{"id":384298,"date":"2026-04-10T02:45:12","date_gmt":"2026-04-10T02:45:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/384298\/"},"modified":"2026-04-10T02:45:12","modified_gmt":"2026-04-10T02:45:12","slug":"shrinking-season-3-finale-explained-jason-segel-on-being-jimmy-ed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/384298\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Shrinking’ Season 3 finale explained: Jason Segel on being ‘Jimmy-ed’"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The third season of Apple TV\u2019s \u201cShrinking\u201d<\/a> concludes with Jimmy (Jason Segel<\/a>) being, well, \u201cJimmy-ed.\u201d<\/p>\n

For three seasons, Jimmy, a therapist grieving the loss of his wife, has used unconventional methods \u2014think taking someone with aggression issues to a boxing ring \u2014 to get through to his patients. In the last moments of \u201cAnd That\u2019s Our Time,\u201d Jimmy\u2019s mentor and fellow therapist Paul (Harrison Ford<\/a>) turns that approach on its namesake, flying across the country to give Jimmy a much needed push to move forward with his life. \u201cJimmy needed permission and encouragement from someone to say, \u2018All right, it\u2019s time,\u2019\u201d Segel says. \u201cThis is the end of this story and it\u2019s time to start a new one.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the scene, Paul finally tells Jimmy he\u2019s like a son to him. \u201cI found ourselves writing a conversation that if we were lucky enough to have a conversation like that with our own fathers, we\u2019d be grateful,\u201d executive producer Bill Lawrence says. \u201cA lot of my shows have an element of mentorship in them. To see Jimmy\u2019s mentor come through for him in the way that I would always hope he would meant a lot to me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lawrence had always envisioned the three-season arc for Jimmy ending this way. But when they found out the comedy would be returning for a fourth season, he and his fellow executive producers were faced with a dilemma: End the season the way they would have the series or push their original ending out for one more season. After much discussion, they decided to stick the landing.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt still felt right,\u201d Lawrence says. \u201cThis particular story with these characters has been told and you should feel, in a good way, like it\u2019s gonna be OK for Jimmy. Jason is so good at it, watching him play the agony of trying to get through it all and come out on the other side was my favorite kind of journey on the whole show.\u201d<\/p>\n

Segel spoke to The Envelope about filming this pivotal scene and bringing the third season to a close.<\/p>\n

What did filming this final scene mean to you? To play this part of Jimmy\u2019s journey coming to an end?<\/p>\n

I\u2019m always really interested in, \u201cWhat is the dirty underneath? If we go one level deeper, what is the thing that the person is not saying?\u201d This arc with Jimmy over the three seasons had been building up to Jimmy finally saying the actual thing, which is some version of, \u201cWho\u2019s gonna want me now?\u201d<\/p>\n

Paul answers that question by telling Jimmy that his scars are \u201cevidence of a life well-lived.\u201d<\/p>\n

I had a therapist I was talking to about having to show up somewhere with people I knew from 25 years ago. I remember having a little bit of apprehension because I\u2019ve had a twisty-turny life. I thought, \u201cGod, there\u2019s so much to catch up on and I\u2019m showing up covered in scars.\u201d And this therapist said to me, just matter of fact, \u201cWhat a shame it would be to show up anywhere at 45 years old not covered in scars.\u201d And I went straight to Bill and [executive producer] Neil [Goldman], this is a year ago, and I said, \u201cThis is what Harrison says to Jimmy at the end of this arc.\u201d And we worked it in.<\/p>\n

What was the actual day of filming the scene like for you?<\/p>\n

It was a difficult day. It was loud that day. There was a little bit of discombobulation on the street. There was construction and they couldn\u2019t hold the cars right. It wasn\u2019t the ideal environment for a scene like this where you would love to hear a pin drop. People were coming into the restaurant asking, \u201cAre you guys open?\u201d It almost felt like we were making a student film. And Harrison and I took a minute and we walked away from the set and we started running the scene, walking up and down the busy street to kind of acclimate ourselves. And I\u2019m walking up and down the street with this man who I idolize and we are at that moment like equals and teammates. We have to go build this scene together. It is a real honor to have that dynamic with him.<\/p>\n

Do you think it was important to have such a pivotal scene outdoors?<\/p>\n

They\u2019re a good reminder that the show takes place in the real world and that you\u2019re like a representative of reality almost. I think that there\u2019s something vulnerable about all that taking place outside. \u2026 There\u2019s other patrons there. It\u2019s surrounded by people, surrounded by life, and Paul is showing up and telling Jimmy, \u201cIt\u2019s time to step into it. Look, it\u2019s all around you.\u201d<\/p>\n

This season we met Jimmy\u2019s father (played by Jeff Daniels), who never really connected with his son and, in a heartbreaking moment, chooses a fishing trip with his buddies over staying for Alice\u2019s (Lukita Maxwell) high school graduation.<\/p>\n

One of the things this show does really well is handle these situations honestly. Whether it\u2019s Parkinson\u2019s or loss or a complicated relationship with a family member. It\u2019s not gonna magically change. None of it. And so the show is very much true to, \u201cHow do we get through it with each other?\u201d That\u2019s really the theme of the show. These issues are gonna be there. What are we gonna do with the realities of life? I think the reason they brought Jeff Daniels in is to highlight why Jimmy so desperately wants Paul\u2019s affection. Where is this coming from? Bill is a genius in terms of setting something up in a previous episode so that there\u2019s a payoff in the finale. I think that we understand suddenly how desperate Jimmy is to have somebody say, \u201cYou\u2019re my son and I love you.\u201d And he finally gets that at the end from Paul.<\/p>\n

The other major event that happens in the finale is that Alice leaves for college. <\/p>\n

To me, [Jimmy\u2019s relationship with Alice] has been the heart of the show and the most important storyline. The show started out with Alice parenting a troubled child in her father. And that dynamic slowly, slowly, slowly shifted to being the right direction. Until finally he is able to see her off to college and she feels safe to leave him behind. He is the parent and she is the child and everything is the right size again. I think watching Lukita as an actor and a human being grow up over these past four years, it\u2019s been really the joy of my career. When I met her, she called me Mr. Segel. I realized she grew up with my \u201cMuppet\u201d movie. I have the real honor of being more of a mentor than a contemporary to Lukita. To get to the point where I am being surprised and challenged and blown away and moved to tears in scenes with Lukita is like the coolest thing in the world.<\/p>\n

\"A <\/p>\n

Cobie Smulders and Jason Segel in \u201cShrinking.\u201d<\/p>\n

(Apple TV)<\/p>\n

We see Jimmy sit down at the restaurant with his potential love interest Sofi (Cobie Smulders), but we don\u2019t hear their conversation. <\/p>\n

It originally ended with a hard cut to black. Then then they did this beautiful cinematic pullback. I think the most important line is, \u201cHello.\u201d<\/p>\n

As the scene ends, Paul tells Jimmy that he can either \u201cstay stuck\u201d or \u201cgo make new scars.\u201d Paul advises Jimmy to \u201cchoose wisely\u201d and then winks at Jimmy. It\u2019s a subtle nod to the famous \u201cchoose wisely\u201d scene from \u201cIndiana Jones and the Last Crusade.\u201d <\/p>\n

Harrison is not so secretly one of the funnier people I know. He always knows exactly what he\u2019s doing and we\u2019ve had a few of those throughout the season, some little nods to Harrison\u2019s body of work. It was a perfect way to end that scene. Paul slash Harrison is always just a little smarter than you. One of the great qualities that they have is they\u2019re just a little bit ahead of you, which a great mentor should be, right?<\/p>\n

Have you thought about how it will be to play Jimmy in the show\u2019s fourth season now that this particular story arc has come to an end?<\/p>\n

I think an equally interesting and complicated and fun area is someone deciding they\u2019re ready to be happy. Because God knows it\u2019s one thing in your house alone in front of the mirror [to say], \u201cNow I\u2019m gonna be happy.\u201d And then you go out and in practice, it\u2019s its own set of complications, right? And so, I\u2019m actually really excited about that idea of someone saying, \u201cOK, I\u2019m ready to take it for a spin.\u201d And then seeing that\u2019s its own thing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The third season of Apple TV\u2019s \u201cShrinking\u201d concludes with Jimmy (Jason Segel) being, well, \u201cJimmy-ed.\u201d For three seasons,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":384299,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[43924,55860,146,36936,85,46,10727,2400,183410,40854,89695,42569,20780,3263,9475,762,411,2028,1661],"class_list":{"0":"post-384298","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tv","8":"tag-alice","9":"tag-end","10":"tag-entertainment","11":"tag-harrison-ford","12":"tag-il","13":"tag-israel","14":"tag-jimmy","15":"tag-life","16":"tag-lukita-maxwell","17":"tag-mentor","18":"tag-paul","19":"tag-scene","20":"tag-season","21":"tag-show","22":"tag-thing","23":"tag-time","24":"tag-tv","25":"tag-way","26":"tag-year"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/384298","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=384298"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/384298\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/384299"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=384298"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=384298"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=384298"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}