Shrinking Finale: Creator Bill Lawrence On That Powerful Paul And Jimmy Scene, Whether Season 4 Will Be The Series' Last Run

Spoilers below for the Season 3 finale of "Shrinking"!

Don't worry, "Shrinking" fans: Jimmy and Paul have officially made up. 

In Wednesday's finale, Paul flew back to California to patch things up with Jimmy following their unsettling quarrel in last week's episode. (Paul didn't take Jimmy's anger personally. "Textbook transference," he accurately deduced.) While they may have missed out on their ideal goodbye breakfast, Paul's surprise return was all a setup to tell Jimmy that he needed to finally — really, this time! — move on. And not just romantically. Though, Paul did make arrangements for Jimmy to rekindle things with Sofi. ("You f—king Jimmy'ed me!") Paul then told his mentee that he was "more of a son to me" than a burden. "For as long as I'm around, if you think you need me, I will be there for you, because I love you," Paul said in a rare (for him), emotionally charged moment.  

So Jimmy had a decision to make. Stay stuck in his ways and in his life, or open himself up to what life may have in store for him. At finale's end, he chose to reunite with Sofi, and seemed just a wee bit more optimistic because of it. 

But that's not all! Alice left for Connecticut to start college, Sean moved out of the pool house, and Gaby and Derrick got engaged! Below, writer/creator Bill Lawrence gives TVLine an inside look at Season 3's last hurrah, plus offers up a tiny tease of what's to come in Season 4. 

TVLINE | With Alice heading to college and Sean moving out, how is Jimmy handling all of these big changes throughout the episode?
BILL LAWRENCE | This is the end of that three season story that we originally pitched to Apple. You've got to decide if grief is going to suck you under, [or] if you're going to break free and swim to the light. So, if you ask me what we want people to feel at the end of this, it's that he's gotten through. This three season story is over. He's gotten through it and he is somebody that, were the show to end right here, you would know he was going to live a happy and joyful life. But that's part of the fun of telling a new story, because Nick, if Season 4 started with Jimmy in the car listening to a sad song, and he turned to Brian and it's like, "You know, I'm still super sad about my wife dying," everybody would be like, "What are they doing? It's the same show!" Such a buzz kill that would be. Jimmy, come on!

TVLINE | We see that Jimmy's has been fixating on the perfect goodbye to send Alice off with. Paul calls him out on it. Is this pattern of idealism part of Jimmy's moving on process, or is it just human nature to pursue perfection like that?
I think it's specific to him. I think we all want goodbyes and family vacations and holidays to be a bigger deal than they always are, and they're such a s–t-show and I internalize that. So, I think it is kind of common, not only to me but to other writers and other people, but it is definitely specific to Jimmy in the sense that as he was trying to navigate all this stuff for these three years, he was a guy prone to picturing in his head how it should look and how it should go. It is definitely something that he, as a character, needs to break free from.

TVLINE | Jessica's performance after Gaby finds the engagement ring was brilliant. Was having Derrick No. 2 pop the question always the plan for these two?
It wasn't always the plan because we without a doubt leaned into the curve of how much comedic chemistry they had. It was so fun. One of the things that we were lucky enough to do on this particular show is we found out that we were going to get to tell another story — we pitched Apple the same way we pitched grief, forgiveness, and moving on. And so we found out while we were still writing to put some Easter eggs in so that even if there's a massive time jump, and even if people are like, "Oh, this is a completely new story that we're telling," when we come back, there's still some things that have to be picked up. 

For Gaby, personally, to be a married woman who at the same time is talking about opening a trauma center when she lost a patient, maybe [she] still hasn't fully processed that? And Jimmy's father didn't leave with a lot of things resolved. And people are smart enough to go, "Oh, it's probably no accident that when Paul was moving back to be with his family to Connecticut, that Alice chose a college to play soccer at that's not only in Connecticut, but we see her at his house." So, the cool thing was going, "Oh, we have to tell another story," but we also have to put some little clues in so that it feels like there's connectivity to what we did before.

TVLINE | The final scene with Paul and Jimmy was so powerful. Why does Paul take so long to tell Jimmy his true feelings? Is that generational, maybe? 
I think it's a generational thing, but the thing that I think is really interesting about those two is when people have relationships like that, they're always more alike than they would ever care to admit. And I think it was with great intent that not only did we compare and contrast Paul to Jimmy's father, because you could easily argue that those are the two father figures in his life, but that we took great pains to describe Paul's relationship to his father as very similar to Jimmy's relationship to [Randy]. So these are both people that have struggled to ever say what they probably want to and need to say to their fathers. Paul no longer gets the chance because his dad's long gone, unless he's 160 somewhere, still bouncing around, and Jimmy? It's still a question mark.

TVLINE | As you mentioned, every season of "Shrinking" has a specific theme involved — grief, forgiveness, moving on. What's the theme of Season 4 going to be?
Because it's kind of a new vibe, we're not spoiling it, but yeah, we do [have one]. Apple was cool about it because when they were like, "You guys want to keep going this show?" We had the choice of going like, "Oh, should we extend the story we're telling?" but I think it would have gotten redundant. And so we had to take the time. First, we talked to the whole cast, and Harrison and Jason were the driving forces because Harrison said it in the press [that] he'd be happy if this was his last gig. And Jason was into it, and then we had to convince everybody, or at least tell them, "Hey, just so you know, it's not the same story we're telling. Here's what we're doing."

TVLINE | How long do you see this series running, and as a showrunner, how do you know when it's time to land the plane?
We think about it a lot. I've been really lucky in that I've gotten to be involved in three or four shows that had an end-of-the-story episode. And you always want to nail that, and hopefully it's satisfying. You don't want to overstay your welcome. So right now, we know we have another story to tell, and all we've decided as a writing staff is that — for us anyways, Apple could decide something different — but in our heads, Season 4 isn't the last season, but it definitely feels like five or six will be.

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