SPOILER ALERT: This post contains spoilers for Shrinking Season 3 Episode 4, “The Field.”
It takes a lot to ruffle the feathers of Ted McGinley’s Derek, who remains pretty positive and unflappabble throughout Appe TV’s Shrinking, but 650 mg of THC will do it.
The latest in trials for a character known for being light and balancing his wife Liz in the comedy series includes an inadvertent over-consumption of weed, which makes him think he’s dying, after he ate a big bag of his son Matthew’s gummy edibles assuming they were candy.
Set to Vampire Weekend’s “Capricorn,” Derek wanders down the street and worries for a mannequin, thinking someone snatched his man parts, before telling the shopkeeper that he’s been poisoned and that she might need to call an ambulance because he’s “a little bit dying.”
“It’s funny because it was unintentional. There wasn’t anything I wanted to bring up, but I wanted you to see how out of sorts he was, and how uncomfortable he was being [high] — and you saw what the volume was, how much he takes,” McGinley told Deadline. “It was so outlandish, and it was based on a true story. So I had that, I understood it very clearly, but it was such a challenge.”
Derek makes several unexpected phone calls to various friends like Brian, whom he warns of people coming after baby Sutton and Paul, who says he’ll call the CIA for Derek, knowing he’s high. Derek even calls Mac (Josh Hopkins) whom Liz kissed last season. He also asked Liz to wait eight years to find love again.
“I would say it was one of the most challenging things I’ve ever had to do as an actor, because one, it wasn’t my time frame. I had to squeeze into the time frame of the show so I couldn’t do anything as slow as I wanted to,” he added. “We didn’t have that kind of time, and I had verbose dialog. There was a lot going on in a very short period of time. And the real thing is to [act not] high or try to show that you’re totally good, so it was a very challenging experience.”
This happened on top of Derek and Liz kicking Matthew out of their house after he moved back in with them upon losing his job. This was not the first time that has happened with their 25-year-old son. Derek, who normally welcomes his kids back home, ends up being the one to give Matthew the boot after he and Liz decide they need to do that to help him be an adult.
“Derek sees a lot of himself in Matthew, and in the best parts of Matthew. When you see Matthew turn [in Episode 2], I think that’s a lot of Derek in there, and I didn’t really notice it until I saw it. I thought, ‘You know what? He reminds me of Derek,’” McGinley said. “I’m a father of two boys. I can relate to this storyline. I can understand. My wife and I sometimes will disagree on [how to parent.] I think every parent has that, and it’s so real.”
During one of Paul’s gym sessions to recover from his hallucinations and UTI, Derek consults him about what to do for Matthew, and Paul points out that Derek likely behaves the way he does to protect himself and avoid confrontation and hard feelings.
“It was really important for Derek to get that chance to man up and say, ‘You know what, if I really want to be the kind of father I want to be, I have to make this tough choice.’ He’s always been the guy who will say, ‘Let’s just go out in the yard, throw the ball.’ We’ll have the conversation. I talk him down, get him to a place,” the Married … With Children star continued. “So this is a growing moment for both. My favorite line of [Liz’s] is when, I said, ‘Where you going?’ and she goes, I’m gonna go talk [to him] about what a mean guy you were.’”
