Shrinking S2, Episode 10: Finding Your Happy Place
Breakdown of the tenth episode of the new season of Shrinking on Apple TV+
Note: This post will contain spoilers for episode 10 of Shrinking. My previous breakdowns are here: Episodes 1-2, Episode 3, Episode 4, Episodes 5-6, Episode 7, Episode 8, and Episode 9. Also, did you know that I wrote a book about Ted Lasso? I did! You can go buy it here! Now, on to the recap!
We are in the home stretch! Just two episodes of this season of Shrinking left. And when you see the finale, you will understand why it is essential that Harrison Ford win the Best Supporting Actor Golden Globe. If you cry on Christmas, let it be due to his exquisite monologue in the final episode.
This week, Julie’s husband, Elliott, dies, and she moves in with Paul (after some convincing). Alice graduates from therapy. Jimmy buys Alice a car and meets Sofi. Gaby tells her mom that she can’t move in with her. And Derek and Liz seem to finally be back in some kind of stasis. Alice discovers that Jimmy told Louis to stop talking to her.
Anyway, this week very much sets up the final two weeks and where the characters are going. At first, I wasn’t sure what I wanted to write about from this episode. I almost skipped this week simply because I am neck-deep in FYC screeners and other writing obligations. But when Derek and Jimmy are talking near the end of the episode, and Liz comes out to yell at them, prompting Derek to say, “I’m just happy,” I knew I had at least a little something to say.
Since Liz’s moment of infidelity, she has been incredibly deferential toward Derek, which makes sense. She is the one who broke trust and harmed their relationship; therefore she should be the one to try to repair it. While there’s nothing wrong with being kind to your spouse, there are also ways that we interact with partners or with friends that may seem disrespectful to an outsider but can offer a kind of comfort and understanding to those inside of the relationship.
Liz and Derek feel unbalanced to some degree after the kiss. It’s not really a matter of how we see their relationship but how they see it, and we can tell from the reactions of their friends that something is off. There is an unspoken bit of self-forgiveness that Liz needs to go through in order to find her most authentic self.
I think that’s why Derek’s “I’m just happy” hit me so hard. Because that is how I feel when everything in my relationships feels real and honest. Even if they’re not perfect, when everyone is able to speak truthfully and behave comfortably as themselves, I feel that sense of happiness, or even better, contentedness, which is what I think Derek is saying.
Things aren’t perfect. He and Liz almost certainly have more work to do to shore up their marriage. There is more talking to be done to better understand one another so that this doesn’t happen again. They need to figure out how to navigate their marriage now that he is retired and their kids have left. But right then, with conversations with his friends from his deck and with Liz coming to chew him out without fear, there is a sense that everything is okay and that he can see a way for things to be the way they were.
I loved this scene because often shame can keep us from being our honest selves. We can get into these spirals that keep us from interacting with the person we wronged, and we can prolong their suffering to some degree. Our shame doesn’t just get in the way of our healing, but it can get in the way of others’ healing as well.
Derek is the guy who gets over stuff, but with Liz stuck in a shame spiral, he is constantly reminded of the bad thing they went through. So when she came out and yelled at him not to get crumbs in their bed, he had this moment of relief that they were actually getting better. And that realization allowed him to be happy.
Best joke: I loved the birthday negotiations between Gaby, Liz, and Alice. I love the way that it showed their relationship and was still funny. Maybe not the best joke, but it made me laugh.
Best cry: All of that stuff I just wrote about. Ted McGinley is blowing me away this season.
Have you ever found yourself walking on eggshells around someone because you messed up? Or have you been the one who was wronged and just want to see things come back into some kind of balance?