Summary
Sheila has no choice but to double down on her own ambition in “Let’s Get It On Tape”, and she might pay a high price for success.
This recap of Physical season 1, episode 6, “Let’s Get It On Tape”, contains spoilers.
It’s kind of amazing how much dramatic mileage Physical is managing to get out of a single stolen video camera. Of course, it’s not just a camera – it’s also evidence of a wealthy, privileged man’s creepy fetishes and betrayal of the woman who loves him. But it’s still just a camera, and the question of whether Sheila stealing it will be discovered has driven, like, two or three episodes at this point.
Well, in Physical episode 6, “Let’s Get It On Tape”, Sheila finally confesses to Greta, who had figured it out anyway. It’s a big moment for her, an acknowledgment of a moment of weakness that she has nonetheless doubled down on and used to her own advantage ever since. Sheila admitting to taking the camera is her admitting to a betrayal, yes, but it’s also her embracing the fact that she’s finally doing something for herself that perhaps even her caustic inner monologue won’t be able to talk her out of.
It takes a while to get to this point, though, and the push-pull between Sheila’s home-workout video business and Danny’s political campaign continues to spread her – and her finances – thin. She’s paying out of pocket for two video productions, and since the requirements of both are very similar, she’s having to choose whether to use swanky, cost-effective shooting locations for her own project or her husband’s. She enlists Tyler as her cameraman on both projects, charms John Breem into giving her shooting space that she subsequently uses for her aerobics video, and keeps her spending very secret.
Perhaps even too secret. Since Sheila is trying to keep her escapades on the down-low, she isn’t logging her transactions, so when Jerry peers at her little book of numbers, he thinks there’s plenty of money spare to increase the advertising budget of Danny’s campaign ad. What’s she supposed to say? That there isn’t?
Luckily Sheila takes the entrepreneurial initiative in Physical season 1, episode 6. At a tea party with Greta where everyone is told by some charlatan what the colors of their face say about the makeup they should wear, Sheila takes the initiative and starts flogging her aerobics tapes. They’re a hit, but what she doesn’t quite realize is that she’s giving herself away. Greta is able to put two and two together and figure out that she must have used Ernie’s video camera to make the tapes. When she confronts Sheila, she doesn’t deny it. But she does imply that she was reluctant to come clean because of what she found on the tape that was already inside, and she hands this to Greta in a limply explanatory sort of way. The question is, what will Greta do with that information? And will she keep Sheila’s secret safe?
