One thing you can’t fault Shrinking for being is subtle. Indeed, sometimes the show hits its themes so bluntly that it really feels (as did its kindred series, Ted Lasso) like it’s trying to model a very specific way of being in the world. And such modeling often comes with absurdly obvious lessons the show doesn’t try to hide nor sugarcoat. That is definitely the case with “The Drugs Don’t Work,” this season’s penultimate episode that all but runs that title’s metaphor into the ground.
Said title refers to Paul’s plight. He’s noticing that his meds aren’t having the effect he’d grown accustomed to. His Parkinson’s is seemingly getting worse, with his tremors flaring up daily and his memory loss becoming more acute. It’s what leads him to track down his doctor during her lunch break (yes, he used his charm to coerce her secretary to disclose her location) only to find she’s dating…Sean! This is a funny moment for how it unsettles Paul, though not as much as what she tells him the next day when he actually sets up an appointment. It’s true: The drugs aren’t working, and, as he asks for it bluntly, he may have six months to a year until, well…until he’s no longer himself.
That’ll obviously require Paul to ask for some help from others, something the curmudgeon therapist loathes to admit and accept—even, as we see in this episode, he’s gotten a lot better at embracing the ragtag community around him. Which is why, when Jimmy comes to him asking for help with the Alice situation, the episode takes its central concept (“the drugs aren’t working”) and twists it to frame Jimmy’s plight.
Last we saw him, of course, he had gotten into a big fight with his now-eighteen-year-old daughter over Louis, the guy who’d drunkenly killed Jimmy’s wife and Alice’s mom. And while she’d seen helping him as a way to heal herself, he’d opted to accept his apology and asked him, in turn, to never again be in contact with Alice. And once she found out, that made her go full teenager on Jimmy. At the start of the episode, they’re still butting heads, with Liz unable to take sides and telling both what they want to hear. What’s clear is that Alice wishes Jimmy would help Louis the way he helps literally everyone else in the world. And Jimmy, perhaps rightfully (or righteously), feels that’s too tall an ask.
Might this lead him back down his rock-bottom path? Maybe. Especially since he immediately tries to reconnect with one of his former (very young) flames. And so instead he tries to find the high where he’s recently found it: in Jimmying patients left and right, a course of action Paul doesn’t quite approve of. He hopes that if Jimmy does eventually land himself squarely in a breakdown situation he’ll call him, which is something Jimmy tells him outright he’s unlikely to do.
And so Jimmy begins searching for that high—the kind Paul tells him will continue wearing off and won’t really get him through this tough patch with Alice. That involves both trying to work with anyone and searching for a possible answer to the question that’s clearly nagging him: How do you forgive yourself? How do you do the right thing when it’s so wrapped up in your own guilt and inability to do good?
That journey takes him from chatting with Grace (yes, the Grace who pushed her abusive partner off a cliff) to reaching out to Grace’s ex, Donny, who’s still in physical therapy and just as much of an asshole as he’s always been. Striking out with both (not even Jimmy can find a high in helping someone as toxically narcissistic as Donny), he finds a modicum of success with Wally, his OCD patient who has, apparently, dognapped her neighbor’s pooch. She’d first found him after he was lost and then just promptly kept him in her apartment since she so enjoyed the company.
With Jimmy’s coaching, Wally eventually returns the dog to her neighbor and the two have a bit of a breakthrough, which they celebrate with a hug that leaves Jimmy…well, feeling empty. His drug of choice is definitely not working, which is why he’s retreating into himself, blowing off celebrating with the gang (more on why in a bit), and getting into old habits.
Across town (or maybe just a few blocks away, as we do tend to stay in Pasadena for much of the time), Gabby is now wrestling with a problem of her own making: She’s made Thanksgiving plans with Liz and the gang but is unsure whether it makes sense to invite Derek. In a bit of a self-sabotaging move, she fibs about her plans for Turkey Day with her BF (who’s just as into trashy things as she is) and later has to suffer through a much-needed scolding from him when he realizes she’d been waffling about it for a while. Did she want to break things off? Why was she struggling with letting him in? A belated apology isn’t enough, and now we’re left wondering whether these two burrito-loving lovebirds will make it after all.
Thankfully, Brian is having a better time. Even as he remains as spastic as ever (Michael Urie’s scenes with Brian Gallivan, a writer on the show who plays an adoption agent, are just sublime), it seems he and Charlie are due for a win. Sure, they might have lost the baby last week but a nice gesture from Brian (a troll pencil) is enough to convince her to change her mind. That and learning the couple she’d chosen instead were, brace yourselves, Disney adults is all enough to get the gang together to celebrate.
Sans Jimmy, of course. In a moment that proves just how far he’s come, he actually decides to call Paul rather than go on a downward spiral. The scene of the two of them meeting at the bench where Paul and Alice meet is as sweet as the show gets.
