Who Is Josh's Soup Fairy?
-So the most important thing we learned tonight: Mrs. Hernandez can talk! And she's apparently been talking this whole time without Rebecca realizing it! I can't remember the last time I laughed as hard as when she suddenly starting tearing Rebecca a new one for her making Paula being upset all about her. As people like Karen and Maya have grown more prominent in the Whitefeather stuff this season Mrs. H has receded into the background a bit, but she re-emerged just at the right moment for her best moment since the silent "I'm/You're A Good Person" reprise last season.
-The conflict between Scott and Paula last week was pretty even between both sides but Scott officially became the villain this week as he revealed he had impulsively cheated on Paula. It's a shocking move that comes from out of the blue (though probably intentionally) but ultimately makes sense with what we've seen from Scott last episode along with how he almost cheated on Paula previously with the woman he ultimately cheated with.
-Is this the end of Scott? I hope not. Steve Monroe has been great with his increased screentime this season and though Paula immediately throwing him out after he revealed he cheated on her was the right move, that doesn't seem like the end of their story.
-Rebecca takes Mrs. Hernandez's blow-up to heart and decides to help Paula out by watching Tommy, her one remaining son (The other one took off on a greyhound across the country until he runs out of money he stole. Definitely a lost cause) for a weekend so Paula can go on a law school trip. Of course Rebecca is completely out of her depth here. Despite the Uptown Funk-type number that declares her to be "So Maternal", Rebecca has no clue what she's doing when it comes to Tommy. They do wind up striking a weird kind of bond though, probably because Rebecca essentially treats Tommy like an adult when she's not treating him like a preschooler. Or because she gave him 200 dollars for "candy". Either way, Steele Stebbins proves to be a good scene partner for Rebecca and their dynamic is a lot of fun to watch.
-Of course the moment Rebecca says "hi" to Josh in the grocery store, you know there's going to be trouble. So of course the moment she finds out he's sick, she orders him soup and when an incident keeps him from knowing who sent the soup, she gets Tommy a fake I.D. and drags him to a club so she can tell Josh, only to very quickly lose Tommy. It's all typical Rebecca and it's hard to watch her fall back into the same cycle she's fallen into many times before, but it's necessary to Rebecca's journey here. She can't be friends with Josh because she's an addict and when she gets a taste of friendship from him, she goes overboard at the expense of everything else in her life. It's a serious problem but at least Rebecca finally seems to realize that.
-Josh's walk down the runway was the perfect mix of cringe-worthy and hysterical. From the way White Josh and Hector (Who figure out what's about to happen way before Anna does but can't stop her from bearing witness) try to salvage what he's doing to Anna to the way Josh tosses that sleeve on Anna's head. it's a terrific scene that makes you completely understand why Josh and Anna don't work. It's not that she's from the city and pretty condescending about everything in the San Gabriel Valley, it's that she's a functioning adult and Josh isn't. She told him she liked how simple he was but she didn't realize just how simple he really was. Her immediately leaving and breaking up with him following the performance is harsh, but ultimately understandable. I sure will miss Brittany Snow though.
-Josh labeling Anna a "poo person" immediately following their break-up is typical Josh. He doesn't want to do any self-reflection, he just wants to blame Anna's rejection on her being a bad person and move on.
-In case you somehow still thought Rebecca and Josh were a good match or something to root for, Josh's "Duh" number and realization that he "loves" Rebecca drives home the truth that they definitely are not. Josh chooses Rebecca because she's always there for him, always nice to him (Peeing incident excluded) and takes care of him. He doesn't want a girlfriend, he wants a mother. He wants someone who will be supportive of him and enable him to be a manchild without him having to offer much in return. Josh lacks a fundamental maturity and every time he's confronted with that, he runs from it to anything that can offer him validation. It's incredibly unhealthy and destructive. Rebecca deserves better.
-Rebecca turning down Josh's declaration of love and offer to talk so she can come clean to Paula about what really happened with her and Tommy (Who was totally fine and just took an Uber home) is probably the biggest moment of personal growth she's had so far on this show. With the man of her dreams finally in her reach, she pushes him away so she can focus on Paula. which is a gesture much more meaningful than any apology Rebecca could give. Paula has sacrificed so much for Rebecca and Rebecca finally returns the favour. For once Rebecca is no longer thinking about herself and her needs. It's a very earned way for the show to finally close the rift between Paula and Rebecca and restore things to how they were.
-Rebecca tries (and fails) to dissuade Tommy's boob obsession by calling back to last season's Heavy Boobs number and the explanation that they're just sacs of yellow fat.
-Paula once lost Tommy at a mall for the weekend and he wound up living in a Barnes and Nobles. Makes sense.
When Do I Get To Spend Time With Josh?
-So after When Do I Get To Spend Time With Josh? establishes and then challenges another new status quo for Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, it's becoming apparent that this season is going to be divided into 3 acts/mini-seasons. The first act (Roughly the first four episodes of the season) was about Rebecca throwing herself into a relationship with a less-committed Josh and it exploding spectacularly, along with the dissolution of her relationship with Greg. The second act (Episodes 5-8) was about her efforts to replace her romantic relationships with female friendships and how it forced her and Paula to confront the imbalance in their relationship. Now we're in Act 3 and Josh and Rebecca are finally together and in love but Rebecca is slowly starting to realize what Anna realized: Josh is too simple for her.
-To be honest I wish we had a bit of a breather episode between this one and Soup Fairy. They were both strong episodes but the plot has moved so quickly I almost got whiplash watching. That's the reality of a 13-episode season though, especially when you're trying to cram in as much as this show is doing. Still Josh and Rebecca getting together (With Paula's blessing) within the first two minutes of this episode feels rushed.
-Josh and Rebecca's "new beginning" involves a montage underscored to West Covina, the very first musical number the show ever did and a return of many of the things, locations and people from that video from the "accidente" sign guy to the xxx store sign flipper. It's a good way to establish the love bubble between the pair that's about to burst.
-After a season where Rebecca ignoring her job has become a running joke, her job suddenly becomes very urgent with the introduction of Scott Michael Foster's Nathaniel, the new boss after Daryl sells part of the company to Nathaniel's family's law firm (Though Nathaniel is quick to obtain the shares he needs to control the company completely making Daryl a figurehead). Nathaniel makes a strong first impression and makes for an interesting contrast to Rebecca. Where Rebecca is driven by her emotions, Nathaniel is all business and has no time for other peoples feelings if they get in the way of a bottom line. He represents the kind of soulless corporate lawyer Rebecca moved to West Covina to get away from and he's certainly the antagonist in the episode but he's not a monster by any means. He's just a professional and if firing people will save him money, that's what he's going to do. It makes for a compelling character and I'm excited to see where this goes.
-Nathaniel immediately sizes up Josh as a loser, and while he may be overly harsh with that designation, he's not wrong when he says Josh isn't right for Rebecca and Rebecca knows it.
-Rebecca may be with Josh but this time she doesn't lose all of the growth she experienced during the last few episodes. Progress! Sure her actions to save everyone's jobs (Except for poor George) become partly motivated by her anger at how Nathaniel starts making her doubt Josh and even get bored by him for a minute (The most aware of Josh Rebecca has ever been) but she also cares about Whitefeather and Associates and isn't going to just let Nathaniel fire people even if it means doing some of the soul-destroying work she despises and letting gross white men demean her sexually (Provided they hire her of course). It's another big sacrifice from Rebecca for the sake of other people.
-Rebecca may have decided not to quit her job for now but it seems likely she'll quit by the end of the season, even if the sexual tension between her and Nathaniel is palpable. After all, if Whitefeather and Associates becomes just like the firm she left in New York, why stay?
-Apparently the friendship contract Paula and Rebecca signed is gone, or at the very least does not apply to gravedigging situations. That's fine because it leads to the dementedly funny scene of Paula trying to climb out of a grave and Patton Oswalt's cameo at the end as the aquarium-obsessed security guard.
-Josh forgives Rebecca for blowing him off to go do her job and snapping at him in front of his parents but this episode just cements how emotionally immature he is. He's like a puppy dog who just wants attention and validation. He's been inspired to start pushing for a promotion at work, but going for a management position at an electronics store isn't as ambitious as Josh thinks it is. Rebecca is able to blame her dissatisfaction on Nathaniel, but she's not going to be able to do it forever. The love bubble has burst and it's going to be impossible to get it back.
-The show is definitely setting up Nathaniel to be a love interest for Rebecca, but is he right for her? The brief references to his father suggest similar parental issues but he's also a rich jerk and CXGF isn't the kind of show that ignores that kind of thing. Hmm.
-Crazy Ex-Girlfriend has gone meta before but never quite to the degree of the two songs in tonight's episode (references to blowing their production budget on Love Kernels excluded). Who's The New Guy? has Paula, Karen, Mia, poor George, and the Canadian guy whose name I can't remember wondering about the new character (as in "what a character") that's suddenly in their lives, if he'll only be around for a couple episodes (Karen has manic episodes) and how invested they're supposed to be in someone introduced so late in the season (It's almost fall!). It's a funny, clever number that lampshades the show's low ratings with a smile and some stellar choreography.
-George, we hardly knew ye. Danny Jolles gives his all in George's Turn, a song from an extra who's finally ready to stop being ignored and start making an impression. Of course he gets cut off by commercial less than 30 seconds in, but it's an impression all the same. George's Turn might be an even funnier microsong than Period Sex if that's even possible.
-Ultimately these were two very strong episodes of CXGF that have me both excited for the rest of the season and sad that there's only a few episodes left, possibly forever. But whatever the future holds, I can't wait.
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