'Sorry For Your Loss' Season 2 Episode 4 'Mr Greer' Review: Leigh discovers 'nuclear holocaust' inside after revelation about Matt
Since the very beginning of 'Sorry for Your Loss', Leigh Shaw (Elizabeth Olsen) has always struggled to understand how Matt Greer's loss has affected other people besides herself. Understandably, in her hierarchy of moments that matter, her time with Matt (Mamoudou Athie) takes precedence over the time other people shared with him. So when his school invites her for a memorial event, she is dismissive. "They didn't know Matt", she reasons, telling Jules (Kelly Marie Tran) that "they just saw him an hour a day."
Matt's brother, Danny (Jovan Adepo), is even less circumspect. Forced to go to the memorial by his mother, he scoffs at Matt's colleague, Nina (Khalilah Joi), when she says Matt meant so much to them. He barely suppresses his rage at what he thinks are platitudes and excuses himself to go hide in the parking lot.
In the first of many flashbacks of the episode, we see Matt's interactions with his students and how his time with them leached into conversations with Leigh and his brother. At dinner, Matt tired after his day at school dealing with kids, tells Leigh that he is not prepared to be a father before their conversation turns to a less serious topic of weirdly-named kids like "Namaste." Leigh proposes that their yet-to-born child be called "Pickle." The two guffaw at the ridiculousness of the idea.
When Leigh steps into the classroom where the memorial is to be held, she is a bit surprised to see it is full of students who have decided to attend this "voluntary" event. Her eyes are transfixed by the vivid mural on display, painted by the students, that has brought one of Matt's sketches to life. Then as one student after another share stories about "Mr Greer", Leigh realizes how much Matt impacted their lives. She tells them, "sorry for your loss", finally acknowledging and validating the feelings of loss felt by other people besides herself and their memories of Matt.
Danny, unable to move his car, finds three students who are smoking up because they can't "deal" with Matt's memorial. Here we see another clash of competing memories. Matt's students remember him as "grouchy" and "square", Danny remembers him as someone who knew how to have fun and was "cool." The students remember him as a teacher who "dared to care", while Danny remembers how much his brother complained about his students. "He hated all of you," he tells them bluntly. The students with an annoyed expression leave him alone to rage and have a meltdown in his car.
Leigh seems to be faring better until she finds easter eggs in the mural made from Matt's sketch. She spots the word "Pickle" in the mural and has a breakdown, collapsing on the floor of the school's public restroom. She realizes that Matt was thinking of having a child with her, contrary to his words to her. It is another heart-breaking piece of the puzzle about who Matt really was in life. And just like that, Leigh realizes that her grieving process is far from over.
When Drew, her editor, calls at this sensitive moment and tells her to submit her make-up article immediately, no excuses. She holds the phone recorder to dictate her article about her "waterproof mascara" that keeps her face looking exactlly like it did in the morning even though she is weeping about the hole left behind by her husband that now contains not just him but also the possibility of the child they never had. She rages about why we pretend that everything is ok even though there is a "nuclear holocaust raging inside."
In next week's episode, we see the b*tchy Leigh resurface. Danny takes her on a walk where he says that when Leigh finds another man, they will no longer be in each other's lives the way they are now.
Sorry For Your Loss' Season 2 will air new episodes on Facebook Watch every Tuesday at 12 p.m. PT and 3 p.m. ET.
