Crazy Ex-Girlfriend: Can Josh Take A Leap Of Faith?

-Wow. Just wow.

-One of the best jokes in the first season of Crazy Ex-Girlfriend is a scene where Paula finally explains to Scott exactly what's going on with Rebecca and the two do a line-for-line spoken rendition of the season 1 theme song. It's a great joke that comes out of nowhere and brings the song into the world of the show. All of season 2 I wondered if something similar might be attempted with season 2 theme "I'm Just A Girl in Love" and sure enough, lines of "I'm Just A Girl In Love" did turn up in the show tonight but in a darker and more surprising context than anyone could have expected. It turns out that Josh isn't the first time Rebecca has put our hopes for happiness onto a man who wasn't right for her and the emotional thesis statement Rebecca has been following all season that's worded to sound like a legal argument has roots in the actual legal argument made in the fallout of the last time Rebecca was just a "girl in love".

-From that moment in the pilot where Rebecca cheerfully throws away all of her medication, it's been clear that she has some serious mental health issues that she isn't properly dealing with but tonight is the first time we're shown the full extent of those issues and how dangerous this really is. It turns out that back in Harvard, Rebecca had an affair with a married professor named Robert who was going to leave his wife and marry her until he suddenly decided he couldn't. As a result Rebecca set fire to his house and was committed to a mental hospital to avoid conviction, despite her protestations that she "has no underlying issues to address". It's a brilliant, brutal twist that comes out of nowhere but makes total sense. Suddenly everything about Rebecca starts to add up from the fact that she went to Harvard and Yale Law to her aversion to therapy and medication to why her mother pushed Josh to marry her to those musical numbers she escapes into whenever reality becomes too much to bear (The one flash we get to her time in the mental hospital has a nurse commenting that a heavily medicated Rebecca is always singing to herself) has a fresh context. Rebecca is caught in a destructive cycle of seeking love and validation from men who always wind up abandoning her because she doesn't believe she's worthy of love. It's a cycle that goes back to the moment her well-meaning but emotionally unavailable father walked out the door and now the latest cycle is over and rather than burn down Josh's house (Or rather, his parents house), Rebecca tries to throw herself off of a cliff.

-Rebecca's daddy issues were introduced to us in a throwaway line from "I'm So Good At Yoga", way back in the second episode of the show. Rebecca envisions Valencia as everything Rebecca isn't, rubbing her perfection in Rebecca's face with a series of taunts culminating in "My father didn't lea-ve me". The next episode went further into this showing us the moment Silas Bunch walked out on his wife and young daughter as the basis for Rebecca's fear of throwing a party. After that the daddy stuff was mostly backgrounded before becoming a key part of Rebecca's dream ghost journey and then going back to the background until last week but it's always been there informing who Rebecca is and what she wanted. Now everything wrong with Rebecca can't completely be attributed to her father issues, particularly her need to throw herself into fantasy and narrative whenever she has to confront real life, but they do affect a large amount of her behaviour whether she knows it or not. The episode begins with her composing a text to her father that's almost exactly like the text she sent to Josh in the pilot but whereas Josh's eventual reply is a request to grab dinner sometime, her father's is a rejection, a delay until the rehearsal dinner he's obligated to attend and it crushes her. Rebecca knows her father is bad news but she can't help but feel that if he were to accept her, then everything would be OK.

-Silas Bunch is a complicated figure and he's perfectly played by John Allen Nelson. Lesser hands might make Silas into a purely despicable figure, unworthy of Rebecca's love but Nelson brings a lot of charm and affection to the guy. He's mostly there to hit his daughter up for money but he doesn't leave after he gets what he wants. He tries to give Rebecca what she wants and you understand why Rebecca wants him to love her so much. He's a toxic parent and he's not emotionally available enough to understand Rebecca or give her what she needs but he doesn't want to hurt his daughter and you can't help but feel for the guy a little (until the end at least). He's pretty similar to Josh and it makes sense that they'd hit it off.

-Josh spends much of the episode trying to get to the bottom of the "Robert" mystery set up when Rebecca accidentally says "I'm sorry Robert" in front of him and passes it off with an easily debunked lie. Josh should confront Rebecca once he figures out it's a lie and have an honest conversation with her where they get to the bottom of this, but instead he keeps looking for reasons he doesn't understand, inching closer and closer to a valid reason to back out of this marriage he doesn't really want. Then Trent shows up with an envelope containing all of the answers he needs and he becomes even more conflicted.

-This season of the show has made it clear that the problem with Josh is that he runs to a pretty girl to validate him every time he has to confront himself. Father Brah basically tells Josh as much tonight. When Sarah was introduced last week, I became wary that Josh was going to leave Rebecca for her and this episode definitely began seriously heading that direction before Josh suddenly stops and realizes that's his problem. So he decides to do the right thing and go talk to Rebecca about this envelope and her past. Until he doesn't. Josh's inability to be by himself has been in the foreground of his character, but quietly humming along in the background is his strong faith. There's a reason he runs to Father Brah whenever he's facing a moral crisis. So instead of running towards a new pretty girl, he replaces the girl with church and decides to suddenly become a priest. It's a stunning bait-and-switch that completely tracks with Josh's character. He's not fixing his destructive patterns, he's just replacing what he escapes with.

-Josh does get a crucial moment of character growth though when he chooses to not read the envelope on Rebecca's past. He knows if he reads it then he'll have some kind of a justification for leaving but he chooses not to. He's making a cowardly choice but he's owning that choice and it's kind of admirable. It's also dangerous because he has no idea what he's actually unleashing by leaving Rebecca but again, kind of admirable.

-Before everything goes to hell and she tries to throw herself off a cliff, Rebecca stands over that same cliff singing a song officially called "Rebecca's Reprise". It's a medley that combines "You Stupid Bitch", "I'm The Villain In My Own Story", "I Love My Daughter" and "We'll Never Have Problems Again" into a triumphant number about how Rebecca is on the precipice of having everything she's ever said she's wanted. It's a sad number because we know this won't be that simple and things are going to collapse, even if we don't know how they'll collapse yet. Rebecca doesn't know this though. She's at the height of her delusion, the climax of the narrative she's been building for herself the moment she moved to West Covina.

-Love and hate are almost exactly the same thing. They're both strong emotions driven by a focus/obsession with another human being and caring about their well-being. The only difference is intent. Do you want this person to be happy or do you want them to suffer? Rebecca spent two seasons trying to get Josh to love her and it's brought her to the edge of a cliff. Paula rushes in to support her because that's what Paula does but just like she's done throughout the show so far by encouraging Rebecca to chase Josh, she makes the wrong call in the advice she gives because she doesn't know the whole story. She doesn't know the kind of help Rebecca actually needs or that Rebecca has been institutionalized because of something just like this. She just knows to enable so she tells Rebecca not to blame herself (good call) but to blame Josh and her father. And just like that, love turns to hate and Rebecca has a new mission. Her father turns to leave and she finally, definitively rejects him. He calls her crazy and she replies "little bit" with a smirk, owning the label for the first time. Then with Paula, Heather, and Valencia all by her side she makes a vow to destroy Josh Chan. It's a strong, powerful moment to end the season on that opens up a lot of narrative possibilities for next season.

-Rebecca is just like Josh. She thinks that by rejecting her father, and by extension Josh, she's breaking the pattern that's causing her to be miserable but she's not breaking the pattern at all, she's merely replacing the focus of the pattern. Trying to ruin Josh's life won't make her happy just like becoming a priest won't make Josh happy. It's something they're both going to have to learn the hard way though.

-Rebecca focusing on destroying Josh also Chan brings us to the most traditional meaning of the phrase "Crazy Ex-Girlfriend" so that'll be fun to explore.

-White Josh and Daryl are set up for trouble this episode when White Josh admits he's not someone who's interested in marriage. He gets why people have kids but he doesn't get why people get married. Daryl is able to come to terms with this but he also decides that he and White Josh should have a child and from the look on White Josh's face, that is definitely not something he's ready for. We'll see how this plays out next year but it doesn't look great for the longevity of that relationship.

-The other song in this episode is "What A Rush To Be A Bride", a heavy metal head-banger number that contrasts the beauty of marriage with a manic beat and screaming voices. It's a bit of a filler number, but it's a lot of fun and it shows that Paula and Rebecca are once again totally on the same page.

-So after weeks of focus, Nathaniel turned out to be mostly a non-factor in his finale, but him telling Silas to "Have fun flying coach, dick" after Silas assumes he can get a private plane back to Alaska was perfect. Nathaniel has really grown on me so I'm excited to see more Scott Michael Foster next season.

-Heather and Valencia is a really fun dynamic that gets a lot of play as Heather assists with Valencia's wedding planning, mostly by sardonically pointing out when things get ridiculous and apologizing for Valencia.

-As I said at the top, wow. I had high expectations for this finale and writer/director/show co-creator Aline Brosh McKenna exceeded every one. This has been a terrific season of Crazy Ex-Girlfriend and I'm incredibly thankful it's not the last one. The wait for season 3 is going to be hard.

Crazy Ex-Girlfriend: Is Josh Free In Two Weeks?

-All Rebecca Bunch wants is to be "normal". The kind of girl who doesn't have underlying issues to address, who falls in love with her dream man and single-handedly plans the perfect wedding where her father is there to walk her down the aisle and doesn't get bored or depressed or kiss her boss in an elevator. She's chasing a fantasy, something that doesn't exist because the only people who are truly "normal" are characters in movies. If she stops chasing it though, she has to confront what a broken "super wheeeee-ird" person she is (Thanks, Santa Ana Winds) and she doesn't want to do that, so she keeps chasing it until she finds herself closer to the breaking point than she's ever been and a blow-up seems inevitable. Until suddenly it isn't.

-It turns out impulsively moving your wedding from two years away to two weeks away is not the best idea if you have not done any planning for it. Wedding planners won't help her because it's impossible, her mom won't help her because even though she kicked this whole thing into motion Naomi Bunch is a selfish woman, and Paula can't help her because she's studying for law school finals with Sunil (Hi, Sunil! I've missed you.). Rebecca should give up but people have already RSVP'd and calling it off would give the impression that this isn't normal. So she decides to do almost all of it herself, which naturally leads her to suspect that a DIY wedding will be easier to pull off than a regular wedding, which only makes things worse.

-Rebecca attempting to copy the wedding of Dustin and Sasha from Halifax, Nova Scotia (Yay, Canada shout-out!) works on both a comedy level and a story level. Rebecca wants to be normal and a DIY wedding is normal so she springs for it. There's no time to actually come up with her own ideas though so she picks one at random and tries desperately to copy it. She takes something that is the vision of love, co-operation, and planning intended for two specific people and tries to weld her and Josh to that vision because she wants to be normal. She winds up lost and alone trying to bring dreams that aren't her own to life because she's scared of what her own dreams might be.

-When Seth Green first shows up as Patrick the delivery guy, it's a fun surprise, albeit a bit confusing. Why cast Green in what is essentially a bit part? As the episode goes on though and Patrick keeps returning, it becomes apparent that Seth Green is perfect for the role. Channeling his work as Oz from when he was on Buffy, Green makes Patrick the epitome of "normal", a laid-back regular guy who is genuinely concerned about this woman he barely knows, but also can't off the help or validation she needs because he doesn't know her. Green goes from feeling like a fun distraction to a vital part of the episode and he does it without really doing that much. Green is a master of the understatement when he needs to be.

-The stoic pleasantness of Green also makes him perfect as the focal point for (Tell Me I'm OK) Patrick, an honest aching plea to a person who has no preformed opinion of her asking him to tell her that she's normal and OK. It's a sad, moving song but it's also funny because Green is there staring blankly and trying to process what's going on as a near-stranger bears her soul to him until she starts yelling at him because she's convinced he has the manual to being normal in his truck. When it ends with her finally collapsing from exhaustion and him gently wrapping her with one of the wedding dresses she keeps ordering to try on before sneaking off, it's earnestly sweet.

-As (Tell Me I'm OK) Patrick played, I realized that this is the most vulnerable Rebecca has been in a song since Oh My God I Think I Like You back in season 1. There's been a fair amount of vulnerability in the music this season but none of it has come from her (Except possibly her part of You Go First, but that song is shared with Paula). As she's thrown herself into the delusion of a romance with Josh and then the distraction of female friendship and then back into the delusion of romance but on a grander scale, Rebecca has been guarding her true feelings from her fantasy life more and more this year. Tell Me I'm OK is the first time she lets it all out in a long while and it's all the more powerful because of how long it's been.

-Valencia has been out of focus for weeks now, save for one great scene a couple weeks back. That ends tonight as she returns just when Rebecca needs it the most. Initially though, she seems off and it looks like the episode is setting up the return of a jealous season 1-Valencia. But thankfully the writers avoid going this route, instead focusing on the idea that although she has moved past Josh, she had planned her whole life around him and is rudderless now that that plan is out the window. Her weirdness around Rebecca and Josh isn't really about Rebecca and Josh, it's about how Rebecca is stepping into the life she almost had, reminding her that she needs a new one. Once she confronts this though, she's able to help Rebecca and herself at the same time when she decides to plan Rebecca's wedding using the binder she had spent years building and it turns out she has a real knack for it. Of course she does. Valencia is confident, assertive, and stylish and her becoming a wedding planner makes so much sense for the character that it becomes blindingly obvious that's what she's meant to do the moment it comes up.

-Patrick was never going to be the person to give Rebecca the help she needs, but he manages to deliver it to her by informing Paula of what's really going on with her best friend. Following the reestablishment of their friendship, Rebecca has been making an effort not to make her friendship with Paula all about her and to give Paula a healthy amount of space. It's a nice thought, but it doesn't mean Rebecca should hide her feelings when she's in a place where she genuinely needs the help of her mother/friend. The scene where Paula watches Rebecca in awe of the dress her mother sent her before a flashback shows Paula ripping Naomi a new one to ensure that she would help her daughter is a nice culmination of everything the Rebecca/Paula friendship has been through this season. Watching Paula scream everything at Naomi that we as an audience have wanted to scream is also incredibly cathartic.

-There's a moment towards the end of the episode when Rebecca tries on the dress her mother got her and Heather remarks that she looks "surprisingly normal". The line and Rebecca's very touched reaction to it is played as a joke, but it's also very touching after the ordeal Rebecca went through. The only thing is there's a big difference between looking normal and being normal, which is something Rebecca is probably going to have to come to terms with sooner rather than later.

-Nathaniel starts the episode off demanding that the rest of the office be more normal, but this is the episode where everyone finally sees that he's just as weird and damaged as the rest of them. Also he poops his pants. Nathaniel's vision of normal is also skewed thanks to years of conditioning by his father to view being human as a weakness. That kiss with Rebecca meant something to him but he can't ever admit that because that would betray vulnerability. So in his efforts to exude strength and normality, he gets sick and gassy, but he keeps clinging to the kale smoothies he refuses to stop drinking and refuses to let his guard down. even as the rest of the office tries to help him. Just like Rebecca he reaches a breaking point, but where Rebecca's breaking point was the moment she tried to get a stranger to tell her she's OK, Nathaniel's is pooping his pants. It's a cheap joke, but a funny one and the sight of him in one of Daryl's spare, terrible suits later is a great image.

-Man Nap, Daryl's heavy rocker number about napping like a man isn't a particularly deep song. You could remove it from the episode without losing anything. It is however a terrific song and a lot of fun and the wigs alone justify it's existence.

-Of course the moment Nathaniel finally shows honest vulnerability and takes the nap his body so desperately needs, his father finally shows up and all the issues the show has been hinting at for weeks finally snaps into focus. Nathaniel just wanted to be normal for his father and he's come off as weak instead because his father is unreasonable. Confronted with his worst fear though, Nathaniel doesn't regress to the man he was when he first arrived. Instead, having realized that his father is never going to return his love, he emphasizes with Rebecca when she reveals her father won't be able to make it for her wedding and arranges for her father to be able to come after all. I'll never be sold on Nathaniel as a romantic match for Rebecca, but he has turned out to be much more of a kindred spirit than he originally seemed. What would be perfect is if the two of them connected on a personal level and helped support each other as they dealt with their separate lifetimes of baggage. Unfortunately neither of them are ready to realize how much they might need that.

-Bringing Rebecca's father back is huge. We've seen him in flashbacks but never have seen the actual man before. Rebecca's problems may not have started the night he walked out on their family, but they have been informed by that abandonment ever since. There is a huge amount of stuff to unpack with that part of her life and though it probably won't bring her the normality she wants or even the closure, it could start her on the road to actual recovery. Or it could all explode horribly. We'll find out next week.

-Josh spends this episode feeling like he's being shut out of the wedding process, failing to stay awake for the one DIY thing he wanted that Rebecca agreed with him on, and then making a stand for what he wants only to be shut down by the abrupt return of Valencia into his life. He seems OK by the end of the episode, but he also seemed to be getting awful close to that Sarah girl he was volunteering with. Remember, Josh doesn't want an equal partner, he wants a support system who will validate all of his choices, no matter how ridiculous (He wants a Sugar Ray cover band called Splenda Ray for crying out loud). This does not bode well for him showing up to the wedding next week.

-As promised a couple weeks ago, the full version of Period Sex, sung by Rebecca Bloom in a flowing red dress because of course it is. It's as good a culmination to this joke as you could want, and it loops in clips throughout the series of the various characters saying either "period", "sex", or "period sex", which is fun.

-"Over my dead body". I thought the show had forgotten about Trent. It has not. Oh boy.

-All in all a great episode this week and a strong set-up to what will hopefully be a major finale. Next week: The season ends with the wedding of Rebecca Bunch and Joshua Chan. This is not going to end well guys.

Crazy Ex-Girlfriend: Josh Is The Man Of My Dreams, Right?

-Well that escalated quickly.

-As a non-Californian, I assumed the Santa Ana winds were probably a real thing, but had no idea the "devil winds" stuff is an actual superstition. I liked the use of them in this episode as a storytelling device, personified by Eric Michael Roy serving as a do-wopping Frankie Valli-esque "sort of" narrator/personification of Rebecca's subconscious. One of the major themes on Crazy Ex-Girlfriend is how we try to blame our own behavior on anything that isn't ourselves. Rebecca has been clearly attracted to Nathaniel from the beginning and getting engaged to Josh has not changed the fact that he isn't going to fix her myriad of problems. Maybe Nathaniel wouldn't be keen on wanting to sleep with Rebecca if the winds hadn't blown her blouse open but it still wouldn't change that Josh hasn't been giving her goosebumps lately and yes, the winds caused Rebecca and Nathaniel to get stuck in an elevator together but she's the one who chose to kiss him after they were free. The winds give her something to fixate on and blame, but as he tells her at the end "I just reveal your deepest wishes and fears". People might act "whee-ird" during the winds but it's not the wind's doing, as much as people pretend otherwise. Then after laying out her biggest fear of all: "You ruined everything, you stupid bitch", he disappears and Rebecca is left with no one to blame her problems on but her. So she retreats even further into denial.

-The "stuck in an elevator" trope is pretty tired at this point, but the show's lampshading of how this is a rom-com staple helped make it work here because Rebecca is just the kind of person who would get caught up in the romance of being stuck in an elevator with someone you can't help but be attracted to. It's also why she goes in for that kiss even though they've been freed. It's the kind of grand romantic gesture that would be a beautiful moment in a rom-com and it's played like one, but once the moment is over reality sets in and the whole thing looks like a big mistake.

-Nathaniel gets a lot of development this week that continues to flesh him out as a character while allowing him to remain a brash jerk (Though his hostile relationship with the office this week seemed a lot friendlier, like everyone has accepted that this is their dynamic and they're cool with it). Scott Michael Foster continues to be terrific in the role also. That being said though, I am very weary of the idea of Rebecca and Nathaniel coupling up by the season's end (As I'm sure the writers want everyone to be because they're smart like that. Even with that longing look he gave her at the episode's end, he's been very clear that it's all about the chase with him. He's not going to be happy or satisfied in a relationship with Rebecca and that's only going to compound her misery. Also proposing casual sex to pass the time the moment you get stuck in an elevator is a sleazy move, especially when you know the other person is "en-gaged".

-That being said, "Let's Have Intercourse" was a very fun Ed Sheeran-inspired number that helps demonstrate exactly why Rebecca should not have intercourse with Nathaniel. It's all routine to him, like a transaction and Rebecca isn't built for that kind of attitude towards sex (Unless she really hates herself as demonstrated when she slept with Trent).

-The moment they brought up the idea of Josh and Rebecca putting themselves on a two-year long waiting list for the perfect venue, it became easy to guess that they would suddenly be getting married a lot sooner than that by the episode's end. I didn't expect it to be because a guilty Rebecca paid someone to vacate their spot though. Also I winced at the phrase "an exorbitant amount of money". Rebecca's spiralling back into old habits (In this case, spending wayyy too much money in the name of love) and it's tough to watch.

-The winds sideline Josh for the majority of the episode, which allows Rebecca to be pre-occupied with Nathaniel but hopefully he's more of an active participant in the last two episodes of the season. Proposing to Rebecca was as much a cry for help from him as anything she's done and it'd be good to see more of his headspace as we hurtle towards that inevitable catastrophe of a wedding.

-If you want to give a jerk character easy depth, make them a closet fan of the Harry Potter series. I'm already more endeared to Nathaniel, even if I think he's as bad a romantic match for Rebecca as Josh is. Also, Rebecca may think she's a Gryffindor masquerading as a Ravenclaw but she's totally a legit Ravenclaw (I'm a Gryffindor and I have no problem saying it BTW).

-Daryl's view of Paula as his best friend has been a sweet running joke since the idea was introduced and it gets explored here when a weird dream about Daryl's death and an oil painting of him and Paula leads her to guiltily accept a dinner invitation.  It's a good plot that gives much-needed context to Daryl's view of his friendship with Paula. Daryl knows he isn't Paula's best friend and he's fine with that. It doesn't mean he can't appreciate her honesty or her sarcasm towards him as something he needs and values. She can still be his best friend even if he isn't hers (As the catchy and helpfully titled "You're My Best Friend (And I Know I'm Not Yours) demonstrates. He doesn't need equality in their friendship. What little she can give him is good enough.

-Of course Daryl isn't perfect and I appreciate the way the show doesn't let him off the hook for ambushing Paula with her estranged husband in an effort to reconcile them. Was his heart in the right place? Absolutely. Was it way out of line? Absolutely. Instead of trying to honestly engage Paula about her insecurities about welcoming her husband back into her life, he basically tries to force her into it. It works out in the end but not cool, Daryl.

-Rebecca may be deep in denial at this point but her words to Paula about not caring what people think do prove useful in finally letting Paula forgive Scott and getting to the heart of her dilemma nicely. Paula still loves Scott despite what he's done and she probably knows that he's not likely to do it again, but she also knows what he did is very awful and doesn't want to look foolish for taking him back. It feels like a very honest reaction and it makes the scene where she does take Scott back (while making it clear he'll have to earn back her trust) all the more powerful.

-Whatever happened to Paula in law school/Sunil? I miss both of those things and hope they can be fit in before season's end.

-I was curious about why a clip of George being called by the wrong name had made it into the "Previously On" and the moment he showed up outside that elevator, it became clear where this was going. What a terrific payoff to a great running joke. If this is truly it for George (and I doubt it is.), being more focused on Nathaniel remembering his name than the fact that he's been fired again is a great way to go.

-So it turns out Mrs. Hernandez talking and calling Rebecca out on her nonsense wasn't just a one-time deal. Excellent. The "silence" thing had kind of run it's course and with the increased prominence of people like Karen, Maya, and George (I refuse to believe he's gone for good) this season, Mrs. H needed to change course a bit.

-As far as "manifestations of Rebecca's subconscious" go, I would place Mr. Wind above the Spirit Guides but below the Dream Ghosts. Can't top those ghosts.

-"What's a girl to do when she's stuck between men? Especially when one of those men is a snake?!" Oh, Karen. Funniest tag of the season by far.

-Another solid episode this week. Next week: Rebecca tries to plan an entire wedding in two weeks. That'll go well.

Crazy Ex-Girlfriend: Will Scarsdale Like Josh's Shayna Punim?

-Towards the end of "We'll Never Have Problems Again", Rebecca and Josh's disco anthem to the delusional idea of love solving everything, Rebecca mentions that "for once, this situation's a lot less nuanced than that". It's a clear callback to the season 1 theme song and Rebecca's insistence to the animated chorus calling her the "Crazy Ex-Girlfriend" that there was more to moving to West Covina than Josh Chan. The thing is the situation is a lot more nuanced than that but not for the reasons Rebecca believed. She moved to West Covina because she was miserable and figured that if she could get back together with Josh, she'd be happy like she was all those years ago. It was never about Josh, it was about the feelings she associated with him and the hopes she's pinned on him. Now she's gotten Josh but her misery hasn't gone away because surprise: love doesn't solve everything. The problems are still there and they can't be solved by disco-ing the night away. That's not going to stop Rebecca and Josh from trying though.

-There's a running joke this episode about Rebecca and Josh broadcasting their relationship to every single social media platform in existence (Including Waze and Words With Friends) so everyone knows how happy they are together. It's a funny joke but it's also strong insight into the central problem with this relationship. Social Media is an escape from the realities of life. You control what you put on there so you control the narrative. You might be miserable but you can trick the world into thinking otherwise. Rebecca needs this to work because she's pinned her happiness on it and Josh needs this to work because he has nothing else going for him in his life outside of his relationships. They're both in denial and as long as they keep posting cute couple selfies and letting everyone online know how happy they are, they can continue to perpetuate that denial.

-There was a cavalcade of returning guest stars this week as Tovah Feldshuh, Rachel Grate, and Michael Hyatt all returned and enriched the narrative in various ways. Patti LuPone also showed up this week as Rebecca's old rabbi and was as terrific as expected.

-Valencia also got to return this week for the first time since Josh and Rebecca officially got together. I was worried she might regret into her bitchy season 1 self but she seems to be taking it pretty well. She even warns Rebecca to be careful, despite feeling lukewarm about her right now. Aw.

-Naomi Bunch continues to be a fascinating character. She loves her daughter and wants the best for her, but she's also kind of toxic for Rebecca's well-being and the best thing she could do for her would be to leave her alone for a while until Rebecca's in a position to have an honest conversation about their dynamic. Tovah Feldshuh is always a delight to have on a show and she's a lot of fun here. Her hitting it off with Josh was unexpected considering her attitude towards him last season, but it was an interesting dynamic and the last scene between them sets up the ending beautifully.

-Rebecca's trip back east is enlightening for how much it hammers down that Rebecca's problems were always her own. She's been projecting all her misery and pain onto the people she left behind, convincing herself that she was being drawn into it. Josh having a great time and pointing out how great everything seems to be punches a hole from that. She figured having Josh there was going to illuminate how sad the east coast was, but the only sadness that was illuminated was her own. Rachel Bloom is terrific every week, but she really sold Rebecca's subtle misery this week and confusion about why Josh wasn't making her happy.

-Will Scarsdale Like Josh's Shayna Punim? features the most devastating ending of the show to date. Rebecca has finally gotten to what feels like an actual breakthrough. She's realized that her problems are with her and she can't depend on another person to fix them. Dr. Akopian becomes an audience surrogate, looking on in amazement and disbelief before coaxing Rebecca to the next part of the revelation: the part where she takes some time for herself and actually confronts her real problems. It seems too good to be true though and the "Remember That We Suffered" musical refrain keeps popping in like an ominous warning, jauntily signaling that the disguising of misery under a happy exterior is coming and can't be stopped. Sure enough, just as Rebecca is mid-breakthrough, in bursts Josh with the Garfinkel ring he bought back from the pawn shop it was sold to last season so he could propose (Under advice from Naomi). She says yes. Dr. Akopian speaks for all of us as she screams "No!" and all that progress is gone. The misery is pushed away for the cover of false happiness and you know this is going to end horribly. It's incredibly frustrating to watch, but it makes for brilliant television.

-I assumed the 3rd act of this season was going to be about Rebecca realizing Josh wasn't right for her. After this episode though, I'm now thinking it's about Rebecca continuing to ignore her problems and throw herself deeper into denial until it blows up spectacularly (My guess? Someone's getting left at the altar. Probably Josh but Rebecca also seems plausible.).

-Oh, other stuff happened too this week as we explored Daryl's feelings of inadequacy at work now that Nathaniel was there making him feel like an "emasculated sock puppet" and Nathaniel lost his antagonist status along with a tooth and gained a lot more depth along with a friend.

-It was obvious from the get-go that Nathaniel had issues with his father so when Paula mentions he's waiting for his father to give him a major account we know where this story is going. The journey is still a lot of fun though, particularly Daryl's candy rebellion and the way the office rallies around Daryl Spartacus style when Nathaniel confronts him about it. Watching Nathaniel fall hard off the treadmill desk (making it's triumphant return) was pretty cathartic but it also led to a genuinely sweet bonding moment between him and Daryl, as Daryl acted like the father figure he needed.

-Only one scene between Rebecca and Nathaniel this week but the chemistry between Bloom and Scott Michael Foster is obvious. It looks like we'll be exploring that more next week.

-"We'll Never Have Problems Again" is my favourite new CXGF song in a good while. It uses the fun and the gleam of disco music to showcase just how far into their denial Rebecca and Josh have sunk. Heather trying to burst their bubble before soul train-ing out of there was also terrific.

-"Remember That We Suffered" was also a lot of fun. Patti LuPone and Tovah Feldshuh are clearly having a blast cheerfully singing about Barbra Streisand and Hitler and Steven Spielberg and Hitler and Hitler (Hitler comes up a lot during the song). It also does what all the great CXGF songs do by illustrating Rebecca's mental state. Everyone is celebrating and having a good time but she can only focus on the misery and darkness.

-Period Sex 3: Tovah Feldshuh edition! Rachel Bloom has promised we'll see a full version of the song by the end of a season, albeit an online-only version for obvious reasons. I'm excited but apprehensive, if only because the full song is going to have a ridiculously high bar to clear.

-We finally meet Audra Levine's husband who Rebecca once slept with and it turns out he's basically East Coast Jewish Josh. How delightful.

-George was rehired! No one remembers his name still but we'll never forget you George.

-Mia's old college roommate was Zosia Mamet. This better be set-up for a Zosia Mamet guest appearance at some point down the road.

-Crazy Ex-Girlfriend got renewed for a 3rd season this week, guys! Considering how atrocious the ratings were and how quickly the writers were burning through story, I figured it was a goner but I'm very happy to be wrong.

-"We'll Never have Problems Again"  mentions that obsession tends to last for about four years. Rachel Bloom has mentioned the ideal length of the show would be 4 seasons. Hmm.

Crazy Ex-Girlfriend: Who Is Josh's Soup Fairy/When Do I Get To Spend Time With Josh?

Wow. So a lot happened on Crazy Ex-Girlfriend tonight. I mean a lot. I'm going to break it down by the episode for reasons that'll be clear on the first bullet point of the second episode.

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.

I Got Thoughts on Crazy Ex-Girlfriend: Who's The Cool Girl Josh Is Dating?

-So after last week sidelined the story of Rebecca trying to get over Josh to focus on her collapsing relationship with Paula, "Who's The Cool Girl Josh Is Dating?" brought it back full force when both Rebecca and Valencia found out about Josh's new relationship with Anna and decided to investigate her.

-Rebecca doing crazy things for Josh-related reasons is nothing new for Crazy Ex-Girlfriend (It's actually the premise of the show), but bringing Valencia in as her partner and enabler helps freshen up the formula to a fair degree and deepens the story by making it about Valencia's complicated feelings about Josh moving on as well as Rebecca's. Josh was a significant force in both of their lives and even though they now feel free to talk about what they didn't like about him and claim they're better off without him, moving on is never that simple. It's also fun continuing to explore Rebecca and Valencia's new friendship dynamic and I'm glad the story never turns them against each other, even if Valencia is put off by the whole "Rebecca thought she was pregnant" incident.

-Between her stalking of Josh on Instagram, her willingness to go along to Silver Lake to scope Anna out and the way she secretly steals Anna's keys and expertly breaks into the eyebrow salon, it turns out Valencia is a lot more like Rebecca than it initially seemed.

-Moving on also can come at different times for different people as the end of the episode shows Valencia finally ready to move on (or at least get laid), while Rebecca isn't quite there yet, which seems right. Valencia has been broken up with Josh longer after all.

-As a huge cat lover, I'm glad that curiosity only managed to injure the cat instead of kill it.

-Anna didn't have a lot to do in her first appearance but we learn a lot about her here as she turns out to be Valencia's Valencia, impossibly cool, stylish and kind. She's also a Celebrity Eyebrow Stylist, a job that's absurd enough to provide a lot of comic mileage throughout the episode and also a job that I totally believe is a real thing.

-Even before Rebecca and Valencia see Josh on security footage going on and on about how much he likes Anna, his one big scene in the episode makes it obvious that he really likes her. I am curious about how much she likes him though. The episode establishes that she likes how simple and uncomplicated he is in comparison to the L.A. hipster crowd, but is she going to be satisfied with that simplicity forever? It feels like the show is making Anna be to Josh what Josh was to Rebecca and Valencia, where he is going to be much more serious about her than she is about him until she ends it and he becomes a crazy ex. Hmm, I guess we'll have to see how that plays out.

-I'm surprised the show let Rebecca and Valencia get away with both running over Anna's cat AND erasing the security camera footage of said incident before spending the night combing over footage. I assume the other shoe is going to drop with this eventually unless the show keeps Josh and Anna off in their own world for the rest of the season, but for now it was a bit of a relief. I'm not sure I could've handled it if the comeuppance came that fast (I was freaking out when the plot cut back to them STILL in that damn store the next morning.).

-Paula and Scott's marriage has been on much steadier ground this season, but it gets faced with some turmoil when Paula gets lost in her law studies and misses Scott's barbershop quartet playing in front of Scott's co-workers for the first time.

-The interesting thing about Paula's conflict with Scott is how it subtly mirrors her conflict with Rebecca. Paula has been throwing herself into law school and becoming obsessed the way Rebecca threw herself into her quest for Josh. Scott has been providing love and support the way Paula did, but also feels like his wants and needs are being neglected and is getting frustrated by that. Ultimately Paula fails to come through for Scott just like the many times Rebecca didn't come through for her and it hurts Scott in a way that can't be easily smoothed over. Importantly neither Scott or Paula is portrayed as the bad guy in this situation. Paula's allowed to be excited about her law school journey and Scott's allowed to be upset that his wife didn't come through for him on a night that was important to him. It's a complex situation and it's nice that the show doesn't try to flatten it.

-I have been waiting to see the "West Brovinas" perform since the first time Paula mentioned it last year so it was nice to see it finally happen, even if we only got a small taste of their performance.

-Scott works in a shipping warehouse apparently. That makes sense.

-I became a bit concerned that the episode was going to end with Rebecca and Paula making nice and becoming friends again so I'm glad their fight will be carrying on as we go into winter break. I'm not saying I want them to be fighting for the rest of the season, but after the ugliness of their big confrontation last week and the episodes of build-up to that confrontation, it would feel cheap if their falling out got resolved so quickly. It's clear that they both miss and need each other though, even if they're not ready to make nice yet.

-Brittany Snow got to sing a tiny bit in her last appearance, but this time out she gets a full-fledged number with the seductive "Research Me Obsessively", a song about the joy of internet stalking that I relate to more than I feel comfortable admitting. I mean I've never done it anywhere close to the level that the song suggests but trying to find public information about a person online definitely has an allure to it and can be a serious time suck (I have no idea if Rebecca and Valencia were literally at it for 3 days but I'd believe it if it were the case). Anyways it's a cute song and a good showcase for Snow's vocal chops.

-The best song tonight though was definitely "You Go First", a rocking 80's power ballad (complete with Rebecca and Paula both sporting mullets at one point that grew in glorious length) that gets to the heart of the problem between Rebecca and Paula. They both see the other persons point and are willing to accept fault in order to be part of each other's lives again but neither of them wants to be the first person to admit fault. Their whole fight has become about their pride and they would rather be alone in their sadness than be the person who makes the first move. The song is also notable for being the first Rebecca/Paula duet since their reprise of West Covina when they first became friends/soulmates in the pilot.

-If short samples of Period Sex becomes this season's version of the recurring "I left my wife for a prostitute" joke from season 1, I'm totally on board with that.

-Do people frequently visit Instagram with laptops instead of just using the mobile app? I know that is a thing and I assume the show used laptops for display reasons or something like that but it seemed odd.

-How popular is Anna's eyebrow salon? "I heard Mary-Kate Olsen had to pretend to be Elizabeth Olsen to get in".

-Sunil and Valencia have never seen The Wire, which is crazy. Also Rebecca as Avon and Paula as Stringer makes total sense.

-Rebecca knowing how to read lips because she once took a deaf lover also makes total sense.

-I thought the stinger was going to reveal that there was something sinister about Anna after all, but it wound up being a joke about how ludicrous and expensive her eyebrow grooming business really is.

-Crazy Ex-Girlfriend returns with two episodes on January 6th. It looks like we'll be following up on Heather being the face of Miss Douche AND Rebecca's babysitting Paula's younger son. That should end well.

I Got Thoughts on Crazy Ex-Girlfriend: Who Needs Josh When You Have A Girl Group?

-First they blew up Rebecca and Josh's relationship. Then Rebecca and Greg's. Now Crazy Ex-Girlfriend has destroyed the most important relationship on the show: Rebecca and Paula's. And while they've flirted with doing this before, the friendship-ending fight they had tonight seems like it won't be smoothed over so easily.

-The Paula and Rebecca rift is something that's been developing since the moment Paula changed the terms of their friendship at the beginning of the season and it feels organic and earned for it to finally blow up now. The nice thing about this fight is neither of them are totally in the right. Paula is completely right about the one-sidedness of their relationship, Rebecca being a taker and about her whole scheme to integrate Paula into the #gurlgroup4ever being done not to include Paula but because Rebecca wanted to feel better about herself outgrowing her friendship with Paula. At the same time, even if her reasons were selfish, Rebecca was trying to make Paula feel included and Paula put zero effort into even trying to enjoy the evening, nor did she give Rebecca a chance to be there for her about the stuff in her life (mainly the abortion). Paula has judged Rebecca to be selfish, which is accurate but she never even tried to talk to Rebecca about it and give her the chance to examine her behavior. It's a complex situation and episode writer Jack Dolgen doesn't try to simplify it or vilify one of the two.

-This is the second episode in a row to end with Rebecca and Paula sadly looking at each other and tonight's ending was even more devastating than the last time.

-As hard as it was to watch the explosive dissolution of Paula and Rebecca's friendship, I'm all onboard with the Girltopia of Rebecca, Heather, and Valencia. The scenes of the three of them just hanging out and being friends were super fun and Heather's continual detachment from everything combined with Valencia's cluelessness of how girl friendships work made it all super endearing.

-The theme tonight in case you missed it was "You can't force a friendship". Crazy Ex-Girlfriend doesn't typically harp on it's theme over and over and over but it worked here with Rebecca, Trent, and Daryl all insisting that wasn't what they were doing before proceeding to do exactly that. There was also an unexpected "You can force construction" pay-off to the constant utterings of the mantra that was delightful.

-The way Rebecca and Paula's fight while Paula was stuck in the bathroom kept being interrupted by comedic distractions like bad actor Sunil (who continues to be a fantastic addition to the show, even if he won't shut up about his theatre major), forthright Trent, and Daryl and Mia was masterful.

-I was so excited to see Paul Welsh return as Trent tonight (and judging by the ending of his plot tonight, he's going to be sticking around indefinitely which is terrific). In season 1, he was a terrific funhouse mirror version of Season 1 Rebecca, someone she barely knew years ago who was obsessed with her, would resort to great lengths to be with her and was even more desperate and creepy than she was (At least she had a bit of a relationship with Josh Chan. He was just a random person she knew at Harvard that fit the criteria for "fake boyfriend"). The parallels between him and season 1 Rebecca get turned up even more tonight as he tries to ingratiate himself in her "guy friend group", finds his own Paula in the surf shop girl who finds his efforts for love romantic and even gets his own version of The Sexy Getting Ready Song (Though his gets cut short when he cuts his back). He serves as a reminder that as bad as Rebecca can be, she's come along quite a bit since season 1 and even then could have been a lot worse.

-It is interesting that the Surf Shop Girl goes from being creeped out by Trent's plan to being totally on board when she finds out he's doing it for love. A nice way to demonstrate how society can overlook bad behavior if it's for a reason we deem noble and sweet.

-Trent trying to hard to be bros with Josh and friends never stopped being funny. From his constant awkward use of California Surfer Slang to his super awkward and creepy covers for why he knew Hector's name  (He's a racist) and why his clients never showed up (They're all dead... to him). Trent's terrible at friendship, but he's apparently great at other things like getting people out of the bathroom and sex (He was a virgin apparently until tonight).

-The glaring plot hole in Trent's plan? If he knew that Rebecca was broken up with Josh, how would he think getting in with Josh and his friends could get him closer to Rebecca? It feels like a weird oversight but the story is funny enough that it's not that big a deal.

-Oh Rebecca. Sleeping with Trent to cheer yourself up a bit was a horrible decision. It'll be fun for the story because there's no way he's going to leave you alone now but it was a horrible decision.

-This was a good night for recurring minor characters on this show as Karen, ahem, I mean Angelique got her most exposure yet to horrifying effect as she hosted the most uncomfortable "Naughty Toys" party ever and Mia became the driving force in Daryl's subplot as the two tried to scheme their way into Rebecca's girl group.

-The co-worker who gets mocked for no good reason is a tried-and-true sitcom trope and Daryl's constant anger at Mia has been played for laughs since her introduction but it gets deconstructed hard tonight when Mia calls him on it, revealing the harmful effect his constant put-downs have had on her work output and health and rightfully pointing out that he's a bad boss creating a hostile work environment. It's an eye-opening moment that does a lot to flesh out someone who's been very one-note up to this point.

-Confession: Almost every person I've ever disliked, I've disliked because I see something I don't like about myself magnified in them. So I related hard to Daryl admitting that he sees himself in overeager trying-to-be-included Mia and that's why he dislikes her. Daryl's neediness has also been played as a joke for the duration of the show so it's nice to see him come to terms with it and build a new friendship (and a hot new dance craze that's apparently catching on) with Mia.

-Seriously though, after the incredible ugliness of that Rebecca/Paula fight, Daryl and Mia bursting in to debut their new dance (later called "The Mia") and then attempt to teach it to everyone was probably the best possible way to relieve the tension.

-OK, let's talk about the songs. "Girltopia" felt like a semi-sequel to Season 1's "Feeling Kinda Naughty" in how it took a typical pop song conceit (Here, a perfect Spice Girls-esque ode to girl friendship ruling the world) and brought it to incredibly creepy and psychotic extremes (Their talk of ruling the world is very literal and anyone who doesn't appreciate Hocus Pocus will be killed). It's delightful and it gives Gabrielle Ruiz and Vella Lowell a rare chance to show off their pipes.

-Of course Vella Lowell gets an even bigger musical spotlight tonight in "Stuck In The Bathroom", which takes Heather's habit of plainly laying out the situation as it unfolds and turns it into a spoof of "Trapped In The Closet". It isn't necessary to the story in any way but it does enhance what could have been a boring scene and moves the story along to the juicy part of Rebecca discovering Paula's "help me" text to Sunil.

-The weird thing about Stuck In The Bathroom is that Crazy Ex-Girlfriend is only the second television show to do a song about being stuck in the bathroom this year. "Bad Stuff Happens In The Bathroom" is completely different of course but it is interesting. Also I really should start writing about Bob's Burgers again. That show is delightful.

-"You talk about pooping a lot". Valencia is finally getting to know Rebecca. Aww.

-Sunil's wife put her suicide note on Facebook before they added the new like options making it hard for people to know what to do. It's an incredibly dark joke and it made me laugh very hard.

-Rebecca and Heather's new house is poorly renovated and was a drug dealer murder house. Sounds about right. I'm hoping for new sordid details to be accidentally blurted out by people visiting it each week.

-Terrific little detail: After Trent cuts his back shaving in the "Trent Is Getting Ready Song", you can see a small blood stain on his sweatshirt in the same spot.

-Did Rebecca even says Josh's name once tonight? I don't think she did. That's a first. I appreciate the show actually taking the time to explore Rebecca building a life and friendships outside of her obsession with Josh Chan. Judging by next week's promo it won't last but it's nice.

-Next week: The mid-season finale and return of Brittany Snow!

I Got Thoughts on Crazy Ex-Girlfriend: Why Is Josh's Ex-Girlfriend Eating Carbs

-After an emotionally fraught couple of episodes, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend goes a bit lighter this week as it sets up the next phase of the season.

-If there's a benefit to Santino Fontana leaving the show beyond not having to worry about Rebecca driving Greg to relapse, it's that the show can increase it's focus on other members of the ensemble who are typically pushed off to the side. Case in point: after sitting out the first three episodes of the season and almost all of the fourth one, Valencia made her triumphant return this week as Gabrielle Ruiz finally got to make use of the Series Regular status given to her before the start of this season.

-Valencia was a tricky character in season 1. Although she was granted some depth and nuance from time to time, especially in the later parts of the season, her (justified) hostility towards Rebecca and her abrasive, superior, and controlling personality made her come off as a one-dimensional shrew a lot of the time. She became one of those significant others who you couldn't understand why the love interest was dating them. Now that she and Rebecca are both broken up with Josh however, we have a chance to actually get to know Valencia as a person and finally get the Rebecca/Valencia friendship the show feinted towards doing towards the end of last season, which if the end of this episode is any indication will bring some fresh energy into the show.

-Of course Valencia started off the episode basically the same as she was in season 1 though it became quickly apparent that she was just putting up a front to avoid confronting her feelings about Josh even before the drug-induced dream ballet brought that to the forefront. So Rebecca kidnapping Valencia and bringing her to Electric Mesa (San Gabriel Valley's version of Burning Man) was the only logical way to get both of them to that location.

-The Triceratops-fueled Dream Ballet sequence was definitely the musical highlight of the episode this week (Though Thought Bubbles was a strong number). From the spot on musical choices for the two performances (I'm The Villain In My Own Story and One Indescribable Instant for Valencia, and I'm Just A Girl In Love and I'm A Good Person for Rebecca) to the clear differences in Rebecca and Valencia's Ballet abilities (Valencia is characteristically graceful. Rebecca not so much) and how both told the emotional journeys of the two and their relationships with Josh in clear fashion even before they explained what those journeys were afterwards.

-The joke about Rebecca's keys being kept in her underwear was all right but the strong implication that they were actually in, um, a slightly different place was hysterical.

-It was incredibly satisfying and cathartic to see Rebecca finally pissed at Josh for all the ways he's taken advantage of her this season.

-Also satisfying and cathartic? Rebecca and Valencia standing up for each other when confronting Josh and having that turning into the two finally bonding and building each other up. Was it totally earned? Probably not, but it was so satisfying I don't mind. Rebecca and Valencia becoming friends is much more interesting than them being at each others throats, even if it probably isn't going to last forever (Josh will probably get between the two eventually),

-Also satisfying and cathartic but in a weird way? Rebecca and Valencia peeing all over Josh's sound equipment. Honestly did not see that one coming.

-Having Valencia start off ever-so-slightly heavier in this episode and slowly get back to where she was as she got over Josh and regained her confidence was such a subtle neat visual touch that I almost wish the show hadn't kept commenting on it, but then we wouldn't have had Valencia being so confident that she stopped fixating on her appearance and that was the best part of that small story thread.

-Valencia and Heather make for a great combination. Having them both around to play off of Rebecca should be fun.

-Paula makes a new friend too this week! Parvesh Cheena makes a strong first impression as Sunil, a fellow older student at law school who quickly bonds with Paula in a way that feels natural and believable. When he responds to Paula accidentally blurting out that she had an abortion by casually admitting that his wife recently killed herself, it instantly endears you to the guy.

-What Sunil's introduction does is really highlight the imbalance of Paula and Rebecca's friendship (He sees Rebecca's selfcenteredness ever so briefly and assumes she's Paula's daughter because his much younger daughters are the same way). Watching the two interact and team up to steal a jerk student's note-taking app, it really feels like a friendship of equals where the pair is helping and enabling each other. That's something that Paula and Rebecca's friendship has barely ever felt like, even in the best of times, which the show kindly doesn't spell out for us.

-The divide between Rebecca and Paula is widening and you don't even realize it until the end where they're both at the same place with different people and worlds apart. Their friendship is still formally going but from the way they both interact and look at each other afterwards, it seems like it's ended and it's devastating.

-We get some insight into Josh this week as we learn something that explains a lot about him: he can't bare to be alone. Thought Bubbles, our only real song this week, captures this perfectly. Josh is someone who doesn't want to have to confront anything real or unpleasant so he runs from it by throwing himself into relationships or things to keep busy. When he's alone though he can't keep those dark thoughts out of his head but rather than deal with them like an adult, he keeps pushing them away. Until Josh can finally handle being alone, he's never going to be able to grow up and be the mature, responsible adult he wants to be.

-Josh's manager Alex was a delight this week. As I've said a couple times before, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend is really good at making the smallest characters have something vital to contribute to the scene. Sherpa Alan also qualifies.

-The good thing about Josh being unable to be alone? Guest star Brittany Snow as Josh's new love interest! Brittany Snow is terrific and needs to be in more things so I hope she's around for a while.

-Daryl got his first significant storyline of the season as he goes with White Josh to Electric Mesa and realizes that White Josh has a certain type: older men. This allows for an excellent exploration of Daryl and White Josh's relationship as Daryl starts to feel insecure and replaceable. It turns out White Josh has similar insecurities though and when they're finally open with each other, they exchange "I Love Yous" for the first time.

-Rebecca actually gave Daryl good relationship advice! Rebecca isn't always the best friend to the people in her life but she definitely has her moments.

-The real sweet thing about the story though is how Daryl finally introduces Josh to his daughter Madison and the three wind up all holding hands as they leave to get Madison a stuffed Pegasus in addition to her new stuffed snail. I definitely choked up there. Daryl and White Josh forever!

-Season 1 would often segue to the theme song by having someone wonder why Rebecca was there which made the expositional theme song sort of a stealth punchline. Season 2's theme is different and can't be cued up as easily so when it got set up tonight with Rebecca remarking she must be crazy, I cheered a little.

-Rebecca apparently has a fetish about being choked by red liquorice. I expect this to pay off at some point.

-I'm hoping Rebecca having to give Heather and Valencia five dollars every time she mentions Josh becomes a recurring joke throughout the season.

-Solid episode this week. Next week: Girl power and more Rebecca/Paul drama! My heart is aching already.

I Got Thoughts On Crazy Ex-Girlfriend: When Will Josh and His Friend Leave Me Alone?

I Got Thoughts is a point-form collection of my thoughts on episodes of television, when a normal recap just won't do.

-Just when you think Rebecca can't sink any lower than she has, she sets her house on fire and a 911 call of her freaking out about Greg and Josh while pooping in her backyard gets put online, quickly going viral. Ouch.

-So apparently Santino Fontana is leaving Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, though they're not ruling out a possible return guest appearance some day. That's a bit disappointing as he was always terrific on the show, bringing all kinds of depth to what could have been a one-note character. It's also the right decision. The end of Greg's arc was always him finally getting out of West Covina and pursuing his own happiness. It was also clear that prolonged exposure to Rebecca would be detrimental to his recovery. Keeping him around, especially after last week's episode would've felt disingenuous. So it's sad to see him go, but it feels right. Greg was never meant to be a big part of Rebecca's story, even if she wound up being a big part of his.

-If this is the last we ever see of Greg, at least he got to go out on a (figurative) high note with the Frank Sinatra-esque "It Was A Shitshow" (or BLEEPshow if you're trying to be network friendly.). It's a brutal but perfect summation of Rebecca and Greg's relationship. As much as Greg loves Rebecca and he does love her, this thing between them was never healthy for either of them and pursuing it was never going to end well. He doesn't regret it and he would never change that it happened but that doesn't mean he should stay in West Covina. It's a beautiful, tragic number and one of the best the show's ever done.

-The other striking thing about "Shitshow" is that it's one of the few musical numbers on this show that isn't presented as heightened or in a fantasy. There's no dancing or elaborate change of scenery, just Greg and Rebecca in the airport as they share one last moment before Greg ascends to the next part of his life. It's incredibly effective.

-Real Greg makes his exit early but a "memory spirit" ( Definitely not to be confused with a dream ghost.) of him pops up a couple times to remind Becca of Greg and what she's lost before she's finally able to say goodbye to Greg at the episode's end and move on. A memory spirit of Josh also appears so the two can do a merry, hilarious tap number called "We Tapped That Ass" about all the times they had sex with Rebecca all over her house. It's a strong number about how hard it can be to get over a break-up when you have constant reminders of what you had in your face all the time. It also provides a good impetus for Rebecca accidentally setting her house on fire when she decides to burn all the reminders of Greg and Josh that she has.

-Sometimes being brought to your lowest low is what it takes to make you snap out of denial, take a good hard look at yourself, who you are, and to figure out the first step to being OK again. Other times, it sends you spinning even deeper into denial and causes you to do something drastic to try and project the idea that you're doing OK. Guess which one of those things Rebecca does?

-Yael Grobglas popped over from Jane The Virgin tonight as Trina, the CEO of Miss Douche, a feminine hygiene product company that's trying to take back the word "douche" as an empowering thing and reinvent themselves. Trina also clearly has some issues that need working out which Grobglas plays subtly and beautifully. It's a good parallel for what Rebecca's going through and the contest serves as a catalyst for her big makeover.

-The thing is there's a huge difference between reinventing your image as a company and reinventing your image as a person. Rebecca's post make-over blonde hair and extensions is horrifying and hilarious, but it also takes one run-in with Josh to expose it how desperate and fake the whole thing really is. Even Rebecca's making it to the finals of the contest is only because she spent $5000 on bots to buy the likes she needed. You can put a fresh coat of paint on a house with a rotten foundation, but it doesn't fix the fact that the foundation is rotten. Rebecca spends the whole episode trying to convince people that she's OK, but the one person she can't convince is herself and when she's finally confronted with the question of "Who Are You?" at the contest after an episode of running away from it, she has the breakthrough she needs to get past her denial.

-Trying to figure out who you are outside of other people is tough and scary but it looks like Rebecca will have some great help with that. After being in the far corners of Rebecca's world for much of the show's run, it looks like Heather is being brought right into it's centre. That's great news because Vella Lowell has always been great on the show and her detached cynicism and common sense is a much needed counterbalance to Rebecca's desperate optimism. The show also makes fun of how little we actually know about Heather after all this time by revealing that she still lives with her parents and that her last name is Davis, but Rebecca has apparently never noticed, despite having met her parents plenty of times before.

-Mr. and Mrs. Heather (As Rebecca calls them) are a delight and it's fun watching them be hyper-supportive of Rebecca as she spirals. The episode is also smart to point out why this hyper-supportiveness isn't actually good for Rebecca or Heather (Who just might be the support system Rebecca actually needs). Mr. and Mrs. Heather provide unconditional support but they don't push back or encourage follow-through or improvement. They enable Rebecca on her quest to become Miss Douche, but when she wants to give up, they accept it. They've let Heather quit everything she's ever tried which is why she still lives at home. They're good, loving people, but Heather and Rebecca need more than that in their lives if they're ever going to succeed.

-That being said, I do want to see more of Heather's parents. Hopefully they'll be popping over to Rebecca and Heather's new place often.

-Rebecca never found out about Paula's pregnancy, but she wound up playing a big part in Paula's ultimate decision by forcing Paula to essentially handled a whole case by herself, revealing that it will be impossible for her to both have a baby and do law school by showing how much her and Scott struggle with what they already have, but also by showing how good at legal work Paula is.

-Smart decision: We don't actually see Paula change her mind about going through with the pregnancy. We simply see her recovering from the procedure, before her blunt son explicitly states what's happening (Also the first time someone actually says the word "abortion"), which feels like a network note from someone worried viewers wouldn't piece it together but was funny enough to work.

-I thought the show was signalling trouble for Paula's marriage when she turned out to be pregnant, but Scott turned out to be loving and supportive of her dreams and the first one to bring up that Paula had "options". It was a very welcome turn of events. Far too many shows would make this about how Paula getting an abortion would affect Scott, but this isn't about Scott and he knows it. He just wants Paula to be happy.

-What does look to be in trouble though is Rebecca and Paula's friendship. That Paula couldn't bring herself to tell Rebecca about what she was going through, even after Rebecca was ready to open and pushing her to open up exposes how one-sided this friendship is in places. Becca can trust Paula with everything in her life, but Paula can't do the same because she doesn't trust Becca to be able to handle it. The show has collapsed Rebecca's relationships with Josh and Greg. How long until it collapses her relationship with Paula as well?

-Mrs. Heather trying her own version of a makeover song before "Makey Make-Over" was adorable though. And as for the actual song, I'm going to have "It's a Make-Over. Makey make-over" in my head for days so thanks show.

-This show is on such a roll right now and moving so much faster than I thought it would.

-Next week: Valencia is back after being kept offstage for the first few episodes. And she's eating doughnuts. That should be fun.

I Got Thoughts On Crazy Ex-Girlfriend: All Signs Point To Josh... Or Is It Josh's Friend?

I Got Thoughts is a point-form collection of my thoughts on episodes of television. When a normal recap just won't properly allow me to express what I want to say or when I just don't want to organize my thoughts in a cohesive format, that's when I Got Thoughts comes in.

-Wow, it did not take long into the season for everything to blow up now, did it?

-Towards the end of All Signs Point To Josh... Or Is It Josh's Friend?, Rebecca lays down a summary of what the romantic comedy version of her and Greg's story would be to Dr. Akopian (A wonderful Michael Hyatt). "So I move to West Covina in love with someone else, and he's the sarcastic messed-up bartender who calls me out on my stuff, and I ignore him but we have undeniable chemistry, and now Josh and I break up, and it's about me and Greg". In the lesser romantic comedy version of this show, this would be more or less accurate. In fact, it's what it seemed like the show was going to inevitably set up in the early going, but Crazy Ex-Girlfriend has turned out to be more ambitious with more to say than that version of the show.

-The ideal end point for Rebecca's journey isn't that she winds up with Josh or Greg, it's that she winds up alone and OK with herself. The right guy can come after that. The problem with Rebecca is she refuses to accepts this and would rather interpret coincidence as signs from the universe. She keeps trying to work events that happen in her life as part of some grand narrative, but narrative isn't real and trying to turn life and random events into narrative the way Rebecca does is only going to lead to havoc for her and for the people in her life.

-"All Signs" not only deconstructs the idea of love triangles and looking for signs from the universe, it completely blows up the triangle Rebecca believes herself to be in because she was looking for signs. She may have been able to explain away her "I moved her for you" confession to Josh, but telling him she's pregnant, immediately getting her period right after, and then trying to sweep it all under the rug with a rousing song about period sex? It's going to be hard to come back from that one. And Greg sees the only sign that matters, the danger sign next to the incredibly romantic bridge Rebecca is waiting for him on and decides to do the healthy thing and get out of West Covina.

-Is Greg actually moving to Atlanta? Don't get me wrong. He really should get the hell out of West Covina, but as much as it loves to deconstructs tropes and challenge narrative conventions, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend is still a TV show and Santino Fontana is a regular. He could still leave but it seems early in the season for the show to be done with Greg as a character. Still though, I doubt whatever Rebecca is going to tell him at the airport is going to change his mind. Hmm.

-Also the "run to the airport" is another classic romcom convention that the show plays with tonight. It's a beautiful gesture in the movies (and in the last episode of Friends). In real life? Very over dramatic and creepy. We'll see how this plays out next week.

-We only got 20 seconds of "Period Sex", but that's about all we'll ever need. The brevity is what keeps it funny. Josh suddenly stopping her also sets up that the people in her life aren't going to just go with the narrative she's trying to create anymore.

-The Math of Love Triangles was the only real song in the episode tonight, but it was a great one. A pitch-perfect parody of Diamonds Are A Girl's Best Friend that shows Rebecca getting carried away with the idea that she's at the centre of some great love triangle (The song also reminds us that a proper triangle has multiple centres). The chorus of men actually being there to teach Rebecca's baby-voiced Marilyn Monroe impression about literal triangles was terrific. As was this exchange: "Is this a triangle?" "No, that's a shoe". "Is this a triangle?" "No, that's you." "So I'm a triangle?" "What?! No." "One two three six eight three, go!"

-There are a lot of scenes in Crazy Ex-Girlfriend that are hard to watch but Rebecca convincing herself that she's pregnant and then telling Josh she's pregnant was the hardest one yet. I couldn't stop wincing. Vincent Rodriguez III was great in that scene though, playing Josh's fugue state, followed by him breaking up with Rebecca perfectly.

-Also great was the farewell between Josh and Greg at the airport when Josh admitted that he hasn't been a great friend to Greg the last few months. It'll be interesting to see if this marks the start of a more self-aware Josh Chan.

-Chris' goodbye scene to Greg was sweet and set up the joke of Hector also having his mom waiting for him in the red zone well.

-While looking for signs on who she should be with, Rebecca stumbles upon an ad for Signs 4 and wonders how she missed the last two Signs. It's a dumb, silly joke and I loved it so much.

-Rebecca and Greg totally ship White Josh and Daryl. As we all should.

-More Guardrail tonight. Yay! If Greg actually goes to Atlanta and we follow him there, I hope we get to meet Barry (Who is an actuary, not a biker. Way to stereotype, Greg).

-A lot of the score in the show is instrumental reworkings of the various songs that have been in the show. It's a neat trick for underlining or establishing the inner thoughts of the characters during scenes  and it was especially effective at a couple key moments tonight. First was when "You Stupid Bitch" started playing after Josh breaks up with Rebecca, underscoring how much she hates herself in this moment. Second was when "Settle For Me" started playing as Greg considers meeting Rebecca at the bridge, underscoring the mistake he'd be making by settling now instead of going to Atlanta.

-The show acknowledging the fact that Rebecca and Paula will often leave work for no reason and Rebecca should probably be fired at this point was appreciated.

-Oh Daryl. One day Paula will realize that you're the best friend she deserves, even if your grand gesture this episode only exacerbated her crisis this episode.

-Rebecca's fake pregnancy scare leading to Paula actually being pregnant was very well done and devastating. The scene where Daryl surprises her with the early admission to law school he's arranged for her is bittersweet and devastating, and Donna Lynne Champlin does some of her finest work on the show yet as Paula realizes the impossible position she may be in and that she can't put off not knowing any longer.

-Now I realize that those previous scenes of how well Paula's marriage is doing was quietly setting up what could be an incredibly rocky period if not it's ultimate destruction if this leads to Paula choosing to get an abortion.

-If Paula gets an abortion, she'll be the 3rd character on a show I watch to get one in a month. Abortion's a real hot topic right now apparently. That's good though. It's a part of life and it deserves to be explored honestly.

-It's telling that the show chose to end on the Paula pregnancy cliffhanger and the serious drama in her life instead of the false drama of Rebecca confronting Greg at the airport.

-Frick, this was a good episode of television. Next week is going to apparently take on the classic romcom trope of "the makeover" so that should be fun.

-Rachel Bloom also did this today. You should watch it. It's funny AND important.

I Got Thoughts On Crazy Ex-Girlfriend: When Will Josh See How Cool I Am?

I Got Thoughts is a new-ish style of recap I'll be doing for some shows where I'll post a point-form list of thoughts I have on episodes of television. It's pretty new (This is the third one) so I'm still playing around with it a bit.

-I didn't write about Where Is Josh's Friend? last week (Actually another reason I started this I Got Thoughts format) but I thought it was a strong start to the season and taken with this week, I'm very excited to see where this all goes.

-I wasn't sure about the new theme song at first but it's quickly grown on me. It does a good job of summing up Rebecca's mindset for the season now that she's no longer in denial for her feelings and is all in on being in love. Also the "Blam!" ending that lasts just long enough to be awkward is hilarious.

-Very good week for the music this week. The three new songs were all great in their own way for reasons I'll outline below and I'm a sucker for a good reprise so as worried as I was for Greg's new-found sobriety, him returning to But I Could If I Wanted To right before punching a wall was great.

-Where Is Josh's Friend? made it clear that Josh and Rebecca clearly have different levels of investment in their relationship. Luckily, by the end of When Will Josh See How Cool I Am? Rebecca has also realized that and is making a push against Josh's "staying in our own lanes" attitude towards her.

-Before she learned that though we had the adventure of her trying to become a master ping pong player in a short amount of time, which had a guest appearance from national treasure Albert Tsai as her child mentor and helped offset the heavier material of the Greg story with some welcome silliness.

-I've been very impressed with how Greg's newly discovered alcoholism is being handled this season. Santino Fontana is doing great work making Greg feel like the same guy we met last season, albeit less angry and trying to improve himself in a meaningful way. The varied reactions of Greg's friends trying to figure out how to best support him was also nice (With Hector's constant forgetting that Greg can't drink being a very Hector touch). The road to recovery is long and complicated the CXGF writers seem interested in fully exploring it, which is nice.

-Heather is still pretty much on the fringe of the show's world ever since breaking up with Greg but she was good here as a friend and a support for Greg. Vella Lovell is always great on the show so more of her this season would definitely be welcome.

-Very glad they didn't drag out Rebecca and Josh hiding the truth from Greg for very long. Having it come out now while Greg is still early into recovery and could possibly spiral back was smart. Even though I figured Greg wouldn't actually be out drinking, I was genuinely worried when he was suddenly missing.

-Interesting that Josh and Rebecca had essentially the same reaction to Greg's alcoholism. They both didn't see it coming and then both used it as an excuse not to tell Greg about them sleeping together (Though Josh was not able to keep the cat in the bag for very long).

-Greg got a DUI because he was going to tell Rebecca he loved her! Aw, that hurts. He seems to have processed what Josh and Rebecca did pretty healthily in the end though. Of course if the ending with Rebecca smelling his sweatshirt is any indication, she might be interested in Greg again, which might not be the best thing for Greg. Agh, the relationships on this show are so messy and well-drawn.

-At the least, it's good that Rebecca's conversation with Greg has opened her eyes a bit to the reality of her situation with Josh. It was a relief to hear her tell him "I deserve to be with someone who treats me well".

-Josh's self-centered personality and emotional immaturity have always been part of his character, but now that he's no longer with Valencia, it's really becoming obvious. It's good. Josh's flaws only serve to make him more interesting as a character.

-Paula trying to quit her addiction to Rebecca's drama and applying to law school was a very smart move on the writers part that opens up a lot more stories for her and gives us a good example for how Rebecca's single-minded pursuit is affecting and hurting her relationships with others.

-Having Paula's big concern in this episode be "Does Rebecca support me doing this?" rather than "Will Rebecca write the letter on time?" was a smart choice. It lets the fact that Rebecca does write the letter in the end be more important than her not doing it on time (which we all knew was going to happen). It helps that Daryl had actually written Paula a recommendation letter so Rebecca screwing up didn't actually hurt Paula.

-That being said, it seems we're eventually going to reach a point where Rebecca and Paula hit an impasse over Rebecca's behaviour.

-Daryl being under the very mistaken impression that he and Paula are best friends was a great beat when he mentioned it during Paula Needs To Get Over Josh! and I was thrilled to see it return here. Oh Daryl. Paula will realize you're the friend she needs one day. At least she used your letter (when she had no other choice).

-Paula's marriage seems to be in a more stable, supportive place this year which is nice. Also the "After everything you've done for her-" "That she didn't ask for" exchange was a nice echo to both After Everything I've Done For You and the pairs spoken word exchange of the theme song last season.

-White Josh DOES look kind of resemble a giant, buff chipmunk (A Chiphunk to use Rebecca's phrasing.). I'm not sure I'll ever look at him the same again.

-Crazy Ex-Girlfriend is very good at making distinct characters like Greg's ridiculously supportive boss Kevin (who's getting a lot of play so far this season.) or his Motorcycle gang AA Sponsor Guardrail. Hopefully there's more Guardrail in the episodes to come because he seems to be the kind of gruff but supportive presence Greg needs right now.

-I was looking forward to Ping Pong Girl the moment it showed up in the promos for this weeks episode and it did not disappoint. Adam Schlesinger of Fountains of Wayne fame wrote a terrific send-up of late 90's/early 00's pop punk that manged to skewer the idea of the "effortlessly cool without trying girl" and bro culture as filtered through Rebecca's fantasy of what that is and how she can twist it to lead Josh to make a meaningful commitment. The song's also full of great lines like "Ping-Pong shows that she has control over her body, but it doesn't threaten my masculinity like basketball or hockey". The cuts from the fantasy music video back to Actual Rebecca trying and failing to learn Ping Pong before getting too caught up in the fake music video playing out in her head were also great and made it clear how well Rebecca's plan would actually work (which is to say not at all).

-Although Ping Pong Girl is probably my favourite song of the episode (I have a real soft spot for pop punk), Maybe This Dream and Greg's Drinking Song were equally terrific, character driven songs that were funny but also had a certain kind of sadness to them. Behind Paula singing a Disney Princess song about the disappointments of life and "Dump Cramps" is a poignant mix of hope and fear about her applying to law school and her worries that it won't work out. And Greg's Irish drinking song about all the things that happen when he drinks is funny, but also paints a bleak portrait of how serious his problem actually is.

-All in all, another strong and inventive episode of Crazy Ex-Girlfriend. Next week appears to tackle the Josh/Greg/Rebecca triangle head-on with a Marilyn Monroe-inspired number. That sounds promising.