Shrinking – Season 1 Episode 8 “Boop” Recap & Review

Boop

In Shrinking Season 1 Episode 8, Jimmy and Gaby try to have an honest conversation with Alice about what happened between them, but she doesn’t want to hear it.

Alice complains to Paul, who asks her to cut Jimmy some slack. He says she’s not the only one with problems, causing her to feel even more alone.

Brian doesn’t know how to tell Jimmy he doesn’t want him to officiate the wedding like they’d always planned. When Alice sneaks out to go to a garden party and then to a college guy’s dorm room, Brian and Paul help Jimmy find her. On the way to the party, Brian tells Jimmy he doesn’t want him to officiate because he fell apart at the engagement party. Jimmy reacts defensively.

Eventually, they find Alice and take her home. Paul instructs Jimmy that he should not let people walk all over him. He needs to be harsher when people hurt him, so he decides to be honest with Brian that he hurt his feelings and then ground Alice.

Meanwhile, Gaby, Liz, and Sean go to Nico’s art show so Gaby can help support him in case he relapses from the stress. It turns out that Nico is fine, and it hurts Gaby to see it. She knows she should be happy, but she put in the work to help Nico get better, and he never did until they separated. But during his speech he thanks those who helped him get here.

Gaby thought he meant her, but it turns out he was talking about his new girlfriend, the gallery director Aliyah. He claims she’s his muse, but Gaby sees herself in his paintings and makes sure everyone knows it before leaving with Liz and Sean.

The Episode Review

I’m not sure what Paul meant when telling Jimmy he needs to push back his guilt over checking out to finally lay down the law with others. Jimmy normally does anything but hold back his opinions from others. If anything, he was out of line being so angry with Brian about making such a reasonable request. (I personally wouldn’t want my officiant having a meltdown at my wedding.)

But Jimmy did need to learn how to be stricter with Alice. Despite the fact that he’s failed her for the past year, he still needs to step into all the different roles being her parent requires. 

It feels a bit repetitive, at this point, Alice’s and Jimmy’s ups and downs. But we are steadily going somewhere, and I’m really looking forward to seeing where Jimmy’s journey takes him by the end of the season. Can he finally get his daughter to forgive him?