Shrinking SN2 Ep9
Brian and Charlie are on the verge of adopting a baby, Alice is ready to consider a relationship again, and Gaby gears up to take on more familial responsibility.
Episode 9 of Season 2 of “Shrinking” is one for the secondary players.
Leads Jimmy (Jason Segel) and Paul (Harrison Ford) take a backseat in this go-round, acting more as set-up men for the rest of the cast, particularly Gaby (Jessica Williams), Alice (Lukita Maxwell) and Brian (Michael Urie). Other members of the main cast are shunted to the background, especially PTSD veteran Sean (Luke Tennie), who I’m starting to worry will not emerge to the fore again this season.
Louis, whose drunk-driving killed Jimmy’s wife three years earlier, has disappeared again after a stern confrontation with Jimmy, though I have more confidence he’ll turn up again (played by fellow show co-creator Brett Goldstein).
The squabble between old marrieds Liz (Christa Miller) and Derek (Ted McGinley), which had dominated the last few episodes, appears to be resolved… a little too quickly for my taste, given the emotional (and more lightly physical) infidelity. Liz is at least acting a little less domineering, even if we know it’s an act, and temporary.
Alice, after getting caught messing around with best friend Summer’s boyfriend, is ready to re-emerge into the dating world. And she already has a guy picked out: Dylan, who goes to a neighboring school. With this full beard and mature disposition, he seems much older than he is, thus lending the episode title, “Full Grown Dude Face.”
He and Jimmy have a hilarious first meet, in which Jimmy attempts to be the grown-up authority figure laying down some ground rules, and in typical Jimmy fashion breaks down into a neurotic free-for-all instead.
There’s also a sequence where Alice goes to buy a dress for a big party, a fairly stock sort of scene we’ve seen in a thousand shows and movies. But accompanied by Gaby, it takes on a lovely, weightier note.
Speaking of Gaby, her relationship with recovering drug addict sister Courtney has evolved quite a bit — indeed, faster than she had expected. With kid sis ready to return to the workforce (with an assist from Sean), Gaby is starting to realize that she’s going to have to shoulder a lot more responsibility with her aging mother than she’d planned. Paul, who’s of a similar age as mom, is called upon for some advice.
Brian and husband Charlie (Devin Kawaoka) find themselves in the running to adopt a baby, and the shallow (but self-aware about it) Brian goes into panic mode in preparation for the interview with the birth mother. Maternal goddess Liz steps in with some advice, and typical domineering insertion of herself into the situation, already referring to the unsecured kid as “our baby.”
The takeaway from this episode is one of hoping for the best and accepting what actually comes to pass. Paul gives a wonderful piece of counseling to Jimmy by telling him the fact Alice is asserting her independence is evidence that he’s doing a good job as a father.
That’s a big lesson to learn in life, whether you’re a teen with a beard or a middle-aged therapist. Similarly, just because you’re the star of a show doesn’t mean you have to dominate every episode.