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It's a recurring element of the show. Many of the characters have unhappy pasts, beginning with Jim Profit. And Profit orchestrates for a number of characters, scenarios where they confront those who have harmed them...
We start, in the Pilot episode, with Jim Profit himself. His childhood was clearly miserable and Jim reacts by burning his father.
There's Jeff Sykes, coming to work for the man that arranged the murder of his parents. Sykes, who hopes to use his position at G&G to prevent the company from doing to others, what it did to his family. Sykes would have been a good fit in S5 of AtS, as one of Angel's team taking a job at Wolfram & Hart. Indeed, I have to wonder if the idea of eventually having Angel work at W&H didn't have it's initial genesis in Jeff Sykes.
Another example, Joanne Meltzer - in "Healing", Profit uses his access through the Psyciatrist to force Joanne to confront her memory of discovering her father's suicide. It screws with her, but Joanne is strong and has as of yet survived with her self and purpose intact. Though clearly rattled... But this paves the way for a later, and IMHO more powerful confrontation scene - Joanne and the Psychiatrist.
While the Doctor didn't violate Joanne as he did other patients - the knowledge that he had done to others is already violation, destroying her trust as surely as if he had done it to her directly. And I think that's a key... There's a certain lure to look at someone and think... well, that they're still okay to be around and trust if they only do the bad stuff to other people... But Dr. Grant can acknowledge that he can only hope he wouldn't have violated her - he doesn't really know that he wouldn't have. We already know he was weak enough to turn a patient over to Jim. Joanne can't trust him.
And yet, for all her anger, and all that she's been abused, Joanne doesn't pull the trigger and kill Dr. Grant. She doesn't give in to him either - she kicks him out. But she doesn't lose herself. Her character is tested and she passes - just as she passes the Lie Detector test. And yet, life is unfair, so passing the test still does not equate to victory. Jim passes the Lie Detector Test too...
And then, there are two concluding similar cases: Gail and Nora. Gail who was sexually harassed by Creepy Scientist Guy and Nora who was sexually abused by her Uncle Arthur. Both men are unrepentant of their actions, and only the Creepy Scientist seems to even have some awareness that he might have actually done anything wrong. He doesn't believe he's wronged Gail - but he accepts that Gail feels wrong, unlike Arthur who seems unwilling to accept that Nora has been hurt.
Gail is a party to her confrontation with Dr. Batewell. Jim prepares her to play the game with him. Although she's not entirely privy to Jim's plan, she knows there is a plan. Nora, on the other hand, doesn't know Arthur is there as part of a plan, and really doesn't want to face him. Both are placed in circumstances where they can try to save the violator, Arthur and Batewell, and both Nora and Gail choose silence instead... This is the answer Profit wants them to choose. Not the answer Joanne took.
But then, Nora and Gail have an additional violator, there... Profit, himself. And while Jim probably thinks he's helping them - making them stronger by orchestrating the confrontations... one can't be sure. Gail discovers that her vengeance feels hollow and Nora feels "evil" - and this is a feeling of stain that neither will escape. Unlike Jim, who feels little stain over what he's done to his father.
But regardless, Jim has manipulated these events - not for Gail or Nora - but to serve his own ends. And such, even though Gail and Nora both trust Jim - they probably shouldn't. As Joanne asked of Dr. Grant - what other manipulations would Jim pull. Would he set up their disappearance or death - as he did to Batewell and Arthur - if this served him?
And my train of thought is lost. But in the end, I still go back to that scene with Joanne and Dr. Grant in "Healing" - it still feels like the heart of the series to me... and yeah, it's my favorite episode because of that.
We start, in the Pilot episode, with Jim Profit himself. His childhood was clearly miserable and Jim reacts by burning his father.
There's Jeff Sykes, coming to work for the man that arranged the murder of his parents. Sykes, who hopes to use his position at G&G to prevent the company from doing to others, what it did to his family. Sykes would have been a good fit in S5 of AtS, as one of Angel's team taking a job at Wolfram & Hart. Indeed, I have to wonder if the idea of eventually having Angel work at W&H didn't have it's initial genesis in Jeff Sykes.
Another example, Joanne Meltzer - in "Healing", Profit uses his access through the Psyciatrist to force Joanne to confront her memory of discovering her father's suicide. It screws with her, but Joanne is strong and has as of yet survived with her self and purpose intact. Though clearly rattled... But this paves the way for a later, and IMHO more powerful confrontation scene - Joanne and the Psychiatrist.
While the Doctor didn't violate Joanne as he did other patients - the knowledge that he had done to others is already violation, destroying her trust as surely as if he had done it to her directly. And I think that's a key... There's a certain lure to look at someone and think... well, that they're still okay to be around and trust if they only do the bad stuff to other people... But Dr. Grant can acknowledge that he can only hope he wouldn't have violated her - he doesn't really know that he wouldn't have. We already know he was weak enough to turn a patient over to Jim. Joanne can't trust him.
And yet, for all her anger, and all that she's been abused, Joanne doesn't pull the trigger and kill Dr. Grant. She doesn't give in to him either - she kicks him out. But she doesn't lose herself. Her character is tested and she passes - just as she passes the Lie Detector test. And yet, life is unfair, so passing the test still does not equate to victory. Jim passes the Lie Detector Test too...
And then, there are two concluding similar cases: Gail and Nora. Gail who was sexually harassed by Creepy Scientist Guy and Nora who was sexually abused by her Uncle Arthur. Both men are unrepentant of their actions, and only the Creepy Scientist seems to even have some awareness that he might have actually done anything wrong. He doesn't believe he's wronged Gail - but he accepts that Gail feels wrong, unlike Arthur who seems unwilling to accept that Nora has been hurt.
Gail is a party to her confrontation with Dr. Batewell. Jim prepares her to play the game with him. Although she's not entirely privy to Jim's plan, she knows there is a plan. Nora, on the other hand, doesn't know Arthur is there as part of a plan, and really doesn't want to face him. Both are placed in circumstances where they can try to save the violator, Arthur and Batewell, and both Nora and Gail choose silence instead... This is the answer Profit wants them to choose. Not the answer Joanne took.
But then, Nora and Gail have an additional violator, there... Profit, himself. And while Jim probably thinks he's helping them - making them stronger by orchestrating the confrontations... one can't be sure. Gail discovers that her vengeance feels hollow and Nora feels "evil" - and this is a feeling of stain that neither will escape. Unlike Jim, who feels little stain over what he's done to his father.
But regardless, Jim has manipulated these events - not for Gail or Nora - but to serve his own ends. And such, even though Gail and Nora both trust Jim - they probably shouldn't. As Joanne asked of Dr. Grant - what other manipulations would Jim pull. Would he set up their disappearance or death - as he did to Batewell and Arthur - if this served him?
And my train of thought is lost. But in the end, I still go back to that scene with Joanne and Dr. Grant in "Healing" - it still feels like the heart of the series to me... and yeah, it's my favorite episode because of that.