Feb. 14 “It’s Impossible” Season 2, Episode 4

In this season’s entry “It’s Impossible,” everything begins to fall apart, not entirely as in a landslide, but as in a series of cracks in the fountain.

Babe Paley (Naomi Watts) is given a fatal diagnosis. Her doctor offers various bits of hope, all landing her on the same deathbed.

In a tender, sad scene, Bill Paley (Treat Williams) and Babe spend an evening together, having drinks, listening to Perry Como singing “It’s Impossible,” hanging a new painting, and opening a box of truth, where she reveals her knowledge of his affair with Slim Keith, who is about to sue Truman Capote (Tom Hollander) for defamation.

You may wonder how in the complex society they sleep in, the affair could stay hidden for so long. No one here explains that.

Truman completes his list for one more gala party with the obnoxious John O’Shea (Russel Tovey) until it all ends in violence.

At a dinner where Truman sits with a kidney full of alcohol, Slim slithers in like a snake, and against a wall in the restaurant hallway, she sinks her fangs.

“Babe loathes you, Truman,” Slim hisses.

“You’re not in the picture. You’re not in her life. You’re not in the will. And none of that will ever change, because you are incapable of change.” Damn.

Shortly after, Truman, with a punctured heart, has a torturous cafe scene with his ex, Jack Dunphy (Joe Mantello), where Jack pleads with Truman to enter rehab. We all know how that will end.

A couple of scenes at the floral countryside rehab palace, with C.Z. Guest and Joanne Carson (the all-new and grown-up Molly Ringwald), are dominated by Truman, who promises to all that he will go dry, and then tops it with a few sentences about his “ongoing manuscripts” that sets the ladies’ pearls trembling.

Not long after, we are not surprised to find Truman as he begins lacing his orange juice with a“bit” of liquor.

Do we remember the brutal John O’Shea’s daughter Kerry O’Shea? (Ella Beatty) — of course not — but here she is on Truman’s marble doorstep, pleading for his help in getting work in writing.

Truman gives her a lecture on the pitfalls of the art with advice, “Keep a notebook, about all you meet, facts, conversations. Talk,” he whispers, “is where secrets live.”

Still, using his contacts, he sets her on a successful road to modeling.

In a scene on a street, Babe, near death, hugs Truman as though he were a beloved child or a Teddy Bear. Their eyes fill with tears as he clings to her fur coat.

It’s the tenderest moment for both of them, two damaged human beings who once loved one another. They hug and he walks away.

Later, she tells someone, “He was the love of my life.”

The “It’s Impossible” chapter of “Feud: Capote vs. The Swans” continues to display the “corps de ballet” of the amazing women filling our screens, and its leading actor continues to surprise and amaze us with his spot-on portrayal of Truman Capote.

And the story goes on.

J.P. Devine of Waterville is a former stage and screen actor.

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