(Warning: Spoilers ahead.)

Brett Goldstein won two Emmys for his play Ted Lassos A+ curser Roy Kent proves there’s an art to telling someone to “fuck off.” In Shrinking In the second season, Goldstein takes on a role in which he is the one who is told by various characters to “get the shit out of here” and “shut up.” Considering Goldstein’s character Louis is the man who plays Jimmy Laird’s (Jason Segel) Ms. Tia (Lilan Bowden) was in a drunk driving accident three years ago, and it’s easy to see why.

Bringing Louis into the mix is ​​intentionally destabilizing, and it automatically surprised me to give the audience a face – a familiar, popular one at that – of the person Jimmy loathes with every fiber of his being. Ahead of the second season premiere, Goldstein remained tight-lipped about who he would play in the series, which he co-created with Bill Lawrence and Jason Segel. The reveal at the end of the premiere left me gasping – and not just because Goldstein had shaved off his signature beard – as it hadn’t even occurred to me that the show would go there with the previously unseen drunk driver.

Looking back, however, it fits with the how shrinkage wants Jimmy and the gang to tackle morally complex challenges head-on, with the theme of forgiveness at the heart of the second film. Goldstein is more than up to the task of portraying a man driven by regret in the present and a carefree Louis in a snapshot of the past in this week’s episode. The British comedian doesn’t have to rely on f-bomb-filled dialogue or his beard when his big, expressive eyebrows have attended the same emotional acting school as him Colin Farrell And Eugene Levy. Who needs words when eyebrows do the main job?

As the season progressed, the reaction of those directly affected by Tia’s death changed from unfiltered anger to relaxed and empathetic. Well, except for Jimmy, who just met his daughter Alice (Lukita Maxwell) and his best friend Brian (Michael Urie) secretly ate with Louis. Before any more swear words are thrown around after this bombshell, shrinkage Cuts from an incredulous Jimmy outside the restaurant looking at Louis, Alice and Brian, to flashbacks before Tia died.

Context is everything, and the trip down memory lane in “One Last Drink” shows that Louis’ day began with cute trivia games at the train station with his fiancée Sarah (Meredith Hagner, fresh off playing a first-rate villain). Bad monkey). It has pure rom-com vibes, and Goldstein understands that there’s nothing better to show intimacy in a public setting than forehead kisses. The sweet, shy boyfriend that lurks beneath Roy Kent’s gruff exterior Ted Lasso Lovestruck Keeley (Juno Temple) is proudly worn on Louis’ sleeve.

Talking to Alice about Sarah in the past tense a few weeks ago sets us up for a breakup – a breakup that I assumed was the catalyst for a major argument that led to the crash. Instead, the couple is blissfully in love when casual cocktails and a glass of wine over dinner change everything. Sarah says they should ditch their car and get a Lyft home because she’s too tipsy; Louis says, “I only had two and I barely touched this one,” so he can drive. The slap in the face comes not from a wasted blackout, but from his nonchalance. Sarah wants to stand by Louis while he serves his ten-month sentence, but he pushes her away.

In this arc, Goldstein uses a mix of shame and guilt without straying into overused territory. Just look at the way he chokes back tears in the breakup scene this week, as if Louis doesn’t even think he’s worth shedding tears over his broken relationship. While Roy Kent waited for a confrontation on and off the football pitch with his chest out and shoulders back, Louis is the king of the hunched stance. Brian’s exaggerated version of Louis’ hurt aura when he explains to Jimmy why he started hanging out with Louis isn’t that exaggerated (The way Goldstein shakes his head at the end of Episode 4 while saying that it he is fine is a perfect encapsulation of Louis’ entire being).

Louis isn’t a man of many words – especially in this scenario – but Goldstein’s use of his real voice instead of Roy Kent’s intimidating lower register adds to the overwhelming sadness of a character stuck in his mistake. Roy Kent is all growls, grunts and often monosyllabic replies, but his growls are alive.

“I’m not being funny,” Goldstein recently told Seth Meyers Late at night Look. That’s not entirely true, as this week’s train station sequence with Hagner shows, but there are fewer obvious laughs than his award-winning swagger Ted Lasso or his standup material.

A scene without laughs is when Jimmy visits Louis at home near the end of “One Last Drink.” After a polite conversation about Louis’ Miss Congeniality Poster, Jimmy gets to work. Yes, he forgives Louis. A smile appears on Louis’ face, which he immediately darkens because it’s inappropriate to grin. Jimmy doesn’t raise his voice, but asks Louis to do something for him: “I never want to see you again.” This request extends to Louis seeing Alice and Brian. “You need to get out of my fucking life,” Jimmy adds.

Louis has been forgiven, but as far as Jimmy is concerned, he still has to let off steam. Hopefully that doesn’t apply to Goldstein, whose presence in shrinkage is always welcome.