Shrinking (Season 1) Episode 4: ‘Shrinking’ takes a Ted Lasso approach to dealing with its heavy themes. It presents a heartwarming drama in which its characters try to connect with each other while discussing grief, loss, and mental health. With a solid star cast including Jason Segal, Harrison Ford, and Jessica Williams, this Apple TV+ series is every bit life-assuring.
Jimmy is confronted with pitfalls in his rebel therapy technique in the previous episode. On the one hand, he sees Grace reverting to her pattern of pleasing others. On the other hand, Paul learns that Sean is living at Jimmy’s house, which violates their code of ethics. The new episode delves further into how these revelations change their interpersonal dynamics. Let’s look at what happens in this fourth episode titled ‘Potatoes.’
Shrinking (Season 1) Episode 4, Recap:
Episode 4: Potatoes
Jimmy (Jason Segal) keeps trying to get in touch with Grace (Heidi Gardner) to speak about what he witnessed. However, she refuses to pick up any of his calls due to the embarrassment of getting caught with her toxic husband. When he goes to his balcony, he sees Derek (Ted McGinley) peeing in their house plants. Despite this awkward moment, they still have pleasing small talk.
Liz (Christa Miller) is concerned that Jimmy is upset with her for informing Paul (Harrison Ford) about Sean (Luke Tennie) living at his house. While he was upset before, he is not angry anymore. Besides, he believes that Paul will not be upset with him for a long time.
Meanwhile, Paul tries to get in touch with his daughter, Meg. Gabby (Jessica Williams), who has taken up the duty of riding him to the office, overhears him calling Meg a ‘sweetheart’ and teases him about it. Even when he mentions that it is his daughter, she keeps stretching her joke to ask if she can date her since she wants to experiment after her divorce. Their awkward interaction ends on a sweet note when she plays Paul’s favorite song.
Jimmy and Sean go for their session together. Sean asks why they cannot do it at home since they are already living together. While Jimmy jokes about it, he probably wants a differentiation between his role as a friend and as a therapist. Over the period, Sean has become much more energetic in terms of his general demeanor. Sean is still hesitant to talk about his war-related trauma. This bothers Jimmy, even though he appreciates Sean’s progress
Sean encounters Gabby as he is leaving, and she reveals that she was her first therapist. While he would have been furious initially, he was content with Jimmy’s therapy. She mentions that she felt the two could help each other. Then they joke about how helping a wealthy, successful white man feels like reverse reparations!
Paul is still mad at Jimmy for keeping one of his patients at home. He indicates his disagreement passive-aggressively, which Jimmy does not take too well. When Paul throws two potatoes at him, Jimmy catches them and then takes a bite from one of them as his passive-aggressive response! At the time, he asks for Paul and Gabby’s suggestions for Sean to open up about PTSD. Paul is adamant in his stance that they should always have strict boundaries between the roles they play in their patients’ lives.
Later, when Paul goes to his office, Brian (Michael Urie) visits him and attempts to make small talk with this grumpy man. Seeing that did not work, he comes straight to the topic of revisions on Paul’s state plan. But Paul’s mind is preoccupied with meeting his daughter, who is coming to the town for a seminar. He is more conflicted about how to tell her his diagnosis of Parkinson’s. Paul split up with his wife when Meg was just ten years old, and even now, they are not on the best terms with each other. But he continues to present himself with his characteristic grumpiness, which makes their interaction adorable.
Liz sees Alice (Lukita Maxwell) playing basketball at home and decides to join in. But Gabby sees her just the next moment, and they have an awkward dialogue that clearly shows how much they hate each other. Before going, Liz mentions that her son, Connor, is coming home that weekend. Alice tells Gabby that she kissed Connor and had sex with him. He ended their sexual encounter like a dudebro, which made her never pursue him romantically. Through this sexual topic, Gabby steers the dialogue toward safety concerns, where Alice mentions the lessons her mother, Tia, had shared with her.
Meanwhile, Jimmy goes to his patient Wally’s (Kimberly Condict) house to work on her OCD (obsessive-compulsive disorder) in a different way. Jimmy makes her face her fears directly and stays there as firm support. But since he asks her to sit next to him on the couch, she takes it as a sexual cue and goes up to kiss him. Jimmy’s rebel therapy strategy fails yet again.
Later at his office, Meg arrives and asks for Paul’s office. Jimmy assumes it is one of Paul’s patients and soon learns that it is, in fact, his daughter. That’s when Paul pops by and takes Meg back to his office. Even while leaving Jimmy’s office, he makes a sarcastic comment about Jimmy’s inability to tackle situations from his personal life. In his office, Paul has a heartfelt conversation with Meg about her present life, where he fails to tell her about his diagnosis.
Jimmy overhears Gabby and Alice talking about female orgasms at home and does not want to be left out. So, to give him the pleasure of being a ‘cool dad,’ Alice opens up about having sex with Connor. That brings out the rigid side of his, which he expresses to Liz. He also takes out his anger on the failures of his therapy experiments and meanwhile lets her know Connor has slept with Alice. Tired of failing to improve his patient’s lives, he asks Sean to open up about his PTSD. But being a therapist, he should know that feelings don’t work that way and that you must be patient. We sense Jimmy’s impulsiveness in trying to make things right.
Meanwhile, after their previous awkward interaction, Gabby goes to meet Liz and tries to make small talk. She asks about her rock tumbling hobby, and Liz answers in a sarcastic manner. The conversation soon takes a sweeter turn when Gabby expresses empathy for her, given that she would be upset after Jimmy’s meltdown directed at her. Liz tries to prove that she isn’t just a mother but is ‘supercool’ for many different things. Anyhow, that dialogue makes them bond nicely with each other.
Shrinking (Season 1) Episode 4, Ending, Explained:
Connor returns to his home and texts Alice to see if she wants to hang out with him. But, since their communication patterns do not match, he does not get a response. Jimmy, meanwhile, acts like a possessive father and tries to make Connor feel guilty for what he did with Alice. So, Connor apologizes to him for sleeping with his daughter. Seeing Connor’s earnest response to his childish behavior, Jimmy accepts that he did not handle this subject maturely.
Then, after their interaction, Jimmy apologizes to Liz for not thanking her before for taking care of Alice like an expert. The three (Jimmy, Liz, and Gabby) get together, have drinks, and have a free-flowing dialogue. The ladies make fun of Connor while telling Jimmy that he should be concerned about her becoming attracted to Sean rather than Connor. Jimmy does not accept that anything can happen between those two.
He goes back to his place and apologizes to Sean for forcing him to open up. After mending their relationship, Jimmy takes a nap in this spare room. When they both are asleep, Alice walks by and mentions how cute Sean is. When she goes away, Jimmy wakes up, surprised, agitated, and pretty much unsure how he should feel about this attraction, which he considers to be impossible.
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