Shrinking Season 3 Episode 5 Recap: “Hold Your Horsies” Delivers Jimmy’s Most Emotional Spiral Yet

We are now at the halfway mark for Season 3 of Shrinking. Apple TV’s hit comedy-drama, starring Jason Segel, Harrison Ford, and Jessica Williams, returns with Episode 5 and another beautifully layered cavalcade of life lessons on relationships and feeling stuck by the circumstances of the past. 

In a series that makes a strong case for therapists needing their own therapy, the narrative this week finds widowed therapist Jimmy Laird (Segel) is not the only one of his friends and, even family, caught in an emotional holding pattern with his life. It seems several in his inner circle have fallen victim to a specific modern paralysis of being stuck, not because they lack options, but because they are terrified of the cost of choosing one.

Once again, the series’ writing does not disappoint, nor does it rely on explosive arguments or grand romantic gestures to prove a point. Instead, the emotional beats thrive in the silence of what goes unsaid, the fear of getting it wrong, and the odd security that comes from staying mired in your own mess. Hey, it’s the classic “devil you know” scenario of coping.

The story remains centered on the angst-ridden therapist, Jimmy, as he now has to navigate his mentor’s impending retirement, his daughter heading off to college, and putting his heart back out on the market as he continues working through the loss of his wife. 

As Jimmy and Paul (Ford) begin to work through the elder therapist’s retirement wind down, Jimmy finds that he has grown more and more emotional each time he and Paul part ways. Jimmy has been fan-boying Paul’s gravitas as a therapist, as of late, but also wants his mentor to appreciate all that he is doing for him through the transition. Fellow therapist Gaby (Williams) bursts Jimmy’s bubble when she tells him he will not get the level of gratitude he is seeking from Paul, as playing eager beaver caregiver. 

Gaby and new patient Maya are back in session with the latter discussing her wins over the past week to feel all her feelings, that is, when she is not numbing them with everyone’s fav home remedy, isolation and self-medication. As Gaby recognizes the myriad of red flags in Maya’s admission and the ways in which she could truly help patients like her, she fantasizes about expanding her services into a trauma center. Energized by that thought, she later workshops the idea with her boyfriend, also named Derek, played by Damon Wayans, Jr. First introduced in Season 2, Derek remains the supportive low-key love interest to Williams’ spirited therapist. 

Back in the neighborhood, Liz (Christa Miller) and, husband, Derek, (Ted McGinley) host a couple’s backyard barbecue with new dads Charlie (Devin Kawaoka) and Brian (Michael Urie), and Gaby and other Derek. With her phone glued to her ear, Liz tries continuously to reach her son, Matthew. The ne’er do well third child for her and Derek has left his mom on eternal read after he walked in on her calling him an “embarrassment” in Episode 4. Nevertheless, the subject of his son spurs Liz’s Derek to broach the subject of parenthood with Gaby and her Derek. Not being married aside, Gaby assures her friends that any discussion of baby makes three would not come until her and her Derek meet the deadline of “Operation Hold Your Horsies” the therapist’s not-so-covert delay tactic for discussing the future, especially, any major life milestones. 

Little does Gaby know the two Dereks have been conspiring offscreen to speed up the clock on that operation and take Gaby to see a potential location of her would-be trauma center. Feeling like her dreams have been hijacked, Gaby calls an emergency meeting of her inner circle the next day to determine if it’s time for her to part ways with her Derek. 

Back at the office, Paul continues to see patients who are now expressing their own anxiety with the therapist’s retirement. When Paul’s daughter Meg (Lily Rabe) drops in to retrieve some family photos for her son’s class project, Paul sends her and Jimmy on an errand to his storage facility. 

While the mice are away, Paul meets with everyone’s favorite extended stay houseguest Sean, played by Luke Tennie. For most of the season, Sean has been working through the return of his ex-girlfriend with whom he has since rekindled a relationship. Though Sean appreciates Marisol (Isabella Gomez) being back in his life, he has also been struggling with her wanting him to be the same guy he was before, and the fear that she will not want him, otherwise. Paul helps the young combat vet to recognize he is using these sentiments as a stall. 

At the storage facility, the scene we all saw coming, Jimmy and Meg dish about their dads as they search through boxes to locate photos and clinical notes. What ensues is the ever-popular heart-to-heart between two consenting adults on love lost, moving forward, the Teflon-coated fathers they wished they new better, and the desire for uncomplicated relationships, as they literally search through the past for answers. In the end, Meg recognizes how close Jimmy truly is to her dad, almost like-a-son close.

What gives this episode its teeth comes from these particular scenes as we come to understand the parallel grief of Paul’s retirement for Jimmy. First in losing his wife to death and now to losing a father figure to retirement. 

Paul’s impending departure acts as the catalyst for Jimmy’s quiet spiral, the emotion every time he says goodbye to Paul; the over zealousness to be of help to him. It’s the realization that it is yet another moment of loss for Jimmy. 

Across town, Sean takes Paul up on giving into who he is now to be with the woman from who he was then. Sean agrees to accompany Marisol, along with Jimmy’s daughter Alice (Lukita Maxwell) and others, to a warehouse party. When the cover fee requires cash, Sean offers up the food truck for business to raise the needed funds for the group. But, when the time comes to head into the party, Sean hesitates again, and retreats from enjoying the moment with his love and friends. Only when Alice puts the moment in perspective for him, and even herself, that they have both been holding back on their own happiness, Sean drops his defenses and takes a chance on his life now.

It has been a minute since we have had a decent scene between Sean and Alice, the unexpected fast friends from Season 1 who have grown more to be like siblings over the course of the series’ three seasons. Appreciate the way this friendship has been allowed to evolve from strangers to friends who cannot be fooled, who have seen through their vulnerabilities and remain protective of each other, without the need to turn the whole thing romantic. 

One of the best scenes of the episode would have to be Gaby’s gathering of her inner circle with one topic on the docket Derek, his overstep, and the pros and cons of him remaining as her boyfriend. Liz, Brian, Paul, and Gaby’s sister have been called to weigh in. Gaby’s mother crashes the circle, and takes over the discussion with a long-winded story about nothing related to the issue at hand. Played by veteran character actor and two-time Daytime Emmy winner, Vernee Watson Johnson, Phyllis is every mom, who cannot be played on her what makes her children tick. Her character is effective every time she’s on screen.

When Paul calls Gaby out on her fears with her Operation timeline, Gaby challenges her circle that no one truly knows her. When her friends and family rush to prove her wrong, the blowback on how well they do leaves Gaby torched with her own truth. 

While Paul uses yet another moment to be the sage voice among his friends in opening their eyes to the lies they are telling themselves on why they cannot make decisions, he continues to fall victim to the emotions he is neglecting, himself. Brilliantly understated, Paul, too, is wrapped up in his own trauma of letting go of all that he is. The venerable therapist’s gruff exterior only masks his own inability to maintain control in the face of a disease that has taken the reins of his life.

With another round of standout performances, sharp writing, and just the right mix of the heartfelt and the humor, Shrinking captures the essence of resilience. It reminds us, viewers, that while we may find ourselves stuck in the circumstances of our past, it is the connections we forge with others that guide us toward new beginnings.

It’s another beautiful half-hour of must-see TV that validates anyone who has ever felt that getting back in the game of your life is not a sign of strength, but an act of terrifying vulnerability. But, hey, if you are just in it for a good plot twist, you may want stay to the the end on this one.

Shrinking streams weekly on Wednesdays on Apple TV.

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