‘Shrinking’ Star Luke Tennie Unpacks Explosive Scene Between Jimmy and Sean in Episode 4: A ‘Moment We Knew Was Coming’

Note: This story contains spoilers from “Shrinking” Season 2, Episode 4.

“Shrinking” star Luke Tennie says the explosively physical scene in Episode 4between Jimmy (Jason Segel) and Sean (Tennie) was a moment production and ultimately viewers knew would happen sooner than later, adding that he conjured up the momentum in that scene from a casting note he received when he first auditioned for the role.

“It’s a moment we knew was coming because we hadn’t really seen it,” Tennie told TheWrap in an interview. “We saw Sean snap in Episode 1, Season 1, to protect somebody. We never really saw Sean just lose it without a real understanding of what the catalyst was. So it was exciting, but most of the prep came from really just digging into the birth of Sean for me.”

For those who need a reminder, Sean — an army veteran who now lives with his Jimmy (who’s also Jimmy’s therapy patient) — has been working on controlling his anger, PTSD and familial drama since Season 1. In Season 2, Episode 4, Sean is still trying to forgive Liz (Christ Miller) for selling her stake in their food truck business to Sean’s father Tim (Kenajuan Bentley). At first, working alongside his dad goes well, but when his father brings up his decision to remove Sean from their family home, fails to acknowledge the role he’s played in Sean’s anger issues and takes credit for Sean’s newfound growth, Sean handles it gracefully in the moment, but ultimately suppresses his feelings.

Things boil over later in the episode when Jimmy confronts Sean about how he poorly handled some rude road workers (whom he almost fought), which prompts Sean to reveal what’s been aggravating him: his father.

When Jimmy tells Sean that he can’t blame his father for not knowing what’s on his mind and that his father let him down in that incident, Sean snaps on Jimmy.

“Hey, this is f—ng complicated, aight? He is a good man, OK?!” Sean says to a stunned Jimmy in his face, absolving his father of any blame.

“He loves me. He worked his ass off for me and I put him through a lot so I don’t want to hear you talkin’ s—t about my father!” Sean says as he pushes Jimmy.

Jimmy de-escalates the situation by telling Sean to talk about it. Sean, visibly shaken by his own actions, apologizes. Tennie told TheWrap the energy that filled that scene was in part from a note he received earlier on before signing on to the show, as well as from the dialogue that was written in the script.

“What’s so unique about that moment was, for me, it forced me to go all the way back to my audition, which was for me, the birth of Sean. And I remember getting notes from casting, from the direction that ‘we should feel tension between Sean and Jimmy. It should look almost as if Jimmy might be at risk being in this room with such a volatile character.’ And what we see now is the throughline from that initial note, that adjustment that I got.”

He continued: “It’s always been underneath every moment of joy that Sean’s had, there’s always been a bit of that hair trigger. And of course, that has to be there, because we know this to be true about this character.”

This week’s episode, titled “Made You Look,” had a lot going on. Between Alice hooking up with her bestie’s boyfriend and Brian’s (Michael Urie) husband expressing his desire to adopt a child, there was a lot to juggle. But showrunner and executive producer Bill Lawrence knew the perfect person for the job: “Bad Monkey” and “Scrubs” star Zach Braff, who directed the eventful installment.

Lawrence says it’s always been important to him to keep gold star talent like Braff — who also directed Episode 3 — in his universe.

“If I love somebody and they’re super talented, I’d be an idiot not to keep them in my world,” Lawrence told TheWrap. “And Zach Braff is in ‘Bad Monkey,’ the one of the leads of ‘Cougar Town” Bob Clendenin is in ‘Bad Monkey.’ There’s an easter egg that you might have noticed in this episode, when they showed a picture of Brett Goldstein’s fiancé in one of those scenes (played by Meredith Hagner). She might look like the female lead in ‘Bad Monkey’ who’s going to come over in this.”

He continued: “So for me, getting to collaborate with my friends is a gift. And Zach’s a hugely gifted director; got an Emmy nomination for directing ‘Ted lasso.’ He’s a great performer. I look forward to keeping — no matter what I get to keep doing — dragging all of the actors and actresses and writers from this show into the next. It’s part of the fun for me.”

Braff opened up about directing the episode in an Instagram post on Wednesday, saying: “I’m gonna be honest with you… tonight’s episode of ‘Shrinking’ is a doozy. Episode 4 of Season 2 is the second episode I directed this season. Wait until you see these performances.”

“Shrinking” releases new episodes Wednesdays on Apple TV+.

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