Kieslowski's second "Dekalog" episode is a story about a woman who wants a doctor to decide her fate for her. Her husband is terribly sick and under the care of the doctor. She's pregnant with another man's child. Does she have an abortion and live happily ever after with her cured husband? Or does she have the child with the other man and bury her incurable husband? The doctor will not answer. Well, at least, at first. The woman pressures him and pressures him. The film is mostly shot with intimate close-ups of the key players as they go about mundane daily rituals. The probability that the husband will survive is only revealed slowly and with much agonizing suspense for the woman. Finally, against his own will, the doctor gives her an answer and "swears" (hence the title of this episode) by it. Is his swearing based on science, his own troubled past, or a little bit of both? Though the film focuses on the woman, there is much footage of the doctor recounting his past to his housekeeper and friend. It all makes sense as to why the story unfolds this way in the sublime ending. It's the doctor's story as much as it is the woman's. Episode II is my 7th favorite in the series.
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