The comedy drama series Shrinking, on AppleTV+, returned with its 2nd season last week, airing two premiere episodes, with the main point of focus being the fate of Jimmy’s people-pleasing patient, Grace. As the woman had pushed her abusive husband, Donny, off a walking trail at the end of season 1, she is now facing immense legal trouble, as she is currently imprisoned and awaiting trial. Shrinking season 2 episode 3 finally reveals Grace’s fate, although there are a number of twists in the matter. Along with it, the episode also features a rift between Sean and Liz, while Alice decides to face Louis.
Spoiler Alert
What does Jimmy do to make Grace change her mind?
Shrinking season 2 episode 3 begins inside a physical therapy clinic, where the protagonist, Jimmy, visits a recovering Donny to have a conversation. Donny is receiving physical therapy at the place and is still as toxic and abusive to others as before, particularly the woman currently training him. His horrific behavior even makes the woman admit to Jimmy that although it is inappropriate for her to wish ill upon any of her patients, she sincerely hopes that Donny never recovers from his injuries and remains stuck in a wheelchair forever. The reason for Jimmy meeting the detestable man is directly linked with his immense desire to help his patient out of the legal trouble, as the DA is about to file charges against Grace later that very day. He suggests that Donny drop the charges against his ex-wife, particularly since the complainant has a history of abuse, which can be easily testified to by many others as well. Thus, since the DA would already be biased against Donny and the trial would not be successful for him, Jimmy suggests that it would be better to drop the charges and let the matter go.
Jimmy is clearly looking out for his patient here, as he does not want Grace to have to face any severe punishment for her crime, and although he is confident that Donny will be seen as the problematic person that he is by the law, he does not want to take any chances. Donny, however, absolutely refuses to let the matter slide, and he remains adamant about exacting revenge from his ex-wife. He also holds Jimmy responsible for Grace’s actions and therefore hates the therapist. This means he would refuse any request by Jimmy whatsoever, and his ask to drop the charges is not received any differently. He even tries the argument that dropping the charges would save Donny from further trouble since his past acts of abuse and possible torture against many women will not be investigated, but Donny is not someone to listen to such logic or even see anything wrong in his past actions.
Thus, Jimmy has to go to the prison with a tense face once again, accompanied by Brian, as they meet Grace one last time before an important decision about her life is taken. Brian reveals that the DA is about to decide on the final charges very soon, and there are two ways that she can go about it. If she considers Grace’s crime as an act of aggravated assault, then the maximum duration of imprisonment will be just eight months. But if she decides it to be second-degree attempted murder, which is obviously a much more serious charge, then Grace could be facing prison time of up to five years. Brian tries to suggest how the consequences in case of the two charges can be starkly different, although he has to be stopped from speaking out his mind midway by Jimmy, since they cannot demotivate Grace already about how her life might be destroyed if she has to spend five years in prison. However, Grace very calmly and disinterestedly replies that both the durations would mean the same to her and that she sees no difference between the two possibilities. This is, of course, confusing to Jimmy and Brian, but the conversation has to come to a pause as the latter gets a call from the DA’s office.
Turns out, there is not going to be any criminal case against Grace at all, as the DA found out about the shameful history of abuse against Donny, along with his multiple felony arrests, and grew confident that they would not be able to win the case under any circumstance. The state therefore has decided the case not worthy of pursuing, and so all the charges against Grace filed by Donny at the DA’s office have been dropped. This is extremely joyous news for both her lawyer, Brian, and her therapist, Jimmy, but Grace herself is upset with the development and finds it very difficult to accept. According to her, this situation clearly suggests that there is no justice in the world, for she will not be punished for her crime. In an extremely disturbed state of mind, Grace fails to see or admit that her action was a result of many months and years of abuse and toxicity, and she instead pins the blame of everything upon herself.
Thinking of the next steps, Jimmy advises Grace to leave her ex-husband once and for all, and also the country, to go and live with her sister in Canada, where she can get a fresh start to life. The woman is not convinced by this idea at all, as she keeps feeling bad for her abuser, Donny, and guilty for not having to face any consequences for her crime. Nonetheless, Jimmy and Brian go about their plan of bringing all of her clothes out of Donny’s house so that Grace does not have to step into the house again, only to get the shock of their lives. Out of guilt for having hurt her ex-husband, and because of the very nature of their abusive relationship, Grace returns to Donny once again and starts to be with him like his nurse, caregiver, and girlfriend all at once. This is, of course, the worst way things could have panned out with regards to the mental and physical well-being of Grace.
Therefore, Jimmy and Brian finally come up with a plan to make Grace change her mind, and upon realizing that the woman was specifically ignoring their counsel, they appoint the help of her close friends and relatives. The two men go out seeking written messages from Grace’s friends and family members, in which they try to convince her to leave Donny and mend her life for good. This technique ultimately works out greatly, as Grace suddenly realizes that people who matter to her a lot are all advising her to leave her abuser, and thus, she is seen packing up all her things and leaving the city with her sister. Although Grace’s story seems to be over as of now, the kind of person that she is and also the way in which Shrinking has been stretching almost every plot point make it very possible that Grace, and even Donny, might return to the show in the future.
Why Do Sean And Liz Have A Falling Out?
Sean and Liz start off the episode in very high spirits, as their food truck has been bringing in quite good business, as well as praise from the regular customers. As they are serving customers at their usual spot one day, a man and a boy walk up to the place simply asking for some wipes from Liz, with no intention to try their food. As it turns out, though, this man is Sean’s father, and the boy is his elder brother, which immediately puts him at a point of discomfort. Sean had not told his family about what he had been doing, having not been in contact with them at all. Therefore, seeing him work at a food truck is indeed a matter of surprise for his father, and he seems a bit confused by this development at first. To begin with, Sean had chosen not to be a part of his father’s business so that he could build an independent life of his own from scratch. Secondly, and more importantly in this context, Sean and his father always used to talk of opening up their own food truck someday, and so seeing his son live their dream with someone else is quite strange at first.
Although Liz does not know much about the dynamics between Sean and his father, she notices the nature of their conversation and figures out that reuniting them would be a good thing to do. A lot of plot points in Shrinking are just about characters doing things believing that it would be good for someone else without directly talking to them or consulting with them before meddling in their lives. A number of these decisions work out, like when Liz decides to take the food truck to the neighborhood where Sean’s father usually works, so that he can try out the food cooked by his son. It results in a healthy reunion between the two men, and Sean clarifies how he cannot just break Liz’s trust and abandon the food truck to go open a similar business with his father. The man completely understands the situation and is seen expressing his immense pride at his son’s culinary skills, which Sean had learned from him, which makes for a great development in the estranged relationship between the two.
However, Liz now starts to feel guilty about her position after having learned that Sean and his father originally wanted to have their own food truck. Therefore, she goes on to give away her portion of the business to Sean’s father so that he can live his dream along with his son. But she never consults Sean, who was supposed to be her business partner, about this significant step, which obviously leads to problems. Liz basically does this only to make herself feel better about helping Sean and his father live their dream of working together, but she never questions whether the young man would like it. To be fair to her, Liz also does not know about Sean’s dynamics with his father, and so she is utterly stunned and heartbroken when the young man expresses his anger after hearing about this development. Ultimately, Sean walks away from Liz’s house in a rage, and their food truck business is truly in turmoil, even though Liz offers to undo her mistake and take back her share from Sean’s father.
How does Alice go through a rollercoaster of emotions?
Although Jimmy’s busy schedule in his professional life helps him forget about Louis, the drunk driver who led to Tia’s death, Alice has a tough time dealing with the situation. She cannot stop thinking about how Louis had ruined her life, and she shows Paul the ranting letter that she had written addressed to Louis in order to ease her anger. However, this technique, suggested by her friend Summer, clearly does not work out, as Alice is still extremely disturbed by the fact that her mother’s murderer, as she believes him to be, is now living a normal life. She seemingly keeps going to his house, essentially stalking him, and finds out that Louis has recently taken up a job as a server in a local café.
Alice goes to the café to confront the man, and although she is still scared and nervous about expressing herself, that too in public, she does eventually reveal her real identity to Louis. Unexpectedly, Louis tries to be comforting and says that he has been intending to have a word with her and her father for some time now, but Alice does not want to hear anything. Just like Jimmy earlier, Alice angrily abandons the conversation and walks out of the café. As she mistakenly leaves her purse behind though, it guarantees that Louis will soon come to the Lairds’ home and try to apologize for his actions. On the other side, Alice returns home in an extremely frustrated and grieving state, and in the heat of the moment, she kisses Liz’s son, Connor. This is also going to have severe consequences, for Connor and Summer had recently started dating, that too upon the insistence of Alice, and so her kissing the boy is definitely an act of betrayal against her best friend. Perhaps this is how Alice will finally realize that a mistake committed by someone should not be held against them forever, and this is how she will learn to forgive Louis.
