Written by Emily Wilson
(who joined the show in Season 3, and has worked on Bill Lawrence’s Cougar Town and The Muppets workplace sitcom that was cancelled way too soon)
Directed by Anu Valia
Let’s start by saying: Pretty sure a “funky bunch” is the cast of this show.
Brian and Charlie are still trying to settle into being a family, and Ava, who has been staying at their place after she lost her waitressing job, isn’t helping with that. But as Liz figures out going through their laundry, she’s just started at the local Olive Garden but was too comfortable leaving. They have a confrontation that’s really just a heart-to heart, as Brian’s too much of a coward to do it himself. Ava realizes she has to leave and moves in with a friend, but also calls out Liz on her own bullshit. It leads to her being “fired” from babysitting, which of course she orchestrates herself. The poor guys now have to make do with only one full time babysitter – not that this will improve their boundaries with Liz, realistically.
Jimmy and Sofi are still being awkward, but agree on finally having a proper first date. He’s scited! (Scared and excited). She cooks coq au vin for them at her place, but it’s immediately another boundary-less mess, as her ex-husband Nick (Matt Jones) stays the whole time when he only wanted to pick up their son. So instead of just enjoying the date, he ironically ends up counseling them to manage better boundaries. It makes me wonder if they are doomed – maybe they match each other’s freak a little too well. Cobie Smulders and Jason Segel clearly have chemistry, but seeing them kiss was little like watching siblings make out after nearly a decade of Marshall and Robin. And I think I may actually be team Jimmy/Meg…
Sean went to that job interview, and it went well, but verdict’s still out. Paul uses the opportunity of their session to ask him to tag along to the veteran’s group. He wants to check in on Gaby – since everyone at MMA met Maya, it’s another space to discuss her death. We don’t know if Maya committed suicide, or if she overdosed while self-medicating with alcohol, Xanax and OxyContin… but we kinda do. In any case, Gaby has “dead patient face”. She’s trying to power through, but while she can keep the funeral service at arm’s length, it eventually all catches up with her. She doesn’t even want to watch “Lord of the Rangs”, so Derrick was the one that asked Paul and Jimmy to look out for her. He also tells her he’d been wanting to propose – Paul, ever the proud ersatz father, demands he asks for his permission, which he grants. But with how this all ends, I doubt Gaby would say yes any time soon. And if he asks her in an attempt to fix this, it will 100% blow up in his face…but let’s see if he’s going to be stupid enough for that.
To deal her an extra blow, Gaby finds out from her clients Donna and Mark, who were Maya’s friends, that Maya’s mother had a drug problem and abandoned her when she was 10. It’s the missing puzzle piece as to why her friends leaving her made her spiral this hard. They then also decide to fire Gaby as her therapist, since she hadn’t known.
Cumulative grief is very real, and given Gaby’s own history with codependence, there’s probably more that this brings up for her. We also only know her mother, not her father…
In any case, it all leads to her deciding to step back from work for a week, ready to fully descend into depression. It’s the first time trying to move forward has led to a massive setback for any character this season. We only have three episodes left, so it may just be Gaby that this happens to, but the ripple effect for everyone else is potentially going to be big.
Funniest line: “First stop on her train? It’s gotta be downtown.” Horny Derek is this week’s big comic relief.
Biggest woof: “Death is death.”
P.S.: Everyone is wearing Air Jordans either because they support Matthew’s sneaker hustle, or because Ted Lasso’s Nike sponsorship deal somehow carried over to Shrinking. We will never know. But at least Harrison Ford looks bitchin.
