REVIEW: ‘Physical’ Season 3 Episode 6 — “Like You Mean It”

In Physical Season 3, Kelly Kilmartin (Zooey Deschanel) has been a looming threat, professionally or as she manifests in Sheila Ruben’s (Rose Byrne) mind. Sheila finds her status challenged by rising celebrity exercise goddess Kelly Kilmartin, and after the last episode, she’s even lost her best friend and business partner to her rival as well. With Figure 8 now Kelly’s cash cow, in Physical Season 3 Episode 6, “Like You Mean It,” Sheila is pushed farther toward the edge of a breakdown as her life becomes something new with her usual support systems not available to her.

In Physical Season 3 Episode 6, Greta is out of the picture and working with Kelly, and Sheila is trucking along with Wake Up San Diego with the hopes of succeeding. But as she’s tasked with doing more and more vapid “reports” for the program, this last bastion of her workout empire is beginning to crumble.

As Sheila’s career becomes harder to buy into the current scraps of her work, Kelly lives in the spotlight that should be Sheila’s as commercials play wherever she is, Sheila’s life begins to warp around her. Whether it’s in group therapy where she is now hiding her recent relapse or when her boyfriend Carlos is praising her (which her brain changes to shaming her), Sheila’s reality is falling apart.

While Physical Season 3 Episode 6 is an even bigger shock for Sheila, it also works to show more of the series’ peripheral characters. Greta takes more of the spotlight. We learn just how much Kelly doesn’t have her act together and is driven by a creepy manager. Danny goes on a date. Finally, John Breem and his wife Maria share a secret about their daughter. These little notes help add weight and humor to the series as a whole and alleviates Rose Byrne from carrying the entire story of the series, which has been happening this season. Yes, Sheila’s story is central, but by building out the relationships and people she interacts with, you see the world that she has to navigate and understand her more.

But honestly, it’s Physical Season 3 Episode 6’s finale that makes this episode stand out across the entirety of the series. Physical has been one of the best representations of a vicious inner voice and how bulimia and eating disorders affect adult women as much as teenagers. In this episode, it does it again. Sheila’s presenter voice cracks. She lets her Wake Up San Diego mask slip, and as she lies on the couch after telling her audience that she has an eating disorder and asks them to call her if they do too, it’s the first time this reveal doesn’t feel like a shame spiral.

While it isn’t entirely clear why Sheila did this, plugging Body by Sheila at the end of her admission casts doubt that it was a purely cathartic experience. And Greta sees that. The one person who knew about Sheila’s struggles and took them seriously questioned her motivations. But even if it’s for personal gain, Sheila looks relieved.

After the confession, we see Sheila in her home, the camera looking down on her as she lies on her couch, and you can see her thinking. As shocking as it was for the audience to hear her finally remove the mask she’s built up for everyone to see, it’s clear that it’s also shocking to her. This is a moment she never thought would come, her closely guarded secret is in the open, and that genie can’t go back in the bottle.

As a final season, Physical Season 3 is making bold choices and allowing Sheila to surprise viewers in a stellar and vulnerable way. With Episode 6, “Like You Mean It,” the finale will have to do a lot to make it more shaking than this.

Physical Season 3 Episode 6 is available now on AppleTV+, with new episodes every Wednesday.