theorizes that he enjoys killing people.
Deadpool silently stares at her and she stares right back at him. Eventually, he speaks and tells her that, when he was a kid, he saw a full-grown man fall off his porch and die. Everyone in the neighborhood was shocked. He stops speaking and the two stare at each other in silence again for a few seconds. She calls out his name and prompts him to continue with his story, but he doesn’t know what she is talking about. Slightly frustrated, she tells him they will come back to it later. Pretending to yawn, Deadpool tells her to do it after naptime as he is sleepy. She tells him to finish the puzzle first and he reiterates he is sleepy. She says they made an agreement and she expects him to keep his word. She gets up and leaves him as he reluctantly starts piecing the puzzle together.
(ten days later)
Dr. Whitby is talking to the warden in his office and he asks why Deadpool is sleeping so much. The daily reports show him leaving his pod sparingly and some days he doesn’t leave at all. He asks if she is sedating him and she replies that she isn’t. He tells her that whatever she is doing seems to be working quite well. She disagrees and the warden sarcastically tells her that is to be expected. She ignores him and says that her program is based upon identification between the perpetrator and the victims. Intimate, detailed identification. The warden asks if she means the puzzles and she confirms she does.
She explains that, as they reconstruct the crime scene from an impartial point-of-view, they are forced to confront the stark reality of what they have done. It deflates their grandiose perception of their actions and themselves and it brings them down to Earth, so to speak. It has been quite successful with other patients but for some reason it is having the opposite effect on Deadpool. Every day, he becomes more and more despondent and his personality muted. She takes off her glasses and pinches the bridge of her nose as she tells the warden she is losing him.
The warden asks her to point him in the direction of the problem. What he is hearing is that one of the most violent and mentally unstable reprobates on the planet has gone from raving lunatic to model prisoner in less than three weeks. It’s quite an accomplishment and, the warden adds, he cannot stand her.
At Deadpool’s wing, the guards announce mail call as some of the inmates gather around. Two others look at the sleeping Deadpool and goad each other into asking him something. As one walks off to get the mail, the other plucks up the courage and approaches Deadpool. He quietly tries to get his attention but his pitiful attempts cause him to get laughed at by another inmate. The man yells a little louder and Deadpool starts to rouse, causing the man to recoil in terror. When he realizes Deadpool won’t hurt him, he says he and the other inmates wanted to know about Siryn. He asks if Deadpool ever slept with her but the merc replies that he could have but he doesn’t know, as he can’t remember. The man asks how he can’t remember something like that, to which Deadpool tells him he has done a lot of crazy stuff he can’t remember. That’s probably why he is there. The man assumes that he did sleep with Siryn but Deadpool angrily tells him he said he doesn’t remember.
The man’s friend comes over to see if he asked Deadpool what they wanted to know. He tells him that Deadpool can’t remember whether he did it or not and the other man is as equally confused. The first man asks where his mail is but is told he didn’t get any. Deadpool did though. He hands the surprised Deadpool an envelope and the merc looks at the front to see it is addressed to him but also sent from him as well. He holds it up and tells them that this is the kind of stuff he was talking about. He sent himself a letter and he can’t even remember doing it. One of the man tells him it could be a hacksaw, but his friend points out the guards would have confiscated it. Deadpool rips it open to see a photo but he doesn’t know who it is of. As he inspects it, one of the men tells him it’s of Charlie Chaplin. Deadpool wonders why he would send himself the photo and the men point out he is mental.
Elsewhere, a guard approaches Gerhardt’s cell and tells him he has a letter from the parole board. He pushes it against the clear glass and Gerhardt reads it, getting angry when he finishes. The guard tells him he will have it ready for when he comes out of solitary but Gerhardt tells him to burn it. The guard asks if it was bad news and the man replies it was something like that.
Later, Dr. Whitby and warden Aimes are walking through the complex. The warden brings up the Foolkiller and asks about the fact he is still in solitary after his fight with Deadpool. He sees the parole board recently reviewed his petition for release and they don’t take favorably to things like that. Then again, it is her recommendation that could carry weight on that matter. Particularly since she is a tyrannical over-indulged brat whose father controls the purse strings of the prison. He realizes that she isn’t listening to a word he is saying and tries to get her attention. He outright asks when Gerhardt will be released from solitary and Dr. Whitby replies that he won’t until his wounds have healed and she is sure he won’t retaliate. The warden tells her that even though he is of the opinion that she is inappropriately protective of prisoner Wilson, he is of the stronger opinion that the less excitement they have around there the better.
The warden moves on to the last order of business before Dr. Whitby begins her scheduled holiday but once again she has stopped listening to him. Picking up on something the warden said, she realizes that she is going to have to excite Deadpool to dissipate the fog of malaise that has filled his mind. The warden becomes annoyed and asks if she can hear his voice, as he is speaking to her. She replies that she can and he seems content with the answer because he is something of the utmost importance to tell her. Her idea is the absolute worst idea anyone has ever had dating back to the dawn of creation. She huffs and tells him that is his opinion, and an unprofessional one at that. He retorts by telling her, as a professional prison warden with as many years experiences as she has had living, stimulation is the opposite of what the prisoners like Deadpool need.
Waving a finger in her face, the warden says that such an ill-conceived notion would only lead to trouble, if not a full-scale riot. He raises his voice and tells her he won’t allow it. She tells him she understands and that he doesn’t need to raise his voice, as she can hear him fine. He backs down slightly and tells her he understands she is brilliant in her field but this is a prison, not academia. There is no safety net if they fall; they are the safety net. He asks her to think about it over the next few days and she agrees to it, telling him he has given her a lot to think about.
As she begins to walk away, he seems pleased with how things went but then shouts after her. He reminds her that Mr. Cereus is still in solitary and wonders if he is to remain there during her holiday. She seems a little surprised, as she had forgotten about him, and tells the warden he has learnt his lesson and should be released immediately. As she walks off, he tells her to enjoy her time away, as he know he will.
(that evening)
At her apartment complex, Dr. Whitby’s landlady, Mrs. Grainger, catches her in the hallway. She asks where the young woman has been keeping herself and Ella replies that she has been at work. Mrs. Grainger asks her if she has been sleeping at that place, to which Ella says that she has grown accustomed to it. Her landlady adds that she has grown accustomed to Mr. Grainger over the years but that doesn’t make him any less pleasurable to be around. Ella tells her she sees her point and walks to the elevator.
Mrs. Grainger follows her and awkwardly tries to bring up another subject. Ella asks if she has been receiving the rent payments to which the older lady replies that she has, like clockwork. Mrs. Grainger continues and says that if Ella is going to be away for long periods that she needs to make sure her rubbish bins are empty and maybe clean out her fridge. There have been complaints from other tenants about the smell. Ella seems a little embarrassed and explains she has been so engrossed in her work lately she has lost track of other things. Mrs. Grainger warns her not to spend too much time around the crazy people, as it can have an effect on her own mind. Ella finally enters her dingy apartment and walks over to her fridge. She opens it and stares at the empty shelves, and then opens a bag she has been carrying.
Back at the prison, two guards are walking through the wing. They are wondering what Dr. Whitby does with her time off and one jokes she probably spends the entire time eating and avoiding glimpsing herself in shiny surfaces. One of the men stops and the other continues on. The one who stopped asks where the other one is going and he replies he is off to pod 2. The first says this is why orders are supposed to be issued in writing, not that Dr. Whitby would ever stoop to such common levels. The first guard points to the pod he is standing next to but the other guard swears it is the other one. First guard says that he wasn’t there when she said whatever it was to him, but he knows she told him it was pod 3. The second guard defers to his supervisor’s rank and they decide to open pod three. As they open it up, the Foolkiller steps out, ready to play.
