Editor's note: This recap discusses a mention of eating disorders as depicted in the first season of Physical, which may be triggering for some readers.Set in 1980s San Diego, the Apple TV+ series Physical follows Sheila (Rose Byrne) as she struggles to balance her husband’s political campaign with her newfound passion – aerobics. Through both endeavors, Sheila realizes that she no longer wants to settle for the life she was living before.
Season 1 is all about Sheila’s journey from a dutiful but unfulfilled housewife into a local celebrity who oozes strength, power, and charisma. Here’s everything you need to remember before Season 2 premieres.
The Power of Aerobics
Throughout Season 1, Sheila’s greatest conflict is with herself. Her innermost thoughts are broadcast to us via voiceover, and they are hateful, judgmental, and obsessive. Sheila is constantly worried about what other people are thinking about her and is hard on herself about what she eats, how much she exercises, and what she says to others. To try and quiet these thoughts, Sheila has developed an almost ritualistic binge-eating disorder. Sheila orders fast food, rents a motel room, and then binges and purges in private. She is ashamed of this ritual but doesn’t know how to stop — that is, until she follows Bunny (Della Saba) to her aerobics class.
Sheila is captivated by the power she feels while in Bunny’s aerobics class, despite passing out the first time she attends. She comes to crave that feeling and is willing to do whatever it takes to move like that again. Out of desperation, Sheila blackmails Bunny and her boyfriend Tyler (Lou Taylor Pucci) into giving her money when she realizes that they are living in the studio and violating their renter’s agreement. She unintentionally used up all of her family’s savings for her binge-eating ritual and needs money fast after her husband Danny (Rory Scovel) loses his job. This makes Bunny distrustful of Sheila, and she bans her from her studio. After Sheila apologizes and promises Tyler a job on her husband’s campaign, Bunny begrudgingly lets Sheila back into her class.
With aerobics back in her life, Sheila is feeling in control again – but just attending classes isn’t enough. She wants more. So, Sheila approaches Bunny about teaching her own class. Bunny agrees if Sheila is able to find enough clients to fill the space. As someone without any female friends, Sheila finds this challenging at first. She pitches her class while canvassing for her husband’s campaign and even steals her former ballet teacher’s address book to find people. However, her hard work is worth it and her class is mostly a success. One of the few complaints comes from Greta (Diedre Friel), another mom at her daughter’s preschool. She feels out of place amongst the younger, more athletically inclined people in the class, so Sheila offers to give her private lessons at home.
Thanks to this idea, and the video camera she “borrows” from Greta’s husband when their first home session falls through, Sheila approaches Tyler about filming an aerobics routine on videotape with her and Bunny for home distribution. Bunny is against the idea at first, so Tyler and Sheila film a sample to get her on board with their vision. Once Bunny is in, they film the video and manage to sell the few copies that Sheila can afford to produce. Sheila is eager to produce more but has already gone into significant debt to keep this project and her husband’s campaign afloat. However, when Tyler and Bunny discover that their video has become even more popular through bootleg copies, they are desperate to find the source and take back what is rightfully theirs. Sheila joins their crusade, and they not only get back the extra tapes, but also the money from what had already been sold.
Feeling empowered and ready for the next step, Bunny and Sheila teach an aerobics class to a packed mall courtyard. The event is supposed to help with enlisting voter support for her husband, but the press afterward is focused on Sheila’s electric personality as a teacher. They sell out the remaining tapes, and Sheila is approached by a fitness video producer who wants to take her to the next level. Sheila meets with him without Bunny, signaling a potential split in their partnership as Sheila’s star power grows.
On the Campaign Trail
After being fired from his job, Sheila suggests that Danny run for local office, given his background as a political science professor and activist. Danny is hesitant at first but decides to run for California State Assembly (without crediting Sheila for her idea, of course). Sheila agrees to handle all the money for the campaign so that Danny doesn’t find out about her binge-eating disorder or the missing money, but this proves to be an issue as she dives deeper into the world of aerobics. Instead of being able to focus solely on her growing aerobics empire, Sheila has to become the primary fundraiser for the campaign.
Sheila’s friendship with Greta starts because her husband, Ernie (Ian Gomez), shows interest in donating to Danny’s campaign. At first, Ernie doesn’t think Danny is ready to lead a campaign, and Sheila believes that her coldness toward Greta has something to do with that. To gain access to Ernie and his connections, Sheila does her best to get on Greta’s good side by volunteering more at their children’s preschool and accepting her invitations to grab food.
Meanwhile, Danny hires an old college friend, Jerry (Geoffrey Arend), as his campaign manager. Sheila and Jerry butt heads often when it comes to the direction of Danny’s campaign. Jerry doesn’t want Danny to “sell out” by courting wealthy donors and their more centrist politics while Sheila insists that they can’t win without the support of those same people. Some of Sheila’s motivations for this are selfish – she needs the money to support the family and cover her aerobics venture. But given that Danny ditches a fundraising event to get high with Jerry, they need Sheila’s ideas to keep the campaign running.
While Sheila and Danny are out of town visiting their well-off friends, the Logans, Jerry discovers that Sheila has been lying about how much money the campaign has. He confronts her in front of Danny as soon as they return home, driving a wedge between the couple right before election night. Danny cheats on Sheila with a campaign volunteer, Simone, and Sheila goes all-in on aerobics. Danny acts mad and hurt when Sheila still tries to give him advice before a business luncheon but ends up using her talking points anyway. They act civil at Sheila and Bunny’s election day event, but Sheila leaves for the mall when he ends up losing.
The Odd Behavior of John Breem
San Diego real estate developer John Breem (Paul Sparks) is on the periphery of Sheila’s story until the season finale, “Let’s Get Together”. Before that episode, we see Breem as a religious family man and as a supporter of Danny’s Republican opponent. He often stares at Sheila longingly, as though he senses a free spirit inside her that he craves. He sneaks downstairs to watch his wife’s copy of Sheila and Bunny’s aerobics video late at night. They have a few conversations about loaning a space in the mall for Danny’s campaign and Sheila’s aerobic skills, but that is the extent of their social interactions — until they both arrive at the mall post-election and touch themselves sexually in front of each other.
Season 2 of Physical premieres June 3 on Apple TV+.