Jimmying – The season 2 premiere begins with Jimmy Laird (Jason Segel) visiting Grace (Heidi Gardner) in prison. She refuses to even look at him which apparently bothers him more than he would like to admit because it leads to a nightmare where Paul (Harrison Ford) pushes him off the same cliff where Grace pushed Donnie (Tilky Jones). On her way to pick up Paul, Gaby (Jessica Williams) briefly tells Liz (Christa Miller) about the progress she’s made at avoiding Jimmy, despite the allure of his new shampoo. Jimmy later attempts to seriously discuss his dream with Paul but he only wants to joke about it.
Jimmy makes another attempt with Grace when he returns with his overly upbeat lawyer friend, Brian (Michael Urie) who has agreed to take on Grace’s case pro bono. Although Grace offers a few words this time and doesn’t refuse the help, she clearly continues to blame Jimmy for her situation.
Jimmy finally gets Paul to listen to him over lunch and much to his surprise, he tells him that he hasn’t messed up his patients, although he should return to conventional therapy for the time being. He doesn’t get much time to digest this thanks to the arrival of Wally (Kimberly Condict).
Gaby throws all the progress she’s made with Jimmy out the window when she pays him a surprise visit later that evening. Liz is there to intervene and Gaby promises that she isn’t going to cave but it’s only seconds later that she’s in bed with Jimmy.
Paul’s quiet evening at home with Dr. Julie Baram (Wendie Malick) goes in the opposite direction when he suggests that they might be spending too much time together. At the same time, Sean receives a text from an old Army buddy who’s in town and wants to catch up. He brings this up the following day during his session with Jimmy. According to him, the guy is great company and an all-around good person but Sean fears that he will be a trigger. Much to Sean’s surprise Jimmy offers an incredibly insightful response without all the normal hysterics.
Gaby eventually reaches her breaking point with Liz and blows up on her when she shows up in the middle of her seminar to further confront her about sleeping with Jimmy. At the same time, Alice (Lukita Maxwell) attempts to discuss her fears of Jimmy having an emotional break with Paul. Paul practically tells her that she needs to discuss her fears with Jimmy before the conversation segues into his and Julie’s relationship. Surprisingly enough, Alice takes his advice and it not only makes her feel much better but it inspires Jimmy to encourage Sean to meet his army buddy.
Feeling bad for the way she handled the situation with Liz, Gaby ends up oversharing with a pushy, brown-nosing student, Keisha (Aleah Quinones), who wants her to be her adviser. In a similar mood, Paul reaches out to Julie and is right in the middle of apologizing when shows up to announce the breakthrough that he’s had with Sean. Much to Jimmy’s surprise, Paul tells him that he’s wrong. Jimmy refuses to believe it.
Gaby is nearly just as surprised when she returns home to discover that Liz, Derek (Ted McGinley), and David have unpacked and put away all her boxes from the move. Gaby thanks her but admits that she is still going to sleep with Jimmy. Liz appears to accept that. Elsewhere, Paul visits Julie with the same intention but rather than apologizing, he confesses that he loves her. Although she admits to feeling the same, neither of them appears to be too happy about it.
Jimmy is surprised to return home and finds Sean in a particularly happy mood. He’s even more stunned when he learns that happiness is due to him deciding to not meet with his army buddy. Although it’s not clearly indicated, the next few short scenes suggest that Jimmy is so insulted by this that he stops seeing him as a patient. Things only get worse when the episode ends with Louis (Brett Goldstein) waiting outside his office.
Shrinking Review
The best way to sum up this episode would be, busy. I think I only watched one episode from season one, so I’m not sure if this is the norm. It always felt as if there was so much going on. That’s not always necessarily a bad thing, but in this case, the constant ping-ponging from character to character made for an incredibly boring episode at times. Despite that, there were moments when I found myself surprised by the insightfulness of some of the therapy encounters.
The show became more enjoyable the more I watched and for that, it deserves 5.3 out of 10. If I knew Brett Goldstein had a role, I might have made more of an effort to watch the series. I really enjoyed his role on Ted Lasso.
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