Shrinking Recap: Mic Drop

Who isn’t a sucker for a flashback episode? “Last Drink” only devotes 12 minutes to its look back at the lead-up to Tia’s death and its aftermath — I actually would’ve welcomed a true flashback episode at this point in the season — but it’s a helpful dive into the past, establishing the parallel journeys of Louis and the man whose wife he killed.

It’s also just fun to see earlier versions of the ensemble when many of their bonds were less tight. Liz was just the quirky “such a mom” next door, Brian had only been on one date with Charlie and didn’t like his vibe, Gaby was upset with Paul for not telling her about his Parkinson’s diagnosis, and Jimmy actually cared about maintaining boundaries with his patients. That last one is particularly funny and unusual to see.

Both Jimmy and Louis had pretty perfect lives, almost too perfect. Jimmy, Tia, and Alice were a healthy, adorable little family unit. Louis and his girlfriend-then-fiancée Sarah (Meredith Hagner, who recently appeared in Bill Lawrence’s Bad Monkey) moved in together and spent many happy mornings chatting affectionately while waiting for the train, speculating about the inner lives of strangers just like the leads in any cheesy rom-com. Then everything goes wrong: Louis insists he’ll drive home after dinner, and suddenly, we see Jimmy show up at the site of the accident.

Seeing these versions of Jimmy and Alice is pretty gut-wrenching and helps us understand even better why present-day Jimmy can’t let go of his guilt about how he treated his daughter after her mom died. He’s just totally distant and reliant on drugs and booze, leaving Alice to fend for herself both physically and emotionally. (The most heartbreaking moment: “I need you.” “I can’t.”) This is the birth of her bond with Liz, who gently welcomes her in and offers her a meal, no questions asked. Quickly, Jimmy starts depending on Alice’s new surrogate mom, leaving her to drive Alice to soccer games while he sits alone in a grief spiral.

The episode establishes a link here: Just as Jimmy pushed his own daughter and friends away, Louis pushed away Sarah. She was open to visiting him every weekend of his ten months in jail, but he wanted her to have her own life. He even says that every time he looks at her now, he remembers the worst mistake of his life. It’s a brutal breakup, an impulsive reaction to Louis’s own self-loathing. But I wouldn’t be surprised if we eventually see more of Sarah in the present day as Louis learns to make peace with what he did.

When the flashback ends, Alice and Brian are doing their best to explain themselves to Jimmy. Brian sums up the situation by repeating his same slightly insufferable, slightly funny monologue about how he got involved, but the most effective explanation comes from Alice, who genuinely forgave Louis. After Jimmy caused much of the havoc in the first season, Alice has been the messy one in season two — but now she’s speaking from a place of maturity, recognizing that holding onto anger isn’t good for either her or her dad. Jimmy is a therapist, so he can recognize the wisdom in her advice, even if he’s unable to follow it in a way she would want.

Paul refuses to apologize to Jimmy for neglecting to tell him about Alice meeting with Louis. Instead, he gets right back in his face and calls out his projection. And when Jimmy later looks for rocks with Liz, his encouraging words about Derek apply to his own situation: Forgiving someone might feel impossible, but then you realize the villain is just someone who made a mistake.

But does Jimmy truly forgive Louis when he visits his home and tells him to “disappear from his fucking life”? Jason Segel’s expressions convey so much in this scene: He knows Alice is right, but he’s also still extremely uncomfortable letting go of his feelings. Maybe he can accept that Louis made a mistake and shouldn’t be punished endlessly for it, but he also can’t bear to be around this person without ending up in a bad place — a place where his mind replays all the times he let his daughter down, over and over, on a loop. The idea of Alice actually having a relationship with Louis is unbearable to Jimmy; maybe he could forgive him one day, but he could never forgive himself. And because Louis is endlessly, inexpressibly indebted to Jimmy, he agrees to cut off ties.

When Jimmy shares a drink with Paul that night, both men have been through emotionally exhausting days. For Paul, this is his last drink, a decision that came out of necessity; he’s sleeping less and becoming more forgetful, and alcohol exacerbates that. But it’s still a big change to accept, especially for a stubborn man who hates compromising his routine.

The biggest genuine breakthrough of the episode might go to Derek, who’s crashing at Gaby’s. On Brian’s advice, he confronts Mac at his microbrewery, where he sees the dog photos he never really bothered to look at. Hearing Mac’s over-the-top praise of Liz, he realizes the ways he’s taken his wife for granted. A session with Gaby also helps clarify the areas where he has fallen short, primarily when he didn’t take her cries for help seriously. Back home, he owns up to not being present, and the whole family gets back together.

It’s a heartwarming moment, but I am curious where the story goes from here. It’s nice to see the acknowledgment that cheating often has its roots in preexisting relationship problems — it’d be boring to watch Derek just hold this over Liz’s head for ages while never taking responsibility for his own role — but it almost feels a little too heavily weighted in favor of Liz. Beyond just kissing someone else, Liz has shown some real selfishness in her marriage, even in the scene when she came clean. Derek was right to point out that he ignores her constant digs because he thought they were on solid ground. Maybe he did take Liz for granted in some ways, but hasn’t Liz taken Derek for granted?

Will Liz ever really be taken to task? Where does her arc go from here — could she return to work with Sean again, or has that ship sailed? When a story feels wrapped up with several episodes still to go, it feels like a smokescreen, like a temporary happy ending. In the messy world of Shrinking and in the messy real world, that’s the only kind there is.

Progress Notes

• “Was anyone eavesdropping on our conversation? Because I’m gonna need someone to come with us and swear that we just said we’d tell him everything.”

• Sean mentions Jorge again, but they still haven’t met up yet.