In the two previous seasons of Apple TV‘s Shrinking, Jessica Williams was nominated — twice — for her role as Gaby. And while she faced stiff competition both times, this week’s episode of Shrinking, titled “Happiness Mission” will almost definitely lock her in for a third nomination, if not clinch her the win. Because in the half-hour, she delivers the most devastating monologue you’ll watch all month.
In the episode, Louis Winston (Brett Goldstein) is back, still inexplicably friends with everyone despite having killed a woman before the show even started, kicking off the action of the series. He’s also continuing to make terrible coffee, and taking terrible selfies with Alice (Lukita Maxwell), which irks Gaby in the middle of a therapy session.
Over with Jimmy (Jason Segel), aka the husband of the lady Louis killed who now hangs out with him all the time, the two talk about how Louis isn’t allowing himself to be happy. So Jimmy decides to Jimmy the situation, and figure out how Louis can be happy again. They head back to the office, where Jimmy grabs some rations for a “happiness mission,” interrupting a convo between Gaby and Paul (Harrison Ford) about his “hallullus” aka the hallucinations caused by his Parkinson’s, like when he hallucinated Michael J. Fox in the previous episode.
Gaby immediately reacts to seeing Louis, and that’s fair: Tia (Lilan Bowden), the woman Louis killed in a car accident, was Gaby’s best friend. But she’s also positively icy when Jimmy invites her along on the happiness mission, claiming she has a new client. Jimmy and Louis leave, and Gaby is seething. “Why are you stirring your tea like it grabbed your ass?” Paul asks.
They walk and talk, and Gaby complains that “this Louis guy is everywhere. What do you think about him, he sucks, right?”
“I like his accent,” Paul says, looking at his phone, and he adds that it “makes me laugh.”
Gaby is pissed: Louis killed Tia, and she doesn’t understand why Jimmy and Alice are all “chummy” with him. She then tosses out some insults about him sounding like a chimney sweep, but Paul has reasonable therapist advice in response, as usual.
“Look, shared trauma makes people do wild things,” Paul says. “Maybe Jimmy and Alice think that is Louis is okay, they will be too. Maybe they like big eyebrows, I don’t know. All I know is, it seems to be helping, so we don’t have a choice. We just bite our tongues and deal with it.”
Gaby isn’t having it, though, and storms out. Later, she wrecks a first session with a new patient named Maya (Sherry Cola) because she’s so distracted. Gaby confesses that “the Louis thing really messed me up,” to Liz, who tells her, reasonably, “You’re the best. You’re human. That f**ker took away your best friend.” But once again, they’re interrupted.
Meanwhile Jimmy, Alice, and Louis go on a happiness mission to the local art museum, which also goes wrong, and Louis ends up storming off… Only to end up at the Laird residence later on to make amends. Who is there? Gaby, who is taking Alice to the Sparks game. Jimmy goes upstairs to help Alice find something (sort of, it’s silly, don’t worry about it), leaving Gaby and Louis alone in the kitchen.
And that, my friend, is when Jessica Williams’ most jaw-dropping performance thus far comes into play.
Jessica Williams’ Stunning Monologue Will Destroy You
After some awkward banter, Louis says, “You can say it. It’s coming off you like heat from a radiator.”
“Look man,” Gaby says. “They really care about you. And I’m trying to be a good person. I really am. I’ve had to listen to Jimmy say, ‘How do I help Louis?’ Or Alice say, um… ‘Do you think Louis is gonna be okay?’ And all I wanna say is, ‘Who gives a s**t? He killed my best friend. F**k that guy. He should be in jail forever.’ But you’re not. Why are you still in our lives? Hmm? Why are you here?”
While not presented in one-take — there are cutaways to Goldstein — it’s all continuous, with the same shot holding on Gaby as she begins to crumble throughout this, the one thing she’s been holding back not just this episode, but since the series started. We’ve dealt with Jimmy’s grief, Alice’s grief, but not Gaby’s; at least not in the same way. And it all comes rushing out.
“Tia and I used to take Alice to Sparks games actually,” Gaby continues, beginning to cry. “Mm-mmm, we’d, uh, do this ridiculous dance so we can get up on the jumbotron and it went like this. Started with a robot… and then we did five, six, seven, eight.”
There, she pushes her boobs up in turn, before going back to her speech. “That was it. And we never got on there, obviously. Too lewd. But it didn’t matter because it made Alice laugh, and it made me laugh… And it made Tia laugh.”
At that, Gaby almost breaks again, then takes a moment to compose herself. “Look, they may have forgiven you, but I never will. Ever. Tia doesn’t get to be here… Dancing like an idiot and living her life. Just because of you. So the fact that you could be living your life, and you’re choosing not to, oh, I f**king hate it. So much. It’s disrespectful to her, and it’s disrespectful to me. Man, go live your f**king life. You got it?”
There’s a pause, and then Louis answers, “Got it.”
What makes this such a stunner other than the fully realized, deeply felt performance by Williams is the way writer Brett Goldstein and director Zach Braff craft the scene, allowing it to go in all the surprising, unexpected directions we, well, expect from Shrinking. It starts with Gaby seemingly pissed that Louis is inexplicably hanging with Alice and Jimmy, weaves in some ribald jokes about boob dancing, and then ends with the swerve that what Gaby really wants is for Louis to get his own life – not leech off the life that Alice and Jimmy are feeding to him. It’s absolutely shattering to watch, but ends with the show’s main M.O., to get people to a place of healing. Gaby may have royally screwed up the appointment with Maya, but this one she got right: Louis moves to San Diego to try and start his life again.
And as for Williams? She proves she’s a powerhouse through two shots: a medium shot, and a close-up that allow this to function as a theatrical monologue more than a filmic one. She commands every single second of this, it’s impossible to look away. Truly, it’ll make you laugh, cry, and has a perfectly realized arc all in a few short minutes. Give this lady the Emmy already.
Shrinking Season 3 Premiere Dates And Episode Guide:
New episodes of Shrinking Season 3 technically premiere Wednesdays on Apple TV, though given time zones in the United States new episodes will hit the service at 9pm ET / 6pm PT on Tuesdays. We’ve listed the Wednesday dates below, just for posterity.
Here’s what we expect from the full list of episodes in Shrinking Season 3, with premiere dates.
- Wednesday, January 28, 2026: Shrinking, Season 3, Episode 1, “My Bad”
- Wednesday, February 4, 2026: Shrinking, Season 3, Episode 2, “Happiness Mission”
- Wednesday, February 11, 2026: Shrinking, Season 3, Episode 3, “D-Day”
- Wednesday, February 18, 2026: Shrinking, Season 3, Episode 4, “The Field”
- Wednesday, February 25, 2026: Shrinking, Season 3, Episode 5, “Hold Your Horsies”
- Wednesday, March 4, 2026: Shrinking, Season 3, Episode 6, “Dereks Don’t Die”
- Wednesday, March 11, 2026: Shrinking, Season 3, Episode 7, “I Will Be Grape”
- Wednesday, March 18, 2026: Shrinking, Season 3, Episode 8, “Depression Diet”
- Wednesday, March 25, 2026: Shrinking, Season 3, Episode 9, “TBA”
- Wednesday, April 1, 2026: Shrinking, Season 3, Episode 10, “TBA”
- Wednesday, April 8, 2026: Shrinking, Season 3, Episode 11, “TBA” *Season Finale*
Where To Watch Shrinking Season 3
Comic Book Club Live Info:
Discover more from Comic Book Club
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.