Physical Season 2 Episode 4 Review: Don’t You Know

Physical Season 2 Episode 4, “Don’t You Know,” sees Sheila trapped at home in the wake of her emergency surgery last week, and her sudden isolation and physician-mandated bedrest (not to mention an order to eat more) all means she starts spiraling—and the show starts backsliding into its worst habits — pretty quickly.

The episode starts off with a literal nightmare, in which Sheila envisions herself as part of an infomercial with flamboyant aerobics instructor Vincent Gray, who actually listens to her talk about her struggle with food and is weirdly empathetic about her struggles with food.

It ends with Sheila’s first motel binge and purges session of Season 2, but unfortunately, it’s one that feels like the show retreading familiar ground rather than saying anything new. It’s the first time she’s been caught purging, but since the person who finds her is the man she’s also having an affair with, it’s not clear anything is going to change. 

I mean, Breem essentially tracks Sheila to the motel because he’s literally been stalking her and thinks she’s now cheating on her affair with him with another man. Romance, right? 

To be fair, the scene between the two at the motel, when Sheila at least semi-confesses what she came there to do (though Breem is not the smartest tool in the shed and I don’t know that we should believe he has any real understanding of the scope of her illness) is actually the most interesting moment that has passed between them thus far.

Possibly because it feels like, for a moment, there’s actually some honesty and real connection here, instead of what normally happens, which is one or both of them projecting their image of what their partner represents onto the other. But Physical has made so little effort to give Breem anything like interiority that it’s hard to know why he’s so desperate about the thought of Sheila seeing someone else. 

Truth be told, I’m not even clear on what, precisely he sees in her, other than she’s not the woman he’s married to. (And not Mormon, I guess?)

Desperate to keep her business afloat and stop the Cartwrights from canceling her public appearances while she physically can’t do them, Sheila swallows her pride and asks Bunny for help.

At least her former partner gets the chance to gleefully rub Sheila’s desperation in her face before saying yes, because Bunny and Tyler are desperate for money. But while Bunny gets a few good lines about how Sheila stole her idea and her moves and her dream, Sheila still doesn’t feel motivated to apologize for what she did. I still don’t think she ever has.

And I don’t know if this is because Sheila, as a character, is not the type to ever willingly apologize for anything, or because Physical, the show, really doesn’t seem to think she needs to—but I hate it. Bunny should be suing her into the ground if you ask me.

On the plus side, Tyler is full of righteous rage about the way his girl is being treated and tells Bunny that they should blackmail Sheila. (Apparently, he has proof of her affair with Breem, somehow??) And maybe that makes me a terrible person but I am all for it. It’s what she deserves.

Elsewhere, Danny has also returned to his previous awful form. After a couple of episodes in which it honestly seemed like he was trying to turn over a new leaf when it came to both his marriage and his career, he’s right back to being The Most Terrible Man in the World.

All his fussing over Sheila suddenly starts to read as a really uncomfortable desire to control her—who she talks to, who she sees, what she’s doing, and where she is at any given moment—even as his own flirtation with local activist mom Wanda grows increasingly obvious. 

But Danny being jealous of a literal child for being part of the PBS SoCal video about the beach protests is so ridiculously on brand that I can’t even. Why is he like this? Why does literally everything have to center or explicitly be about him?

Stray Thoughts and Observations

• After that extra-long David Bowie needle drop at the end of the episode, I am almost willing to forgive “Don’t You Know” for a lot. I know a lot of people mock “Under Pressure” because of the whole Vanilla Ice sampling it for a terrible song thing but it’s such a great (and lyrically moving!) track. 
• Assuming Vincent Green is the Physical universe’s version of Richard Simmons—right down to the short shorts and ripoff Deal a Meal sponsorship. (Which kind of tracks—-after all Richard Simmons’ empire was built as much on making struggling women feel heard and emotionally supported as much as it was about actually losing weight.)
• Greta deserves so much better than Ernie, is all I have to say about this week’s subplot. (I wish I could say I was surprised that all their sexual games seem to be geared toward things he wants to do but I am not.)
• Greta is an incredible friend, though, and Sheila doesn’t deserve her.
• I don’t know if Sheila can—or even honestly can— be happy but I know that even she doesn’t deserve Danny.
• So much of their marriage seems to be about Danny doing one (1) nice thing to make up for like months of neglect and/or poor treatment and then Sheila is…suddenly fine with it? Yes, it’s nice that he rewrote the board of ideas that Maya erased but….really? That’s enough to get Sheila feeling sad and guilty? Ugh.

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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