This Michael Cera Line in ‘Life and Beth’ Season 2 Will Destroy You

Michael Cera is a great actor, we all know that. Cera has won awards for his roles in Juno and Scott Pilgrim vs. the World. He even nabbed himself a Tony nomination for his Broadway run in Lobby Hero in 2018, and is currently up for a Screen Actors Guild Awards for his portrayal of Allan in Barbie. Those credits don’t even begin to cover the scope of roles that he’s played, but it’s a good start.

All said, there’s an episode of Life & Beth Season 2, which premiered on Feb. 16, 2024 on Hulu, that brings his talent to the next level.

Created by Amy Schumer, the show follows Beth (Schumer) through the ups and downs of adulthood as she revisits her past traumas. The first season sees her suddenly losing her mom and going through a breakup, causing her to leave Manhattan for Long Island, where she’s from.

There, Beth meets a quiet farmer named John, who’s played by Cera.

The two have immediate chemistry, but don’t get together until the season finale. Then, they get swept away in romance in Season 2, which sees them getting married and deciding to have a child.

Amid these major life changes, Beth and John struggle to be on the same page. After a few unconventional interactions and squabbles over their clashing communication styles, Beth reaches out to a doctor friend to ask them about autism spectrum disorder.

The doctor, who has a son on the spectrum, tells her, “This is why I love my son. The same reason why you love John. They say what they mean. Now quit wasting my time and call my wife and get some phone numbers.”

Beth later brings up the topic to John and encourages him to take an online test that could help them figure out if he’s on the “autism spectrum, or whatever.” The scene is navigated with such carefulness and detail, showing John exhibiting common autism traits, such as difficulty regulating his temperature and leaving mid-conversation to wash his dinner plate.

John is open to the idea. He reads the prompts aloud and verbalizes his disagreement. He asks, “Is that a bad thing?” Beth brings up explains of scenarios that fit the prompts as John moves through the test. She then excuses herself from the room to give him space.

As John takes the test, the scenes cut to flashbacks of him fidgeting while doing homework at the dining room table in his childhood. When he’s done with the test, he finds Beth to ask if she wants salmon for dinner. She says, “sure” and asks him what the test said. “It says I probably have it,” he answers as he walks away.

Next, John goes to take an assessment at a hospital and is brought to a room for children. The medical professional explains that the facility regularly works with children, but she set an adult-sized chair for him in the corner of the room. John sits in the appropriate chair for a moment before getting up and moving to the child-sized table. He sits there to take the exam.

Later in the day, John recounts his experience to Beth in a scene that feels like a gut punch. While on a nature walk, Beth asks John why he stayed at the hospital after finding out it’s for children and he explains that it didn’t bother him. As they talk about the specific prompts, Beth asks him, “What did you say about family?”

John goes, “I told them about how my mom passed away from cancer when I was thirteen and how I slept out on the front lawn after she died.”

“I didn’t know that,” Beth responds. 

John continues, “It was winter.”

Beth asks him, “Why didn’t anybody make you go inside?”

John thoughtfully says, “I don’t know…” He pauses before moving on to the next topic, “It wasn’t bad. They gave me a Spider-Man sticker.”

In these scenes, it’s impossible for your heart not to break for John, thanks to Schumer’s tight script and Cera’s incredible performance, which he carries through the rest of the season as John navigates his diagnosis, comes to term with difficult moments from his childhood, and begins to see a therapist. His line, “I don’t know,” particularly evokes all the emotions as his voice pitches and emphasizes the honesty behind his answer.

The remainder of the episode sees John in more uncomfortable situations, such as a work party with Beth and one of her clients. Beth leaves him with a group of peers and finds him missing upon her return. The group rudely informs her that John walked away during one of their “best stories,” and when Beth’s client arrive to make a speech, she spots John sitting in a corner and reading a book.

Cera lets the silence speak for himself in these scenes and carries his character with such thoughtfulness that his actions never feel mean-spirited. When John gets his “high functioning autism” diagnosis at the end of the episode, he says, “I have always known that my brain works differently from other people. Sometimes I react differently than other people and I spent a lot of time alone as a kid… But those are some of my happiest memories.”

These scenes in the show are deeply delicate, and pieced together so methodically that they’re impossible to misinterpret. The episode feels like a warm hug, but also leaves a constricting feeling in one’s stomach as it’s blindly clear that stories like these seldom get the attention and proper representation they deserve.

Cera did a phenomenal job bringing Schumer’s script — which is inspired by true events and received input from multiple individuals with connections to autism — and John’s journey to life on the small screen. The Emmys better go ahead and etch his name on an award.