The Shrink Next Door – Episode 4, The Foundation

We’re with Phyllis Shapiro, Kathryn Hahn (“WandaVision (TV)”, “Transparent (TV)”), as she tries to talk to anyone who will listen, and mainly to those who won’t, about the issues she’s having with her brother Martin ‘Marty’ Markowitz, Will Ferrell (“Between Two Ferns: The Movie”, “The LEGO Movie 2”).

She returns home from shopping, on her birthday, and finds a card in the mail, from Marty. Upon opening it a whole bunch of small bits of card/paper fall to the floor. When she looks closer, she realises they are all photos of her head, cut from photographs.

In their next session, Dr. Isaac ‘Ike’ Herschkopf, Paul Rudd (“Between Two Ferns: The Movie”, “Avengers: Endgame”), convinces Marty to create a foundation, the Yaron Foundation, something he can leave, a legacy.

They decide to do it together, Marty dropping over $150,000 as a first deposit, Ike just $2,500. He has just had twin girls after all.

Marty falls for the new woman in the framing shop, Hannah, and manages to pluck up the courage to ask her out. He tells Ike he’s invited her for a walk but Ike says he needs to wow her, bring her to the Gala he mentioned, at $1,000 a ticket, they’ll double-date.

Marty isn’t convinced that it’s a good use of money, and Ike says he’s right, they can get a whole table for eight for $6,000! Ike then steals some of the joint foundation ledgers from Marty’s desk.

At the Gala, Hannah is quick to understand that Marty is being taken advantage of. Particularly when Ike is taking all the credit and then bids an extortionate amount for a signed baseball.

This causes Marty to have a heart attack outside the venue, luckily Ike catches him. This puts Marty in Ike’s debt, “you saved my life”. He also wants to know how Hannah feels about him and Ike offers to ask, but instead he turns her away from Marty.

The deviousness is rising in The Shrink Next Door and Ike is not even hiding what he’s doing now, or not even pretending some of it is for the Foundation or work. When he arrives home he announces to his wife he’s got the twins into a prestigious school after making a generous donation with ‘his own money’, and we all know what that means.

Adam Countee (“Silicon Valley (TV)”, “Vice Principals (TV)”) writes this episode with Michael Showalter (“The Lovebirds”, “Grace and Frankie (TV)”) behind the camera once more.