Shrinking Season 1 Episode 4 Recap And Review

Shrinking Season 1 Episode 4 Recap 

In Shrinking Season 1 Episode 4, Sean continues to live with Jimmy, who sees no problem with their arrangement. Sean will open up to her as a therapist if she sees him as a friend. And logically, Sean doesn't want to talk to Jimmy about his time in Afghanistan.

  He's not the only one having trouble opening. Paul can't muster up the courage to talk about his daughter Mega's Parkinson's disease. Brian needs Paul to sign the medical power of attorney. But when she visits Paul briefly, their discussion reflects a strained relationship, ending only with Paul asking to spend more time with her and her family.  

Jimmy continues invasive therapy techniques by making home visits to an OCD patient. But when he takes her visit as a romantic interest, he has to hurry.

  He later finds Jimmy hanging out with Alice and Gaby. Gaby encourages Alice to be more open with her father, so Alice shares a conversation about how she once slept with Liz's son Connor. Jimmy tries to be the "cool dad" but can't help it. He goes out on the balcony and starts yelling at Lisa to stop meddling in his life.

  She claims that her son didn't just take advantage of her daughter; she is responsible for Paul knowing Sean was staying with them. Gaby hears all of this and starts to feel bad for Liz for the first time.

  Later, Jimmy confronts Sean and blames him for not opening up.  

  Connor comes home from college to visit, but he'd rather soak in the hot tub and text Alice than spend time with Liz and Derek. Gaby approaches Lisa and tells her that Jimmy didn't deserve what he said to her. Liz admits that it makes her sad that everyone thinks of her as just a mother. Maybe he's too invested in Alice. But what was he supposed to do when no one cared for him?

  Jimmy decides to talk to Connor. Eventually, he cools down and assures Connor that they did nothing wrong. Connor, in turn, asks if Alice can put in a good word for him, but Jimmy won't go that far.

  Jimmy later apologizes to Liz for being so out of it. Finally, he thanks her for everything he's done in the past year to help her and Alice. Liz and Gaby invite her to drink with them, and they get into the Alice theme. The women assure Jimmy that it's Sean, not Connor, when it comes to Alice. But Jimmy doesn't worry about them.

  That night, Jimmy goes to the pool house to apologize to Sean for what he did earlier. He wasn't going to press him too hard about Afghanistan. Sean invites him to watch the game with him.

  Not seeing his father there, he comments to himself how beautiful Sean is. Turns out, Jimmy might be worried about Sean.  

 Episode Review

  I think there's a lesson in Paul's potato that Jimmy hasn't quite learned yet. You can't bite into a raw potato like an apple like Jimmy. To cook it, you need to go through one of the predefined methods. Same with Jimmy's customers. He tries to take shortcuts to healing with his clients, just as he once tried with himself. It just can't work for them in the long run.

  While I'm a little frustrated with the lack of believability of his current process, I'm looking forward to seeing how Shrinking handles Jimmy's process of self-awareness. She discovered in the last episode that Grace is still with her husband, she can't get Sean to talk, one of her clients kisses her - and she still thinks she's doing the right thing?

  On the one hand, it makes sense that Jimmy, who has experienced grief himself, would look for friends in his life. But no doubt this new revelation about Alice will give him pause about how to deal with his customers.