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With Shrinking Season 2 nearly here, some viewers may find themselves in need of a Season 1 refresher ahead of the premiere of the second installment on Oct. 16.
The first season of the comedy series, co-created by Ted Lasso masterminds Bill Lawrence and Brett Goldstein, introduced viewers to one James “Jimmy” Laird, portrayed by Jason Segel, as he coped with the loss of his wife Tia (Lilan Bowden) with the help of his nosy neighbors Liz (Christa Miller) and Derek (Ted McGinley) a well as his therapist coworkers Paul Rhoades (Harrison Ford) and Gaby (Jessica Williams). Still, other relationships mended or blossomed between Jimmy and others as well as between those interconnected in Jimmy’s life.
Find a Shrinking Season 1 recap with details from last season below:
Meeting Jimmy
Viewers first met Jimmy from the perspective of his next-door neighbors Liz and Derek, who were constantly disturbed in the middle of the night by his antics after the death of his wife Tia in a car accident. Jimmy would do drugs and see sex workers to numb and distract himself from the pain of this loss. His daughter Alice (Lukita Maxwell), a high school student, was taken care of by Liz as a stand-in mother who would feed her, drive her to school and keep track of her schedule and soccer games.
Jimmy’s Job, Colleagues and Patients
Jimmy is a behavioral therapist who works under Harrison Ford’s mentor Paul Rhoades alongside Jessica Williams’ Gaby. After seeing a patient Grace (Heidi Gardner), who opens up about her verbally abusive husband Donnie, Jimmy cracks one day and finds that he can no longer stand by with compassion and empathy. He tells Paul and Gaby his situation, and Paul immediately shoots down the idea that Jimmy gets more actively involved in his patients’ lives like some kind of “psychological vigilante.”
Gaby asks Jimmy to take on a referral patient named Sean (Luke Tennie), a young soldier who keeps getting arrested for assault. Because Gaby — who was good friends with Jimmy’s wife — has covered for Jimmy many times and has been picking up his slack in the months since Tia died, he agrees to it, but he doesn’t heed Paul’s advice, instead getting overinvolved in Sean’s veteran PTSD and trying to help him heal.
Alice’s Soccer Game
This decision as well as Jimmy’s threat to Grace that he wouldn’t see her anymore if she didn’t leave her husband results in a perfect storm combination that comes back to bite Jimmy at one of his daughter’s soccer games — the first one he attends in a while.
After he takes Sean to mixed martial arts to help him get some of the anger and violence out in a healthier way than attacking strangers out of irritation, Sean encourages Jimmy to go to Alice’s soccer game. They run to the field and triumphantly sit back for a moment to watch Alice help score a goal, but then Grace’s husband Donnie walks toward Jimmy and punches him out of anger that Grace has left him. Sean steps in for Jimmy after the therapist takes a pounding, and his rage turns him into a hitting machine. Sean gets taken to jail, and this scene has just gone down in front of Alice, her teammates, Liz and the crowd at the game. This is how the first episode of Shrinking ended.
Brian Comes Back into the Picture
Jimmy’s best friend Brian (Michael Urie) showed up briefly in the first episode as someone Jimmy wanted to avoid. Now, Jimmy is forced to call Brian for help because Brian’s a lawyer. Sean is worried that Donnie will press charges for what happened, but Brian comes in (he’s an estate lawyer) to save the day and talk Donnie down from doing that.
Brian invites Jimmy to pickleball that night, and Jimmy says he can’t go, but he does end up showing up. Brian asks him if they’re ever going to talk about what happened to make them drift into their best friendship, and Jimmy hesitates at first, but he ultimately rails on Brian for how he was too upbeat at a time when Jimmy needed to hit rock bottom. Brian is constantly saying “Everything goes my way.”
Sean Moves in with Jimmy
Sean’s parents don’t want him living with them and his younger brother Graham because he keeps going to jail, so Jimmy offers to put him up after VOA housing doesn’t work out.
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Alice, who has “chats” that are like mini therapy sessions, with Paul behind Jimmy’s back, blurts out what happened at her soccer game, which Paul knew nothing about.
Paul’s Parkinson’s
Paul has Parkinson’s disease. Much like Jimmy, everyone in Paul’s life who knows this wants to help him out. Gaby leaves a baby water bottle that is the miniature version of his giant one on his desk. Others make sure he eats healthy. Paul also has a daughter Meg (Lily Rabe), who lives on the East Coast and doesn’t know about his condition.
After he hits Gaby’s new Tesla, Paul asks his doctor Julie Baram (Wendie Malick) if he can take the driving assessment again.
Gaby Gets Divorced
While her car was in the shop, Gaby asked Jimmy if he could give her a ride home, but she found a different ride, though Jimmy spied on her kissing a man who is not her husband Nico (Adam Foster Ballard) at a gas station.
Jimmy confronts Gaby about it, and she reveals that she and Nico are getting divorced. Nico was addicted to heroin, and Gaby helped him through it, but the love has been lost between them.
Gaby offers to give Paul rides to work so that he doesn’t drive anymore, and he takes her up on it. One morning he is just waiting in her Tesla for his ride to work.
Gaby drops the news of her divorce at Runaway Roadhouse, a bar in town where you can play cornhole while waiting for your entrée. Brian and Jimmy plan a divorce party for her, but when they come over to her place the next night, she is more sad than she had previously been. Jimmy was upset because this triggered his wife’s death, and when he told Paul about it, Paul hinted that Jimmy still has stuff to work through as well with his wife’s death.
Liz’s Son Connor (Gavin Lewis) Comes Home
With Liz’s son Connor home, she has a new person to focus on instead of Alice. Gaby had previously confronted Liz about backing off when it came to taking care of Alice in Jimmy’s sted, and Liz wasn’t happy about it at first, but she took the hint. Liz also loves to polish rocks and give them to people she loves, which becomes important throughout the show.
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Alice, who is Gaby’s goddaughter, confesses to Gaby that she had sex with Connor before he left for college. Gaby encourages Alice to tell “cool dad” Jimmy, who immediately freaks out and then also takes it out on Liz and yells at her. “Liz’s purpose? Are you here?” he jokes. Liz feels bad about letting this happen under her watch.
Later, Liz and Gaby bond after Gaby says what Jimmy yelled wasn’t cool. They also warn Jimmy that Alice definitely has a crush on Sean and that she’s “driving the bus” when it comes to hooking up with guys.
The Vibe With Alice and Sean
Alice does, indeed, have a crush on Sean, as Jimmy discovers one night when Alice goes to see if Sean’s awake in the pool house. Jimmy happened to fall asleep in there, but his daughter didn’t notice him when she admired sleeping Sean and said “You’re beautiful.
Alice later tries to kiss Sean, but he curbs it and says she’s just a kid. Things get a bit weird between them for a bit, but then they slowly find their way back to friendship.
Brian’s Proposal Party
After hemming and hawing over proposing to his boyfriend Charlie (Devin Kawaoka), Brian finally works up the nerve to do so and buys a ring. He plans an elaborate surprise engagement party, which Charlie thinks is for Jimmy winning a major therapy award.
Unfortunately, this party turns out to be a bit of a disaster for most involved. Jimmy gets terribly drunk after hearing so many people mourn Tia and tells Alice he heard her say Sean is beautiful after he catches her drinking, which he thinks is to “impress Sean.” She runs upstairs to her room, and Sean follows her. Later, she tries to kiss him.
Jimmy was supposed to play a song on the piano for Brian to sing to Charlie before he proposed, but he couldn’t stop projectile vomiting, and thus, Gaby went to help out and clean him up. He confessed to Gaby earlier that he had imposter syndrome because the party made him flash back to another time when he and Tia were fighting and they hosted a different party. Gaby and Jimmy kiss and later have sex.
Paul added a layer to the party by showing up high out of his mind after Liz gave him edibles to help with his Parkinson’s. He took a few after stressing over his daughter’s texts. Brian convinced him to tell her about the Parkinson’s because Brian was handling his Power of Attorney and will, and Meg takes it into her hands to really manage Paul’s health. He doesn’t feel he needs this.
Apology Tour
Jimmy apologizes to Brian, who is over the moon because Charlie said yes to his proposal. He also says sorry to Alice and Paul. Liz previously outed Sean living with Jimmy to Paul. Paul does not want to speak with Jimmy.
Paul’s daughter Meg offered him to move in with her and her husband so that they could take care of him, but he declines, saying he can’t leave his patients behind. She gets upset because they drifted in their relationship after Paul divorced Meg’s mother. She feels like he won’t ever prioritize her.
Alice Has a USC Adventure
Alice let slip to Paul that a USC student on a Vespa hit on her at the beach. She made good on her suggestion to go hang out with him in his dorm, but it takes Brian coming over to ask Jimmy not to officiate his wedding and noticing the car not in the driveway for the pair to go search for her. Paul joins in. The three of them confronting the guy — Chet, is pretty hilarious, and Paul successfully scares him into gulping in fear.
Gaby Takes Liz and Sean to Nico’s Art Show
Gaby showed up to Nico’s art show to support her ex, but it evolved into an embarrassing moment for both of them as Nico claimed a painting so obviously based on Gaby was of a new woman he was seeing, who also happened to be the gallery’s curator.
Sean Starts Catering Business
Alice invokes her Liz rock to get funding for Sean’s food endeavor, which Derek, who has recently retired, agrees to fund. Liz wants to be more involved in picking out the truck and serving orders, and after she gets past her fear of being vulnerable, she tells Sean, and he lets her in on the business.
Brian’s Wedding
Brian and Charlie get married with Alice, Gaby, Liz, Derek, Paul, Julie and of course, Jimmy, present. Jimmy officiates and gets past his wedding nerves to give a heartfelt speech, revealing that Tia actually introduced Brian and Charlie.
Liz scolds Gaby for calling Jimmy “safe dick” — which is an excuse that she will never catch feelings for him now that they are hooking up — because his speech makes Gaby react in the manner of one who might feel more.
Paul brought Julie to the wedding after he took her to see his grandson’s fourth-grade play instead of going to Las Vegas to receive a career achievement award. Everyone dances happily towards the end of the finale.
*Boop! Grace, who gets back with her husband, does push him off a cliff on the hike in Pasadena that many go on in a shocking turn of events, setting up for some consequences in Season 2. She’s not the only one who will have to face her choices.
