Shrinking S2, Episode 9: Getting Unstuck
Breakdown of the ninth episode of the new season of Shrinking on Apple TV+
Note: This is a spoiler-filled recap of episode 9 of Shrinking. My previous breakdowns are here: Episodes 1-2, Episode 3, Episode 4, Episodes 5-6, Episode 7, and Episode 8. If you’re interested in another Apple+ show, check out the recap of Severance that I wrote over at Loud and Clear Reviews. On to the post!
We are nearing the conclusion of the second season of Shrinking. This episode, titled Full Grown Dude Face, feels like a bit of a calm before the storm for the final three episodes of this season. Brian and Charlie are getting closer to having a baby. Liz and Derek are finding their way through the aftermath of Liz’s infidelity. Alice is starting to find her way back into the world after losing her mom. Gaby’s sister is joining the Army, and her mom is moving in with her.
One of the things this season has done remarkably well is to stick to two fairly prominent themes. One is the idea of forgiveness - either for others or oneself. The other is the tendency for people to get stuck. That second theme is the one that is most prevalent in this episode.
Gaby struggles to overcome her need to care for other people while neglecting her own needs. Putting Gaby into this role is good because she doesn’t necessarily come off as someone who puts others ahead of herself. She drives a Tesla. She has moved into a massive house for one person. Externally, she seems like someone who takes care of herself just fine, thank you very much.
But when you look at Gaby’s relationships, you can see that she has a much harder time choosing to care for herself. We saw how her relationship with Jimmy was unhealthy, moving quickly from a casual hook-up to something more intense on her part. She took on Keisha as a mentee when she was already stretched. And at the end of the episode, when she has a clear plan on how to help her mother transition away from Courtney’s care, she acquiesces to her mother’s desire to move in with her.
Her inability to create healthy boundaries means that she can be taken advantage of in relationships. And despite knowing what she needs to do to change this dynamic, she repeatedly falls into the same traps. Her past trauma over dealing with her sister’s addiction helped create the empathy that she needs to be a great therapist, but it also created unhealthy expectations of personal relationships and her ability to change that seems almost impossible. She is stuck, and until she gets help, it will be hard for her to get unstuck.
What I love about Shrinking, however, is that it often gives us a success story. And we see that in Alice in this episode. Tia’s death obviously left Alice without a mom, but it also stripped away her normalcy. She was no longer just a cute girl who played soccer, but she was The Girl With The Dead Mom. People often don’t know how to deal with death, so they just ignore you, and it seems that’s what happened to Alice.
One thing that can be forgotten about Alice is that she has been in some level of therapy with Paul since her mom’s death. Even if they were framed as “chats” with him, she still received tools and guidance that could help her reenter her life in a healthier manner. As such, we see her making steps toward a life beyond the death of her mom.
This doesn’t mean that she breezes through difficult situations. We see her struggle when she realizes that she can’t float into this party without someone recognizing her as the girl with the dead mom.
But because of her time with Paul and because Jimmy is on his own healing journey, she knows she has someone to call, and she does. When she talks to her dad, she realizes that she has more agency than she thought, and she is able to rejoin the party and put others at ease without inflicting harm on herself. It does a phenomenal job of showing how therapy can help someone navigate the feelings of being stuck. Not fix those feelings, but provide the skills to move through them.
Best joke: Brian has been on fire this season, and the scene where he goes through Jimmy’s trash so he can rewind made me laugh. Also, “secret big ‘uns.” Dead.
Best cry: Honestly, Liz talking about being a mom hit so hard as the parent of adult kids. Liz doesn’t usually get me, but this one did. (Also, as I said earlier, her arc this season is just resonating really hard with me on a broad level.)
Are there any areas in your life where you feel stuck? Have you found ways to get unstuck?