Spoilers for Shrinking Season 3, Episode 2 are ahead! You can stream it now with an Apple TV subscription, and then catch new episodes on Wednesdays.
Season 2 of Shrinking saw both Alice (Lukita Maxwell) and Jimmy (Jason Segel) forgive Louis (Brett Goldstein), the man who caused Tia's death. However, we never saw Tia’s best friend, Gaby (Jessica Williams), forgive him. In Season 3, which just began airing on the 2026 TV schedule, though, Williams’ character did get to confront him. So, I asked her about the assertive moment, and she told me the story behind filming it with the Ted Lasso star.
I had been wondering for all of Season 2 how Gaby would feel about Louis, and I was so happy when they finally had a conversation in Season 3. Of course, it wasn’t exactly a nice talk, as Gaby fully called him out over what happened to her best friend and how he's been living since then. However, it was needed. Thinking about all that, and how emotionally taxing it must have been to film, I asked Jessica Williams about working on it with Goldstein. In response, she said:
Brett is someone who is really giving you know. He created the show. He writes on the show. He's in the writer's room every day. On top of that, he does stand up, he does all these things. Basically, I was telling Brett to leave and go do Ted Lasso again [laughs]. And what a cool way to do it. I was like, ‘You have to go, dude! You have to go right for Ted Lasso, bro. Get out of here.’
Obviously, she’s joking here. As Season 3 of Shrinking is coming out, Season 4 of Ted Lasso is in the works, and it's set to premiere this summer. So, it tracks that Goldstein couldn’t stick around as much to play Louis because he’s also reprising his role as Roy Kent.
However, in all seriousness, Williams told me just how involved Goldstein was in this moment and how vital it was for Gaby.
She explained that she could not fathom the idea of her character forgiving him. While Alice and Jimmy could make peace with him, she could “not reconcile it” for Gaby. So, she’d had conversations with co-creator Bill Lawrence about getting a scene between her and Louis that was confrontational.
The Booksmart actress explained that the goal was to actually get this moment in Season 2. However, ultimately, the timing didn’t work out. Williams told me that all that “made sense.” But when Season 3 came around, it was time to bring this interaction back into the conversation. Recalling a talk she had with Lawrence about it, the Emmy-nominated actress said:
Bill's like, ‘Dude, sorry, I promise, I'll give it to you [at the] top of Season 3.’ It's like, okay, and he did. And it was one of those things that, you know, just my job between action and cut is to believe the circumstances. And as an actor, what a gift to be able to play a scene like that. And I think Brett wrote that episode, I think Zach Braff directed that episode.
Brett Goldstein is so involved in Shrinking. Not only does he play Louis, but he’s also the co-creator of the series and has written a handful of episodes, including this one. So, all around, he felt like the perfect scene partner to support Williams through this emotional moment.
However, he wasn’t the only one on set, obviously, and Williams told me how she and the crew worked together on this scene specifically. Noting how it was different from a typical workday, the actress explained:
Our crew was very silent when I came in to do that scene and they held the room for me, in a way, because normally we're like, joking, and they're super professional, but we're normally doing bits. And I told them, because I'm such a caretaker, I was like, ‘Hey guys, I'm going to be like, kind of not that tight while we film this scene, and then I'm going to come back, like, I'm going to be ready, you know, then we're going to be friends again.’ And everybody's like, ‘Yeah, that's fine.’
It is a very heavy moment in the show, as Gaby does not hold back how hurt she is as she talks to Louis. Speaking about those words, Jessica Williams said it was actually “really easy to memorize” because of how well-written they were.
Overall, this felt like a much-needed moment of confrontation and catharsis for Gaby. It also served as an effective exit for Louis, seeing as Goldstein had to go work on Ted Lasso, according to Williams. Speaking further to the importance of this interaction between the two characters, the actress said:
It just felt like unleashing; this felt like something that this character needed to do. And I think hopefully people watch it and they feel they can relate to that. And they're not like, ‘Why is this girl telling this guy to get out of here and do Ted Lasso? What dick?’ You know? It's like, ‘No, that guy killed her best friend.’ Any way I thought about somebody killing my best friend for Gaby, who was such a heart-led person, I was like, ‘No, she would, she would want this guy out of her face.’
Truly, this moment was needed for Gaby. While Jimmy and Alice had their moments with Louis last season, she never did. And frankly, she was incapable of having the same kind of relationship with him. So, Jessica Williams made that very clear, and they made it happen.
Now, I’ll be curious to see how this interaction impacts her relationships with Louis, Alice and Jimmy. We’ll get to find out soon, though, because Shrinking airs every Wednesday on Apple TV.
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