- Alice is setting off for college, Paul is moving to Connecticut, Brian and his family are suddenly relocating, and Liz and Derek are going on a prolonged vacation.
- Jimmy thinks he has ruined his second chance at finding love.
- Will Jimmy be okay all on his own? Read on to find out.
Shrinking season 3 on Apple TV+ centers around one theme: moving forward. After confronting his past traumas and finally being able to properly grieve the death of his wife Tia, Jimmy Laird (Jason Segel) is now trying to figure out how to move on. In season 2, we got a sneak peek into what “moving on” might look like with the introduction of Sofi (Segel’s former HIMYM co-star Cobie Smulders). Still, it seems that Jimmy would rather help his patients, his daughter, and his friends than himself.
But with Alice going off to college soon, he has no choice but to try and continue living his life—to the fullest, and as happily as he can, for Alice’s (Lukita Maxwell) and his own sake. Will he be successful? Or will he allow himself to slide back to old toxic patterns?
Here’s everything that happens in the last episode of Shrinking season 3.
Jimmy is going to be very alone.
Aside from Alice heading off to college, in the penultimate episode of the season we’ve also learned that most of his friends won’t be around for a while. His bestie Brian (Michael Urie) and his little family are moving to Tennessee for his husband’s job. His neighbors Liz (Christa Miller) and Derek (Ted McGinley) are taking a long vacation in Spain ahead of the birth of their first grandchild. His mentor Paul (Harrison Ford)—with whom he just had a big blowout argument with—is moving to Connecticut to live out the rest of his life with Parkinson’s in the warm presence of family. And, unbeknownst to him, his former-patient-now-friend Sean (Luke Tennie) is moving out of his pool house into a fixer-upper.
Everyone in his tight-knit community is worried about him, but Jimmy tries to reassure everyone that he’s going to be just fine—even when he’s not fully convinced of this himself. His top priority at the moment is to give Alice the perfect sendoff before her big move to the East Coast, where she’s going to attend Wesleyan University on a soccer scholarship.
Gaby proposes to Derrick.
After having a rough time dealing with a patient’s recent death, and realizing her true calling to help trauma patients, Gaby (Jessica Williams) is finally able to breathe. That is, until she accidentally finds the gorgeous, $13,000 (yes, she looked it up) emerald ring her boyfriend Derrick (Damon Wayans Jr.) had bought for her. It winds up stuck on her ring finger, and she runs to Liz for help. She claims that she isn’t ready for the next step, saying she’s still reeling from recent events and trying to make a big career jump.
She later consults her inner circle (consisting of her mom and her friends) to weigh the pros and cons of potentially marrying Derrick. This quickly turns into an intervention, making Gaby realize that her boyfriend’s had to drag her through every major milestone of their relationship. Will she be sabotaging her own happiness yet again by rejecting Derrick’s proposal?
Well, as it turns out, she’s able to muster the courage to take their relationship to the next level—but on her own terms. With everyone’s help, she is able to pull-off a big surprise proposal to Derrick. By mid-way through the episode, they’re officially engaged! They also make plans to join Liz and Derek in Barcelona for a couples’ getaway.
Alice’s goodbye tour doesn’t go as planned.
Alice made plans to spend as much time as possible with her best friend Summer (Rachel Stubington) before leaving for college. But we find out that Summer has been blowing her off, and using her boyfriend/ Liz and Derek’s youngest son Connor (Gavin Lewis) as an excuse. Tensions rise, and the two end up fighting and refusing to speak. Jimmy decides to step in, and do one more act of good parenting before sending his kid off.
Instead of sitting through his farewell ice cream date with Alice, he set it up so that Summer met them at the ice cream shop, allowing the two besties to finally make up. They admit that their little tiff happened just because they’re going to miss each other so much.
In one of the last moments of the episode, when Jimmy drives Alice to the airport, we get the surprise that Summer is in the back of the car, too. She’s coming along for one last adventure with Alice, and swinging by Paul’s before heading to Wesleyan. This ruins Jimmy’s whole planned speech and tearful goodbye. But, as he already knows, big moments like that never really turn out according to plan.
Do Paul and Jimmy make up?
Paul never took Jimmy’s misdirected anger personally, so it didn’t take too long for the two to have a chat over the phone. Still, a lurking tension remained as the two never had their proper goodbye brunch, which they’d planned to have before Paul flew to Connecticut. And throughout the episode it’s clear that Jimmy yearns for Paul’s presence and advice, but Paul being Paul—keeping up his ever-aloof façade of a persona—he pretends like he doesn’t sense anything’s wrong. He reacts to Jimmy’s updates as he normally would, with little care. But when Alice and Summer arrive in Connecticut, they (together with his daughter Meg (Lily Rabe) and wife Julie (Wendie Malick)) confront him and tell him that it’s clear Jimmy needs him.
Paul ends up surprising Jimmy by flying back to Pasadena for their goodbye brunch. But once Jimmy arrives, Paul tells him he’s not staying long. And that’s because he’s made the brunch reservation not for the two of them, but for Jimmy and Sofi. Sofi is already seated at the table. When Jimmy becomes hesitant, and talks about his scars from the past, Paul gives him the ultimate validation that allows him to finally move forward. His mentor tells him that he’s been like a son to him, and that he doesn’t need him, but he wants to be there for as long as he can for Jimmy.
Do Jimmy and Sofi end up together?
The episode ends with Jimmy facing his fear of moving forward with his life, and sitting down for brunch and a second chance with Sofi. We don’t really know what happens from here, but it all points to good signs that Jimmy’s going to be okay after all. Not at all a bad way to end the show’s initial three-season story arc. Maybe we’ll get a whole new set of problems and drama in season 4?
