Summary
“Let’s Take This Show on the Road” sees several characters reach a dead end and make some rash, potentially dangerous decisions.
This recap of Physical season 1, episode 7, “Let’s Take This Show on the Road”, contains spoilers.
Just in case you’d forgotten, Physical episode 7 wastes no time in reminding you of Sheila’s big issue of the moment – money. She doesn’t have any, and she needs a lot, both to fund Danny’s campaign advertising and pursue her own aerobics ambitions. The campaign thing is a particular problem, since “Let’s Take This Show on the Road” opens with Sheila receiving a call telling her that their payment to the TV studio has bounced and the advert won’t be running until the balance is cleared. Desperate times call for desperate measures, of course, so Sheila bells up her old friend Tanya, whose husband Jack is a successful L.A.-based writer, so the City of Angels seems as good a place as any to drum up some more funding.
Bad idea, for several reasons. Sheila earnestly thought Tanya was going to pass a collection plate around her rich friends, and she snootily refuses to do that, not-so-subtly implying that Sheila is basically begging. And that’s not the only problem. Sheila also runs into the old friend who taught her to throw up her lunch before ballet classes, but who now claims to have been “cured” thanks to the efforts of a therapist, which only makes Sheila feel more self-loathing for continuing to suffer from the habit. Eventually, it all becomes too much and she flees, snaffling down all the snacks in the car’s glovebox on the way to what Physical episode 7 eventually reveals is the home of her parents.
So, has Sheila gone “home” because she has finally decided that she needs some help with her mental health issues and eating disorder, or is she looking for a loan? I think we know the answer.
“Let’s Take This Show on the Road” also spares more time than usual for subplots involving other characters – including, weirdly, John Breem. He has a bad episode too. He’s visibly stressed and agitated over his campaign, turns the exact age that his father was when he died, and eventually, he plunges fully clothed into his pool. But why? Is he trying to kill himself? Is he attempting – in a rather extreme way – to find some peace and quiet? One of the questions coming out of Physical season 1, episode 7 is whether he’s dead, since the last we saw him he seemed to be in some distress.
And then there’s Greta. Having discovered last week that a) Sheila stole her husband’s camera and b) her husband wanted the camera back so desperately because there’s a dodgy video of women shaving their heads on it, her next move was always going to be paramount. In our prediction piece, we speculated that she might dob Sheila in or use the information to try and gain some power over Sheila. But what actually happens is more unexpected. She watches the video. And not only does she watch it, but she also seems to rather enjoy it. The last we see of her, she’s suggestively eyeing a pair of clippers. Is she about to give herself a close shave?
