Season 2, Episode 11, “The Drugs Don’t Work”

There’s one thing you can’t complain about shrinkage because being is subtle. In fact, the series sometimes states its themes so bluntly that it feels real (as does the related series). Ted Lasso), as if it were trying to model a very specific way of being in the world. And such modeling often brings with it absurdly obvious lessons that the series neither tries to hide nor gloss over. That’s definitely the case with “The Drugs Don’t Work,” the penultimate episode of this season, which almost destroys the metaphor of that title.

The title refers to Paul’s plight. He notices that his medication is not having the effect he is used to. His Parkinson’s disease appears to be getting worse, his tremors are increasing daily, and his memory loss is getting worse. That’s what leads him to track down his doctor during her lunch break (yes, he used his charm to force her secretary to reveal her whereabouts), only to find out that she’s dating…Sean! This is a funny moment because it unsettles Paul, although not as much as what she tells him the next day when he actually makes an appointment. It’s true: the drugs aren’t working, and as he bluntly demands, he has maybe six months to a year until, well…until he’s not himself anymore.

Of course, this requires Paul to ask others for help, which the grumpy therapist is reluctant to admit and accept – although, as we see in this episode, he has become much better at accepting the ragtag community around him. That’s why when Jimmy comes to him asking for help with the Alice situation, the episode takes its central concept (“The drugs don’t work”) and twists it to represent Jimmy’s plight.

Of course, when we last saw him, he had gotten into a heated argument with his now eighteen-year-old daughter over Louis, the man who drunkenly killed Jimmy’s wife and Alice’s mother. And even though she had seen it as a way to help him heal himself, he had chosen to accept his apology and in return asked him never to have contact with Alice again. And when she found out, Jimmy turned her into a teenager. At the start of the episode, they are still clashing as Liz is unable to take sides and tell both of them what they want to hear. What’s clear is that Alice wishes Jimmy would help Louis the way he helps literally everyone else in the world. And Jimmy may rightly (or rightly) think that’s too much of a demand.

Could this lead him back to his rock bottom path? Perhaps. Especially since he immediately tries to get back in touch with one of his former (very young) flames. And so instead he tries to find climax where he recently found it: by jimmying patients left and right, a practice that Paul doesn’t entirely approve of. He hopes that if he actually gets into a breakdown situation, he’ll call Jimmy, which, as Jimmy tells him outright, he probably won’t.

And so Jimmy sets out to find that rush – the kind that Paul says will continue to wear off and won’t really get him through this rough patch with Alice. This includes both trying to work with someone and looking for a possible answer to the question that is clearly on his mind: how to forgive yourself? How do you do the right thing when you depend so much on your own guilt and inability to do good?

This journey takes him from talking to Grace (yes, the Grace who pushed her abusive partner off a cliff) to connecting with Grace’s ex Donny, who is still in physical therapy and is just as much of an asshole as ever. By managing both (even Jimmy can’t manage to help someone as toxically narcissistic as Donny), he has some success with Wally, his OCD patient who has apparently kidnapped her neighbor’s dog. She had first found him after he disappeared and then immediately kept him in her apartment because she enjoyed his company so much.

With Jimmy’s guidance, Wally eventually returns the dog to their neighbor and the two have a minor breakthrough, which they celebrate with a hug that leaves Jimmy…well, empty. His drug of choice definitely isn’t working, so he retreats into himself, gives up partying with the gang (more on why in a moment) and falls back into old habits.

Across town (or maybe just a few blocks away, since we stay in Pasadena most of the time), Gabby is now struggling with a problem of her own making: She’s been making Thanksgiving plans with Liz and the gang, she says but not sure if it makes sense to invite Derek. In a somewhat self-sabotaging move, she fools around with her boyfriend (who’s just as into cheesy things as she is) about her Turkey Day plans, and later has to endure a much-needed scolding from him when he realizes she’s already got it wavered about it for a while. Did she want to break up? Why was she having trouble letting him in? A belated apology isn’t enough, and now we’re wondering if these two burrito-loving lovebirds will make it after all.

Luckily, Brian is doing better. Even though he remains as spastic as ever (Michael Urie’s scenes with Brian Gallivan, a writer on the show who plays an adoption agent, are just great), it seems that he and Charlie have a win to pull off. Sure, they may have lost the baby last week, but a kind gesture from Brian (a troll pen) is enough to convince them to change their mind. That and the realization that the couple she chose instead were “Disney adults” is enough to bring the gang together to celebrate.

Without Jimmy, of course. In a moment that shows how far he’s come, he actually decides to call Paul rather than embark on a downward spiral. The scene where the two meet on the bench where Paul and Alice meet is as sweet as the show gets.

Crazy observations

• • “You can’t hide from your trauma. If you don’t deal with your past… (explosion sound)“are truly words (and sound effects) to live by.
• • Oh, not only has Sean found himself a new girlfriend, but he may finally be moving out of Jimmy’s pool house (but maybe not the apartment Liz’s Derek wanted to buy and let him rent for an absurdly low price?). There is progress in Sean’s desire to move on, but as Derek reminds him, sometimes it’s okay not to be ready.
• • I can’t believe Alice dumps grown-ass guy Dylan — even though that subplot felt like an all-too-obvious ploy to get Derek to hear how often Gabby breaks up with him her partner (i.e. she’s slowly freezing her, which… a red flag) – all because he wanted her “we” (as in “We“I’ll do it”): “No one, we would attack you without permission!”
• • If you base an entire set piece around a character’s bookshelf, be aware that I will stop and snoop through it. In this case, Gabby and Derek’s scene took place right in front of her stylish bookshelf, and so we found out that Gabby didn’t just have a fantastic figure Wonder Woman In the comic poster (Volume 1, Issue 230, in case you’re dying to know), she apparently sees fit to feature the following books: “Keep The Damned Women Out”: The Fight for Coeducation by Nancy Weiss Malkiel, Restaurant man by Joe Bastianich, Draw your weapons by Sarah Sentilles, In the Image of the Brain: Breaking the Barrier Between the Human Mind and Intelligent Machines by Jim Jubak and, perhaps most amazingly, From good to great: Why some companies take the plunge… and others don’t by Jim C. Collins.
• • As a big one Full frontal with Samantha Bee And A Black Lady sketch show Fan, I was very happy when Ashley Nicole Black showed up as Gabby’s mother’s caregiver (who finds time to trash Gabby with a simple sentence: “My mother lives with me because I’m a decent human being.”) More from her please!
• • Only straight people could find “Booty Burrity Bang Bang” (Taco Bell/Hook Up/Taco Bell) entertaining.