Shrinking – Season 2 Episode 8 Recap & Review

Last Drink

Episode 8 of Shrinking Season 2 begins with Jimmy finding out about Brian and Alice hanging out with Louis. In a flashback to three years ago, we see how great life was for everybody. Louis had a partner he loved, while Tia was still alive. Tia, Brian, and Gaby often hung out, while Liz was a loner back then. Paul pretended to be fine about his illness, and Brian thought Charlie wasn’t all that much, and vice versa. Then the accident happened. Louis broke up with his partner, while Jimmy retreated to alcohol and girls, unable to be there for Alice. This is when Alice began to get closer to Liz.

In the present, Jimmy talks to Brian and Alice, who fill him in on what happened with Louis. Alice suggests that he should forgive Louis as well. Meanwhile, Derek and Liz have some tough times together. Gaby helps Derek think through his next course of action, and he decides, with some encouragement from Brian, to confront Mac.

The confrontation goes well, with Derek liking the alcohol from his brewery and realizing how precious Liz is and how he hadn’t responded well when she told him she’s drowning. In the meantime, Alice stays with Liz and lets her braid her hair to make her feel better. Jimmy, Gaby, and the others also extend their support to Liz and tell her how she’s been the most helpful person to all of them all the time. Derek goes back home and invites their sons to make Liz feel better, which it does.

On the other end, Sean accompanies Paul to his doctor since his illness symptoms seem to have increased. The doctor tells him that he needs to stop drinking. Elsewhere, Jimmy visits Louis and tells him that he forgives him but asks him to stop contacting his friends and family.

He then discusses with Paul how he’d been angry at himself and how seeing Louis reminds him of abandoning Alice when she needed him the most. Paul and Jimmy share the last glass of Paul’s treasured drink together, with Paul telling Jimmy that hopefully, it would get better.

The Episode Review

Shrinking is back on its track, just as we know and love it. This episode explored forgiveness, not only for others but for oneself, as Jimmy comments on how they’re just people who’ve made some really big mistakes. But the show also highlights that it doesn’t mean it would be easy to let things go, despite knowing that behind the big, irrevocable mistakes, they’re just people.

I love the fact that the show distinguishes between forgiveness—sometimes things work out well, like for Derek and Liz, but other times, even when we forgive someone, like Jimmy did with Louis, it’s not possible to stay in touch anymore, and it’s better to move on where life takes us.

I love these little nuances that Shrinking showcases, never outright in the show but always inferred from incidents—little differences here and there in how the characters deal with serious situations in their lives.

In this episode, we also finally had a glimpse of how life had been for all the characters before the accident, and it helps to shape the characters and their baggage. One very distinct case is how different life had been for Liz, with an empty nest, no friends, and how people would treat her and pigeonhole her into only one category—a mom.

Overall, it had been a great episode that delved deeper into the past and character history, all the while showcasing the themes for this episode.