'Sorry for Your Loss' Season 2 Episode 9 throws Danny and Leigh's relationship into crisis after he lets slip about Matt's emotional infidelity
Men and women process trauma differently thanks to cultural codes around emotion. This has been evident throughout when comparing Danny Greer (Jovan Adepo) and Leigh Shaw (Elizabeth Olsen) but the contrast has grown even starker since they hooked up.
Danny even told Leigh in the last episode that they are not going through "the same thing" because she "saw" Matt differently than he did. While Leigh blurts out everything she is feeling and processing to whoever is available, Danny keeps it bottled up, only to let it explode supernova-like in a moment of rage and pain.
In the just aired episode 9 of season 2, Danny is a tortured man. His recurring nightmare of Matt (Mamoudou Athie) jumping from a bridge and him being unable to save him becomes even more disturbing.
He now sees the corpse of his brother turning into his own corpse, lying on the rocks, staring up at him with dead eyes. The nightmare, which is about the guilt of being the surviving brother and his unresolved sibling animosity, has now been compounded by him becoming Matt's replacement in Leigh's life.
He would like nothing better than to forget Matt (unlike Leigh) but his guilt won't let him. It hasn't been easy either with Leigh constantly referring to Matt and their, supposed, "shared grief."
He is unable to talk about his bad memories of Matt without Leigh accusing him of trying to make Matt the bad guy to feel better about dating her. So even though Leigh gently asks him what is bothering him, Danny keeps mum. He doesn't want to risk his relationship with Leigh again.
Leigh, on the other hand, has been leaving Danny out of her personal essays, who has been a key part of her healing process. Even her vision of Matt comes to her after she has spent the night in Danny's arms.
Becca Urwin (Lauren Robertson), Leigh's friend from her grief counseling group, at first, is in awe about how Leigh is working through her grief. But when she realizes Leigh's changed attitude has a lot to do with Danny, she accuses Leigh of lying by omission.
She snarks about wishing she could sleep with her dead husband's sister too, to get over her grief. She also compares Leigh's essays to the "cropped" pictures on Instagram that edits out the messy bits.
When Leigh protests, saying she has been writing only about the messy stuff, Becca says she writes about those things she won't be judged for. It's an accusation that hits home and Leigh reviews her essays and "sees only the lies".
So she decides to write an essay about her relationship with Danny and interviews him for it. During the interview, she asks him about his nightmares. Danny, feeling cornered, lashes out and when Leigh, exasperated, asks him why he can't let go of his bad memories of Matt, he tells her it is because they "affected him" and tells Leigh to snap out of her "wounded widow fairyland".
Then, he lets slip the one Matt memory that would affect her adversely -- Matt's crush on Nina. Leigh looks dumbfounded and even though Matt tries to do damage control, Leigh loses it, telling him to go home.
Danny punches his fist through a wall, unable to take Leigh breaking up with him. As they sit in the emergency room later, it is unclear if they will still stay together after all this.
Jules (Kelly Marie Tran) also messes up with Tommy (Briana Venskus) by offering her a job at the studio trying to make Tommy the "best" version of herself. Tommy, who has had a whole childhood of memories of being asked to change who she was to better fit other people's expectations, breaks up with Jules.
She tells her while she is not perfect, she is not broken and doesn't need Jules to "fix her". When Jules shows to apologize, Tommy backs away saying she would rather be with someone who is working through their issues than running away from them like Jules is.
It pushes Jules to finally decide she will take that trip to Vietnam to reconnect with her birth parents and asks Amy Shaw (Janet McTeer) to come back home to take back her studio. This means we finally get to see Shaw senior in the season finale after she has been missing most of this season. In the teaser for next week's episode, we also see Leigh confront Nina (Khalilah Joi) about what happened between her and Matt.
'Sorry for Your Loss' Season 2 airs new episodes on Facebook Watch every Tuesday at 12 p.m. PT and 3 p.m. ET.