Unforgettable (TV Series)

Past Tense (2013)

Opal Alladin: Major Perkins

Quotes 

• Major Perkins : So this is about one of our patients?

  Carrie Wells : Yeah. I need you to help me identify someone, a soldier. He's a person of interest in a homicide investigation.

  Major Perkins : Well, who was the victim?

  Carrie Wells : A cab driver. Bashir Sajadi. He left behind a wife, two small children.

  Major Perkins : I'm sorry. And all you know is this soldier served in Afghanistan? Without other parameters, I'm not sure I can help you.

  Carrie Wells : Dr. Perkins, how many soldiers come back from Afghanistan speaking fluent Pashto?

  Major Perkins : Well, it generally takes several tours to build up language proficiency.

  Carrie Wells : There's another parameter. I mean, how many people in your session yesterday did several tours in Afghanistan? Dr. Perkins, I need your help. I'm running out of time here. Please.

• Major Perkins : John suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder. Actually, I'm not sure calling it a disorder is really accurate. In fact, I think there'd be something wrong if our troops came home and were not profoundly affected by their experience. And in John's case, a particularly devastating experience.

  Carrie Wells : What happened?

  Major Perkins : In his last deployment, he lost his best friend to a suicide bomber. I don't know all the details. I do know that that same blast led to John's traumatic brain injury. He was in a coma for almost a month.

  Carrie Wells : You say you don't know all the details. Why?

  Major Perkins : He says he can't remember.

  Carrie Wells : Can't or won't?

  Major Perkins : John blames himself for his friend's death. That guilt is like a barrier preventing his recovery. His amnesia, delusion even, about the events of that day, willful or not, acts like a kind of... of armor protecting him from the truth. John forgets in order to survive. But only by remembering can he begin to heal.