'Shrinking' Season 2 Episode 10 Recap & Ending Explained: Who Is Sofi?

As we move closer to the end of the 2nd season of Apple TV+’s comedy-drama series, Shrinking, we are introduced to a new character who might become quite crucial to the plot from here on. Jimmy and his friends get ready to celebrate the 18th birthday of Alice, despite knowing full well that she will spend only some time with them and would prefer to be out with her friends instead. Meanwhile, Gaby and Paul’s continued analysis of each other ultimately makes them overcome their respective shortcomings, leading to some more problems for some of the characters. 

Spoiler Alert

How do Gaby and Paul inspire each other to change?

Shrinking season 2 episode 10 begins with Gaby helping her mother, Phyllis, pack up her things from her old house, as she prepares to move in with her daughter. Gaby has also managed to bring both Brian and Jimmy to the house to make them help in the moving process by lying to them about planning a fun day at the beach. As Brian questions this odd move by Gaby, she states that she needs the support of her best friends in order to cope with the difficult situation of her mother moving in with her. This already suggests that she is nervous about losing all the privacy and other associated benefits of living alone, despite pretending to be very happy about Phyllis deciding to live with her. In the previous episode, Gaby had also expressed her desire to be a good daughter without any failure, and she kept believing that prioritizing her own comfort over the loneliness that her mother will have to deal with after Courtney left for the army would make her a bad person.

This was all the more reason why Gaby had almost forcibly adjusted to her mother’s plan of moving in with her. In this episode, she accompanies Phyllis to their old house and helps in packing the furniture, but she is still not comfortable with this extreme change in her life. This is why she brings Brian and Jimmy to the house, in a desperate attempt to somehow get her friends to change her mind, but they do not get into this discussion. Instead, it is her senior colleague, Paul, who notices that something is up with her and finally confronts Gaby later in the episode. Before any of that, though, the terminally ill ex-husband of Julie, Elliot, passes away, and the entire group attends the funeral service, including Gaby and her new boyfriend, Derrick. This is where Paul meets Derrick for the first time, especially as Gaby’s new partner, and he decides to have a strict conversation with him.

Therefore, when they are at the clinic the next time, Paul speaks with Derrick alone and directly asks him about his intentions to ensure that he does not ever hurt Gaby. This conversation actually goes quite well, with Derrick appreciating the fact that Paul cares for Gaby so much, despite not directly saying anything about it. But Gaby cancels their lunch date, for which Derrick had essentially come to the clinic, because one of her patients has suddenly left her baby with the therapist, making Gaby babysit for the rest of the afternoon. When Paul notices this, he passes a remark about Gaby always being like this, which initially comes off as snide and arrogant. But when he is asked for clarification, Paul talks about her habit of always placing others’ comforts and interests above her own. He basically tries to say that Gaby has been roped into the role of a babysitter too easily, in this case, and she was unable to turn down her patient’s request despite knowing that she would have to cancel her date with Derrick.

Paul uses this opportunity to speak about his opinion on the other matter regarding Gaby, which is regarding her mother. He states that it is very evident that Gaby is not comfortable with Phyllis moving in with her, and yet she is unable to say this to her own mother. Paul reminds us that although Gaby might adjust to the situation and learn to live with the difficulties of her mother breathing down her neck at all times for the moment, it will surely create more problems between them in the near future. His advice is to face the truth instead and deal with the situation right now so that there will not be any space for misunderstanding between Gaby and Phyllis. But as expected, Gaby does not agree with this advice or Paul’s opinions, and she wants to maintain the same enforced courteousness with her mother. Instead, Gaby focuses on Paul’s mistakes and his peculiar habit of being scared to face new situations in his life, particularly with regard to his romance with Julie.

Paul naturally keeps Julie company during her ex-husband’s funeral and then announces to his friends that Julie has sold her house following the incident. When asked where she will be living from now on, he has Julie speak about how she is about to ‘crash’ with him for a few days before figuring out where to move next. The friends, and particularly Gaby, feel that it is high time for Paul to ask his girlfriend to move in with him, especially now when she is literally about to stay at the house for a few weeks. But Paul does not agree with this suggestion, or rather, he cannot muster up enough courage to propose the idea to his girlfriend. 

At the very end of Shrinking season 2 episode 10, this situation finally changes when Paul goes to gather all the strength and formally asks Julie to move in with him, despite her having already moved most of her clothes to the house and even having made cosmetic changes to the place. Julie admits that she had been expecting such a proposal for a very long time now and agrees to it wholeheartedly, meaning that her and Paul’s relationship has now elevated to the next level.

Right after this development, Paul calls up Gaby and thanks her for pushing him to take this step, and she is naturally very happy for him. This also finally inspires Gaby to address her own problems, for she is indeed very scared and unsure about whether she can host her mother at her house indefinitely. Thus, as she is at their old house, and Phyllis is happily packing some old furniture, Gaby admits to her that she is not fine with her moving in, and this evidently hurts the mother quite a lot. Gaby offers to help her settle at the old house and promises to visit her often, but Phyllis simply asks her to leave, at least for the time being. Perhaps Phyllis has also been having trouble dealing with this change in her life, in which her elder daughter has gone off to the army, leaving her all alone with the younger daughter, who had been mostly absent in the recent years. Whether this incident has any long-term effect on the mother-daughter relationship needs to be seen in the next episode, as the misunderstanding might get cleared out very soon as well.

Who is Sofi?

Shrinking season 2 episode 10 has the characters preparing to celebrate the grand occasion of Alice’s 18th birthday, as they all want to make it a day worth remembering for the teenager soon to turn adult. Gaby and Liz are both very excited for the day as they both see Alice as a daughter figure, and so they want to spend the whole day with her despite knowing that she will want to spend time with her friends. This is why the two women hold a very serious negotiation talk with Alice before her birthday, during which they discuss the exact details of how the birthday party is going to go, or rather, how much time Alice will spend with her father and his friends. While the teenager definitely enjoys all this love and attention around her, she looks forward to her birthday for a very particular reason. Alice has been asking for a car from her father for quite some time now, and she hopes that she will receive one as her birthday gift. She even directly asks her father about it, but Jimmy states that he has been struggling with his finances in recent times, because of which he will not be able to gift her a car on her 18th birthday.

However, it is soon revealed that Jimmy has been lying to his daughter all this while, only so that he can surprise her with a grand gift, and he has indeed been looking at used cars online. Jimmy admits that he wants Alice’s first car to be one resembling the yellow Mini Cooper that Tia used to drive during her college days. Alice has apparently been obsessed with this car as well, which she has probably seen in old photographs of her mother, and it is no secret that yellow is her favorite color as well. Therefore, Jimmy continues his search for a car like the particular one, and he is finally able to get information about one, listed by a woman named Sofi. He decides to go over to her house to strike a good deal and buy the car in time for Alice’s birthday, and Jimmy even takes Derek with him to help in the negotiations. Derek checks the condition of the car, which is in pretty decent shape, and then asks Sofi how much she is looking for it. She states her opening price to be 5,000 dollars, and surprisingly, Derek simply agrees to the price, with no negotiations whatsoever.

He admits to Jimmy that when he had claimed himself to be a good negotiator, Derek had meant morally good, and not necessarily one who is skilled at lowering prices. He states that the reason for him to not negotiate the price is to financially support Sofi, who is evidently a single mother with a modest background. He also suggests that Jimmy try to get to know her better before leaving the scene, while the protagonist waits for Sofi to hand over the keys and paperwork. Finally, when the two of them are all alone, Jimmy learns that Sofi is indeed a single mother, and when he tells her about his own sad story of having lost his wife, he is surprised by the fact that Sofi does not immediately try to be apologetic and sympathetic. Instead, she jokes that her grief and helplessness had been much larger than his, since she had found her husband to be cheating on her with her very best friend. Sofi argues that her emotional burden, of having to learn about the lies of her husband, who was once the love of her life and also her best friend, was much more traumatic than his.

This immediately makes Jimmy grow a genuine interest in Sofi, and we are going to see her more often in the show, in all probability. The bunch of keys that Sofi hands over for the car also includes one to her house, and this might give Jimmy an opportunity to return to her house. The manner in which Sofi is introduced definitely makes her seem like a possible romantic partner of Jimmy, although that might ultimately happen after some more time.

Why does Alice’s birthday turn sour?

When Alice is handed the keys to her new car, which in itself is a surprise present, she is ecstatic beyond any limits, and she thanks her father with a genuine sense of gratitude. Alice immediately goes on a drive with her friends, including Summer, and although they have some different plans for the entire evening, Alice decides to make a quick stop first. She had still been texting Louis, feeling very confused about why he was acting so distant from her all of a sudden, and she had finally received a reply from him, in which Louis had wished her a happy birthday quite formally. Having had the chance to step out of her house and be all by herself, she decides to check in on Louis at the café where he works and also confront him about his sudden withdrawn behavior.

Thus, Alice drives to the café and has a conversation with Louis, the first proper one in weeks. Although Louis initially tries to keep the matter a secret, he does eventually have to reveal how Jimmy had visited him and ordered him to stay away from his family and friends. Alice is shocked to learn of this, for she had believed that her father had totally forgiven Louis, and she is quite understandably angry about it as well. As her beautiful 18th birthday ultimately turns sour, Alice returns home and confronts Jimmy about what he had done with Louis. 

While Shrinking season 2 episode 10 ends at this point, and it does not show the conversation between the two that will follow, it is very likely that Jimmy will speak up about his unwillingness to forgive Louis so easily. Such deep-rooted emotional matters can never be solved unless both sides genuinely want to solve them, and Jimmy and Alice might have to remain on different pages regarding the matter. Perhaps it will be Sofi who might make Jimmy realize that forgiveness is the only way forward, in the long run. 

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