‘Shrinking’ Season 3, Episode 7 Recap – I Told You Something Bad Was Coming

You can’t say I didn’t tell you so. In hindsight, it was obvious that Shrinking Season 3 was going to pull the trigger on a major tragedy, and Maya was an obvious candidate. Gaby rebuffing her – entirely understandably! – was a death knell. It takes until the end of Episode 7, an otherwise bittersweet chapter focusing on the season’s ongoing themes and dynamics, for the ringing to be heard. But we all knew it was coming.

And at the worst time, too! For the first time, Gaby has her life in something resembling order. She’s happy with Derrick, thinking about the future, and enjoying the work she’s doing – yes, even with Maya, which she’s using as a rubric for the cases she wants to devote time to in the future. Call me cynical, but I don’t imagine she’s going to have the same five-year plan after “I Will Be Grape”. But we’ll get back to this in a minute.

Tia’s Birthday

There’s a significant event backdropping this episode, which is Tia’s birthday. It takes an effort to remember sometimes, since the show has been airing for longer than the time that has elapsed within it, but Tia’s death is still fresh enough that she has only had one birthday since she died. And Alice forgot it, which leads to a few good gags.

This has obviously put Jimmy in a contemplative mood, something worsened by the fact that Alice will be reporting to the East Coast for college much earlier than expected. You’d expect “I Will Be Grape” to be more maudlin as a result, but since it’ll be the last of Tia’s birthdays that the whole extended family is together for, Jimmy is determined to make it enjoyable rather than sad.

This also, thanks to Alice, loops Louis back into the plot, though I suspect only temporarily. He’s doing much better since the last time we saw him, which Alice hopes will be a lesson to Jimmy. If Louis can move on, so can he. And that means taking the big swing of reaching out to Sofi, who finally meets the family to recreate one of Tia’s sing-alongs (that’s where the title comes from). I think she’s going to fit right in.

The Mother-in-Law

Following Derek’s health crisis, his mother, Constance (a guest starring Candice Bergen), is staying in the house to look after him, much to Liz’s chagrin. Problems with the mother-in-law aren’t exactly novel for a dramedy, but Shrinking characteristically does a good job with this arc, since it ropes in Paul to act as an impromptu therapist to help Liz and Constance patch up their issues.

This subplot also – finally – shows another side to Liz, who is uncharacteristically vulnerable where Constance is concerned. There’s a neediness flowing in both directions – Liz wants Constance to be comfortable enough to tell her to address her as “Connie”; Constance wants one of Liz’s tumbled rocks; both want acceptance from the other – that helps to humanise both. Paul, who is spending more of his time than he’d like working with fellow Parkinson’s patients, provides the bridge to help them navigate the issue.

We Have Lost Maya

Shrinking Season 3, Episode 7 isn’t especially subtle about something having happened to Maya. Gaby spends most of the episode trying to get in touch with her, but continues to be distracted by other things – much like what led her to fob Maya off in the first place when Derek was in the hospital. As I said at the time, Gaby isn’t doing anything wrong here. She was making a fair decision. But since she already blurred the professional and personal boundaries with Maya, Maya responded like a friend, not a patient.

You can tell from Gaby’s positivity and ambitions that it’s all going to go wrong. She’s thinking about setting up a support group for veterans like Sean and spending her life with Derrick. She isn’t worrying too much about Maya because she’s confident in her recent breakthroughs. That’ll only make the last-minute development even more painful.

“We’ve lost Maya” is, I’ll grant you, a little bit ambiguous, but I think the implications are pretty clear. You can see on Gaby’s face what she has been told. And you can also see in her face that she’s blaming herself for it. Next week’s episode is likely to be very stressful indeed.