‘Shrinking’ Recap: Dec. 4 Episode Is Grapes, Troll Pens, and New Chapters
New chapters are in the making on the Dec. 4 episode of Shrinking. The Emmy-nominated TV show has changes brewing in Pasadena, California, for not only teenager, Alice (Lukita Maxwell), but also the adults. Ahead, get a recap of what happened in the Dec. 4 episode.
[Spoiler alert: This article contains spoilers from the Dec. 4, 2024, episode of Shrinking Season 2 Episode 9: “Full Grown Dude Face.”]
Alice goes to Jimmy for help
Alice and Jimmy have come a long way as shown in “Full Grown Dude Face,” which began streaming Dec. 4, 2024, on Apple TV+. Jimmy might be thrown off by Dylan, a 17-year-old with a “full grown dude face” when he shows up to take Alice (Lukita Maxwell) out for pizza.
After choking on a grape and getting help from Dylan, Jimmy learns Alice has decided to go to a dance with Dylan at his school. “It’s time I re-enter the world,” she says.
Later, Paul (Harrison Ford) offers Jimmy some advice that foreshadows what’s to come. “Alice asserting her independence means you did good,” he says. Now, the hard part for you is figuring out how to let her separate without making her feel guilty. If you can manage to do that, then when she really needs something, there’s a chance that you’ll be the one she calls.”
In between handing over his credit card so Alice can buy a new dress Jimmy learns his daughter’s eager to not “be the girl with the dead mom.” But that changes when someone at an after-party learns about Alice’s past. And who does she call? Jimmy.
“Just like that, I’m the girl with the dead mom again,” she tells Jimmy outside Dylan’s house. At that, Jimmy shares why he often says he has “dead wife face.”
“It’s almost funny so it lets people know they don’t have to walk around eggshells around me,” he explains. Moments later Alice is back at the after-party and she uses her own version, “dead mom face,” to diffuse an awkward moment. There to check on her just like he promised he wouldn’t is Jimmy in his car blowing her a kiss as she mouths “thank you” from the porch.
Gaby worries about changes at home
As Gaby’s (Jessica Williams) sister, Courtney (Courtney Taylor), looks for a job, she confesses to Paul that she doesn’t want her living situation to change by having their mom (Vernee Johnson) move in with her.
“Obviously I want my sister to get a job. But the second she does, our mom becomes my problem. So I guess I’m hoping that if I say, ‘I’m rooting for you,’ enough I’ll start to mean it,” she tells Paul.
Then Gaby’s thrown a big curveball. Courtney’s decided to join the army. Along the way, Paul dishes out some wise words. “This isn’t about her,” he says about Gaby’s mom. “This is about setting boundaries and saying what you want.”
Skeptical Gaby can’t break her pattern as a “lifelong caretaker,” he tells his fellow therapist, “The only person you’re not good at looking after is yourself. If your mom wants to move in with you, I’m not sure you can say no.”
Then comes the moment Gaby’s mom is at her house. She assumes she’s moving in with Gaby and is excited to see her new bedroom. (Gaby’s current bedroom is her first choice.) And, just as Paul predicted, Gaby doesn’t tell her mom how she feels.
Brian and Charlie get advice before an important meeting
After admitting they weren’t ready to be parents in the Nov. 20 episode of Shrinking, Brian (Michael Urie) and Charlie (Devin Kawaoka) are trying to adopt. They’re gearing up to be interviewed by a birth mom.
Unsurprisingly, Brian is anxious about meeting her, worried he’ll screw it up for him and Charlie simply by being himself. Jimmy offers some advice: “Say the exact opposite of what you are about to say” and/or let Charlie do all the talking. Liz (Christa Miller) gives them a crash course on parenting before the birth mom, Ava (Claudia Sulewski), pictured above, arrives at Jimmy’s house to meet Brian and Charlie.
Their talk gets off to a rocky start—Brian has a hilarious moment involving garbage—before he seemingly wins her over with honesty and a shared love of troll pens and musicals. Later, though, Charlie and Brian learn they weren’t selected to be the baby’s adoptive parents.
A new episode of Shrinking Season 2 drops every Wednesday on Apple TV+.
