Written by Neil Goldman, Directed by Randall Keenan Winston
This week on the supposed “hang out show that isn’t about therapy”, we discuss how your trauma comes to fuck you up if you don’t address it and go to therapy. Jimmy is just not dealing with his, the reason why he tried to remove Louis from his life. Alice even wants him to actively help Louis, which to be fair, is a tall order – but it may just be what could fix Jimmy, because he would have to properly confront his own guilt and grief. “You’re not the person I thought you were”, is however still the harshest possible thing Alice could have said here. Woof.
Paul is pushing him to finally do therapy, because he knows he’s headed for a breakdown, and fixing patients is his ersatz drug. Jimmy of course denies this, but when he gets his patient Wally to give back a dog she stole from her neighbor, it’s just not hitting the spot. He also calls Grace and even considers “fixing” her abusive ex-husband Donny, but thankfully we are done with that.
Paul’s own drugs are stopping to work – they no longer properly control the tremors from his Parkinson’s, and he has to deal with hearing that they may fully do so in 6 to 12 months. I’m not prepared for this to unfold in Season 3, even though I knew it would eventually become a bigger plot point.
Sean meanwhile is sleeping with Paul’s neurologist, as I had hoped – but Paul is surprisingly fine with it, or at least seems to be. “Well, if she can’t have me, I guess it makes sense,” he deadpans. To be fair, we’re all just settling for men that aren’t Harrison Ford. Sean is also realizing he should finally move out of Jimmy’s pool house, but when Derek asks him to rent an apartment he wants to buy and eventually intends to flip, he declines. He’s just not ready – but as Derek says, the universe will give him a second chance when he is.
Brian and Charlie are still taking the rejection from the birth mother hard, but by the end of the episode, she reconsiders – Brian sent her troll pen back, and him caring this much makes her change her mind. That and the straights were Disney Adults. (I cackled.) So just in time for the finale, we’re getting a baby.
Gaby hired a nurse for her Mom, played by none other than Ashley Nicole Black, who wrote last week’s ep. They’re both guilt-tripping Gaby for not letting her Mom move in, while I honestly think it’s a smarter choice – taking care of a parent can be tough on both sides. And it’s not like Gaby abandoned her.
She’s also still keeping Derrick at arm’s length, unsure if he should be invited to the group’s big Thanksgiving feast (that will also be the season finale). When she drops into conversation that her way to break up with someone is just being “non-committal and distant until they get the hint,” he gets ahead of her. She admits that every time she thinks of letting him in, she panics, and she doesn’t know why. Trying to shrug it off, she asks if he’s good and he retorts “I’m good, cause I’m not the one that’s fucked up.” (Thanks for that personal attack, Shrinking. Really needed that right before the holidays). I hate this, but at the same time, if the cool art gallery chick may be making a random appearance next week, can we finally get bisexual Gaby on main?
Meanwhile, Jimmy calls one of the sex workers that he used to hire (who got out of the business, a saving grace), then stumbles through the streets, undone. To steal from a tumblr post: Man, they really should invent a healing that’s linear. It’s something the Season 3 (and maybe still overall) finale of Ted Lasso also dealt with (and got a lot of criticism for, that I don’t share).
But it’s the reality of life: healing does not just magically happen without bumps in the road. You will regress, even if you do try, but definitely if you think your problems will go away on their own. I spent the last few minutes of the episode pleading with Jimmy to finally call Paul, and as heartbreaking as it is when he does, I’m glad we got there instead of a full-on regression he just narrowly avoided.
Funniest line: “In massage terms that’s a salt scrub and a hand job – you should never mix the two.” And “Brits don’t need a special day to celebrate stealing land from people, for us that’s every day.” (Have I mentioned yet I am glad they let Brett Goldstein have stubble again almost immediately?). Also great: Above-Ground railroad. Chalupas. Too many good lines this week. The fake-out that they were gonna make Michael Urie do his monologue for the third time gets an honorary mention.
Biggest woof: “I’m not okay, Paul.”
P.S: The devastating song at the end is The National’s “I Need My Girl”, a fine choice if you need to get your 15 minutes of grief in. Also exceptionally well chosen for the themes this season; shout-out to my friend Felipe for pointing that out.
