Spoilers

“Last Drink”

A wonderful episode of Shrinking this week.

It started off with a flashback to prior to the car crash and gave us all the feelings about Jimmy’s marriage and the events leading up to the accident. (We also got to see a bunch of weird outfits and hats meant to make these people look younger).

We finally returned to the moment at the restaurant when Jimmy saw Alice, Brian and Louis together. It rocked Jimmy’s world and sent him into a spiral.

We also got a chunk of work on the relationship between Liz and Derek, and Derek went to confront the guy who kissed Liz. Derek worked on his own feelings and was able to see how some of this was his own fault. The fact that it appeared as if Liz and Derek were going to get past the kiss was really great. I did not want an extended fight between them and this gave us a chance to look at these important characters a little deeper.

Jimmy going to see Louis to tell him that he forgave him was undercut a bit by telling him that he never wanted to see him again, that he needed to be out of his life and to not see his daughter again. That did not feel as healthy as it could have been and it does not feel as if that story is done. I have some very frightening thoughts about what this could lead to.

Paul was beginning to have some more issues, such as not sleeping well and having some memory lapses, so he went to the doctor. That was a real healthy choice instead of just ignoring it. Turned out that the doctor recommended that Paul give up drinking, signaling that giving up alcohol would help with a temporary fix on some of those problems.

I think this might have been my favorite episode of the second season so far. It had those tough issues and the wonderfully funny writing that did not overpower the drama, but only helped to serve it more.