Shrinking's Jessica Williams Pushed For Episode 2's Heavy Gaby/Louis Confrontation: 'I Could Not Reconcile Her Being OK With That'
Jimmy and Alice may have learned to forgive, but Gaby's grief and anger have officially erupted.
In Wednesday's episode of "Shrinking," Gaby struggles to understand why Jimmy and Alice are so "chummy" with Louis, the drunk driver responsible for killing Tia. And while she's happy to see Jimmy and Alice in a better space overall, she can't help but resent the fact that Louis is still hanging around instead of living his life to the fullest, something that Tia will never be able to do.
After letting those feelings seep into her workplace (where she totally botches a first meeting with a new client), Gaby ultimately unloads on Louis after running into him at Jimmy's house. Dressed in a Los Angeles Sparks jersey to take Alice to a game — something they used to do when Tia was alive — she can't even cop to some civil small talk with the subject of her ire. "You can say it," Louis says. "It's coming off you like heat from a radiator." Ask and you shall receive, Lou!
She tells him that while she's trying to be a good person, she can't understand why he's not in jail forever for killing her best friend. "Why are you still in our lives?" she asks. "Why are you here?" It's a brutal confrontation, one that Louis accepts like a champ — and one that ends in tears and frustration for Gaby. "They may have forgiven you, but I never will — ever!" she exclaims.
The scene was something Jessica Williams pushed for in Season 2, but ultimately, it didn't fit into that story. However, creator and showrunner Bill Lawrence didn't forget about their conversation, and eventually, Gaby's big scene was revived and written into Season 3's second episode.
"Bill's amazing because a lot of people don't do that," Williams tells TVLine. "Executive producers in charge, they're just sort of like, 'Well, I'm gonna do what I'm gonna do and you can like, eat it.' [But] he was like, 'If you can just hang on, you're gonna go tell Brett [Goldstein] to go do 'Ted Lasso,' basically, [Laughs] and you're gonna finally give it to him in the third season.'"
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Williams says the scene was important to her because as an actor, she just couldn't fathom her character being OK with letting Louis into their circle on a regular or even semi-regular basis.
"There were a couple of scenes where Alice and Jimmy were talking about meeting with Louis and talking to Louis, and no matter how I thought about Gaby and who she was, I could not reconcile her being OK with that," says Williams. "If I think about losing my best girlfriends, I would be beyond devastated and beyond p*ssed in a way that's different from those two and their grief. I think in that moment, Gaby's always irritated seeing him. She's in her dead best friend's house about to go to a Sparks game, which is something that she used to do with Tia, and she's continuing that relationship with Alice because it's super important to her. And in walks this guy who left this massive crater in this house."
Gaby's diatribe is enough to get Louis thinking. After visiting Sarah and seeing that she's moved on with another man — another gutting moment for the guy — he finally realizes he needs to do the same. He decides to move to San Diego, and we even see him interviewing for a new graphic design position in an attempt to revive his career.
For Williams, her extra emotional monologue left her feeling "kind of embarrassed" and vulnerable, a result of a fiery performance where she absolutely lets loose.
"It had beautiful writing," she says. "I'm rarely embarrassed when I'm acting. I see action and cut as a sacred space where you can't really do anything wrong. For the most part, this is a playground, but that was one of those scenes where that night, I was like, 'I'm kind of embarrassed.' I feel like I really let it all hang out in that scene, but what a joy that is to play as an actress and a black actor, a comedy actor. Just to be able to do everything was really important to me, and that would not have happened without Bill Lawrence and everybody coming together to set me up to succeed."
What did you think of Episode 2 of "Shrinking"? Are you sad that Louis is leaving the show? Sound off in the comments.