Physical Review: Let’s Face the Facts (Season 1 Episode 9)

Physical Season 1 Episode 9, “Let’s Face the Facts,” is one of the season’s most satisfying installments to date, as multiple storylines converge and Sheila begins to take control of her own life in a way she hasn’t before.

Weirdly, Physical decides not to show us the immediate confrontation between Sheila and her husband over Jerry’s realization she’d been cooking both the campaign books and the Rubin household finances. (This was the cliffhanger that ended last week’s episode.)

Instead, we only see the aftermath, in which Sheila has essentially become an outsider in her own home, whose voice is constantly belittled and silenced. 

Danny insists she can’t be trusted with anything — apparently even having an opinion — in the wake of what she did, and it’s hard to know what’s worse, his cruel attitude or Sheila’s quiet acceptance of it. (And her inner monologue’s insistence that she deserves to be treated this way.)

At least Sheila gets to be proven right this episode, and her understanding of the more conservative-leaning political make-up of San Diego forces Danny to moderate his stance on city development. And she brings Greta and Ernie back into the campaign fold, too, though Danny is predictably snotty about it. 

(Truly, I don’t understand why this man seems to operate as though everyone in the entire world owes him something!)

The best part of “Let’s Face the Facts” has to be Sheila and Greta’s reconciliation. Their friendship has been one of the surprising bright spots of this series thus far, and I hated the thought that they might be permanently on the outs.

Love that Greta forced Sheila to actually apologize instead of just pretend that she did, and Sheila’s quiet shock at the idea that Greta genuinely considers her a friend (and would have loaned her the camera if she’d asked) is strangely heartbreaking. 

When was the last time Sheila had a real friend, anyway?

Elsewhere, Bunny and Tyler discover that someone has been making bootleg copies of their aerobics demo and selling them on the sly to SoCal housewives. The women all want to take in-person classes now, which is great for business, but Bunny’s not down to have their dream stolen — and neither is Sheila, once she realizes how much she still wants it. 

Bunny, Tyler, Sheila, and Greta make a positively delightful foursome — and their slow-mo walk to take back what’s theirs is hilarious — and given how honest Sheila’s decided to be with her friend, I’m hopeful that perhaps Greta will be somehow become involved into the aerobics plotline in a more concrete way. 

Not because she’s unhappy with her weight — her simple joy at realizing her husband loves the parts of her body she hates the most was fantastic — but simply because Sheila trusts her and their friendship. I don’t know, maybe she could help manage the business side of things. I just need this group together again ASAP. 

The sudden focus on John Breem — and the fact that he sees what a money-making opportunity Sheila’s love of aerobics is — makes it glaringly apparent that the two are on a collision course.

Whether that means their seemingly inevitable partnership will be strictly business or Sheila will want to get some of her own back when Maya inevitably mentions she saw her dad hooking up with a former student is at this moment unclear.

But, for reasons, I don’t think the show has entirely explained properly as yet, he certainly seems to see Sheila in a way her husband does not. I hope that Physical is planning to delve into why at some point. 

Stray Thoughts and Observations:

• Is there anything more adorable than Bunny burning Tyler’s clothes as a threat to get him to stop surfing because she can’t face the thought of him putting his life at risk? (For surfing, of all things? I love them so much!) 
• So, as laughable as the Surfer Doctor was, I kind of loved him as a representation of why it helps to really meet patients where they’re at. Would Tyler have listened to anyone who didn’t literally speak his lingo?
• If Danny cheating on Sheila wasn’t enough to make me hate him again the scene where he ignores his daughter screaming and then blames his wife for needing to leave a campaign to feed her is peak terrible husband.
• Also, I’m intrigued by the idea that 
• I’m really not sure what I’m supposed to make of the weird religious talk in the Breem subplot. Are they meant to be Mormons? Hardcore Catholics? Why did we have to watch them go to therapy? Context clues alone could have told us that their marriage isn’t terribly happy. (Though the image of them trying to navigate sex on a waterbed in their sacred bedroom was kind of hilarious.) 

What did you think of this episode of Physical? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

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New episodes of Physical stream Fridays on Apple TV+.

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