Note: This article contains spoilers for “Shrinking” Season 3, Episode 5: “Hold Your Horsies.”
“Shrinking” co-creator Bill Lawrence said he wasn’t sure if writing in that smooch between Jimmy (Jason Segel) and Paul’s (Harrison Ford) daughter Meg (Lily Rabe) would be a little too close for comfort for Jimmy, as Jimmy looks to Paul as a father-figure.
“I can’t tell if that’s too claustrophobic or not, because to have Paul be your actual father-in-law,” Lawrence explained to TheWrap. “But look, we can get away with stuff like that, because Lily Rabe — anybody that watches cool streaming shows — she works constantly. She’s always on Broadway, she’s a f—king ridiculously [good] actress, and you just believe it.”
That total makeout session happens at the end of Episode 5. After the two spend an afternoon together trying to find family photos and patient records in Paul’s storage unit, Jimmy and Meg built a new connection. Between exploring their fatherly issues and cracking a few jokes about “our dad” Paul, Meg revealed that Paul agreed to move to Connecticut with her and slightly spilled that she’s going through some marital troubles.
To thank Jimmy for his help, Meg stops by his place, and that’s when things start to heat up.
“I just wanted to say, you deserved a thank you,” Meg says just before going in for a kiss.
“That didn’t feel like a brother-sister kiss,” Jimmy says.
“We’re not related, Jimmy,” Meg responds.
“Right…,” Jimmy says.
Lawrence said Segel and Rabe’s performances surprised him and shifted how he’d originally visualized the scene to go.
“I thought it was shockingly sexy when I thought it was just going to be a goof,” Lawrence explained. “And I was like, ‘Oh s—t.’ But that’s one of the things that happens with writers sometimes, is actors and actresses play things with a weight that you didn’t necessarily see coming, and then you’re like, ‘Oh, I guess we could write about that if we want.”
