This article contains spoilers for Shrinking S3E3.
With Season 3 of Shrinking focused on moving forward and everything that entails for its ensemble, this week’s episode is focused on Ava (Claudia Sulewski) going into labour and the uncertainty of whether she will follow through with the adoption. Brian (Michael Urie), predictably, is spiraling, having thought he’d find out about Ava’s water breaking at a boozy brunch with his best gays, where, as he ran out of the pool area, everyone would form two lines like he was a guest on The Jennifer Hudson Show. Instead, he receives the call while car seat shopping with Derek (Ted McGinley), who is yet to hear from Matthew (Markus Silbiger) since he kicked him out in last week’s episode (though he and Liz know that he’s staying with his brother, as Liz started tracking him).
Once at the hospital, Brian frantically calls Jimmy (Jason Segel) as, in his words, they’re doing “Cats the musical the movie bad.” There’s a storm in Chicago, so Charlie’s (Devin Kawaoka) stuck; Brian has already seen three different gross things, and he doesn’t like that Ava’s feet are exposed. Jimmy will be right there, as will Liz (Christa Miller), who is starting to feel more important to this storyline than Charlie, the other parent, is.
If Brian wasn’t panicking before, he certainly is after Stuart (Brian Gallivan) arrives at the hospital and informs the three that Ava has not yet signed the adoption paperwork. As the baby came early, Jimmy suggests that perhaps she just hasn’t gotten around to it yet. However, Stuart says that, in his experience, delaying signing usually means she’s reluctant about something. In typical Liz fashion, she suggests they will wait until the anaesthesia kicks in and then, at the sweet spot before a baby comes out, where Ava will be very suggestible, they’ll have her sign. While Brian believes Liz makes the most sense, Jimmy and Stuart disagree. Jimmy reminds them that Ava must come to this decision herself, especially if she’s scared. Liz promises Brian that even if Ava decides to keep the baby, they’re leaving the hospital with one regardless, which lands as a brilliant laugh during a storyline that depicts the brutality of surrogacy for both the surrogate and the prospective parents.
When Ava finally signs, the relief is palpable, even though her mom has gotten into her head and made her feel like a bad person for doing this. Claudia Sulewski plays Ava’s vulnerability perfectly, asking Brian if she’s a bad person. Brian tells Ava that she’s a kind, generous person. He and Charlie are so grateful she picked them; she’s grateful she picked them, too. While their family dynamic has not been decided yet, it would be nice if Ava stuck around, as she fits into the found family.
Parallel to this is Jimmy’s ongoing paralysis around dating. He tells Liz he isn’t ready to ask Sofi (Cobie Smulders) out, as it feels too real, yet he also doesn’t want to be alone forever. He knows that he’s clinging to his old life, and he must stop, but this speaks to a broader fear that runs across the season: every relationship ends. Whether someone falls out of love, cheats, or dies, he can’t handle another bad ending. Liz’s encouragement to flirt with Kimmy (Lisa Gilroy), Ava’s nurse, is met with reluctance, as their names rhyme and she doesn’t feel real enough. Liz notes that if he wants to get in the game, he’s got to start taking shots, pushing him towards action rather than rumination. Whether this is progress or avoidance of what he could have with Sofi remains open, but Segel plays Jimmy’s fears well.
Alongside the addition of Cobie Smulders, Season 3 of Shrinking adds Jeff Daniels to the mix, guest-starring as Randy, Jimmy’s father. As one of only two family members Alice (Lukita Maxwell) has left, she is keen to ask him to attend her graduation. Still struggling with the lasting impact of his father’s abandonment, Jimmy puts a stop to it, later telling Gaby (Jessica Williams) and Paul (Harrison Ford) that every September 16th, he thinks this is the year that his dad is finally going to call him on his birthday. It has never been clearer that Tia’s death is not the only obstacle preventing Jimmy from moving forward.
While Christa Miller brings the laughs this week, Lukita Maxwell and Harrison Ford offer the episode’s most affecting performances. Alice informs Paul that her graduation is nearing, and she wants to invite her grandpa, but he and Jimmy have baggage. Paul insists that Jimmy’s baggage is not hers, and she only needs to let him know if Randy says yes. While she’s grateful for the help, Alice confides that she feels like a failure, having made a big deal about being done with therapy only to go running back. Paul tells her that while she knows she can get through it on her own if she must, she never has to. Alice wants this in her life forever, which, given Paul’s gradual reckoning with mortality, is a devastating blow. It can and will be said every week because it’s that true, but Ford delivers a performance worthy of accolades as he gently reminds Alice that he won’t be around forever to be on the bench. It’s not all bad, however, as he has turned her over to Gaby, so Alice is in good hands, as Gaby is the best there is next to him.
Sean (Luke Tennie) and Marisol’s (Isabella Gomez) subplot is lighter in tone but important. Taking all he has learnt from therapy sessions with Paul, Sean wants to hold himself accountable for how he treated Marisol, but she won’t let him. She confesses that she broke up with him while he was overseas because she was 19 and a bartender told her she looked like Latina Anne Hathaway. Both hurt each other, and neither handled it well. Her stance, that the past only matters if you let it, clashes with Sean’s need for closure, but their kiss suggests they’re choosing to move forward rather than wait for a perfect resolution. There’s a clear link to Jimmy here, who will only continue to fall back into old habits while allowing his grief for his late wife and for the father he never had to control his life.
If the scenes with Alice weren’t enough to wreck you, Paul’s brief but telling conversation with Gaby about not knowing who he is without his work adds another emotional gut punch. Gaby’s response, encouraging him to focus on how grateful he feels for having been able to do this for so long, is heartfelt. Harrison Ford and Jessica Williams continue to be a highlight, drawing the very best from each other as the mentor begins to lean on the mentee. Hoping to take Paul to visit Brian’s baby, Gaby strikes a bargain with him: if he gets in the car, he gets to pick the rap song and say all the words. He feels like it’s a trap, but she counters that she’ll let him say all the words in “My Neck, My Back.” You’re denied the moment itself, only to be left devastated when Paul later holds Brian’s daughter and tells her to “enjoy the ride,” cradling a future he knows he’ll see very little of.
