What should we do when a patient brings a loaded gun into a session? In a relational psychoanalytic paradigm, it’s impossible to know in advance what the response to a moment of such intense pressure might be. An analyst’s ability to respond quickly, in a way that facilitates change, depends on adhering to asymmetrical aspects of psychoanalytic ritual while simultaneously holding that adherence dialectically with spontaneous personal participation. Deviations from ritualized aspects of the frame in the form of spontaneous gestures are what afford improvisations their special charge; how analysts make use of their countertransference can, therefore, be the key to an enactment’s potential. This paper discusses how Laura D’Angelo’s spontaneous decision to initiate an improvisation communicated her willingness to extend herself “beyond the call of duty.” In this example, the most significant aspect of the improvisation may not be so much what was being improvised as who was initiating the improvising.