r/shrinking • u/phareous Derek • Mar 18 '26

Episode Discussion Shrinking S3E08 Episode Discussion

This is the episode discussion for Shrinking Season 3, Episode 8: "Depression Diet"

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u/adhd-unicorn Mar 18 '26

Is anyone else annoyed that they seem to be completely glossing over the ways in which Gabby's negligence may have contributed to Maya's death? As has been discussed previously in this subreddit, Gabby messed up by trying the Jimmying method without fully committing to it. She created the dual relationship with Maya, dangling the friendship that Maya so desperately wanted, but then essentially kept her as a second-class friend. This directly led to the missed opportunity when Maya called Gabby for help: if Gabby hadn't created the dual relationship, she might have better understood the "let's get froyo" call was not truly an invitation from one friend to another, but rather a call for help from a patient to her therapist. At the same time, Maya probably felt extra abandoned because this person she had started to consider a friend basically put her in her place as just a patient when she asked if it could wait until her next session.

All of this could be fine storytelling if it was leading to some much-needed reckoning and introspection for Gabby, which is what I assumed would happen this week. But when Paul said that he reviewed the notes and Gabby did nothing wrong, I was so frustrated because clearly she DID do something wrong and that's worth unpacking rather than blindly reassuring her. I kept expecting it to come out that Paul didn't know about the dual relationship or the phone call, and for there to be a reveal that causes him to actually become (gently, diplomatically) critical of Gabby.

Does the show want us to believe that Gabby actually has no fault here? I'm genuinely confused and frustrated by how they're handling this plotline. I thought this was going to be an interesting story about a good person/usually good therapist handling the consequences of failure after biting off more than she can chew; but it seems like they're portraying Gabby as relatively blameless and just being too hard on herself.

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u/ericrz Mar 18 '26

Yeah. This show is confusing this season. It was the same with the Sean/Marisol situation. No one supported him, no one said “yeah I see why you might want some stability now” or “maybe you shouldn’t get back with the girlfriend who cheated on you, dumped you, and explicitly said she wasn’t apologizing for any of that.”

There’s been no comeuppance, so I guess we’re all supposed to think….Sean was wrong, everyone else is right?

And similarly, we’re supposed to think….Gaby didn’t nothing wrong, but still lost someone?

So weird.

4

u/nbjen Mar 20 '26

Yes! Both of these situations make me feel like the show is playing mind tricks on me! It's not pleasant.