Shrinking Season 3 Episode 9: Selfish Served Three Ways

It’s easy to forget in this ensemble of actively evolving individuals that there are people who simply can’t move on.

Randy Laird lives a perfectly content life, prioritizing himself and his desires, deluding himself into believing everyone else is fine with that.

He believes he’s a good father and a good grandfather. He probably thinks he’s better than good, in fact. The only person who seems to really disconcert him is Summer, which is another reason I love that girl.

Randy’s charming, exceedingly likable, with a superficially generous and easy-going nature.

But none of that exists below the surface, because the instant someone else’s needs become inconvenient, he chooses to do what serves his immediate desires. Psychologists have a word for that: narcissism.

Jimmy must recognize it, but chooses not to acknowledge it. Still, he describes the narcissism to Sofi without ever naming it.

“He likes to tell these idyllic stories about my childhood that are, like, ALMOST true…. when my dad was around, it was good. It just always seemed like he had something else he had to do.

And then when Tia died, he came to the funeral, and he gave this speech about how he was gonna prioritize me and Alice and really be there for us. And then I don’t know. Some, like, really cool sh*t must’ve come up because we didn’t see him again for two years.” — Jimmy

And Jimmy’s so conditioned to reject anything his father approves of that Randy judging Sofi to be a better fit for him than Tia was the death knell on that relationship. At least, for now.

Paul’s Legacy

Meanwhile, Paul feels the minutes ticking down, and it spurs him into action.

After convincing Gaby to come back to the clinic, he begins loading her up with a lifetime of learning — his learning — in order to shape her into his Mini-Me CBT therapist.

Gaby, still feeling vulnerable after Maya’s death, is just grateful to have someone to have someone lay out a safe and reliable path for her. Enter the raging storm of Liz.

Liz: What the f*ck are you doing? Why do I always have to come in here and yell at you about Gaby?

Paul: ‘Cause you’re a sociopath and you got no boundaries.

Liz recognizes Paul’s need for legacy, to leave something behind that makes the world a better place.

However, she makes it explicitly clear that seeding Gaby with his teachings, binding her to his established doctrine of mundane (but still important) psychological practice, when her dream is to work in trauma treatment, is equivalent to sealing her spirit in a box to suffocate and die.

Change is the Difference

When Sean points out how much Paul has changed in the time he’s been treating him, Paul has his “Come To Liz” moment.

It drives him to Gaby’s office, negating all his plans to pass on the Rhodes Wellness dogma.

He admits that losing a patient scared him away from trauma care, and the fear of that happening again forced him to choose a different path.

His honesty bursts forth like a geyser, and he insists that Gaby is the stronger therapist who deserves to follow her dream.

“I’ve carried around a lot of dark sh*t from growing up with my father. The motherf*cker. Violent. That’s what made me a closed-off person…. But today I was reminded of how much I’ve grown. And I give a lot of that credit to you. You’ve opened me up to new things…. Gaby, you are my legacy.” — Paul

And the contrast between him and Randy is written on the wall when he credits Gaby with changing his life.

Where Randy disregards everyone else’s perspective, believing he’s already reached Peak Randy, a lonely and singular summit, Paul knows that his life is better for the people in it.

Mindful Selfishness Can Be Entertaining And Necessary

By any measure, this was a heavy chapter for Shrinking Season 3, so the last word goes to the awesomeness that is Brian and his slay-worthy TED Talk on the merits of selfishness.

Sure, it’s set up because Sean needs to choose his new path over Jorge’s reliance on the food truck. Rough. Although there’s a pretty simple solution, in my mind. We’ll wait and see how that plays out.

But, OMG, is Brian not the brightest beam of sunlight, eliciting smiles from even the morose Sean and sexually frustrated Derek? It’s a treatise of epic ego, arguing that caring for oneself is key to caring for others. Michael Urie just sparkles in the scene.

“How can I be any good for anyone in my life if I’m not happy myself?” — Brian

Hilariously comparing himself to Mother Teresa while admitting to stealing coffee orders, he still stumbles across that pearl of wisdom.

Maybe Randy will catch the encore performance, and irony will break through where his son’s pleas for connection don’t.

Ah, Brian, your genius is misunderstood and underestimated. Charlie and Sutton are lucky to have you. And, pay Alice no mind, you’re not an old. Age is a construct of the mind.

Course Correction

Change continues to be hard, and sometimes it takes a few tries to get things right. Of course, you need to want to change on some level.

Can Jimmy pull himself out of this tailspin? Is it too late for him and Sofi?

What will Alice’s graduation day celebration be like?

Will Randy fall out of the boat on his emergency fishing trip and get eaten by a shark?

With two episodes left in the season, what are your predictions for our fine functional-adjacent folks? Hit our comments with your craziest thoughts and theories on where they’ll move on to next.

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