Shrinking turns on the charm in a parenting-focused episode

Being a good person is exhausting enough. Being a good parent on top of that? That feels like both a thankless and impossible task—or so Shrinking insists. Indeed, if there is one thing that’s anchored the show’s sophomore season, it’s the sustained interest in what it means to be a good parent (and, in Gabby’s case, also a good daughter). Just as the series has stressed how tenuous the line between a friend and a shrink can be (you need both to help you regulate your emotions and to realize what may need to change), it continues to remind us the same may be true of parents: Sometimes we need to be parented, by family members and shrinks alike.

This all comes into focus as Brian and Charlie (Michael Urie and Devin Kawaoka) begin to put the wheels in motion once more for their adoption. They are set to meet with a prospective mother and want to make a really good first impression—which terrifies Brian, since he goes into full-blown anxiety-induced looniness when first meeting anyone. As ever, he seeks out Jimmy’s help, who diagnoses why his BFF has long resorted to awkward humor to keep rejection at bay, a defense mechanism of sorts that’s made all the funnier by how Urie plays that frazzled behavior even in moments when he interrupts Jimmy mid-therapy. 

“Oh my god, Jimmy, are you good at your job?” he asks in wonder, offering us a lovely moment where Jimmy doesn’t go for any of his out-there attempts at therapy and instead just nudges his friend to see how far he’s come. But of course, the one person who’ll really help him nail that interview is none other than Liz, who feels ready-made for this kind of challenge—and is all too happy to threaten to rip Brian’s dick off if he ruins getting that beautiful baby for her, er, them!

Meanwhile, in Shrinking’s more workplace-comedy corner, Gabby and Paul are thrust together once more once she unwittingly kidnaps Paul (or “borrows against his will,” as she puts it) so he can come talk to her students. As ever, it’s a chance to pair up Jessica Williams and Harrison Ford to hilarious results, especially as Paul is a hit with Gabby’s students all while he offers his colleague the kind of pep talk about her family situation she’ll have to sort out sooner rather than later. Gabby, as Paul informs her, is maybe not being as supportive of her sister as she could be. After all, once Courtney finds a job, it’ll be up to Gabby to take care of their mother.

And yes, it all comes way sooner than she expects: Courtney, it seems, has found a job—or a calling, really. She wants to enlist in the Army (Gabby has Sean and his vet buddy to thank for G.I. Jane-ing her sis), which is the kind of admirable decision Gabby is strong-armed into supporting even if it leaves her with either being honest with her mother (and telling her she cannot fathom living with her full-time) or swallowing that truth and changing her life accordingly.

Can you guess which one she picks? Yes, she’ll soon have a roommate, and I’ve no doubt we’ll be treated to plenty of hijinks that will find Gabby learning a thing or two about what it means to parent a parent in old age. 

But the storyline that gives this episode its title (“Full Grown Dude Face”) comes courtesy of Alice’s new, budding beau, Dylan. The strikingly handsome boy (played by Tanner Zagarino) sends Jimmy into a tizzy. Here is a teenager with a “full grown dude face”—and he’s dating his daughter. And of course he can’t keep his cool around him—to the point where he gets a grape stuck in his throat while trying to be nonchalant and then has to have the actually quite cool dude Heimlich him and save his life. (Not that Jimmy would put it in those terms, exactly: How can he have any sense of authority over a teenager who not only looks like that but kept him from dying?)

It’s all in all a charming scene that sets up not only how great of a parent Jimmy can be but also how Alice is wanting to finally come out of her shell. By dating Dylan, who doesn’t go to her school, she doesn’t have to be dead-mom girl or cheater-cheater-cheater-bitch-TikTok girl. Instead, she can just be a regular teenager rightfully happy to bag a boy like Dylan. Now if only she could find a fitting outfit to wear to the party they’re going to. Enter Gabby, in full mother-figure mode, who helps her shop for the right dress and, in the process, mends their relationship, which had suffered after the whole Jimmy/Gabby fuck-buddy situation. It’s lovely and tees up a big win for Alice, who nevertheless has to weather learning that she can’t really outrun her past or who she is. But she can find the inspiration to rebrand herself, not by ignoring what she’s been through but by reclaiming it.

Following Jimmy’s own advice, she learns that the best way to defuse any awkwardness that comes from the uncomfortable stares that follow tone-deaf comments from a fellow partygoer who wishes her mother would just “honestly disappear forever” is to just own it: She gets to use Jimmy’s “dead mom” face bit, easing everyone into treating her like the teenage girl she desperately wants to be. It’s a solid win for Jimmy, the father, who beams from afar (because of course he spies on his daughter whenever he can).

It’s a reminder that despite their faults, the Shrinking folks are eager to be good parents. Yes, even Brian who is finally on board to nail his interview with the mother-to-be. And Liz does turn out to be great at it. The role-playing scene shows us Liz is as vulnerable as we’ve seen her: “You're gonna do everything for your kid and you know what your reward is?” she asks Brian: “They grow up and reject you. ’Cause they're assholes.” Even her mini rant about how she wishes others would let her center her own life around parenthood without any judgment feels honest and laced with a warmth that finds the show at its best. 

Sadly, Brian is still mostly a zany mess during his meeting with the mom, all but ruining it (he ends up digging through his garbage in front of her) before realizing he just has to be himself. Which helps when the mom is also a big Trolls fan as well as a musical-theater aficionado. Only that’s ultimately not enough: Later, Brian and Charlie learn they weren’t picked. And as their friends gather to show their support, it’s finally clear to Brian that he may really want to become a father. In due time, perhaps.

Stray observations

• • Didn’t have Jason Segel uttering “This would be a lot easier if I hadn't felt his dick in my back” on my Shrinking bingo card and yet…. 
• • I really need more Dylan in the episodes to come. Because, yes, hellloooo nurse!
• • Speaking of, that was peak millennial representation. If you must know where that expression comes from, please google Animaniacs and thank me later.
• • “In the mix? We’re just a nominee? We’re Glenn fucking Close?!” is the kind of line a gay guy like Brian would utter without realizing how blinkered it makes him sound.
• • Love seeing that Jimmy’s big poker tell (while playing with Sean and his buddy) is that when he knows he’s about to win he beams with pride. Classic Jimmy!
• • Gabby borrowing Paul to help her break the news to her mom (and that plan backfiring) is the one subplot that I wish had more time to breathe in this episode. (When you break it down, Shrinking is often juggling one too many plots in any given episode.)
• • I love finding random writerly Easter eggs, like Jimmy talking about Zack Bornstein, the kosher kid whom he’d fed bacon years earlier, which is a nod to one of the show’s writers/story editors.