The ‘Shrinking’ finale wouldn’t have even been possible without Michael Urie’s Brian

The following piece contains spoilers about the season finale of Shrinking.

During a season about forgiveness, perhaps there was no other place for Shrinking to end than with Jimmy (Jason Segel) having his first real conversation with Louis (guest star Brett Goldstein), the man who killed Jimmy’s wife while driving under the influence. But the fateful moment, which happens right before it looks like Louis might die by suicide by stepping in front of an oncoming train, might not have even been possible without Brian, Jimmy’s longtime friend. Brian was a key factor in the show’s narrative in Season 2, including being the first person in Jimmy’s friend group to show empathy toward Louis. It was a twist that even Michael Urie, who plays Brian, didn’t see coming.

“I’m the guy who brings him into the fold. I couldn’t believe it. But on the other hand, it was kind of inevitable that it would be Brian because he’s the one that’s in the right place at the right time, physically and emotionally,” Urie tells Gold Derby. “He’s emotionally in a place where he can hear what Louis has to say, whereas at that point Jimmy and Jimmy’s daughter, Alice (Lukita Maxwell), certainly cannot. They’re not ready to hear anything from Louis.”

Brian’s connection with Louis happened in Episode 4 of the season when the character was just coming to terms with the idea he and his husband, Charlie (Devin Kawaoka), might become parents. “He has just learned that he has this empathy, this sort of tool that he’s actually good at,” Urie says of Brian’s initial contact with Louis. “Because earlier in that episode, Jimmy points out that he can be that empathetic guy. ‘You could be a good dad because you do have this in you.’ If Brian hadn’t learned that earlier that day, I don’t know how he would have reacted to Louis. So it’s just beautifully crafted that the writers make things that seem impossible actually inevitable.”

Urie has nothing but praise for the Shrinking writers, a group led by co-creators Bill Lawrence and Goldstein as well as people like Sofi Selig (who wrote episode four) and Neil Goldman (who cowrote the finale). 

“From the beginning of this show, I have thought, ‘If I get one scene, if I get one good joke in an episode, I’ll be happy.’ I am playing with the big boys here and I have been battling imposter syndrome since day one. But every time, the writers exceed my expectations. These writers have a way of taking care of each character in every single episode. And in every single episode, we all have something going on, and our needles move as characters — something happens to us, and we change. It’s really impressive. I think it’s probably the only time I’ve ever had a TV job where I don’t have any questions when I get the script. When I see what Brian’s got going on, I just get it. It’s so clear and so specific.”

In addition to his friendship with Louis, Brian had other key growth moments in Season 2 — including that fateful decision to adopt a child and become a father for the first time. Urie and Kawaoka were friends before being cast together on Shrinking, and Urie says working with the actor to perfect the Brian-Charlie relationship has been a rarity in the industry.

“I loved this season because I think that Brian and Charlie are ‘Gay Men of a Certain Age.’ So for most of their formative years, they did not know that marriage was going to be a possibility for them,” Urie says. “So I can certainly relate to Brian when Charlie starts to say that he wants children. For Brian, I think when we come out, we start over — like the clock goes back to zero in a lot of ways. And Brian has exuded confidence so blindly for so many years, that now that we’ve gotten to know him in the events of Shrinking, we see that he skipped a lot of steps. And you can’t skip those steps. You eventually do have to go back and pick them up and I think that’s sort of what we saw Brian do a lot in this season.”

The growth Shrinking allows for Brian is not something Urie takes for granted either. “We’ve seen gay characters deal with coming out. We’ve seen them deal with parents who don’t accept them. I’ve played all these parts,” Urie says. “But we’ve never quite seen the psychology of this, which I think is what’s cool about ‘Shrinking.’”

Apple didn’t waste a lot of time in renewing Shrinking for Season 3, a decision the streamer made shortly after Season 2 premiered. Urie is excited about where the show might go from its season finale, but he’s going to trust the writers rather than try to speculate.

“I would feel silly trying to come up with what it might be because it’ll never be as good as what they come up with,” he says. “But what I want is more and more and more. I want more with Ted McKinley and Luke Tennie. I want more with Jason and Jessica Williams. I want more with Christa Miller… and I look forward to seeing what happens with Charlie and Brian’s bundle of joy. The possibilities are endless.”

“Oh, by the way, I’m also in the show with Harrison Ford,” Urie adds. “So yeah, I want more with him too.”

All episodes of Shrinking are streaming on Apple TV+.