Summary
Shrinking is always funny, but Season 2 has been effectively dramatic, and that becomes more true in Episode 4, “Made You Look”.
Shrinking has never just been a comedy, but it does feel like Season 2 is taking a more dramatic approach, especially in Episode 4, “Made You Look”. As if the ongoing subplot with Alice and the drunk driver who killed her mother wasn’t traumatic enough, now we have Sean at his lowest ebb, Paul grappling with the idea of losing himself to Parkinson’s, and Brian and Charlie deciding to adopt a child. Whatever next?
These subplots intersect, too. They overlap and compound, making everything worse. That’s emotionally worse, you understand — the quality of the storytelling is, as ever, phenomenal.
The Morning After
There’s a very “morning after the night before” quality to “Made You Look”. This is particularly true for Alice and Connor, who wake up next to each other after Alice made a move on him in the previous episode. This subplot hasn’t exploded just yet — the two of them just spent the episode being incredibly awkward around each other — but, trust me, it will.
Meanwhile, Sean feels bad for shouting at Liz, and Jimmy recommends that they both talk to Paul about it. It’s a pretty straightforward conversation — the episode’s title is written on the Post-It note Liz leaves in Paul’s desk drawer after telling him she took a dump in it — but it doesn’t solve anything since Sean’s issue isn’t with Liz. It’s with his father.
Paul is worried about this because he thinks that Sean working with his dad will eventually cause him to snap and lash out. Something clearly happened in Sean’s past that has tied his relationship with his father up in a lot of trauma, and neither Paul nor Jimmy has ever been able to get to the bottom of it. The attempt to do so here causes a bit of a competitive rift between Jimmy and Paul.
Daddy Issues
After spending a day working with his dad and being so on edge that he almost got into a fight with some construction workers, Sean finally opens up to Jimmy about his issues with his dad. When he was at his lowest, he reached out to his dad for help and didn’t get it, was instead told he’d get over it. But, when he didn’t get over it and started getting into fights all the time, Sean’s dad kicked him out.
It’s a bit more complicated than that, of course. Sean’s dad is, at least according to him, a pretty fundamentally decent guy. Sean does not doubt that he loves him. But there are a lot of unresolved issues there, and they aren’t going away thanks to Liz’s stunt with the food truck.
When Jimmy takes this to Paul, Paul’s jealousy over Sean having opened up to Jimmy instead of him causes them argue about Paul’s ego. This will come up again later.
Luke Tennie and Christa Miller in “Shrinking” | Image via Apple TV+
Brian Doesn’t Think He’s Ready To Be A Dad
On the subject of fathers, Brian and Charlie are thinking about adopting a baby. Or, more accurately, Charlie is — Brian is terrified by the prospect, mostly because he doubts his own ability to be a responsible parent.
To try and prove this point Brian accompanies Liz to adopt a dog, which manages to jump out of the window on the ride home, which is proving Brian’s point in his mind. When he gets home to tell Charlie that not only do they now have a dog but they need to pay for its surgery, Charlie has already invited an adoption advocate. He’s serious about wanting to be a dad, and his speech about it compels Brian to agree.
With some encouragement from Jimmy, Liz, and Derek, Brian begins to come to terms with the idea. As it turns out, everyone needs a Derek. If you’re lucky, like Gaby, you might even get two.
Gaby, Meet Derrick
Derek has a friend named Derrick played by Damon Wayans Jr. (also seen alongside his father in Poppa’s House), and he immediately takes a shine to Gaby, which is reciprocated. Gaby’s still trying to get over the Jimmy situation, of course, but Derrick seems like a good antidote, and Derek pushes her to go for it.
Their first date — which features coffee, maple bacon, a trap remix of The Lord of the Rings soundtrack, and reveals that Gaby’s door code is 80085, aka “Booby” — they’re unfortunately interrupted by a call from Gaby’s sister, Courtney, who reveals that their mother has been in an accident and is currently in the hospital. Gaby’s relationship with her sister is very strained, so we don’t get any more on this in Shrinking Season 2, Episode 4.
Is it just me who really hopes Gaby ends up with Jimmy in the long run? Maybe Derrick will help her get there. We’ll see.
Brett Goldstein in Shrinking | Image via Apple TV+
Progress
“Made You Look” ends with a couple of really nice scenes. In one, Paul admits to Jimmy that he’s right about his ego, and reveals he’s struggling to take notes and remember things because of the Parkinson’s. Jimmy promises he’ll tell him when he’s no longer fit for purposes, and Paul reveals that he has been socializing with Ray.
So, that’s nice. More serious, though, is when Brian is taking Nick Furry — the dog wears an eyepatch — to meet Liz, he runs into Louis, who is dropping Alice’s wallet back at the house. Brian is initially confrontational, especially when Louis asks how “they” — Jimmy and Alice — are doing. But he quickly softens, asking Louis how he’s doing. And even though he says he’s doing fine, it’s quite obvious that he isn’t.
Brian obviously senses this and pursues Louis for a further chat. But that’s where Shrinking Season 2, Episode 4 ends, so we’ll have to wait until the next episode to find out what comes of this.
