Ramy is often at its best when the focus isn’t on Ramy. We’ve gotten phenomenal episodes on Maysa and her inner life and marriage, Farouk after he lost his job, and Dena struggling with the pressures of sex. Here, we’re exploring Farouk and Maysa’s marriage and financial troubles. Farouk and Maysa’s conversions always make for great comedy, but as always, Ramy isn’t just about the comedy; we also get to see the realities of a marriage that’s falling apart. Hiam Abbass as Maysa is phenomenal to watch. Even in the scenes where she doesn’t say much, her facial expressions and body language evoke precisely how the character is feeling.
The episode opens at the grocery store with Farouk in a suit and Maysa in a long puffer jacket grocery shopping — but it turns out they aren’t shopping for themselves. Strapped for cash, they’re delivering groceries, and Farouk leaves his business card in all the grocery bags, even though he doesn’t actually have a business.
Back at home, Farouk and Maysa are fighting. Everything Farouk does sets Maysa off: He’s using her fancy plates, he sold the Alexa, and he lost all their money in a bad investment deal in Cairo. So much marital tension! Later, Farouk is watching TV with Shadi and Ahmed. (Why is Ahmed there without Ramy? Who knows.) Maysa sits in the corner of the room, scrolling through her phone and glaring at Farouk anytime he says anything. When he gives Ahmed “life coach†advice to be honest with his wife, Maysa has had enough, and she announces she’s going to bed. She can’t stand her husband, and given the situation he’s gotten them into, it makes sense.
Later, when they unknowingly deliver groceries to an old friend, Farouk awkwardly fumbles for an explanation as to why he’s delivering groceries in the first place. First, he says he uses the app a lot but likes to try all sides, which sounds like absolute nonsense. Then, after his friend invites them in for tea with him and his wife, Farouk says he’s researching grocery deliveries for an advertising start-up.
Inside, they have tea and catch up, and it’s clear their friends are doing way better than Maysa and Farouk. Even their kids are doing better. Maysa, clearly uncomfortable and ashamed of their situation, gets up to use the bathroom but winds up wandering into the couple’s bedroom. She tries one of her friend’s perfumes, perhaps to fit into this woman’s better life, but it spills on the dresser, and she frantically wipes it clean with some tissues before heading back downstairs. When the woman recognizes the scent on Maysa and says she wears the same one, Maysa profusely denies it, and soon, everyone is sniffing her, as she grows increasingly frustrated and snaps at them. The entire sequence is so well put together and such an excellent way to communicate Maysa’s dissatisfaction with how her life has turned out.
When it comes to Farouk’s insecurities, a bizarre dream sequence has him on Egyptian Shark Tank, only it’s titled Sharp Bank. His million-dollar idea: Print brand names on stickers and put them on takeout container lids. Businesses will then save money by only buying the bottoms of the containers, and Farouk’s company will send free tops with advertisements on them. Maysa is one of the judges, and she sits on a fancy chair with gold trim, not unlike most of the somewhat gaudy furniture that’s forever popular in Egypt. “They are fucking stickers,†she says, the irritation in her voice more palpable than ever. Dena sits on another chair and asks if there’s anything proprietary about his life at all. She says he hasn’t saved any money and can’t even get her a husband to marry. From another chair, Ramy asks in Arabic, “What is this shit you’re doing?†He says he thought they were Egyptian. Where’s the innovation? Did they just build the pyramids and stop? And in a surprise guest appearance, Shark Tank’s Robert Herjavec shows up to say he agrees it’s a bad plan. Everyone is out.
Farouk finally wakes up on the couch with Shark Tank playing in the background. He gets up and leaves to meet some woman on the side of the road — he’s selling Maysa’s fancy plates, which, as we know, are important to her. When Farouk gets home, he shows her the wad of cash and says it’s for the mortgage and the property taxes. Before telling her where he acquired the money, he goes on the defensive and says he has the right to sell anything in his house bought with money from when he was working. It’s in the house, so it belongs to all of them. Maysa gets up from the table and discovers that he sold her fancy plates. “A real Muslim man would never sell his wife’s things,†Maysa says. She throws another dig: “You’re wearing a suit to go and deliver groceries … Aren’t you fucking embarrassed?â€
Farouk, clearly embarrassed by the state of his life, retaliates and says she didn’t do her job as a mother. Look at Ramy, he says. Divorced on his wedding night. And Dena is still unmarried. “Look at her, she’s dying,†he says. Dena says “okay†and walks out.
While the family’s financial struggles began in season two after Farouk lost his job, the situation has reached an all-time level of desperation. It’s especially devastating given that Maysa and Farouk came to America for the opportunity to advance their finances and to give their kids a better life. And after over 30 years in this country, they’re at risk of losing their homes and their kids are not doing well. And although Maysa has been somewhat unhappy in her marriage for as long as we’ve known her, it’s never been this bad. In season one, she found herself enamored with a French man while driving for Lyft, but even then, she didn’t show the same disdain for Farouk as she does now. We’re seeing the culmination of years of resentment finally coming to a head.
As far as Ramy episodes go, this was one of the stronger ones, really delving into the characters’ lives and problems, giving a realistic portrayal of a marriage in peril and an immigrant family who finds that America isn’t the dream. And as always, Hiam Abbass steals every scene she’s in.
Sharp Bank
• In the car after a grocery run, Farouk bops his head to Bad Bunny until Maysa lowers the volume in frustration. Farouk says it’s one of “Obama’s favorite pieces.†He starts to analyze the song, with Maysa barely listening and telling him it’s not that deep. But Farouk protests and says in Arabic that “Megan the Horse’s†song “Savages†also has hidden meanings if you focus. I swear they sound like my parents, and I honestly wouldn’t be surprised to one day get in the car with my dad and have him tell me he really likes the “Megan the Horse.†Just the other day, he asked me if he should buy a pair of Yeezys. Ramy really nails it with its depiction of immigrant parents and their relationship to pop culture.
• On his way to sell the plates, Farouk pays a visit to Ramy’s friend Mo, who, in lieu of his diner, is working from a mobile diner (a.k.a. a food cart) which got him through the pandemic. On the cart are both MAGA stickers and Black Lives Matter stickers. Mo put them both up so that people would walk by, start arguing, work up an appetite, and buy food. He made the MAGA stickers a little bigger because they eat more, he says. Honestly not a bad idea.
• In one of the grocery-store scenes, Farouk tries to get cheaper items for the customers. Instead of Cheerios like they asked, he wants to get them store-brand imitation cereal. Maysa is once again pissed, as she should be. I’m a loyal brand-name cereal buyer, and let me tell you, the store brand is simply not the same. Maysa says Farouk’s shenanigans are messing with her ratings, and she isn’t getting tipped. The scene really drives home the point that anytime you get a man as your Instacart shopper, you’re not getting the items you asked for.