‘Shrinking’ Dec. 18 Episode Recap: Jimmy Returns to Jimmying With Surprising Results
Things are getting intense on Shrinking. In the Dec. 18 episode of the Emmy-nominated TV show from Apple TV+, Jimmy (Jason Segel) comes to a difficult realization with help from Paul (Harrison Ford). Meanwhile, Gaby (Jessica Williams), Sean (Luke Tennie), and Brian (Michael Urie) deal with developments—some good, some bad—in their own lives.
[Spoiler alert: This article contains spoilers from the Dec. 18, 2024, episode of Shrinking Season 2 Episode 11: “The Drugs Don’t Work.”]
Sean is afraid of changing his life in the Dec. 18 episode of ‘Shrinking’
In the Dec. 18, 2024, episode of Shrinking, now streaming on Apple TV+, Sean is finally at a point where his personal and professional lives are going well. The food truck is making money and he’s, as Derek (Ted McGinley) puts it, a “boy toy.”
The “only bummer” is that Sean can’t take the new woman in his life to Jimmy’s pool house. Who is this mystery woman? Paul finds out when he tracks down his “hot” neurologist—Sean’s words in a previous episode—outside of work. (He later finds out his medication isn’t suppressing his tremors as well as they used to.) Sean is having drinks with Paul’s neurologist. “Well, if she can’t have me, I guess it makes sense,” he tells Sean. (Remember he’s dating his old neurologist, Julie (Wendie Malick).
Later, Derek and Brian (Michael Urie) take Sean to see a beautiful property—location, fireplace, marble countertops—that Derek’s thinking about buying an investment. He offers Sean the chance to live there for the next year at $100 a month while overseeing the “sprucing up” process. “You’d be helping me out,” he tells Sean.
Sean leaves, later telling Brian and Derek he’s not “ready” for his living situation to change. “I meant it when I said everything in my life is going great so why am I so scared to leave here [the pool house].”
Derek then launches into a story about playing water polo, telling Sean, “When you’re ready the universe will present another opportunity. Trust me.”
Derrick No. 2 breaks up with Gaby
As Alice (Lukita Maxwell) wonders how to break up with Dylan (Tanner Zagarino), Gaby says something that strikes a chord with her boyfriend, Derrick No. 2 (Damon Wayans Jr.). She admits to being “noncommital” and distant until eventually they break up with her.
Shortly after, Derrick No. 2 asks Gaby: “When do you want me to get the hint and end it for you?” The conversation quickly turns to Thanksgiving. Derrick No. 2 invites Gaby to spend the holiday with him at his aunt’s house while her mom (Vernee Watson) is still freezing her out.
In a heartbreaking moment, he realizes Gaby is throwing a big Thanksgiving dinner and failed to invite him. “Every time I think about letting you in, I panic and shut down, and I don’t know why,” she says, to which he replies, “I’m good because I’m not the one who’s f***ed up.”
Jimmy breaks down after Jimmying a patient, tension with Alice
Leave it to Paul to read Jimmy like a book. In the Dec. 18 episode of Shrinking, Paul sees Jimmy “Jimmying” a patient in an attempt to get an “‘I did good’ buzz.” It comes as he and Alice are still at odds about telling Louis (Brett Goldstein) to stay away after the Dec. 11 episode.
“You can’t hide from your trauma. If you don’t deal with your past—boom,” Paul tells Jimmy, saying he’s “close to a breakdown.” When it does, he wants Jimmy to call him. “I’m not gonna call you. I’m gonna be OK,” Jimmy replies.
Paul isn’t having it. “I know you’re jonesing for a fix and this is your drug. Take it from somebody who knows the drug wears off and that smile that you used to have on your face for two weeks is only going to last two minutes then you know you’re f***ed.”
Sure enough, Paul’s words eventually ring true with Jimmy. He helps a patient through “Jimmying” and the feeling doesn’t last. Instead of celebrating Brian and Charlie (Devin Kawaoka) getting a baby, he briefly returns to his old life before finally calling Paul. The episode ends with a tearful Jimmy admitting to Paul that he’s “not OK.”
Stay tuned for the finale of Shrinking Season 2 on Christmas Day.
