Name: Shrinking season 1 episode 5
Director: James Ponsoldt
Released: 2023-02-17T00:00:00

In episode 5 of Shrinking, Jimmy and Paul settle the tension between them as they try to help Sean, and Gaby helps Brian learn a little bit more about himself. The episode is streaming on Apple TV+.

Recap

Jimmy goes over to Liz’s place to tell her that she was right about Alice’s crush on Sean. Liz brings out Gaby who had stayed over and the two of them rub it in Jimmy’s face before he reminds Gaby that she’ll be late to drive Paul to work.

Liz tells Jimmy that as long as he trusts Sean, he doesn’t need to worry. Paul heads over to Gaby’s house while talking to his daughter on the phone but when she asks him why Gaby is driving him to work, he deflects.

Sean mentions to Jimmy that his father wants to meet with him but he isn’t too sure about it. Jimmy encourages him to move forward and meet his father and Jimmy will do the same with Paul.

Gaby has a session with a married couple and later sits with Paul to discuss how her marriage was a mess. Jimmy cannot get through to Grace and wants to ask Paul for advice but he knows Paul isn’t talking to him about work.

He goes into his office to tell him that he’s decided to stop talking to him altogether and Paul quietly agrees. Brian has a nice, sweet moment with Charlie at home and then heads to Jimmy’s office to meet him and Gaby.

He tells them that he’s going to propose to Charlie but they remind him that he’s made that claim before and never followed through so they aren’t holding their breath.

Sean meets his dad and younger brother at the park and they gift him a framed case of his medals which upsets Sean. He leaves and texts Alice, asking her if she’d be interested in going for a walk. Alice agrees to ditch class and meet Sean.

Brian goes to the jeweler but doesn’t get the ring. Paul has a session with a patient and then instinctively heads to Jimmy’s office before stopping himself and walking into Gaby’s office.

He tries to discuss his session with her but she says that he’s just using her as a replacement because he misses Jimmy. She asks him to leave because she does not want to be his backup plan.

Jimmy makes a fake appointment with Grace so that he can talk to her and he tells her that he can still be her therapist if she’s willing and he’ll be nonjudgmental this time. Alice and Sean go for a walk and Sean climbs up a tall water tower, causing Alice to worry about him.

When she gets back home, Jimmy confronts her because he got a call from her school but she tells him that a month ago, she was cleaning up after him so he needs to chill out about this. She also says that she’s worried about Sean.

Jimmy tries to talk to Sean about how he’s feeling but all he does is annoy Sean even more. Sean tells Jimmy that he’s moving out and this frustrates Alice who talks to Paul about it. She scolds him because he isn’t talking to Jimmy anymore which means she has to worry about her dad.

Gaby and Brian go for a hike along with Liz and the two ladies asks Brian if he bought the ring. When Brian says that he didn’t, Gaby figures there is some past trauma that is stopping him but Brian shoots back and then heads off without them.

He shows up at Gaby’s office later on and tells her that he was very hesitant about coming out when he was in college. He eventually told his parents but they still haven’t accepted him since they’re very religious.

This rejection is the root cause for his apprehension about proposing to Charlie because no matter what the answer, he is afraid that it might not work out and he’ll have to go through the pain.

Jimmy tries to talk Sean into staying a little while longer and Paul shows up to help. They all sit down and Paul is able to get Sean to open up a little about his deployment. He tells Sean that Jimmy is the perfect person to help him and that he’ll be around too if required.

Having worked through some issues of his own, Paul feels ready and calls his daughter to tell her that he’s got Parkinson’s.

Review

There is something so pleasing about how intrinsically human the characters are coming across. It is always nice to see a character that the audience can relate to and this series is filled to the brim with those types of characters.
The interactions between Gaby and Paul are some of the more entertaining ones to watch. The blending of their styles and demeanor makes for some entertaining content.
The key theme in this series is that everybody has the ability to grow but each person moves at their own pace and this episode shows a few different examples of that. It is inspirational to watch all of this unfold and possibly cathartic to some as well.