Brett Goldstein's 'Shrinking' Character Explained

SPOILER ALERT: This piece contains spoilers for the first two episodes of Shrinking.

Brett Goldstein has shed the beard and prickly personality of one Roy Kent from Ted Lasso for a very different character in Season 2 of Apple TV+’s Shrinking, which he co-created with Bill Lawrence and star Jason Segel.

Goldstein is a very important addition to the cast in the second installment of the therapy comedy show because his character is key to the plot.

For all the details about who Brett Goldstein plays in Shrinking Season 2, read on.

Episode 1 – “Jimmying”

As mentioned and alluded to in Season 1 of Shrinking from time to time, Jimmy Laird (Jason Segel) lost his wife Tia (Lilan Bowden) in a car accident, and the first episode of the series picked up a bit after this had happened, when Jimmy was still reeling from grief.

At the end of the first episode of Season 2, Goldstein appears, and the connection is made that he was the drunk driver who killed Tia. Clean-shaven and somber-looking, he has come to Jimmy’s office asking if they can talk.

Jimmy, who immediately gets triggered, yells at Goldstein’s character, who remains nameless, to leave. Jimmy had described the moments he gets on the scene of his wife’s death to Sean at the beginning of Season 2, and the montage returns with a more clearly shown Goldstein getting put into a cop car. (In the credits, Goldstein’s character is named Louis.)

Episode 2 – “I Love Pain”

In the second episode of Shrinking Season 2, after Alice passes her driver’s test, Jimmy finally tells her about how the guy approached him. Later on in the episode, Alice’s friend Summer (Rachel Stubington) calls him ‘Double D’ for Drunk Driver. Summer also suggests that Alice write him a letter with all of her feelings and anger. Summer did that when her dad split. The therapists in Alice’s life approve of this idea. Alice even reads the beginnings of her letter to Jimmy, and this is when we learn that the character’s last name is Winston since Alice refers to him as Mr. Winston. At the end of episode 2, Alice takes the Bronco out to spy on the guy at his house. From the looks of it, he lives alone.

Episode 3 – “Psychological Somethingism”

In Episode 3, Alice took it a step further and visited the coffeeshop where Louis works. She confronted him about the car crash, and he tried to apologize, but she screamed at him and left. He later found her wallet under the table where she had sat.

Episode 4 – “Made You Look”

At the end of Episode 5, Brian walks his newly adopted dog Nick Fury by Jimmy’s house, where he happens to witness Louis silently attempting to return Alice’s wallet. Brian initiates what becomes a bond with Louis by asking him if he’s okay after first acting intensely toward him.

Episode 6 – “In a Lonely Place”

In Episode 6, Alice forces Brian (Michael Urie) to take her to visit Louis (Goldstein) after Brian revealed to her that he had developed a relationship with Louis. Alice only learned this because she left her wallet at the coffeeshop where Louis works, and he wanted to return it to her, which is how Brian met him in the first place. Brian returned the wallet to her at the hospital when the crew went to visit Sean (Luke Tennie) after he got in a fight and let himself get beat up.

Brian takes Alice to see Louis, who immediately wants to get to know her as well as Tia (Lila Bowden), and there, Alice forgives him after she recides the letter she wrote him, calling him a “selfish drunk.” Viewers see how lonely his place is. He does have a cool poster of Sandra Bullock in Miss Congeniality (2000). He also was dating a girl named Sarah, which Alice gleans from a photograph of Sarah at Louis’ place. Sarah was Louis’ fiancée, but she doesn’t seem to be in Louis’ life anymore.

Episode 7 – “Get in the Sea”

The way Jimmy finds out about the relationships Louis has with Brian and Alice is less than desirable because he walks up to a restaurant and sees them sitting together inside at the end of Episode 7.

Episode 8 – “Last Drink”

Episode 8 sheds more light on Louis and Sarah’s relationship as well as how the car accident occurred, three years before Season 2 took place. They used to sit at the train station and observe pedestrians to make up stories for them, and Sarah had moved in with him. After a night out to dinner, Louis decided to drive him and Sarah home even though she insisted on taking a Lyft. He still ended up driving them home because he had work early in the morning, and then the accident happened.

Parallelled with happy memories of Jimmy’s and Tia’s relationship and then later with the struggles of Jimmy in front of Alice, Louis’ life before and after the crash takes a dark turn. He asks Sarah to leave and not look back even though she wanted to help him through the aftermath of the accident. This all takes place within the first 12 minutes of Episode 8.

Alice tries to persuade Jimmy to forgive Louis too, but he visits him and asks him to stay away from Alice and Brian after half-heartedly forgiving Louis.

Episodes 9 and 10 – “Full Grown Dude Face” and “Changing Patterns”

Alice starts to notice that Louis has grown distant in Episode 9. She then confronts Jimmy about what he said to Louis after she checks in on Louis herself after visiting him when she gets her yellow Mini Cooper for her birthday. Episode 10 ends with her yelling at Jimmy and claiming that he ruined another birthday with his behavior towards Louis.