Summary
Shrinking is phenomenal in Season 2, Episode 8, but Jimmy hits his most dislikeable ebb in it, refusing to get out of his own way.
For such a funny comedy, it’s worth remembering it’s death that has always loomed over Shrinking. Specifically, the death of Jimmy’s wife, Tia, at the hands – or wheel, I suppose – of drunk driver, Louis. Season 2 has worked to humanize Louis, revealing that he wasn’t a thoughtless drunk, but a nice guy who made a mistake that still haunts him. Episode 8, “Last Drink”, positions him in a new way; as more evolved and thoughtful than even Jimmy, who, on this subject, at least, just can’t get out of his own way.
Since the season premiere introduced the term “Jimmying”, I’ve referred back to it frequently. It’s the jokey term given to unconventional therapy, which all of the main characters seem to indulge in whether they want to admit it or not. But it’s the one thing he can’t apply to himself. He can’t think outside the box and entertain the possibility of adapting his thinking when it comes to Louis – right when he needs to after catching Alice and Brian at dinner with him at the end of the previous episode.
“Last Drink” avoids grappling with the aftermath of this discovery for a while. Instead, it indulges in flashbacks to the time immediately preceding the accident, but this time includes Louis’s perspective. He was perfectly happy with his girlfriend (played by Meredith Hagner, also seen in Apple TV+’s Bad Monkey) and his life. He had one drink too many, and even then reluctantly. He was over the limit, sure, but barely even drunk. The image of him that Jimmy has conjured in his head of an unfeeling, deranged madman couldn’t be further from the truth.
Shrinking Season 2, Episode 8 deliberately parallels Louis’s spiral – breaking up with his girlfriend, primarily, seeing her as a reminder of his worst mistake, though also getting a year in prison – and Jimmy’s own, which saw him push Alice away in favor of drink, drugs, and hookers. Maybe it’s just me, but I found it difficult to sympathize with Jimmy too much by comparison. I liked the scenes of him, Tia, and Alice all together – Lilan Bowden and Lukita Maxwell are so alike I had to Google if they were really related – and can understand the loss he has felt… but come on, dude.
Ted McGinley in Shrinking | Image via Apple TV+
Jimmy needs to forgive Louis, but more importantly, he needs to forgive himself for the mess he made of parenting in the wake of Tia’s death, and that’s the part he’s having trouble with. It’s what compels him to eventually visit Louis and “forgive” him, but also tell him that he never wants to see him again – and he doesn’t want Alice or Brian to see him again either. He’s taking the easy way out.
He could learn a thing or two from Derek. Still devastated after the revelation that Liz kissed Mac, Derek’s in a slump, but I love the way “Last Drink” handles this. Liz made a mistake, sure. Derek feels betrayed. But in the process of working through this, he also realizes that he fell short too. He didn’t pay enough attention to Liz’s interests, which Mac did – her dog portraits are all over the walls in his microbrewery – and he didn’t support her through her depressive episode, believing that it’d all resolve itself. He became complacent.
There’s no big reconciliation here, no knock-down-drag-out argument scene or grand romantic gesture. Derek instead gathers all three of their sons for a surprise dinner, and that’s sort of that. Derek and Liz can both see what they have, and what’s most important, and have hopefully learned enough lessons about themselves and each other that they won’t find themselves in this position again.
These are smart parallels since they highlight how poorly Jimmy is dealing with his situation. He doesn’t spare a thought for what he’s doing to Louis by depriving him of the connections – and the forgiveness – that he has found in Alice and Brian. For someone so keen on Jimmying, he’s painfully reluctant to apply the same logic to himself. And I think it’s about time he did.
