Physical Season 2 Episode 6 Review: Don’t You Have Enough
Physical Season 2 Episode 6, “Don’t You Have Enough?” is another weirdly uneven hour, albeit one that sets up several explosive twists for the final third of the season.
After several episodes in which the obvious and correct emotional response was to hope that Sheila’s husband Danny gets accidentally thrown into the sea, he actually steps up this week after realizing his wife has been hiding an eating disorder for years.
Urging her to get help and promising to support her in whatever way is necessary, for the first time in a long time Danny’s protestations of love for Sheila actually feel legitimate and honest. He genuinely seems scared—not just by her actions and what they mean, but the fact that he refused to see them for so long.
Physical – Photo Courtesy of Apple TV+
Sheila, of course, races to shut him out, denying everything and muffling her sobs in the bathroom. There are so many things that we can rightly criticize Physical for, but the messy, nuanced ways the show portrays disordered eating are so honest and important.
Danny, being Danny, immediately wants to fix the problem, but the truth is, is that until Sheila decides she needs to seek help on her own terms, nothing he can say is really going to matter. Season 2 of Physical has shown us fewer episodes of Sheila actively purging, and it seems she’s begun obsessively asserting control in other areas of her life rather than eating. (Though perhaps we’re just meant to assume that the cycle is always continuing, whether we’re showing it on screen or not, I’m not sure.)
Because the calculated way she interacts with the food at Greta’s birthday dinner—insisting the few bites of pasta she consumed was “very rich”, distracting the table with a gift presentation when the dessert arrives— is clear evidence that both Sheila and the show are very aware that this problem has not gone away.
I understand that “Don’t You Have Enough” probably wanted to balance the heavier emotional plot of Danny realizing the truth about Sheila’s eating disorder with something sillier and lighthearted, but the interlude where Greta tries to proposition the Rubins for group birthday sex feels wildly out of character.
Because although I’d absolutely believe that Greta is attracted to her BFF and might want to explore something more physical with Sheila specifically, she openly hates Danny and I cannot believe she’d ever for a second consider seeing him naked, let alone watch him have sex with Sheila or touch him herself.
In truth, I’m not entirely sure what the point of the Greta/Ernie subplot is. I suspect Physical just wants something that’s less serious than its main stories and/or wanted the chance to poke fun at the ’80s idle rich who have too much money and time and spend it all doing threesomes or whatever.
Speaking of idle rich, Breem is suddenly pushing Sheila to come clean about their affair, insisting that they can have a fresh start together and offering to leave his family (and presumably his faith) behind.
Sheila, for her part, just wants him to cough up the $25K to pay Bunny and Tyler’s bribe and shut up about it. She says she’s worked too hard to get where she is to just give it all up.
Which is why it’s…well, pretty odd that once she pays the blackmail fee, she packages up the tape and leave it as an anonymous gift for Auggie Cartwright. I suspect this is her attempt to get out of her contract —since Cartwright had been so insistent that they were a “family” brand last week—and start her own business a la Vinne Green, but it’s a big risk.
Particularly since she could be blowing up Breem’s life along with her own. (Not that I feel that bad about that, personally, but it doesn’t necessarily feel like Sheila’s thought all this through.
Stray Thoughts and Observations:
- I’m obsessed with the cover of “More Than a Feeling” that plays over the last few scenes.
- Bunny and Tyler remain the most interesting part of the show for me. Their very real struggle with their choice to blackmail Sheila is so interesting to me, as it illustrates that they’re both actually good people at heart. (And certainly better than virtually everyone else on this show, who never seem to think about their actions in a larger context in any way.)
- Tyler’s line about the church’s “dank incense” had me cackling.
- I did not expect it to be Maya outing Sheila’s habit of hamburger-based binging and purging, but it’s honestly a pretty scathing indictment of the ways she ignores her daughter.
- I’m not sure if the scene where Breem goes to a bar and tries to order a cocktail for what I assume is the first time in his life was meant to be funny or sad.
What did you think of this episode of Physical? Share your thoughts in the comments below!
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Lacy Baugher
Lacy is a pop culture enthusiast and television critic who loves period dramas, epic fantasy, space adventures, and the female characters everyone says you're supposed to hate. Ninth Doctor enthusiast, Aziraphale girlie, and cat lady, she's a member of the Television Critics Association and Rotten Tomatoes-approved. Find her at LacyMB on all platforms.
One thought on “Physical Season 2 Episode 6 Review: Don’t You Have Enough”
I believe categorising this show as comedy was not the finest choice. From reading many reviews such as this, it seems to me ‘the bigger picture’ (of which I’ve read to be lacking for the majority of characters here and by others) I actually being missed as behaviours portrayed in this are actually more real than many realise or care to admit. Most of the World are wrapped up in self and (as in this show) when people try to be honest and show themselves and their fears we (those who moan that people are not honest):just ignore it. Most people are guilty of this to some extent & in relationships (friends or otherwise). We lead people’s emotionsfor our own gain (e.g Shiela to her husband). People also often hear what they want to hear, not what is said, even though ot may have taken a lot someone to have shared something honest, only to be shut down or ignored which then closes them down, not to be opened again. We also often berate ourselves in ours minds yet do not show, or try not to show this outwardly
not what is being said. I think it is a great reflection of society and how such disconnects can destroy relationships and ourselves. It also makes you consider where is that line of looking after yourself vs others and how deep rooted our childhood experiences run into adulthood, how we all have justification (often legit) of our behaviours and with this questions where is the line between responsibity & blame for ‘bad’ behaviors as adults. It’s infuriating to watch sometimes, yet real.
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