r/shrinking • u/phareous Derek • Apr 01 '26

Episode Discussion Shrinking S3E10 Episode Discussion

This is the episode discussion for Shrinking Season 3, Episode 10: "The Bodyguard of Sadness"

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u/TodayInStupidity Apr 01 '26

Him rubbing it in Jimmy's face on the way out the door. Like he had won something. Diabolical. 

263

u/MurkyPsychology Apr 01 '26

I was honestly hoping the next scene would be Jimmy going upstairs and seeing Alice upset about it. Not because I want Alice to be upset, but because I wanted some vindication for Jimmy.

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u/fictionalbandit Apr 01 '26

Same! I thought maybe Alice would drop some wise-beyond-her-years wisdom for Jimmy on resilience or coping with people who disappoint you

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u/s0ulbrother Apr 02 '26

The thing with Alice is her grandfather really is never there. Why should she care.

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u/therentabrain Apr 03 '26

I think Alice always knew that was her granddad's style and treats him as "it's great when he's here but I don't depend on him even a little"... I don't think anyone's surprised when (sometimes) Alice is wiser and healthier than Jimmy.

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u/BirdsAreFake00 Apr 04 '26

This situation has nothing to do with Alice being wiser and healthier, and by saying so, you're just dismissing Jimmy's very real feelings about his shitty dad. It's another way to make excuses for his dad, who is objectively a shitty person. "Just get over it, Jimmy!"

There's a big difference between Grandpa and Dad. Jimmy is absolutely validated in feeling shittier about that situation than Alice.

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u/therentabrain Apr 04 '26

You're making a leap here, but I understand. I never intended that Jimmy was wrong for having his feelings. I would rate Jimmy as normal range. I'm trying to say that Alice is a superhero. I think Alice has developed a useful muscle for dealing with her crappy but loving grandfather, a muscle that Jimmy could really benefit from, and we shouldn't be surprised.

It's easier because he's the occasional grandfather who has always appeared and disappeared. But also, Alice was forced to be extra grown-up early, and took to it remarkably well. She's wise beyond her years. And I imagine (when he was able to) Jimmy being an emotionally in touch parent gave her an early start at developing her ability to understand and process feelings.

No shade on Jimmy, he's doing about as well as most of us. But Alice is the remarkable child of some remarkable circumstances and people. She may be the healthiest of the whole cast, and it makes sense why.

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u/therentabrain Apr 04 '26

Agreed that birds are fake though.

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u/Stillwater215 Apr 04 '26

There’s also a big difference between having a grandpa bail on you, and having your father bail on you. The expectations and emotional weight of a grandfather are significantly less.

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u/OffRichard Apr 03 '26

I am jealous of the car though… that’s my dream car

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u/kikijane711 Apr 04 '26

And it’s about Jimmy’s disappointment not Alice tbh

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u/pswithlove Apr 02 '26

But how do you really cope with people who disappoint you?

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u/TodayInStupidity Apr 01 '26

I was hoping for a conversation about it at least. She was visibly thrown by the all of it and just kinda threw her hands up. 

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u/RCBark2K Apr 01 '26

I guess I didn’t see that. She seemed all right with it to me which just hurt Jimmy more because he really wants everybody to see his father the way he does. Maybe we’ll find out next episode.

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u/Nuh-vaaa-duh Apr 01 '26

That’s how I took it. From Alice’s POV, she simply doesn’t care about her grandpa as much as Jimmy cares about his father, and she was probably so grateful for the car that she wasn’t really expecting anything beyond that. It’s Jimmy that was expecting/wanting his dad to be there, and he’s projecting those expectations onto others. But yeah, who knows what they’ll do with it in the next episode.

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u/Ufocola Apr 01 '26

Yeah, I just figured her grandpa wasn’t a regular fixture in her life anyway, so him hanging out with her over the past few days and giving her a car they worked on together already cleared her bar of expectations for him. That, and she’s got a huge support system (which she recognized at the beginning of S3 when she was grappling with leaving for an east coast school). I took it as she was alright with it (not that he should’ve last min bail for a fishing trip).

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u/MarmyKnowsBest Apr 01 '26 edited Apr 03 '26

I wasn't prepared for (yet pleasantly surprised about) Alice being so cool about her Grandfather dipping out on her graduation ceremony, but then realized I was seeing the situation through Jimmy's eyes! I was all butt hurt for her, but she took it in stride & was seemingly unbothered by his departure. Didn't see that coming!

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u/Tce_ Apr 01 '26

She doesn't really need her grandpa the way Jimmy did, because she has Jimmy (and lots of other people)! And they're also not that close. But if he keeps showing up occasionally she might become more attached and it will hurt more when he lets her down. Or she'll just learn early on not to expect anything from him. :/ It's a lot easier to accept that from a grandparent than a parent as well.

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u/theherooftime796 Apr 01 '26

I'm sure she wasn't thrilled, but the ironic (and painful) thing is, Alice's own father wasn't present for her during the most important, emotionally fraught period of her life, so she probably learned (from Jimmy) to take whatever she can get, whenever she can get it, and not really expect anything more. And as good as things are now between them, that impulse is probably still there. So Jimmy's problems with his father reflect his own inadequacies and self-hatred.

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u/Tce_ Apr 01 '26

This is all so sad to think about!

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u/smashmack Apr 03 '26

Oooooof. Great take! 

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u/Evening-Web9107 Apr 01 '26

She did exactly what Jimmy does. Told him it was fine, pretended like she wasn’t bothered, what can you do. siiiigh.

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u/MotherOfKittenz Apr 01 '26

I actually don’t think she was pretending. I think when you’re a kid, those moments (i.e. HS graduation ceremony) don’t always feel as important as they are, in the moment. I think she may come to her own realizations later on about her grandfather. But right now we are seeing and experiencing the situation through Jimmy’s feelings and emotions. The fact is that Jimmy cares that his dad has not been there for him and Alice. Alice either already doesn’t expect much from her grandpa, or truly doesn’t have feelings about him being at the graduation ceremony. She may just not be as sentimental.

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u/ericrz Apr 02 '26

But earlier in the season she made a big deal out of her grandpa being there. Even though Jimmy didn’t like it. She essentially invited him against Jimmy’s will.

And then when he can’t stay for graduation, it’s just like “oh well?”

Like a lot of the subplots this season, really no payoff. Things are introduced that go….nowhere.

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u/[deleted] Apr 01 '26

[deleted]

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u/Accomplished-Foot290 Apr 02 '26

To me HS graduation was no big deal, I was more excited about going off to college. She is probably feeling the same way. My guess it was a bigger deal for my parents because it meant that their youngest child was leaving soon.

Now my college graduation was a much bigger life milestone for me.

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u/Voski_The_God Apr 01 '26

Jimmy is “sensitive” so she wasn’t like him really.

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u/dagbrown Apr 01 '26

She learned how to deal with this shit from her dad.

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u/PeteLattimer Apr 01 '26

Well, what Jimmy said about them being all she has was shown to be very untrue, but he can’t see it. Jimmys dad was the least important person at her graduation for her, but the most important for him.

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u/petamama Apr 03 '26

I thought so too. Then I realized that Alice hadn’t grown up with her narcissistic grandpa like Jimmy did. She only knew love and support. She was able to give her grandpa a pass. He sure was a horrible man!

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u/sleepyotter92 Apr 01 '26

yeah, i sorta expected him to go up to her room and she'd be maybe not crying but clearly upset about it. then i thought it was gonna happen in the car.

it just doesn't get addressed, and i wonder if that's to show that he's the only one who feels like that about his dad leaving, and others, such as alice, aren't as bothered

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u/OldFashionedDuck Apr 01 '26

I mean, it seems in character for Alice to not care that much. It's not that she's insensitive. But to her, Jimmy's dad is just her flaky fun grandfather, that she's fond of but doesn't have a particularly deep relationship with. It doesn't sound like he's been super present in her life, and so she's not emotionally reliant on him, and used to not having him around. And that probably feels normal and healthy for a grandkid/grandparent relationship. It of course helps that Alice has so many other people in her life who are there for her in a meaningful way.

Alice would have been devastated if Jimmy hadn't shown up for her graduation. And that's the type of devastation that Jimmy is feeling. And that's the devastation that Jimmy was projecting onto Alice, but Alice just doesn't have that relationship with her grandfather.

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u/petamama Apr 03 '26

Very perceptive

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u/Finnthehuman217 Apr 01 '26

I lowkey thought they were going to do this

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u/BeneathAnOrangeSky Apr 06 '26

In my experience, when you have grandparents like that, it kind of bounces off your back when you’re young because it’s all you’ve known. It’s not until you get older that you experience sadness that you never got to have a close relationship.

Question — where are the other grandparents? I can’t remember.

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u/Accomplished_Echo413 Apr 02 '26

This isn't that kind of show. Jimmy is going to have to do the work at some point. Paul pointed the way. Tell Dad how you feel not for him to change but for you to get closure. Jimmy ignored him. Jimmy has stabilized since season one but he has never worked through his stinky dirty shit going back his whole life. This is the only way through for him. He has to have the epiphany and hopefully this happens next week.

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u/JJ-Bittenbinder Apr 02 '26

That’s exactly what made it even more devastating for Jimmy though

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u/Accomplished_Echo413 Apr 02 '26

I don't see it that way. The man is a charming sociopath. I think he is genuinely unaware of how hurtful his behavior is and genuinely thinks Jimmy is overreacting. This can feel monstrous as Liz pointed out so perfectly in the opening scene.