Atypical: Shrinkage

"Hi, Bob. You look silly."

An interesting episode, cleverly structured as always- but there's no doubting that things end up as something of a downer for all involved. Friendships and relationships are broken apart, ready for the final stretch of the season.

For Elsa, it's the realisation that Doug bought Fleetwood Mac tickets not for her, even though the band were always "their" thing, but for Megan, a devastating blow. The cruelty, as ever, is the hope. So she's probably doing the right thing in telling Doug that they need to separate. He's shocked, dumbfounded and upset, of course, but at this point he can hardly complain.

Then there's Casey, who is depressed and struggling for motivation, avoiding Izzy and constantly irritable- as well as not training, something really rather essential to her future. It all comes to a head when Izzy confronts Casey over giving her the cold shoulder treatment- and Casey kisses her. So the love triangle is back on.

Finally, there's Sam, who we see early on in an ethics seminar learning about Kantian versus utilitarian approaches to moral dilemmas which, this being drama, promptly appears in his own life as he realises that Gretchen has been shoplifting from Techtropolis. After much agonising- not the case for the abstract dilemmas in the tutorial- he decides to do what's right and report her, at the cost of his friendship with Zahid, a crushing moment. This is the first episode that Zahid, the rebel with a heart of gold, acts like a dick. We now want Gretchen to go away as much as Sam. We love to hate her.

Good stuff, then, yet again. Even if it does end with a bizarre cover of Tiffany's "I Think We're Alone Now".